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You Can Call Me Al

The status of the beleagured bullpen leads me to believe that the Mets will have Al Reyes on the roster sooner rather than later.

There are two things that are intriguing about this move from our perspective.

For one, how everything comes full circle for Al Reyes. In 1994, Reyes was the star closer with 35 saves for the Eastern League's Harrisburg Senators, who faced the Binghamton Mets for the league title.

In Game 3 of the championship round (Bill Pulsipher had no-hit the Senators in Game 2 to tie the series, 1-1), Reyes entered with a 4-2 lead. The Mets staged the most dramatic of comebacks. Rey Ordonez's one-out single was followed by a game-tying home run from Edgardo Alfonzo. That was followed by a walk-off home run by Brian Jacobs, giving the Mets a 5-4 victory. They would win Game 4 to take the championship, 3-1. (Thanks to Binghamton play-by-play voice Rob Ford for details).

The other intriguing thing that would come with Al Reyes presence is that it would give the Mets a tri-Reyes presence, with three players of that name on the roster.

And that creates the possibility of the following call.

"Ground ball hit to Reyes, flips to Reyes for one, and on to Reyes, double play!"

Thanks to David Smith of Retrosheet, and some lookups on Baseball-Reference.com, I can tell you that such a play is unlikely, but not impossible.

The last time the Mets turned a double play in which the sole participants were the pitcher, the second baseman, and the shortstop, was September 29, 2004 against the Braves. In the first inning, Adam LaRoche grounded into a Reyes-Matsui-Heilman twin killing. Score it 4-6-1.

Unfortunately, in his next at-bat, LaRoche hit a game-tying home run, and the Braves won the game, 6-3.

True Metyes know...The Mets have had eight Jones' on their roster, but have never had more than two on the team at the same time.

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