The Mets had had what some would call success with some of their first round picks in the early 80s. In 1980, a kid named Darryl Strawberry was the first pick of the draft and a few years later Doc Gooden was the fifth overall pick.
When 1984 came around and the Mets were once again in control of the first pick in the draft, they took an outfielder out of Mechanicsburg Area High School named Shawn Abner ahead of Cory Snyder, Jay Bell and this guy from USC named Mark McGwire. Oops.
Abner never made it to the Majors with the Mets and was traded to the Padres, along with three Kevins (Armstrong, Brown and Mitchell), and Stan Jefferson for, you guessed it, another Kevin (McReynolds), Gene Walter and Adam Ging. I wonder if there's been another trade in baseball history where so many Kevins were moving around.
His career ended in 1992 with an above average fielding percentage but batting numbers that looked like .227/.269/.323, 65 OPS+, with 11 home runs and 71RBIs in 840 at bats.
According to Wikipedia, these days Shawn is a beer distributor in Mechanicsburg, Pennslyvania. At least he's doing something for the good of mankind with his life (hooray beer).
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