Podcast: Steve Henderson
If anyone could provide an expert point of view on the subject of the pressure and expectation that comes with playing in New York, you’d have to believe Steve Henderson might have some wisdom.
If anyone could provide an expert point of view on the subject of the pressure and expectation that comes with playing in New York, you’d have to believe Steve Henderson might have some wisdom.
Henderson, along with Doug Flynn, Pat Zachry and Dan Norman were all traded to the Mets on June 15, 1977 for Tom Seaver, a day infamously referred to as the “Midnight Massacre”
Trading “The Franchise” — the player who brought respect and relevance — stunned Mets fans. Seaver was (and still is) considered by most, the greatest Met of all-time.
The deal sent the franchise into a five-year tailspin. The losses piled up. Fans left in droves. Shea Stadium had been rebranded as “Grant’s Tomb,” after the impish team president who orchestrated the deal, M. Donald Grant.
But Henderson wasn’t the bad guy. He was a young man who was a victim of circumstances. Henderson went from playing a baseball game in Omaha to New York
“I played the first game,” recalled Henderson. “Then, they took me out of the second game. I said, Okay, what did I do wrong?”
“But after that, they told me that I had been traded,” said Henderson.
What Henderson didn’t realize was that he was not only traded to the Mets, but he was traded for Tom Seaver; and not only was he part of deal that shipped the greatest pitcher in franchise history, he was getting a promotion to the majors.
Henderson had never been to New York. He was a 22-year old kid playing minor league baseball in the the Midwest. When Henderson arrived at LaGuardia airport, he jumped in a cab to Shea Stadium. That’s when the shock set in.
“All the reporters and stuff,” he said. “In Indianapolis we’d get two or three reporters, I answer some questions.”
Those days were over. Henderson had arrived. He was a major league player in the largest market in the country.
Henderson joins the MetsRewind Podcast to talk about playing in New York, those he played with, his relationship with Seaver and that magical night in June 1980.
