Skip to main content

The Walk-Off That Wasn't

There are 324 Mets walk-off wins in my database. There might have been one more, had things broke right on June 30, 1974, 31 years to the date of this post.

Little went right for the Mets in their defense of the NL championship in 1974, starting on Opening Day, when the No. 8 hitter in the Phillies lineup (a second-year man by the name of Mike Schmidt) hit a walk-off home run off Tug McGraw. Injuries and poor play resulted in a miserable season and a final record of 71-91. The Mets were never contenders for the NL East title and limped through June at 30-42 entering a doubleheader on the final day of the month.

Jerry Koosman lost the opening game of the double dip, and the Mets trailed the second game, 3-1, in the ninth inning when things suddenly got very interesting. The Mets loaded the bases on singles by Don Hahn, Ron Hodges and George Theodore, scored on a force play and subsequent RBI single by Teddy Martinez to tie the game. After Rusty Staub flied out, Cleon Jones hit a line drive to right field. Cardinals rightfielder Reggie Smith dove for the ball and rolled over as he tried to grab it. Smith got up claiming he caught it, but the initial reaction from first base umpire Chris Peledoukas was that he trapped it. Wayne Garrett trotted home with the winning run, and the Mets thought they had a very Metsian comeback and a 4-3 win.

The Cardinals sent a committee out to argue the call and the umpires convened to discuss it. Second base umpire Paul Pryor overruled Peledoukas, calling it a catch. The Mets argued, but had no success. In the book "This Date in New York Mets History," Dennis D'Agostino wrote that the initial call appeared to be the correct one, based on televised replays. Nonetheless, Smith told reporters after the game that he caught the ball.

"I'd swear on the Bible I did," was the quote that ran in the New York Times.

Bake McBride's two-run homer in the 10th stood up as the game-winner for the Cardinals. It was wins like this one, one in a September 11 game at Shea that went 25 innings (with Ken Reitz's two-run homer tying it in the ninth and McBride's dash from first to home on a botched pickoff throw making the difference), and a four-run extra-inning rally against Pittsburgh on September 25th that kept the Cardinals in the NL East race until the final days of the campaign. They eventually fell 1 1/2 games short of the Pirates, but enjoyed one heck of a season. The Mets endured nothing but misery, for the most part. That June 30th loss epitomized a season of frustration.

With that in mind, we shall hereby refer to that June 30th game as "The Walk-Off That Wasn't"

True Metkabobs know... That the fewest walk-off wins the Mets have had in a non-strike season is 3 (1968 and 1974). The strike-shortened season of 1981 featured only 2 walk-off wins. The 2005 team has 3 entering the final day of June.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The best Mets ejections I know

When you think of the Mets and famous ejections, I'm guessing you first think of the famous Bobby Valentine mustache game, when after Valentine got tossed, he returned to the dugout in disguise. You know it. You love it. I remember being amused when I asked Bobby V about it while we were working on Baseball Tonight, how he simply said "It worked. We won the game." (true) But the Bobby V mustache game of June 9, 1999 is one of many, many memorable Mets ejection stories. And now thanks to Retrosheet and the magic of Newspapers.com , we have a convenient means for being able to share them. Ever since Retrosheet's David Smith recently announced that the Retrosheet ejection database was posted online , I've been a kid in a candy store. I've organized the data and done some lookups of media coverage around the games that interested me post. Those newspaper accounts fill in a lot of blanks. Without further ado (and with more work to do), here are some of my findings ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The 'Duca of Earl (and walk-offs)

If I told you that the Mets had just obtained a guy who is a career .316 hitter with runners in scoring position? How about if I told you that the Mets just traded for a hitter who has consistently ranked among the toughest in baseball to strike out? Or if I mentioned that the Mets just dealt for a player who was selected to the NL All-Star team the last three seasons, with the last honor coming via a vote by his peers? So, although he's on the down side age wise, his throwing arm isn't as good as it used to be, and he doesn't provide much power, there are a lot of good things that Paul Lo Duca brings to the New York Mets. For example: He'll sacrifice his body for the good of the team The Dodgers and Braves squared off on August 23, 2002 and Lo Duca made an impact both on the start and finish of this game. Three pitches after being dusted by Greg Maddux, Lo Duca made him pay with a first-inning home run. The Braves rallied to tie the game, 3-3 in the ninth, but their bu...
8 comments
Read more

Been There, Won That

The Dodgers had 19 hits in their loss to the Mets on Thursday night in a game that, no offense (pardon the ironic pun), was excruciating to watch for many, many reasons, none of which I feel like getting into at this hour. Willie Randolph summed it up in his press conference afterwards, saying simply "It's not fun!" I wonder if Tom Hanks, Alyssa Milano, Ray Romano and Kareeem Abdul-Jabaar (all in attendance) stuck around for the finish? I do wish to note briefly, again with the aid of Baseball-Reference, that the last time the Dodgers had 19 hits and lost a game, it was to the Mets. The difference between that game and this one was that this contest, of May 24, 1973, lasted an interminable 19 innings., with the Mets winning, 7-3. Rusty Staub's fifth hit of the game drove in the go-ahead run. Ken Boswell added an RBI single and Ed Kranepool salted the game away with a two-run double. Some other noteworthy anecdotes from a quick box score gleaning: * Like Thursday's...
9 comments
Read more