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John Franco recently appeared on FOX’s Best Damn Sports Show Period, during which he talked about his 
days with the Mets, the 2000 Subway Series and the weird things guys do to pass time in the bullpen.
To watch his appearance, click here.
Franco, on the best and worst part about playing in New York, said:
“Well, the best thing is that I was born and raised there. I grew up as a Mets fan, so I was always rooting for the Mets growing up, and got to play for the team I rooted for – and my friends and family got to come out and see me at the ballpark quite often…The worst thing is when I blew a save, because I would hear it from every one in the neighborhood.”
…first of all, i had no idea that show was still on…second, i know some fans take issue with franco, but i still like him and i’m glad to see him making the rounds of late…
I will go out on a limb here….But John Franco probably threw the best pitch of any met pitcher in the past 15-20 years.
And that was freezing Barry Bonds up and in game2 of the 2000 NLDS. That was fantastic, and unfortunately gets no merit compared to Franco’s down moments.
It’s definitely up there. That’s one of my favorite games ever, and Franco did a great job bailing out Benitez after he blew the game in the 9th and almost did it again in the 10th.
Franco took a lot of abuse because he hung on a bit too long, but he racked up 400+ saves while playing the majority of his career on some really bad Met teams. There’s gotta be something said for that.
Totally, totally agree. I was no fan of his, but that pitch was the balls. I think Barry is still standing frozen at home plate.
What was great about this appearance was that he and David Wells both agreed Clemens was throwing the bat intentionally at Piazza. Wells said the entire Yankee team felt that way.
It is definitely worth a watch
I know Franco aggravated people with his ego on his way out, but he really is a good guy, and he was a solid pitcher for us for a long time. I always respected his transition from closer to set up guy too, because he EASILY could’ve gotten a closer job somewhere else and broken the saves record.
And in the 2000 playoffs, he was easily our best reliever. Had he closed out Game 1 instead of Benitez, we win that game.
One of my favorite all time Mets. He was the heart of the team for a long time. Best Met closer of all time?
who is his competition?
Thats for you to decide. Do you agree? Or do you nominate someone else?
Neil Allen? LOL! Rogesse McRosco was pretty good.
Johnny F’n Franco!
So you guys are giving him a free pass on his involvement getting Kazmir shipped out?
God, can we stop talking about Kazmir. It’s done, done and done. There is no going back. I don’t even think about it till someone on this board brings it up. Bad trades happen. It’s part of baseball.
Scott Kazmir will be out of this league or relegated to the journeyman bullpen role in 4 years.
That arm is not going to last. And that trend line has already begun.
Yeah if only we had some big time lefty ace pitcher.
Seriously, who cares about Scott Kazmir anymore. He’s the Yanks/Red Sox problem now
If any GM makes a trade because a couple of players don’t like him, then he’s a complete moron. You make a trade for baseball reasons, or you don’t make it at all.
You can’t blame Franco for the Kazmir trade because he didn’t make the trade, in fact, he had nothing to do with the trade whatsoever.
What he said! Franco didn’t trade Kazmir. Some idiot(s) did.
Anyway, Franco will always have a special place in my heart. I went to the same high school and college as he did. Cool story: The year of the strike, he helped coach our high school varsity baseball team. On was on JV at the time. He would come to practice and work with the pitchers and he could not have been nicer. He actually pitched half an inning in one of our intrasquad games. I’m glad to say I fouled off a John Franco pitch. He struck me out with a nasty changeup.
He played entirey too long and hurt the team for it. For that I dislike him.
Other then the 2004 season, he had an ERA below 4.05 every single season since 1993. While he played for a long-time into his 40’s, he was still effective for the most part.
That 2004 season was a different story though, and after that year we properly cut bait with him. In hindsight, perhaps we should have noticed that the downfall was coming in 2003 when his K rate plummeted, but he had a 2.62 ERA that season so I don’t think you can kill them too much there.
I saw John Franco blow a save then, first pitch, Chris Jones hits a homer to win the game. Jones was pinch hitting for Carl Everett no less!
Matt, what’s going on in that picture? Is that the Angel Hernandez game in Atlanta?
I liked Franco except in 2004. That poop eating grin every time he gave up a hr was too much.