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Foster, Mets reconcile after bitter end

Jim Baumbach

3:51 PM EDT, July 3, 2008

More than two decades have passed since the Mets and George Foster bitterly parted ways, and apparently that's been enough time for a reconciliation.

These days Foster, 59, does work from time to time for the Mets, essentially on call for meet-and-greets, autograph signings and softball games with sponsors in the area. And the relationship between club and former player is good enough that he even pulled the countdown to Citi Field before a game recently.

Certainly no one on Aug. 7, 1986 could have envisioned this happening. That was the day the under-performing Foster irritated Mets brass by accusing them of promoting white players over black players.

Foster has steadfastly claimed he was misquoted, but the damage couldn't be reversed. He was hitting just .227 and was in the final year of his contract, making him expendable.

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The Mets placed him on waivers the same day his quotes were published.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Foster explained his return to the Mets by saying, "A lot of people that were in the organization who were instrumental in that happening are no longer there. They asked me to be involved, and I took advantage of that opportunity."

Foster played only 15 more games with the Chicago White Sox before retiring, and he said he has mostly spent the 22 years since working with kids. He currently works for the Cincinnati Reds in community outreach, going around to inner-city areas in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky to run clinics, camps and give motivational speeches.

There are times, Foster said, he wishes he was more involved in Major League Baseball. He said he has expressed an interest in being a hitting coach, most recently with the Reds a few years back.

"I told them that since I was a power hitter, I can teach guys how to improve on that," he said. "They just felt I was too removed from the game. But the knowledge I had about the game, it's not like I've forgotten it."

As frustrating as that was, Foster said he's happy making his impact on younger players.

"I just feel it's the place I can make the greatest impact without having to deal with politics," he said.

In his prime Foster was one of the greatest power hitters of his generation. In 1977, the year he won the National League MVP, Foster hit 52 homers -- he was the only player to eclipse 50 between 1966 and 1989.

The Mets acquired him before the 1982 season, hoping to bring some respectability to a team that was in desperate need of talent. In four and a half seasons with the Mets, Foster never came close to his best years in Cincinnati, hitting .252 with 99 home runs.

But despite his somewhat disappointing run, Foster said he took satisfaction that he played a role in rebuilding the Mets. "I feel confident guys started coming to the organization and staying with the organization because they saw they were bringing in quality players," he said.

Foster blamed his subpar numbers (for him) on not being in shape and where he hit in the lineup.

"With the Reds, the majority of the time I hit fourth in front of Johnny Bench or Tony Perez," he said. "If I was batting in front of Darryl Strawberry or Gary Carter, I would have gotten more pitches to hit. The numbers I put up I felt were quality compared to the place in the lineup I was batting."

Foster still makes his home in the Greenwich, Conn., area, so he sees a lot of Mets games, either in person or on television. The biggest problem with this year's team, as he sees it, is the way the roster was built, lacking the necessary role players or platoon players. Like many Mets fans, he mentioned Xavier Nady as someone who would fit in perfectly, if only he wasn't a Pittsburgh Pirate.

Foster also thinks the team is too old, saying, "It may be a pun, so to speak, but you can say a 40-man roster doesn't mean you have to have a lot of guys who are 40 years old on the team."