Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

Watching the Dan Uggla stonehands exhibition during the All-Star Game the other day, I couldn't help but be reminded of Roberto Alomar. The Roberto Alomar is a Good Met era lasted maybe 5 minutes longer than our love for Bill Pecota. He became a shell of the player he previously was, both offensively and defensively as his career evaporated before our eyes. The Roberto Alomar lasted about 100 plate appearances from July 4-28, 2002. In that 21-game span, Alomar hit .371, scored 18 runs and drove in 12. Within that stretch were six games against the Reds, four of which the Mets won. In those four wins, Alomar was the ultimate pest, with 10 hits in 17 at-bats, along with five RBI. The best of those games was a walk-off win on July 26 (a game witnessed in person by none other than Bill Buckner), a game that began with Alomar getting his 2,500th career hit in the first inning, as Merengue Night began on a happy note, with the Mets taking a 2-0 lead. Alomar drove in the second run with h

A friend of mine says that I've gotten away from reminiscing about previous Mets walk-offs on this site, and in scouring through my database, looking for games I haven't written about, I realized that there are some good stories left to be told, ones that are just as good as winning 10 in a row by rallying from two runs down in the ninth.. Since we're currently in a Mets-Reds phase, we might as well tie them into the mix, and we can do so by reminiscing about the matchup of Darryl Strawberry and John Franco. As most of you know well, Franco's sinkerball vexed many a lefthanded hitter. Lefthanders had 1,100 at-bats against Franco and managed a slugging percentage of only .306 with 11 home runs. Barry Bonds hit .229 against Franco, and made a rather enormous couple of outs against him in the 2000 postseason. Mark Grace, another solid lefthanded batsman of the era, managed just a .148 batting average against Franco. Strawberry wasn't even that good. In 14 at-bats, he m

The Mets "I Can't Believe They Started On Opening Day" team Apologies to the folks at MetsGeek or FaithandFear if they'd already written this, but I knew it would aid in my quest... C- Tim Spehr '98 1B- Mike Marshall '90 2B- Ricky Gutierrez '04 SS- Al Moran '63-64 3B- Bill Pecota '92 LF- Gene Clines '75 CF- Ryan Thompson '94 RF- Mike Howard '83 P- Randy Jones '82 True Metsomniacs know... The Mets have had walk-offs by both Billy's and Joel's. Billy Baldwin's only Mets home run was a walk-off home run against the Cubs on September 24, 1976. Joel Youngblood had three walk-off hits for the Mets, a single, a double, and a home run.

For some reason, I was going around telling myself that Mike Pelfrey was the most unlikely Mets NL Player of the Week selection since John Pacella. This is not to be confused with undeserving, as I felt Pelfrey was rightly selected for his 15 shutout innings. I just think that there are a bunch of other Mets who would be more likely choices. John Pacella never won Player of the Week though, and I'm still wondering why I thought he had. But these unlikely pitchers did... Neil Allen Weeks ending July 6, 1980, and August 23, 1981 Yes, that's right: Neil Allen twice won Player of the Week honors, impressive now since I don't think closers win this award too often any more. Allen's first award was given for a three-appearance stretch in the midst of the time when it seemed like the magic was back. He threw 6 2/3 shutout innings of relief, earning a pair of saves, and may have been more of an award for the two-month spurt in which he managed 10 saves and an 0.96 ERA. Allen we