Random Things I Learned While Trying To Kill Time in My Hotel Room
* If we're gonna talk Mets killers, let's not just talk Jeter and Chipper. Let's talk Dave Kingman
Dave Kingman hit .219 as a Met, but hit .303 against them. In fact, the Mets are responsible for raising his career batting average from .233 (what he hit against teams other than the Mets) to .236.
You may have read or heard this weekend how Derek Jeter has the highest career batting average against the Mets. Well, check out who has the highest slugging percentage. Better yet, look who ranks second.
Highest Slugging Pct vs Mets
All-Time, minimum 200 plate appearances
Dave Kingman .632
Mike Piazza .624
Todd Helton .614
Rico Carty .607
Derek Jeter .598
Willie McCovey .597
* 2 members of the 1986 Mets ended their careers with the 1991 Braves
A real challenging game you can play with your Met-fan friends, or even with yourself is to try to name the final major-league destination for the various members of the 1986 Mets.
The most challenging ones are these 7. Two of these magnificent men closed things out on the 1991 Braves. Each appeared in 14 games. See if you can name them. I'll answer at the end of this piece.
Rafael Santana
Danny Heep
Bob Ojeda
Kevin Mitchell
Roger McDowell
Doug Sisk
Terry Leach
* You can sponsor Tom Glavine's page for $95 on Baseball-Reference.com
I spent $25 on dinner tonight, which is a once-a-decade thing (Pasta Da Pucinella at 1123 Peachtree Walk....chicken, ricotta, spinach in crepes, with a piece of chocolate cheesecake. VERY good). I can't bring myself to fork over the money to insult Glavine when I can do so for free here.
If I was going to sponsor the page, here are some messages I'd consider, if I wasn't fearful of the karmic retribution that came from being nasty :)
- Spy! Spy!
- Now pitching...Lefty Williams
- Christine would have pitched better in Game 162
- My book will be a best-seller before yours will
One other aside: Remember the Mike Myers "Linda Richman Coffee Talk" skits on Saturday Night Live? He/She'd have a field day with this. Peachtree Street (of which there are many variations in Atlanta) is not named after a peachtree ("Discuss!")... at least according to Wikipedia.
To quoth the Wiki, it's named "for a large Creek settlement called Standing Pitch Tree after a tall lone tree. Reportedly, the Creek used trees with fresh pitch (the sap of a pine tree) for solemnizing vows and treaties. The "pitch tree" was corrupted to "peach tree", perhaps by mistake, or because it sounded better to English speakers. While peaches are so widely feral they seem native to northern Georgia and the Atlanta area, and though Georgia is the "Peach State", there was apparently no historical peach tree that led to the name."
* There have been a lot of no-hitters since 1962
I'm hoping I'm not missing any, but my count (I know I'm not missing any by the Mets), Jon Lester threw the 117th no-hitter (9+ innings)to take place in the majors since the Mets began play in 1962. I got to see the last 2 outs. Good for him. It's a nice story.
* For all his goodness the last 2 days, David Wright still has a shortcoming
I think I mentioned the other day how much I like the "Bill James Online" website (An 8-month subscription costs less than my dinner). James has devised a means to evaluate clutch hitting, and though he hasn't published the formula or rules yet, I find it to be trustworthy. Remember that James said on "60 Minutes" that David Wright was his favorite player. Well, take a look at James' evaluation of Wright's clutchness.
David Wright H-AB
Clutch Situations, defined by Bill James
2004 9-20 (.450 BA)
2005 23-71 (.324 BA)
2006 26-85 (.306 BA)
2007 28-71 (.394 BA)
2008 1-14 (.071 BA)<< >> If it's any consolation, he does have 7 walks, but I think James may have jinxed Wright
Maybe Tuesday is the day, maybe against Glavine. Remember that Wright struck a blow for Mets fans everywhere when he homered against Kenny Rogers in the All-Star Game. David's got a pretty good sense for that sort of thing, and a clutch hit against Glavine would be worth 5 clutch hits against any other pitcher at this point in the year.
--------
The answer to the trivia
Final team for 1986 Mets
selected members
Rafael Santana- 1990 Indians
Danny Heep- 1991 Braves
Bob Ojeda- 1994 Yankees
Kevin Mitchell- 1998 Athletics
Roger McDowell- 1996 Orioles
Doug Sisk- 1991 Braves
Terry Leach- 1993 White Sox
* If we're gonna talk Mets killers, let's not just talk Jeter and Chipper. Let's talk Dave Kingman
Dave Kingman hit .219 as a Met, but hit .303 against them. In fact, the Mets are responsible for raising his career batting average from .233 (what he hit against teams other than the Mets) to .236.
You may have read or heard this weekend how Derek Jeter has the highest career batting average against the Mets. Well, check out who has the highest slugging percentage. Better yet, look who ranks second.
Highest Slugging Pct vs Mets
All-Time, minimum 200 plate appearances
Dave Kingman .632
Mike Piazza .624
Todd Helton .614
Rico Carty .607
Derek Jeter .598
Willie McCovey .597
* 2 members of the 1986 Mets ended their careers with the 1991 Braves
A real challenging game you can play with your Met-fan friends, or even with yourself is to try to name the final major-league destination for the various members of the 1986 Mets.
The most challenging ones are these 7. Two of these magnificent men closed things out on the 1991 Braves. Each appeared in 14 games. See if you can name them. I'll answer at the end of this piece.
Rafael Santana
Danny Heep
Bob Ojeda
Kevin Mitchell
Roger McDowell
Doug Sisk
Terry Leach
* You can sponsor Tom Glavine's page for $95 on Baseball-Reference.com
I spent $25 on dinner tonight, which is a once-a-decade thing (Pasta Da Pucinella at 1123 Peachtree Walk....chicken, ricotta, spinach in crepes, with a piece of chocolate cheesecake. VERY good). I can't bring myself to fork over the money to insult Glavine when I can do so for free here.
If I was going to sponsor the page, here are some messages I'd consider, if I wasn't fearful of the karmic retribution that came from being nasty :)
- Spy! Spy!
- Now pitching...Lefty Williams
- Christine would have pitched better in Game 162
- My book will be a best-seller before yours will
One other aside: Remember the Mike Myers "Linda Richman Coffee Talk" skits on Saturday Night Live? He/She'd have a field day with this. Peachtree Street (of which there are many variations in Atlanta) is not named after a peachtree ("Discuss!")... at least according to Wikipedia.
To quoth the Wiki, it's named "for a large Creek settlement called Standing Pitch Tree after a tall lone tree. Reportedly, the Creek used trees with fresh pitch (the sap of a pine tree) for solemnizing vows and treaties. The "pitch tree" was corrupted to "peach tree", perhaps by mistake, or because it sounded better to English speakers. While peaches are so widely feral they seem native to northern Georgia and the Atlanta area, and though Georgia is the "Peach State", there was apparently no historical peach tree that led to the name."
* There have been a lot of no-hitters since 1962
I'm hoping I'm not missing any, but my count (I know I'm not missing any by the Mets), Jon Lester threw the 117th no-hitter (9+ innings)to take place in the majors since the Mets began play in 1962. I got to see the last 2 outs. Good for him. It's a nice story.
* For all his goodness the last 2 days, David Wright still has a shortcoming
I think I mentioned the other day how much I like the "Bill James Online" website (An 8-month subscription costs less than my dinner). James has devised a means to evaluate clutch hitting, and though he hasn't published the formula or rules yet, I find it to be trustworthy. Remember that James said on "60 Minutes" that David Wright was his favorite player. Well, take a look at James' evaluation of Wright's clutchness.
David Wright H-AB
Clutch Situations, defined by Bill James
2004 9-20 (.450 BA)
2005 23-71 (.324 BA)
2006 26-85 (.306 BA)
2007 28-71 (.394 BA)
2008 1-14 (.071 BA)<< >> If it's any consolation, he does have 7 walks, but I think James may have jinxed Wright
Maybe Tuesday is the day, maybe against Glavine. Remember that Wright struck a blow for Mets fans everywhere when he homered against Kenny Rogers in the All-Star Game. David's got a pretty good sense for that sort of thing, and a clutch hit against Glavine would be worth 5 clutch hits against any other pitcher at this point in the year.
--------
The answer to the trivia
Final team for 1986 Mets
selected members
Rafael Santana- 1990 Indians
Danny Heep- 1991 Braves
Bob Ojeda- 1994 Yankees
Kevin Mitchell- 1998 Athletics
Roger McDowell- 1996 Orioles
Doug Sisk- 1991 Braves
Terry Leach- 1993 White Sox
Comments
Have fun today Amigo!