Skip to main content

Number One In Our Hearts

Shea Stadium has been home to 335 Mets walk-off wins (so far).

It just occurred to me that I've never written about the first one.

The beginning began on May 8, 1964, a Mets-Cardinals game at Shea and who knew then that the Cardinals would go on to be World Series champs, and that the Mets would play such a significant role in their end-of-season race past the Phillies. You may have heard those stories before.

There isn't as much to this tale, but it's still noteworthy nonetheless. Two of the primary participants for the Cardinals, starter Ernie Broglio and reliever Bobby Shantz weren't long for St. Louis, as they'd be traded a month later for someone named Lou Brock.

The Mets started well off Broglio, scoring twice in the first, with the key hit being Jesse Gonder's RBI triple. They'd be up 4-1 by the eighth, with Jack Fisher sailing along, but alas with two on and two out in the eighth, pinch-hitter Carl Warwick hit a game-tying three-run home run. The last of 31 career homers for Warwick tied the score, 4-4, and sent Fisher to the sidelines in favor of second-year moundsman Larry Bearnarth.

Shantz, on in relief, pitched a scoreless eighth, but ran into some issues in the ninth. The little lefthander (5-foot-6) won eight Gold Gloves in his career, but he couldn't cleanly field George Altman's shot leading off the home ninth. It went for a single, and a bunt and intentional walk set up a scenario with runners on first and second with one out.

Casey Stengel went to his bench for Joe Christopher, whose 1964 season was the finest of an eight-year career. Christopher adeptly slashed (as the New York Times described it) a base hit to left, scoring Altman with the winning run. The Mets were walk-off winners in the seventh game in Shea Stadium history.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Trip(le) Through Time

In their illustrious history, the Mets have had one 'Triple Crown Winner,' so to speak and I'm not talking about the typical meaning of the term. I've gotten some queries recently as to whether a walk-off triple is even possible and I'm here to tell you that it is. There has been one, and only one, in Mets history, though I don't have the full explanation of circumstances that I would like. It took place against the Phillies on September 10, 1970. This was a marathon game that would have fit in perfectly with those having taken place so far this season and allowed the Mets to maintain a temporary hold on first place in an NL East race oft forgotten in team history. It went 14 innings, with a tinge of controversy in a negated Ken Boswell home run, a thrilling play by Bud Harrelson, who stole home in the third inning, and some stellar relief pitching, in the form of five scoreless innings from Danny Frisella, aided by Tim McCarver getting thrown out in a rundown b

Best Games I Know: Phillies (Updated)

  The best wins against the Phillies in Mets history …   May 5, 2022 – Mets 8, Phillies 7 The Mets score 7 runs in the 9 th inning to overcome a 7-1 deficit and win in Philadelphia.   April 29, 2022 – Mets 3, Phillies 0 Tylor Megill and 4 Mets relievers combine on the second no-hitter in franchise history.   September 22, 2016 – Mets 9, Phillies 8 (11) The Mets tie it in the 9 th on a Jose Reyes home run and win it in the 11 th on a 3-run home run by Asdrubal Cabrera.   July 17, 2016 - Mets 5, Phillies 0 Jacob deGrom pitches a one-hitter. Only hit is a single by Zach Eflin in the 5 th inning.   August 24, 2015 – Mets 16, Phillies 7 David Wright homers in his first at-bat in more than 4 months. The Mets hit a team-record 8 home runs.   July 5, 2012 – Mets 6, Phillies 5 The Mets score 2 runs with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9 th to beat Jonathan Papelbon. The winning run scores on David Wright’s bloop down the right field line.   August 13

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