(Updating this post in January 2020 to say…OK deGrom is pretty good. Sorry Ron. Now back to the original post from 2017…)
I come here today to praise Ron Darling. This somehow came up on twitter last night, and I don’t even remember how we got into it, but it revealed to me that you Millennials have no idea how good Ronnie was.
Let’s just start with numbers.
136-116 3.87. All of the current Mets studs are 100 wins away from Ron. That’s 5 twenty win seasons in an era where nobody wins 20, so let’s call it 7 seasons of 15 wins. You think 35 year old Matt Harvey is winning 15 games at this point?
12-9, 16-6, 15-6, 12-8, 17-9, 14-14 in a nice little run with the good Mets teams.
You talk about The Dark Knight’s run support? Let’s look at Hard Luck Ronnie…
April 11 1985: 7 innings, 1 run. ND
April 16th: 7 innings, 1 run. ND
May 17th: NINE innings, 2 runs, ND
June 7: 8 innings, 1 run ND
June 12: Ron was so good I almost want to not include this 7 inning 3 run ND
June 22: 2 runs, 1 earned, in a 7ip ND.
We still feeling bad for The Dark Knight? It’s not even July and look at those 6 starts in a season in which Ron won 16 games!
Aug 14th: 1 run, 7 innings, LOSS
OCTOBER 1ST: the Mets are trying to keep up with the Cardinals. 9 innings, no runs, no decision. In October.
June 16 1986: 0 runs, 7ip, ND
June 28: 2 runs, 1 earned, 7ip ND
July 3: 3 runs in 9 innings, ND
July 8: 2 runs, 1 earned, in 7ip ND
July 18: takes a loss 7ip 2 runs
August 14: 2 runs, 7ip, ND. See a pattern yet?
Aug 25: 6 2/3 2 runs. ND
Sep 6: 3 runs in 7 ip ND
Sep 15: 9 shutout innings in a ND!
Sep 25: 2 runs 7ip, yep another ND
Sep 30: 7ip, 1 run, LOSS.
That was a 15 win season, with 11 starts I flagged there. Want to give him say two of the 11? Maybe let’s give him the game he gave up no runs in 9 and one other? That would be 17 wins.
Ron was the man. Koosman to Gooden’s Seaver. Nobody on the current squad touches this guy. I know what your fantasies are, but until someone actually stays healthy enough to do it – Ronnie was better than all of them.
