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You Are The RazorShines of My Life

For a guy whose major-league career consisted of 81 at-bats, new third base coach Razor Shines (yes, that's his real name...Razor is a middle name, passed down in his family through multiple generations) sure has a lot of connections to the New York Mets.

* Razor made his major-league debut on September 9, 1983, and shall be forever known as "The Guy Whom Frank Howard didn't feel comfy about Tom Seaver pitching to..." Simple version of the story: Razor came up as a pinch-hitter with two men on base and one out. Howard pulled Seaver for Jesse Orosco and Expos skipper Bill Virdon countered with Jim Wohlford, denying Shines his first AB. Orosco struck out both Wohlford and Tim Raines to end the game. That, combined with a Phillies win, knocked the Expos out of first place in the NL East.

* Razor's first MLB hit came in a Mets walk-off win, on October 2, 1983, the final game of the season, and the second game of a doubleheader between the Mets and Expos. Shines batted for Steve Rogers and singled to left field in the seventh inning against Tim Leary, with the Expos trailing, 3-1. He would be stranded on third base as the tying run. The Mets would win the game 5-4 on a pinch-hit two-run double by Rusty Staub in the bottom of the 9th.

* Razor's first MLB RBI came against a former Met, Jerry Koosman, in a game between the Expos and Phillies on September 15, 1984. His sacrifice fly tied the score, 1-1, in the fifth inning of a game the Expos would win, 4-3. Razor also retired Koosman in his lone pitching stint, getting a mopup inning in an 11-0 Phillies blowout on April 30, 1985.

* Razor's last RBI came on September 15, 1985, against Mets starter Ron Darling, in a 6-2 Mets win. The hit shaved (cmon, it had to be said) the Mets lead at the time to 4-1.

* Razor's last AB came against former Met John Franco on May 14, 1987. With the Expos trailing 10-9 in the bottom of the ninth, Shines grounded to first with two runners on base to end both the game and his big league career (Side note: The Reds scored 5 runs in the top of the 9th to win this one...the winning hit came from former Met farmhand Lloyd McClendon, who was traded to the Reds for Tom Seaver).

Most importantly, he's not Luis Aguayo, so he has our hearty endorsement, for now.

True Metzors know...Razor Shines hit .195 in his Expos career, five points better than Jerry Manuel did in his tenure with Montreal.

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