Skip to main content

At The Heart of the Omission

So apparently the Mets and Nikon have teamed up to honor the 10 greatest moments at Shea Stadium, allowing fans to pick from a ballot of 75 choices.

Granted, we're not going to have agreement (nor accuracy, based on preliminary research by another blogger...and we may examine that at another time) on every choice for ballot inclusion, but there were a couple of decisions made that seem ridiculous without the benefit of explanation.

Nikon inclusion: 1981 Season: The Home Run Apple Hat "arrived" before the 1981 campaign.

My take: I'm not a "Save The Apple" diehard, but I appreciate it for the fan-friendly being that it is. It is included however, at the expense of ignoring Tom Seaver's return to Shea Stadium on Opening Day, 1983.

Nikon inclusion: June 13, 1997 - First Interleague game at Shea: The Red Sox down the Mets 8-4, with 44,443 in attendance.

My take: I would bet that if you asked 100 "Beer Money" contestants which team the Mets faced in the first interleague game at Shea Stadium, 99 would get it wrong. But I bet if you asked them: Which pitcher made history at Shea Stadium in 1964, by throwing the first NL perfect game in 84 years, against the Mets? At least a few would know the answer was Jim Bunning. Somehow, Bunning's perfect game didn't make the list, but the first interleague game did.

Nikon inclusion: April 15, 1998 - Yankees 'home game' at Shea: After a piece of concrete fell at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees played Anaheim at 12:05 p.m. at Shea while the Mets hosted the Cubs for their regularly scheduled 7:40 p.m. start in an unusual Shea doubleheader.

My take: If Barack Obama made his inauguration speech on John McCain's lawn, would that be considered a great "McCain's home" moment? The Yankees borrowed Shea Stadium for two years and a day. That's part of the historic record, but it's not significant, great, or memorable in any way. Matt Franco's two-run game-winning single off Mariano Rivera in one of the greatest regular-season games in Mets history was a far more significant moment, yet it's not to be found on this ballot

The full ballot can be found at NewYorkMets.com. Feel free to share any further quibbles in the comments section.

Comments

SS said…
Since I'm mad at The Former Franchise, I am going with Terry Pendleton. Not a happy one but wow did I feel that one.
Probably true on the interleague thing, but that series is memorialized in my mind with the Butch Huskey collision at the plate that was our cover back in the Baseball Weekly days.

Popular posts from this blog

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

Minutiae Break: Worst Mets Relievers

It occurs to me after 79 straight walk-off related posts and some fatigue still remaining from Saturday's finish that I did promise to bring Metspective on other issues related to the Flushing 9, so I offer this posting up as a "Minutiae Break." This came about after several discussions related to the offhand Dick Tidrow/Danny Graves remark the other day , the conclusion of which indicated that it would be fun to create a list of the worst Mets relievers of all-time. I don't want to step on the territory of other bloggers, like " Faith and Fear in Flushing ," Mets Guy in Michigan " and " Metstradamus ," so I'll tread carefully here, aided by their influence. Should any friends, family members, or fans of these pitchers visit this site, I mean no harm. I'm just here to have a little fun with this topic. The ground rules are as follows: The pitcher must have had a Mets stint as long as Dick Tidrow's (11 games, 15 2/3 innings), for wh

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