Mets Include Two Still-Living Former Players In Memorial Slideshow For 1969 Reunion [Update]

In an attempt to make some older fans briefly forget the seemingly endless downward spiral the organization has been on since the Wilpons took over, the Mets decided to hold a ceremony celebrating the 1969 team that won the World Series. As one might expect with a group celebrating a 50th anniversary, part of the ceremony included an In Memoriam slideshow of all the team members that passed away since the victory.

Unsurprisingly, the Mets somehow found a way to embarrass themselves in this situation. Two of the players featured in the slideshow, Jim Gosger and Jesse Hudson, are still alive today—a truly remarkable failure that was only made even more hilarious (in hindsight) by the fact that they were shown on back-to-back slides.

Gosger was acquired by the Mets in July 1969 from the Seattle Pilots and would play in 10 games that season. He’d play a little more for the Mets in 1973, when they made another World Series appearance but lost in seven games. Hudson played just one game in the majors in 1969, the second game of a September double-header against Pittsburgh.

One of the best parts about this whole thing is that Gosger is not only alive, but he’s also apparently active on Facebook. In a post, he jokingly thanked the Mets for bringing him back for the ceremony even if it was just for an appearance on the “BIG BOARD.”

The tweet thread notes that the Mets called Gosger later in the day to apologize for their mistake, but he also added in a Facebook comment that he probably wouldn’t have answered the phone had the Mets called him for an invite. There’s been no report on whether the organization has gotten in touch Hudson yet.

Update (7:01 p.m. ET): The Mets publicly apologized to both players on Sunday with a message on the “BIG BOARD,” but still managed to screw things up by spelling Jesse Hudson’s name wrong—they ended his first name with “ie.”