Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

If my blog were titled "Mets Blowouts and Other Minutiae," I'd feel a little better about Eli Marrero. I just spent half an hour going through Retrosheet, clicking on every box score in which Marrero had an RBI at home. What I discovered: When Marrero has a good game, his team usually wins by a lot. That's good for him, bad for me. I guess when you're in lineups surrounded by big boppers there aren't that many opportunities for walk-off dramatics. There also aren't many chances when you're 1-for-your-last-24 as a pinch-hitter, as Marrero is. Marrero made good on one of his few chances on April 13, 2002, as a member of the Cardinals. That day, against the Astros, the score was even, 1-1 in the last of the ninth, after a fine pitchers duel between Darryl Kile and Roy Oswalt. Jason Isringhausen had fanned the side on nine pitches in the top of the ninth, so the Cardinals went into the home half with momentum, expecting to win. The Cardinals had stranded 1

The reason that we "took inventory" on Thursday was because that it marked the one-year anniversary of the start of this blog and it seemed the appropriate thing to do. Friday marks the anniversary of the first "walk-off posting" so I thought it right to reminisce in a self indulgent manner, just for a bit, before we return to such work. Mets Walk-Offs and Other Minutiae was an idea born out of envy, boredom, and creativity. During our many trips to the world wide web, we came across a blog devoted to cataloguing Craig Biggio's hit by pitches. That intrigued me greatly and made me think "Hey, why can't I do something like that?" It so happened that I had the free time to embark on a major project. For the most part, during the baseball season, I work nights, and there isn't much of interest to do during daytime hours. In past years, I've had a summer project to work on, but during the summer of 2005, my days were still free. The previous

Today seemed like as good a day as any to do an inventory check...   METS WALK-OFFS INVENTORY   339 Mets walk-off wins 332 regular-season walk-offs 7 postseason walk-offs 11 interleague play walk-offs 3 Opening Day walk-offs 15 walk-off wins in last calendar year 162 extra-inning walk-offs 2 18th-inning walk-offs 1 6th-inning walk-off 41 doubleheader walk-offs 37 walk-off swings that turned deficits into walk-off wins 1 March walk-off 56 September walk-offs 12 October walk-offs 39 Pirates walk-offs (most vs team) 1 Angels, Blue Jays, Royals, Red Sox walk-offs (least) 108 walk-off home runs 5 walk-off grand slams 1 walk-off "shoulda been a grand slam" 25 walk-off douvbles 1 walk-off triple 143 walk-off singles 15 walk-off walks 12 walk-off sacrifice flies 12 walk-off errors 10 walk-off wild pitches 7 walk-off fielders choices 4 walk-off combos (hit+error) 1 walk-off hit by pitch 1 walk-off steal of home 155 2-outs when winning run scored w

I'm sure I won't be the first and I likely won't be the last to tell you that Roger Clemens is pitching today...on 6/6/06...how appropriate! It came to my attention that Thursday marks 25 years to the day that the Mets selected that particular righthander, out of Spring Woods High, with the 288th overall pick in the 12th round of MLB's Amateur Draft. I do not begrudge him for choosing not to sign. He told the New York Times in 1986 that Mets manager Joe Torre and pitching coach Bob Gibson had watched him pitch in 1981 and neither came oaway particularly impressed. That apparently was a turn-off and enough reason to walk-off. However, there are plenty of reasons to dislike Roger Clemens and I could easily list 100 why, but I'll simply choose to discuss one. There is strong reason to believe that the man is a vandal. I harken back to October 25, 1986, the sixth game of the World Series, which I do every so often in this space, and a particular camera shot not long aft

The walk-off win on Sunday was the 340th in Mets history and the 10th this season...oh, wait a minute...they didn't win, did they? It's gotten to the point where it's become expected and I guess that's a good thing. This week, the Mets will attempt to become the first team to win in walk-off fashion on the road. In the meantime, since I started writing, here's some Mets Minutiae you might appreciate. * The home run by Lastings Milledge was the 1st of his career, the team's 74th of the season and the 5,447th in Mets history. * Milledge is 754 home runs behind Hank Aaron for most all-time. Aaron's first major-league home run came on April 23, 1954 against Vic Raschi. * Milledge has as many career home runs as Esix Snead and Craig Brazell, each of whose only home run was a Mets walk-off home run. He's 67 behind Steve Henderson, whose first home run was a pinch-hit walk-off home run for the Mets on May 21, 1977. * Milledge has as many home runs as pitcher Ja

The title is in reference to two family members, both of whom got put in position of having to walk-off prior to a walk-off because of previously purchased tickets to a Broadway show (and not in reference to the book "Tuck Everlasting" which was published in 1975, the year I was born). They got out of Shea in a little better shape than SNY broadcaster and occasional blog reader Gary Cohen, who left, the victim of an appendicitis attack. Get well soon, Gary!! In the meantime, a few quick notes on walk-off #339 as it's late and I have an early day of work on Sunday. * The Mets have nine walk-off wins this season. That's more than they had all of last season. * The Mets have won three games on walk-off "somethings" by Chris Woodward, with the somethings being a home run, a single, and the 12th walk-off sacrifice fly in team history. * For the first time in team history, the Mets have had two walk-off sacrifice flies in the same season. * This was the first walk