I’ve just confirmed with someone who still works there with him: he is < David Mercado >.
I have his signature on a Mets cap ( but its not all that legible, but I handed him the pen and I personally saw him sign it at my desk).
Do I need to post a picture? I admit… it’s a scribble…
Interesting clarification, as no one by that name has ever played in Major League Baseball, much less been with the Mets for 10 years (unlike Dave Magadan).
If I was tricked, David Mercado has a lot to lose, no matter how many years he’s played pro ball with the Mets. Be sure of your accusation, because if you’re right, he’s probably getting fired.
This stuff is easy to check. Not only was there no Major League player named David Mercado, there were no minor league players.
Whoever hired him should be well aware he is no an ex-MLB player. It literally takes under a minute to check.
Hey, I just lose a ball cap, no great loss.
He seemed to really like that job though… but yeah, you can’t go around lying like that throughout the company and to all the new employees as a trainer. It cheapens the integrity of the whole outfit. He had a whole bag of stories… growing up in PR… playing on the PR national team… meeting Bernie Williams who told him to keep playing as he had what it took. It’s a shame…
And, just in case you want to look for yourself: go to Baseball Reference (baseball-reference.com), and enter “Mercado” in the search box (I’m linking to the results you’ll find here). You’ll see that there have been three major leaguers with the surname Mercado: Orlando, Hector, and Oscar.
Orlando and Hector are from Puerto Rico. Orlando had the longest major league career of the three, playing for 8 years in the majors, mostly in the '80s; he briefly played for the Mets at the end of his career (42 games in 1990). His Wikipedia entry says that he works as a catching instructor with the Angels, but I do not know if it’s current information.
One other thing, making me further question the guy’s story:
How old is this guy? Bernie Williams didn’t even start in the majors until 1991, and didn’t stick with the Yankees until '93. His story would only make any sense if it was once Williams was an established player, meaning that Mercado would have had to be an up-and-coming player no earlier than the early '90s.
That is what he said… that he was a young kid and Bernie was still famous and playing. I won’t repeat the story; a lie is a lie. Thank you both for the info…
That’s kind of what I expected the story would be. Williams’ breakout season was 1995, and his best seasons were around '96 to '01, so that would probably push the story even further up on the timeline, if true.
If we’re generous about it, it would have been maybe in '96 or so, and Mercado would have had to have been either still a minor leaguer, or just starting in the majors at that point, which would mean he’d probably be in his mid-late 40s today.
I’m confused - where did the name Dave Magadan in post 4 come from?
Sorry he was. What is it with people lying about stuff that is so easy to check? Why, just this morning, my girlfriend Morgan Fairchild was telling me about all the fake people she meets in Hollywood.
That is my fault; I misremembered his last name… so I did I search through the roster for players who were in their mid forties and had the first name “Dave”. It seemed slightly off… but I didn’t have his name printed anywhere and the signature was a scribble.
I was interacting with someone else who knows that office today… so I asked because it had generated so many questions. I noticed that the name was different, so I went back to the old thread and added the name that I had now confirmed was his… and well… here we are.
Are you sure you have the “Mercado” part absolutely 100% correct? You already goofed once. Accusing him at work and finding out his name is really , e.g. “Machado” and there really is/was such a player won’t help your cause.
Nobody here much cares, but people at your job might. and maybe you’d be the one in trouble with a bad accusation.
The only other Met even close to that during the right timeframe looks to be Dave Mlicki.
Who is, of course, not Puerto Rican.
Cut and pasted from an employee still there.
Are you sure you aren’t arguing in bad faith? Because I don’t care too much what you type or say here after that comment, but some people here might still take your posts seriously and then you’d be the one with the lost credibility.
Not trying to be bad faith. Also not trying to be argumentative. Just offering a moment of caution. Sorry if that sounded offensive.
It looked like a good caution to me. If you have the last name right for sure, no problem.
Did he look like Dave Madagan or not? You’re the one who told us that’s who he was.
Please re-read my post 4-5 comments up about discovering the name.
I did read it. Did he look like him or not?