Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

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...

Well, at least the good news after a tough-to-take loss on Wednesday is that at least Hong Chih Kuo isn't pitching against the Mets tonight. The Mets were embarassed in their first series in Los Angeles this season and had Kuo been pitching, I would have thunk this was a guaranteed loss day. But I'll give the Mets at least a small chance of triumph against sometimes-capable-of-imploding sinkerballer Derek Lowe. Anyway, I got intrigued after seeing Wednesday's trivia question regarding which pitcher has beaten the Mets the most over their career (I got tricked into thinking it was second-place Steve Carlton), so I did a few look-ups on Baseball-Reference.com until I found something worth writing about. I came upon a list of pitchers to beat the Mets five times in a season, a single-year record. The names are all fairly recognizable and respectable, with one exception: Jim Golden. Golden was apparently the Hong Chih Kuo of his time. Kuo, on the DL with an elbow strain, is 2-0...

It would have been interesting to have had Tom Seaver in the booth on Tuesday night because when Orlando Hernandez stole second base, Seaver, as was noted, might have realized that his club record for stolen bases by a pitcher (4) was being closely approached. It would have required a good memory from Seaver for him to have realized that he, like Hernandez, once stole a base in consecutive games, an extraordinary accomplishment for a pitcher. It happened in the 8th and 9th games of his Hall of Fame career, and wouldn't you know it, there was a walk-off involved. The first such pilfer was a rather daring maneuver, one that came in the 8th inning of a 3-3 tie with the Braves. A Hank Aaron home run didn't faze Seaver, who was solid on both sides of the field. The Met moundsman was 3-for-3 with two RBI and his swipe of second gave Al Luplow a chance to put the Mets ahead, but his line drive to center was snared, ending the threat. The score remained tied until the 9th when Seaver h...

Normally, I'm the voice of reason in the face of insanity, the one who wants to get Marlon Anderson as the 2007 version of Shawon Dunston (liked the move, a lot)rather than make a splash with a big move at the trade deadline. I laugh at those who call WFAN and pitch ridiculous possibilities or claim they have secret sources telling them a move is imminent. But today it seems that I've joined the club. I've done the scouting, having attended three games at Shea Stadium last week, and the necessary reading (of opinions on both MetsBlog and in the New York Times) and scoured the statistical studies. And even after all that, I've come to the same conclusion. I'd like to see the Mets get Ken Griffey Jr. I base a lot of that on one at-bat from Monday's Braves-Reds game, which I got to watch in significant chunks due to the Mets and Padres being on at a late hour. When I saw Griffey Jr. step to the plate for the first time, a feeling of certainty came over me. I knew t...

The Mets enter Monday's game with an all-time record of 205-205 against the Padres. In honor of that and that this blog is approaching post # 500, I figured it be worth it to break out another series of trivia questions. If you bat .500, I'll be impressed. Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/07/our-special-bonds-even-steven-answers.html 1) How amazing is it that this pitcher's record as a Met was 47-47? 2) Name the six 500-HR hitters to hit a walk-off HR against the Mets 3) This Met was 36 when he joined the team. He only had 2 at-bats, but after striking out in his first, had a memorable extra-base hit in his second. Name him. 4) This man went 11-11 against the Mets, the most wins by a pitcher who finished his career with a .500 record against the Mets. He's better known for two things- having won the clinching game of a World Series, and the bizarre manner in which his career ended. 5) This former one-year Met pitcher ranks second, with a 10-10 record ...