Skip to main content

All Is Wright With The World

I really thought, off the swing, that David Wright had hit his first career walk-off home run.

It wouldn't have been the first walk-off home run of Wright's major league career. It wouldn't have been the first walk-off home run of Wright's professional career.

It would have been the first walk-off home run that David Wright had ever hit in his life.

I know this because, in the bizarrest of coincidences, my quest to find out whether David Wright had ever hit a walk-off home run ended about 10 hours earlier when a Mets PR person replied to a request I had made a few days before. I'm told that Wright pondered the query for a couple minutes before answering that he had never hit one. Never as in never ever.

My reply to the Mets official was: "Thank you. I look forward to his first."

So you can imagine my reaction when the ball left the bat, and of course, I'm at work and sitting in a part of our offices in which ones rooting interest should not get in the way of ones employment. So when the ball landed (though those watching on TV never quite saw where), the look on my face was of, to use a phrase previously referenced to describe another walk-off against the Pirates. Restrained jubilation.

However, I take consolation in knowing the following pieces of information, and hopefully David will too.

* Mets walk-off win #351 (by our tally) was their 3rd of the 2008 season. It was the first since the 3-2 14-inning win over the Nationals on April 17. It is the second consecutive walk-off win that Willie Randolph described as "ugly."

* It is the 40th Mets walk-off win against the Pirates, the first since Carlos Delgado homered in the 12th inning to beat the Pirates on May 3, 2006. I don't know (and don't really care) if Delgado took a curtain call for that. Coincidentally, the walk-off win of May 3, 2006 also featured Ian Snell in a starting role, a Jose Reyes triple, and a Billy Wagner blown save.

* It is the 2nd Mets walk-off win to take place on Met broadcaster Gary Cohen's birthday (kudos to Ultimate Mets Database for noting that birthday on Tuesday). Coincidentally, the other was also a 5-4 11-inning win, this one against the Cardinals, on Joe Orsulak's walk-off single.

* It is the 6th career walk-off RBI for David Wright, the first since a double to beat the Athletics on June 23, 2007. He's got 3 singles, 2 doubles, a sacrifice fly, and again, no walk-off home runs.

Most Walk-Off RBI
Mets History

Kevin McReynolds 8
Rusty Staub 7
David Wright 6
George Foster 6
Cleon Jones 6
Ed Kranepool 6
>> All but Wright have hit a walk-off home run

* It's the first time that the Mets have 3 walk-off wins in April since 1998. The third of the walk-off wins that season was April 22, 1998, and the game ended with a Jim Tatum walk-off home run.

Career Comparison

Jim Tatum
35 games for the Mets
173 career MLB games
201 career MLB at-bats
1 walk-off home run

David Wright
568 games for the Mets
2,118 career MLB at-bats
0 walk-off home runs

* Jorge Sosa has all 3 Mets walk-off wins this season.

* Mets broadcaster Keith Hernandez hit 1 career walk-off home run: August 3, 1987 against the Phillies and reliever Kent Tekulve. In an ideal situation, David Wright would be facing someone who pitches underhand, like Tekulve. Where's Mike Myers (against whom Wright is 2-for-2 with 2 HR) when you really need him?

* Mets pre/post-game analyst Darryl Strawberry hit 3 walk-off home runs for the Mets-- 2 off John Franco and one against Lee Smith.

* Jose Reyes reached base 6 times, tying a Mets record, previously done 18 times. The last Mets to do it: Jose Reyes and David Wright in a walk-off win against the Braves on May 5, 2006. Wright had the walk-off hit in that game...against Jorge Sosa!

* Among active players, your leader in most home runs without a walk-off home run is Lance Berkman with 267. The all-time leader is Norm Cash with 377. Thanks to HR guru David Vincent (find his book on the history of the HR, coming soon in paperback, here)

Most Home Runs
No Walk-Off Home Runs

Norm Cash 377
Lance Berkman 267
Danny Tartabull 262
Goose Goslin 248
Ken Caminiti 239
Jim Bottomley 219
Jason Thompson 208
Rico Carty 204


* David Wright is one of 2 David Wrights to play in the major leagues. Dave Wright (real first name: David) probably didn't hit any walk-off home runs in his lifetime either. Of course, he was a pitcher who appeared in 1 game in 1895 and 1 more in 1897, so I don't suspect he had too many opportunities.

* I do want to say something nice about David Wright, so...Wright is now 21-for-44 with the bases loaded, a .477 batting average. Even if you throw in his 5 sacrifice flies, his numbers would still, by my guess, make him the best bases-loaded hitter in Mets history.

Those doing truly Wright by the Mets know... Willie Randolph never hit a walk-off home run in the major leagues (no idea on whether he did elsewhere). However, Randolph can one-up Wright by pointing to his numbers against recently DL'd John Smoltz: 3-for-8 with 4 walks and NO strikeouts

For those who missed it, we wrote about Wright vs Smoltz prior to Sunday's game, here:
http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2008/04/smoltzs-wright-hand-man.html

Comments

Julie said…
I really thought when that ball was hit it was going to be gone. Oh well. I'm sure he'll take it this way, just as we will too.
Anonymous said…
As a Wright fan, I'd like to think of this as a sign that he is taking the right approach at the plate in these situations: don't try to do too much, just get the run. There was one out and a fast runner on third, and he correctly put it in the air to right field rather than trying to pull the ball over the fence. I'd rather him keep up his pace of walk-off singles than hit home runs every once in awhile.
metswalkoffs said…
Anonymous-

I think that's a good perspective...I'm just a) having a little fun with the stats and b)noting that he seems to want one of these...

Popular posts from this blog

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...

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 ...

The 'Duca of Earl (and walk-offs)

If I told you that the Mets had just obtained a guy who is a career .316 hitter with runners in scoring position? How about if I told you that the Mets just traded for a hitter who has consistently ranked among the toughest in baseball to strike out? Or if I mentioned that the Mets just dealt for a player who was selected to the NL All-Star team the last three seasons, with the last honor coming via a vote by his peers? So, although he's on the down side age wise, his throwing arm isn't as good as it used to be, and he doesn't provide much power, there are a lot of good things that Paul Lo Duca brings to the New York Mets. For example: He'll sacrifice his body for the good of the team The Dodgers and Braves squared off on August 23, 2002 and Lo Duca made an impact both on the start and finish of this game. Three pitches after being dusted by Greg Maddux, Lo Duca made him pay with a first-inning home run. The Braves rallied to tie the game, 3-3 in the ninth, but their bu...