Mazzilli, Valentine enshrined in Mets Hall of Fame

NEW YORK (AP) — Lee Mazzilli and Bobby Valentine, longtime friends, former roommates and New York Mets teammates who represent two different eras of the franchise, were still finishing each other's sentences when they were inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame before Saturday's game against the Miami Marlins.

“When we were rooming together, we couldn’t imagine us sitting in the room at nighttime and saying …” Mazzilli said before Valentine interrupted him.

“Because we never sat in the room at nighttime,” Valentine said with a laugh.

“Fifty years from now, we’re going to be in the Mets Hall of Fame?” Mazzilli finished. "It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Mazzilli, a Brooklyn native selected by the Mets in the first round of the 1973 draft, was a backup outfielder on the 1986 World Series winners — nearly a decade after he was one of the club’s few attractions in the post-Tom Seaver era.

The switch hitter batted .277 with 53 homers, 262 RBIs and 117 stolen bases from 1977 through 1980 while playing for New York, which averaged 97 losses per season.

He became the first Mets player to homer in the All-Star Game when he hit the tying shot in the eighth inning of the 1979 Midsummer Classic — when Mazzilli also worked the tie-breaking bases loaded walk an inning later in the National League’s 7-6 victory.

“The lean years of the ‘70s — I look back at it, but for me, they were special,” said the 71-year-old Mazzilli. “This was where I was born and raised. Play in your backyard, it meant a lot.”

Valentine, 76, was part of the Mets’ ill-fated pivot to rebuilding on June 15, 1977, when the utility man was acquired from the San Diego Padres for slugger Dave Kingman and Seaver was dealt to the Cincinnati Reds.

Valentine, struggling to recover from the broken leg he suffered in 1973, batted .222 in 111 games for the Mets before making a far bigger impact on the team as its charismatic manager from August 1996 through 2002.

The native of nearby Stamford, Connecticut, directed the Mets to their first back-to-back playoff appearances in 1999 and 2000 and to the World Series in 2000, where they fell to the crosstown Yankees in five games.

“To do a couple of playoffs and light this city on fire — how lucky was I?” Valentine said.

Valentine’s leadership was most vividly displayed during challenging times on — and especially off — the field.

His most famous baseball moment was on June 9, 1999, when he returned to the dugout in a hat, sunglasses and a mustache made out of eye black after being ejected in the 12th inning against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Mets won 5-4 in 14 innings — the fourth win in a season-saving 40-15 surge that began immediately after general manager Steve Phillips fired three of Valentine’s coaches.

“I ought to be remembered as the guy who shared — the guy who tried to understand his players and give everything I have to them,” Valentine said. “And then I wanted to have the people who were paying (for) tickets to come to the show kind of appreciate the product, you know?”

Valentine was also at the forefront of the Mets’ community work following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when he worked around the clock as Shea Stadium turned into a staging area for relief efforts.

“To be unified in an effort to bring the city back and by God we did it,” Valentine said. “How lucky am I to be a part of all that?”

The Mets also honored late team photographer Marc Levine, who died in July 2024, with the club’s Hall of Fame achievement award. John Ricco, a longtime front office employee, presented a mosaic made up of pictures taken by Levine to his widow, Stephanie, and daughter, Samantha.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb

Lee Mazzilli, right, with Al Leiter during an induction ceremony into the New York Mets hall of fame before a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Saturday, May 30, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

Lee Mazzilli, left, and Bobby Valentine high-five during an induction ceremony into the New York Mets hall of fame before a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Saturday, May 30, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

Lee Mazzilli, left, and Bobby Valentine wave and gesture during an induction ceremony into the New York Mets hall of fame before a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Saturday, May 30, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)

A family of four from Massachusetts who were killed when a bus crashed into multiple vehicles in Virginia were traveling to a wedding with a carload of homemade desserts for the celebration.

The family wedding will go forward Sunday in South Carolina, but it also will be a time to mourn the loss of Dmitri and Ecaterina Doncev and their two children, Emily and Mark, a relative said Saturday.

“A son, a father — the whole family — everyone that has been dear to us,” Carolina Bublik said.

The Doncevs were killed when a motorcoach caused a chain-reaction crash with vehicles that had slowed down for a work zone on Interstate 95 in Stafford County around 2:35 a.m. Friday, authorities said.

The bus struck an SUV driven by Priscilla Mafalda, 25, of Worcester, Massachusetts, whose vehicle then hit an Acura carrying the Doncev family, police said. Mafalda also died.

More people were treated for injuries, including one who was in critical condition, though most were discharged, Mary Washington Healthcare said.

The bus driver, Jing S. Dong, 48, of Staten Island, New York, was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, and additional charges were likely, Virginia State Police said. It was not immediately known if he was in custody or had a lawyer yet.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash, a monthslong task separate from the work of state police. NTSB board member Tom Chapman revealed few new details but said the bus was moving at a high rate of speed.

“It seems fairly clear that if there was any braking there wasn’t much, because of the speed and severity of the collision,” Chapman said.

The bus, which was taking people from New York to North Carolina, was operated by E&P Travel Inc., based in Kings Mountain, North Carolina.

Chapman said the driver's language proficiency would be part of the NTSB investigation. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, citing police, said on social media that Dong, a native of China, does not speak English.

Dmitri Doncev, 45, was a nurse who worked at Holyoke Medical Center. Ecaterina Doncev, 44, was a hairstylist who spent days making desserts for the family wedding, Bublik said.

They emigrated to the U.S. from Moldova in 2008 and settled in Greenfield, Massachusetts, she said.

Dmitri and brother Iuri tried to stay together while traveling in separate vehicles to South Carolina.

“At some point they ended up getting separated,” Bublik said. “Dmitri said, ‘You go ahead. I’ll catch up later.' It was a big shock when Iuri arrived at the house. Dmitri should have arrived around the same time. When his car did not show up, and he wasn't picking up the phone — that’s when the family started panicking.”

This photo provided by the Virginia State Police, shows the scene of a fatal accident involving a bus on Interstate 95 near Quantico, Va., on Friday, May 29, 2026. (Virginia State Police via AP)