Contemplating Curtis Granderson

The Grandy Man can ... make this catch.

Away back in 2001 -- in the early days of Mankato's entry in the Northwoods League -- the Mashers (which eventually morphed into the MoonDogs under new ownership) featured an outfielder named Curtis Granderson.

That connection has given some of us in the Key City a lasting interest in Granderson's career.

On Sunday night, he started the Mets' three-run first inning rally against the seemingly impregnable Jake Arrieta. He later reached over the right field wall to take a homer away from Chris Coghlin. He also drew a walk, stole two bases and scored a second run. Nice game.

From the great Joe Posnanski:

Four players in baseball history have hit 40 homers in a season and 20 triples in a season (not in same season). Name 'em.

— Joe Posnanski (@JPosnanski) October 19, 2015

Answer: Lou Gehrig, Rogers Hornsby, Willie Mays and, yes, Curtis Granderson.

— Joe Posnanski (@JPosnanski) October 19, 2015

Three of those names are inner-circle Hall-of-Famers, and the fourth is Granderson.  But Granderson, now in his mid-30s, has certainly had a distinguished career. even if his production takes different shapes with different clubs. He's had four 100-run seasons and two 100-RBI seasons, he's hit .300 (only once), he's had a couple of 25-steal years.

He's not a classic leadoff man, but he got the job done in that role with the Tigers and he's doing it again now for the Mets. He's always been pretty ineffective against left-handed pitching, and that remains the case (.183 against southpaws this year).