Batting average .239 Role Baseball player Home runs 61 Height 1.80 m | Runs batted in 340 Weight 82 kg Name Wayne Garrett Education Sarasota High School | |
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NLCS Gm3: Garrett's homer gives Mets 5-4 lead
Ronald Wayne Garrett (born December 3, 1947) is a former American baseball player who was the New York Mets starting third baseman from 1972 through 1975. Garrett also saw occasional duty as a second baseman and as a shortstop.
Garrett was a member of the 1969 Miracle Mets who upset the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series and was the starting third baseman for the 1973 National League Champion team that lost the World Series to the Oakland Athletics in seven games. Wayne, who hit six home runs in September, hit two more in the Series, including a leadoff home run in Game Three—one of three in New York Mets World Series history. (Tommie Agee hit one in the 1969 World Series against the Baltimore Orioles; Lenny Dykstra hit his in the 1986 World Series against the Boston Red Sox. Coincidentally, their leadoff home runs, like Garrett's, also occurred in a Game Three.) However, he also tied Eddie Mathews' 1958 World Series record by striking out 11 times. He also made the final out of the Series, popping out to shortstop Bert Campaneris in the ninth inning of Game 7.
Garrett's major league career spanned from 1969 to 1978. He spent half of the 1971 season on military duty. In addition to the Mets, he also played for the Montreal Expos and the St. Louis Cardinals. He was traded by the Mets to the Expos along with Del Unser in July 1976 for Pepe Mangual and Jim Dwyer. After his major league career, Garrett played two seasons for the Chunichi Dragons in Japan.
After that, Garrett played for the Bradenton Explorers of the Senior Professional Baseball Association in its 1989 inaugural season.
Baseball ran in the Garrett family; Wayne Garrett's brother, Adrian, played for the Chicago Cubs, the Oakland Athletics, the California Angels and the Atlanta Braves, mostly as a catcher, first baseman and outfielder. Wayne's other brother, Charlie, also played baseball in the Braves farm system. Wayne's nephew Jason (Adrian's son), was drafted by and played four years in the Florida Marlins organization, reaching High-A in the minor leagues.