Tombstone
Born: 1979 – Re-branded from Grays Harbor Loggers
Re-Branded: 1980 (Grays Harbor Loggers)
First Game: June 19, 1979 (L 9-8 @ Walla Walla Padres)
Last Game: August 30, 1979 (L 5-1 @ Victoria Mussels)
Northwest League Championships: None
Stadium
Ownership & Affiliation
Owners:
Major League Affiliation: New York Mets
Attendance
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Source: The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (3rd ed.), Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, 2007
Background
The Grays Harbor Mets were a short-season Class A farm team of the New York Mets that lasted for just one season in Hoquiam, Washington during the summer of 1979.
The Northwest League franchise was previously known as the Ports (1976) and the Loggers (1977-1978) and played as an independent club with no Major League affiliation. The ball club gained some notoriety in 1978 when Saturday Night Live star Bill Murray signed a one-game contract with the Loggers (and got a hit!). Murray’s Northwest League adventure was filmed and turned into a segment that aired on SNL later that year.
After signing a Player Development Contract with New York for the 1979 season, Grays Harbor adopted the Mets name. But the relationship was an unhappy one and when New York pulled out at the end of 1979, Grays Harbor returned to independent status and took back the Loggers name for their final season in 1980.
On The Diamond
On the field, the Grays Harbor Mets were wretched. Under field manager Danny Monzon, the Mets finished 19-52, far and away the worst team in the 8-team Northwest League in 1979. The previous summer, with a roster full of free agents, the Grays Harbor Loggers had won the league championship.
Four players from the 1979 Grays Harbor Mets ultimately made it to the Majors. Of the four, the most accomplished was Puerto Ricaninfielder Jose Oquendo, who was just 15 years old (!) when the 1979 season got under way. Oquendo went on to play parts of 12 seasons in the Majors with the Mets and the St. Louis Cardinals between 1983 and 1995.
In Memoriam
Manager Danny Monzon died in a car accident in the Dominican Republic at age 49 on January 21, 1996. He was working as the Latin American scouting coordinator for the Boston Red Sox at the time.
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