Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

I know that I've said in the past that I don't wish to review Mets walk-off defeats, but I'm in one of those moods today where I'll type anything for the sake of blogging. So, let's play catch-up from Saturday, a defeat that seemed rather frustrating at the time, but felt a little bit more worthwhile (if such a thing could) after Monday's celebration * Saturday's walk-off defeat was the 365th in Mets history and the 5th this season. * It was the 30th to take place against the Pirates. Ronny Paulino joins a fine list of Pirates luminaries that have defeated the Mets with a walk-off hit, including Hall of Famers Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell, as well as ex-Mets Richie Hebner, Duffy Dyer and Bobby Bonilla. Ronny Paulino has as many walk-off hits against the Mets as Barry Bonds does. In fact, he was the first Pirate to deliver a walk-off hit IN SEPTEMBER against the Mets since Bonds did in 1990. * Much to my surprise, it is the first time in Pirates histo...

The Mets clinched the NL East on Monday, but if you're coming here, chances are that you knew that (and a whole lot more) already. So we do as we usually do in these circumstances- try to provide a perspective with which you may not be familiar. To do so, we offer up the following pieces of information, and yes, we try to work in some walk-off notes on occasion. PLEASE NOTE: That we are referring only to NL East clinching information and thus minutiae related to the wild card clinchings in 1999 and 2000 is not being utilized. * This win marked the fifth time the Mets clinched the NL East title, with the previous opponents being the Cardinals (1969), Cubs (1973 and 1986) and Phillies (1988). The Marlins are the third team against whom the Mets had both a walk-off victory AND an NL East clinching victory in the same season (1969 Cardinals, 1988 Phillies are the other two) * September 18 marked the second-earliest division clinching in Mets history, trailing only 1986 (September 17)....

answers to the trivia quiz posted here http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/09/our-special-bonds-ron-darling-questions.html 1) The leadoff hitter in Ron Darling's major-league debut was Joe Morgan and Darling struck him out. The winning pitcher in that game? Former Met Tug McGraw. 2) Telling you it was a Hall of Famer that Darling whiffed most should narrow it down enough such that one of your first couple of guesses should be the correct one, Ryne Sandberg. 3) The first three batters to HR off Darling were Claudell Washington (10 of the Mets 61 HR in 1980), Gary Carter (4 grand slams for the Mets) and Juan Samuel (traded for HR-hitter of significance Len Dykstra) 4) The other Yale-educated Mets pitcher was an original Met, Ken Mackenzie , who was 5-4 for the 1962 Mets (others were 35-116) and 3-1 for them in 1963. 5) The two future Mets drafted between Terry Blocker and Ron Darling were Kevin McReynolds (6th by the Padres) and Darryl Boston (7th by the White Sox). 6) The la...