Skip to main content

Big Crown

Big Brown is going for the Triple Crown on Saturday. So I looked up a few things related to that

* While no Met has ever won the Triple Crown, their have been six instances in which a Met won the "Team Triple Crown." This required leading the Mets in batting average, home runs, and RBI in the same season.

Led Mets in BA, HR, RBI
Same Season

2001 Mike Piazza
2000 Mike Piazza
1995 Rico Brogna
1989 Howard Johnson
1971 Cleon Jones<<
1967 Tommy Davis
>> Tied for team lead in HR

The most interesting of these is Mike Piazza's capture of the crown in 2000. He won in a photo finish with Edgardo Alfonzo. Piazza batted .32365, while Alfonzo hit .32352, meaning Piazza won the Mets batting race by one-tenthousandth of a point.

* Dwight Gooden won the NL's pitching Triple Crown in 1985, leading the NL in wins, ERA and strikeouts. Tom Seaver never did that as a Met. The three times he led the NL in both ERA and strikeouts (1971, 1973, 1975), he got beaten out for the wins lead. Among current Mets, Johan Santana won the AL pitching Triple Crown with the Twins in 2006, while Pedro Martinez copped it with the Red Sox in 1999.

* 3 Mets have led the NL in home runs for a season. 1 led the NL in RBI. No Met has ever led the NL in batting average.

Led NL in Home Runs
Mets history

1991 Howard Johnson<<
1988 Darryl Strawberry
1982 Dave Kingman
>> Also led NL in RBI (finished 40th in NL with a .259 BA)

* Leading the Mets in the what I call the "True Triple Crown" is a little more common. This requires leading the team in batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage

Led Mets in BA< OBP, Slugging Pct

2007 David Wright
2005 David Wright
2001 Mike Piazza
1998 John Olerud
1995 Rico Brogna
1989 Howard Johnson
1979 Lee Mazzilli
1977 Lenny Randle
1972 Tommie Agee
1971 Cleon Jones
1969 Cleon Jones
1968 Cleon Jones
1967 Tommy Davis

* The Mets are 2-2 on days in which a horse wins the Triple Crown. They beat the Dodgers on June 9, 1973 (Secretariat), split a doubleheader with the Astros on June 11, 1977 (Seattle Slew) and lost to the Giants on June 10, 1978 (Affirmed). None of the games were decided in walk-off fashion.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
8 comments
Read more

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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Green Party

* Mets walk-off win #347 was the Mets 6th this season, against no defeats. This is the first time in Mets history that they've started a season with at least 6 walk-off wins before their first walk-off defeat. * It was Shawn Green's 2nd career walk-off home run, his first since September 20, 2001, when he homered in the 13th inning to beat Greg Swindell and the Diamondbacks, 3-2. It was the second walk-off home run allowed by Russ Springer, but his first since April 11, 2000, when Ed Sprague and the Padres beat him with a 13th inning home run. It was the first home run that Springer allowed all season. * This is the 5th time in Mets history that they've had as few as 3 hits and won a game in walk-off fashion. The last was June 28, 1998, when they had 3 hits and beat the Yankees 2-1 on Luis Lopez's sacrifice fly (the game where Brian McRae nearly cost the Mets the winning run by wandering aimlessly off first base on the SF). The fewest Mets hits in a Mets walk-off win is...
9 comments
Read more