Skip to main content

Welcome To The Club

On August 9, 1996, Luis Castillo was a gung-ho rookie second baseman, about to play in his second major-league game in Florida, against the New York Mets.

On that same date, Tom Glavine, located slightly north in Atlanta, was efforting in an attept to win career game number 137 against the Colorado Rockies.

Tonight they unify in a common goal (presuming Castillo shows up in Milwaukee), in an attempt to get Castillo off on the right foot and earn Glavine a historic milestone.

But perhaps Glavine would have reached this mark a little sooner had the Mets won the battle for Castillo's services when he was previously a free agent.

The value of having someone like Castillo as your second baseman could be seen on that particular August date, 11 years ago.

It was a night in which the Mets starting lineup featured Alvaro Espinoza at third base (how far they've come since) and featured one of the finest pitching performances of Robert Person's career. The only blemish through seven innings wa caused by Castillo, who reached on an infield chopper in the 4th, advanced to second when Person threw the ball away, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jeff Conine. Person allowed only two hits through seven innings and left with the score even, 1-1.

Elsewhere, Glavine held a 4-1 lead through five innings against the Rockies, though it would have been 4-0 were it not for an error by his second baseman, Mark Lemke. That forced some extra work, and perhaps led to Glavine's being removed sooner than Bobby Cox would have liked, after a double and two bunt hits loaded the bases for the Rockies with no outs, and the Braves up 4-2 in the seventh.

Back to Florida where Mets messups weren't helping matters. Todd Hundley got doubled off second base in the sixth, Bernard Gilkey was caught trying to steal third in the eighth, and Lance Johnson hit into a 4-3 double play, started by Castillo, when the game went bonus frames in the 10th.

In Atlanta, with Glavine out, Cox went to one-minute Met Brad Clontz to try to fix matters, but Clontz pulled a Joe Smith. All three of Glavine's runners scored, the last two on a hit by future NeverMet (spring invitee) Andres Galarraga. The Rockies went ahead 5-4, and won 6-4, denying Glavine the win that, had things continued along, would have allowed him to win #300 at home last week.

Frustration reverberated in Florida, where the Marlins pulled out the win in the bottom of the 10th. Alex Arias led off against Doug Henry, fell behind 0-2, then walked, foreshadowing the doom to come. Pure evil third baseman Terry Pendleton (sorry, but the pain from '87 still stings) followed with a sacrifice to advance Arias to second. After striking out Marlins catcher Joe Siddall, Henry was left with the choice of facing veteran Joe Orsulak, or bypassing him for the rookie, Castillo.

The Mets took their chances with Castillo. After the intentional walk, Henry got ahead of Castillo 1-2, but Castillo showed then that he's a tough guy to get out. He slapped a single up the middle, scoring Arias with the game-winning run.

Don't be surprised if Castillo is a little shaky today. He doesn't necessarily make the best first impression (he was hitless in his debut the day before the walk-off), but tends to do alright the next time around.

''I was nervous yesterday,'' Castillo told the media after his second big-league game. ''But today was more relaxed. I wanted to show this team what I had to offer. This was important for me because it gives me confidence.''

True Metstillos know...That there's another reason Tom Glavine should be happy to have Luis Castillo as a teammate. Castillo has 11 hits in his last 17 at-bats against Glavine. For his career, Castillo is a .384 career hitter against Glavine. His 28 hits against Glavine are his most against any MLB pitcher.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Best Games I Know: Phillies (Updated)

  The best wins against the Phillies in Mets history …   May 5, 2022 – Mets 8, Phillies 7 The Mets score 7 runs in the 9 th inning to overcome a 7-1 deficit and win in Philadelphia.   April 29, 2022 – Mets 3, Phillies 0 Tylor Megill and 4 Mets relievers combine on the second no-hitter in franchise history.   September 22, 2016 – Mets 9, Phillies 8 (11) The Mets tie it in the 9 th on a Jose Reyes home run and win it in the 11 th on a 3-run home run by Asdrubal Cabrera.   July 17, 2016 - Mets 5, Phillies 0 Jacob deGrom pitches a one-hitter. Only hit is a single by Zach Eflin in the 5 th inning.   August 24, 2015 – Mets 16, Phillies 7 David Wright homers in his first at-bat in more than 4 months. The Mets hit a team-record 8 home runs.   July 5, 2012 – Mets 6, Phillies 5 The Mets score 2 runs with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9 th to beat Jonathan Papelbon. The winning run scores on David Wright’s bloop down the right field line.   August 13

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

Walk-Offs in Movies, TV, and Other Places

Note: I'm leaving this post up through the end of the week, a) because I don't have time to pump out something new and b)because I was hoping to build a really good list of entertainment industry walk-offs...so if you're looking for something new, check back on Monday or so... Of course, if there's a major trade or move, I'll adjust and try to post something... In the meantime, click on the "Table of Contents" link as well. It has been updated. SPOILER ALERT: Read at your own risk Caught the ending of "A League of Their Own" on one of the movie channels the other day and it got me to thinking that it would be fun to compile a list of walk-offs from movies, television, and other forms of entertainment. Here's the start, and only the start, as I spent about 30 minutes or so thinking it over Help me fill in the blanks by filling out the comments section. "A League of Their Own"-- Racine beats Rockford for the All-American Girls Profess