Today in Baseball History: The Mets trade for Senators manager Gil Hodges

Gil Hodges first joined the Mets in 1962 on the last leg of his 18-year playing career. He played just 65 games for the Mets over parts of two seasons, but managed to hit the first home run in franchise history at the beginning of that '62 season. The longtime Dodger had a .273 lifetime average and 370 career home runs when the Mets shipped him to the Washington Senators just 11 games into the '63 campaign.

Hodges was traded so that he could become the Senators' manager and promptly retired from playing so as to focus on his new duties as skipper. In five seasons at the helm of the Senators, Hodges only managed a 321-444 record through 1967. 

It was that offseason that Hodges would experience an exciting homecoming and, eventually, a New York renaissance. On Nov. 27, 1967, the Mets completed a trade for Hodges, making him the fourth manager in the brief history of the franchise. 

Famously, Hodges would lead the 1969 Miracle Mets to a National League pennant and World Series championship just a few years later.