Skip to main content

Quite Frank-ly, My Blog is Rather Dusty

It's 10:40 on Saturday night, and though I'm really looking forward to writing some postseason stuff, I'm rather fatigued, so I'll post briefly on other matters

Frank Robinson will manage his final game on Sunday bringing to a close a career in baseball that spanned more than 50 seasons. There are a lot of things that could be said about Frank Robinson, but let's just offer up this piece of information, courtesy of MikeMav.com: Since 1957, no-player has had more walk-off RBI than Frank Robinson's 27. For those curious, only one came against the Mets- a walk-off home run against Danny Frisella on July 18, 1972.

The man who ranks second on the walk-off RBI list in that span will learn his fate on Monday. Dusty Baker and the Cubs will likely part ways but I have a feeling he won't be out of work for that long. Remember that there were many wishing, not too long ago, that Baker was managing the Mets. It's a shame that his tenure ended with a season ruined by a combination of injuries and bad luck. The Cubs suffered more than their share of horrendous defeats in 2006. For those curious, Baker had 25 walk-off RBI during his playing career. Two of them came against the Mets- the first a single on September 1, 1978, the second a 2-run double against Jeff Reardon on June 20, 1980, and the last a single off Neil Allen on May 4, 1982.

True Metinsons and True Metkers know...The Mets had 5 walk-off wins against team managed by Frank Robinson and 8 walk-off wins against teams managed by Dusty Baker, including one against each in 2006.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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...

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 ...

They Don't Make Em Like The Mook Any More

"There are certain things that stay with you, your whole life in sports. Mookie flying is one of those things." -- Blogger's father, 1:10pm on Feb 9. During the 1987 season, Mookie Wilson was on first base in seven instances in which the batter at the plate hit a double. How many times do you think Mookie scored? I'll give you a hint: Every time. According to some recent reading I've done, The average runner scores from first base on a double around 40-45 percent of the time. Mookie's career percentage: 65 percent (45 of 69) The average runner goes first to third on about 27 percent of singles hit. Mookie's percentage: 50 percent (120 of 240) The average runner scores from second base on about 58 percent of singles hit. Mookie's percentage: 75 percent (162 of 215) How good was Mookie Wilson? Let me put it to you this way. The guy turns 54 years old today (and got an early present by being re-hired by the Mets as a minor league instructor). I'd take...