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John Anthony Franco (born September 17, 1960) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed relief pitcher between and . Franco established himself as an All-Star player with the Cincinnati Reds before spending the majority of his career with the New York Mets. He ended his 21-year career with one final season with the Houston Astros.
Franco's 1,119 career games pitched is a National League record, and ranks fourth in major league history. His 424 career saves ranks seventh all-time in major league history (ranking second when he retired), and remains the most by a left-hander. For 15 of his 21 seasons, he played for the New York Mets, serving as team captain in his final years with the team. Franco was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 2012.
Throughout his six seasons with the Reds, Franco was a successful closer, winning the National League Rolaids Relief Man of the Year Award in . He helped the Reds finish second four seasons in a row (1985–1988).
On December 6, , at the age of 29, he was traded with Don Brown to the Mets for Randy Myers and Kip Gross. He remained with the Mets organization until the end of the 2004 season. During his time with the Mets, he won the Rolaids Relief Man of the Year Award in , became team captain, and remained the closer until , when he moved to a setup man role for new closer Armando Benítez. He led the league in saves for the 1988, 1990, and 1994 seasons. He reached the postseason for the first time in 1999 and the World Series in 2000.
On May 11, 1996, in a game against the Chicago Cubs, the Mets held "John Franco Day" to celebrate his 300th career save. In the fifth inning, a brawl that cleared both benches and bullpens resulted in Franco being ejected from the game, along with eight other players.
Injuries caused Franco to miss the baseball season, but he made a successful recovery from surgery and returned in June . He signed a one-year contract for the season. He finished with a 2-7 record with 36 and a 5.28 ERA in 46 innings.
In January 2005, he was signed to a one-year deal with the Astros, at the age of 44, making him at that time the oldest active pitcher in Major League Baseball. He appeared in 33 games with one loss against his old club the Mets, six holds and one blown save in 15 innings but his ERA was 7.20 after a rough May and June. In his final appearance on July 1, he allowed three runs on three hits while getting just two outs on six batters faced. On July 1, , Franco was designated for assignment, and he was subsequently released, which proved to be the end of his baseball career.
His son J.J. Franco, who was drafted by the Mets out of high school, attended Brown University, where he played as an infielder. J.J. was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the 2014 MLB draft and played with the Braves and Mets minor league systems through the 2018 season. Franco's cousin, Scott Pagano, played minor league baseball.
Throughout his career, Franco supplied tickets to members of the Bonanno crime family of the Italian-American Mafia and on one occasion Canadian organized crime figures, according to FBI documents made public in 2004. There was no suggestion that he committed any crimes but his behavior was a violation of Major League Baseball rules forbidding contact with known criminals.
During an interview, he revealed that he threw a circle changeup which was often mistaken for a screwball.
On March 29, 2009, Franco threw the ceremonial first pitch in the first game played on Citi Field, a Big East college game between St. John's (his alma mater) and Georgetown.
On June 3, 2012, in a ceremony at Citi Field, Franco was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame.
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