Random Former Met - Ron Hodges

Now this guy isn't as random.  Ron spent his entire 12 year major league career with the Mets, playing from 1973-1984.  Primarily a backup, he served as an understudy to Jerry Grote and Duffy Dyer in 1973-1974 (playing 40 and 44 games behind the dish those years as the third most used catcher).  By 1975, he was still #3 catching only 69 innings behind Jerry Grote and the new #2 John Stearns. It wasn't until 1976 that he established himself as the #2 catching 52 games as Jerry Grote's relief with Stearns serving as the third stringer.

By 1977, he was back to being #3, this time with John Stearns as the #1 and Grote as #2.  By 1978, Grote was gone and Ron served once again as the main backup - albeit only catching 30 games as John Stearns carried a heavy workload.    Once again, in 1979, Hodges was back to #3 as Alex Trevino came up as a young 21 year old.  In 1980, Ron continued as a third stringer as Alex Trevino became the #1, Stearns was the #2 and Ron saw only 9 games and 47 innings of action after separating his shoulder in July and missing the rest of the season.   In strike shortened 1981, Ron saw even less action - 7 games caught for 23 innings as Stearns and Trevino swapped #1 and #2.

By the time 1982 came around, in his 10th season with the team, Ron finally became the #2 option for only the second time, this time appearing in 74 games and 362 innings as Stearns backup.  With Trevino gone, he saw more action that year than he had in the previous 4 years combined.

After a decade of always being the bridesmaid, he finally got his crack of being the primary catcher in 1983.  He was the number one and caught 96 games with the young Junior Ortiz as his understudy.   It was in 1984, he set career highs in games played (110), at bats (250), hits (65), tied his high in doubles (12), walks (49), and on base percentage (.383).  He also hit .260 with 0 HR and 21 RBI.

1984 was his last year in the bigs.  Turning 35 in mid-season, he hit only .208 in 106 at bats with 1 HR and 11 RBI as Mike Fitzgerald's primary backup.

From 1980-1984, Ron and teammate Craig Swan were the longest tenured members of the club.

He spent the majority of his career as the Mets third string catcher.  For his career, he appeared in 666 games - 445 behind the plate.  For his career, Ron Hodges hit .240 with 19 home runs and 147 RBI's.  in 1426 plate appearances, he had 342 hits.  He scored 119 times.  He hit 56 doubles and 2 triples.  He stole 10 based, walked 224 times and had a career on base percentage of .342.    He was on the playoff roster for the 1973 Mets and made one postseason appearance with no official at-bats and one walk.