Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

Some things about Jason Bay that you probably don't know... * He's Canadian, from Trail, British Columbia. He'll be the 6th Canadian-born Met, joining, in order of success: Ron Taylor (1969 closer), Tim Harkness (early-years infielder), Ken MacKenzie (winning record for 1962 Mets), Ray Daviault (not much to say about him), and Brian Ostrosser (1973 cup-of-coffee guy). Harkness is the only one of those to hit a home run. * He's 59-for-his-last 66 in stolen base attempts (13-for-16 last season) That's 89 percent, which is quite good. * Jason Bay was NL Rookie of the Year in 2004. Rookies of the Year for Others Went on to Play for Mets Hideo Nomo Mike Piazza Vince Coleman Pat Zachry Willie Mays Angel Berroa Carlos Beltran Sandy Alomar Jr. Eddie Murray Tommie Agee * He went to Gonzaga That was also the school of choice for former Mets Tom Gorman (6-0 for the '84 Mets) and Rick Sweet (ex-backup catcher). * He's hit Joba Chamberlain, Andy Pettitte, and Brad Lidge

Let's play a little end-of-decade trivia. Answers in the comments section. 1- Two pitchers had the most shutouts for the Mets in the decade. The easy one is better known for a shutout he pitched in another decade. The harder one allowed only nine hits over the 36 innings of those four shutouts. Name them. 2- What Mets pitcher do we remember for having the most strikeouts in a game in the 2000s? 3-In the very first game of the decade, a Mets pitcher came within one ____ of tying a club record. Fill in the blank, name the pitcher, and name the pitcher who is the record-holder for that stat (hint: they share a first name). 4- Every Mets starting pitcher in a game this decade retired at least one batter, except one, who left with an injury that would sideline him for a month. This pitcher had an ERA over 5 in his lone season of the decade with the Mets, but is remembered pleasantly. Name him. 5- Among pitchers with 10+ starts for the Mets this decade, this one had the LOWEST percentag

The Ultimate Mets Database tells me that 874 players have played in a game for the New York Mets. I'd guess if you were going to rate them on performance, compared to expectations, Roberto Alomar would rank 850th or below (but I haven't actually done this). It is very hard for me to reconcile the Roberto Alomar, Mets version, with the one that, in my mind, is a pretty easy check-off for this year's Hall of Fame class. It is essentially a case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, or in this case Robbie Fameful and Roberto Shameful. In 2001, for the Indians, Alomar had the best statistical season of his career. He hit .336. He never had a better batting average than that. He had an OPS of .956. He never had a better OPS than that. He had 100 RBI. He only had one season with more than that. He had 113 runs scored. He only had two seasons with more runs scored than that. In 2002, for the Mets, Alomar had the worst statistical season of his career. He had a .266 batting average. To that p

I'm a couple days late on this, but the Mets have a new Hall of Fame inductee- Whitey Herzog. Herzog was a farm director for the Mets and spent one season in an on-field role in 1966, as the team's third base coach. In terms of eventful events, 1966 had a few, most notably drafting catcher Steve Chilcott with the No. 1 pick instead of Reggie Jackson, then lucking into Tom Seaver when the team's name was drawn out of a hat in a special drafting procedure. On the field, the Mets avoided losing 100 games for the first time in franchise history, going 66-95. Their roster included a number of players who became major contributors on the 1969 team- Kranepool, Harrelson, Jones, Swoboda, McGraw, and Ryan. Ryan has been in the news recently, as the Texas Rangers, for whom he is team president, are being sold, and Ryan said he will leave the team if it is sold to the ownership group headed by agent Dennis Gilbert. Ryan appeared in only two games, but he must have made quite an impres

Have a little time to spare (or sacrifice) away from the rumors of the Winter Meetings (most of which won't come true anways). If so, saddle up for our lengthy look here at the most Metmorable of the Mets 2,074 (regular and postseason combined) sacrifice flies. The First (April 11, 1962) The Mets trailed their first-ever game, 2-0 in the third inning when they staged the first rally in team history. Charlie Neal got the team on the board with an RBI single, and then with one out and runners on the corners, Frank Thomas delivered the first 'clutch' play in Mets history, putting himself into the history books with a fly ball to center that scored Felix Mantilla. The score was tied. The Mets had hope. The Mets had life. The Mets had very little. They'd lose to the Cardinals, 11-4. Their next sac fly didn't come for another week. True Metophiles know...Ed Kranepool holds the Mets career record with sacrifice flies with 58, though David Wright (38) is gaining fast. The

Let's hope the most exciting news of the rest of the year isn't that the Mets just signed a catcher whose most similar players stat-wise include Charlie O'Brien and Kelly Stinnett. I was in favor of pursuing Jose (not Bengie) Molina, so I actually like the signing of Henry Blanco, for the purposes of walk-off prevention. There are few better than Blanco on the defensive end, and throwing out would be basestealers is his strength. In his career, Blanco has thrown out 43 percent of those attempting to steal on him, and for those who fear he's getting old, he threw out 18 of 45 (40 percent) for the Padres in 2009. And after reading a little bit on Wikipedia and MLB.com, I'm feeling a little (albeit not much) better about the prospect of Blanco batting late in a close game. Turns out Blanco has a walk-off hit that is viewed as a big deal. In the final game of the 2006 Carribean World Series, Blanco's popup hit the head of Dominican shortstop Erick Aybar and caromed

"Why Coste ???" IM received at 9:29 PM Monday I have a theory. Omar has decided that his strategy for the winter is to accumulate a collection of free agents who have had walk-off RBI against the Mets over the last two years. That nets Coste to compete with Josh Thole and Omir Santos in a 3-for-2 battle at catcher. It lands Aubrey Huff and Troy Glaus as the first base platoon, meaning Daniel Murphy can be used as trade bait. It yields Darin Erstad to bring veteran leadership and a bat off the bench. And oh yes, it brings along a left fielder too. Someone named Holliday. Mets fans who beat the high Coste of living know... Chris Coste's walk-off RBI against the Mets is the only walk-off RBI in his major-league career.

Bill Buckner is in the Hall of Fame. For that matter, so is Bill Buckner, the pitcher, with whom the research librarians in the Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown, made sure I wasn't looking for when I asked for the Buckner file. Every major league player has a file in the Hall of Fame Library, filled with newspaper/magazine clippings, photos, correspondence, signature samples, and all sorts of other goodies. These are of great value to folks such as myself. You have to wear white gloves when handling the contents. When I went to Cooperstown about a week or so ago, near the end of my visit, I stopped in the library. There was only one file I wanted to see, and it took me an hour to sift through everything in the folder. Its contents were fascinating to me. And two nuggets in particular stood out. On April 4, 1981, the New York Daily News headline read "Mets may acquire Cubs' Buckner." Jack Lang quoted a source that the Mets were talking to the Cubs about trading Joe

I was watching the end of Game 2 of the 1969 World Series on MLB Network a day or so ago, and was intrigued by something that happened right at the end of the game. When Jerry Koosman departed after 8 2/3 innings, pitching the Mets to within an out of victory, the Orioles fans IN BALTIMORE gave him a very loud and sincere ovation. Perhaps they were happy because he was pulled from the game (Koosman allowed only one run and two hits), but it seemed to be more than that. Greg of Faith and Fear tells me that it was a custom of that time that the road pitcher would get cheered if he did well, and I have a vague recollection of that being so from my early days as a fan. Anyway, I just thought it made for a cool moment, and it also got me to look up the most ovation-worthy Mets pitching performances. But let's go one further on the criteria and limit it strictly to ROAD GAMES. In 1988, Bill James invented a stat called Game Score that evaluates starting pitching performance. An average

When you think of the most memorable postseason moments in Mets history, doubles don't immediately come to mind. There have been no "grand-slam doubles" or walk-off doubles that would rank among the best-of-the best, and there have been a few postseasons bereft of any really important doubles. But we're here to recognize the underappreciated, and with that, as a companion to what we previously wrote , we present our notes on those that were most Metmorable. 1969 Go figure that the first really, really significant double in Mets postseason history was hit by a pitcher, and one who finished his career with an .095 batting average. But in another of the many signs that 1969 was just meant to be, Gary Gentry, who was 6-for-74 with 52 strikeouts in the regular season, helped his own cause with a two-run double in the second inning of the eventual 5-0 win over the Orioles in Game 3. It's an oft-forgotten hit, lost in the heroics from Mets centerfielder Tommie Agee that

The magazine Mental Floss does a feature in which they find the inauguaral references to phrases within the New York Times. That seemed like a cool thing to do, so I did it for "walk-off." The problem is that entering that phrase didn't guarantee the results I wanted, but it provided some interesting findings, which I'll share here... Indians Calmly Walk Off February 19, 1887 edition The Jicarilla Apaches left their reservation in southern New Mexico for one in southwest Colorado. "Trouble between the Indians and the settlers is anticipated," the newspaper reported. Headline: Gen Walkoff Resigns As Sofia War Minister January 3, 1929 edition Apparently the Bulgarian Minister of War, General Walkoff (first name not given, unless it's 'General') and the premier of Bulgaria had a disagreement regarding Walkoffs feelings about a group of Macedonian revolutionaries (Walkoff liked them, the premier didn't). In return, Walkoff was named Minister to

The Mets have hit nearly twice as many doubles as they've hit home runs. They've launched, blooped, popped and lined 11,179 in regular season play over their 48-year history. We didn't want to get rankled by another set of rankings, so we're going to go rating-free on this list- the most Metmorable regular season doubles in team history. We'll follow up with a look at the best ones from postseason play in the near-future. Enjoy. The First (April 11, 1962) The first Mets double was hit by the first Mets shortstop, Felix Mantilla, in the Mets first game on April 11, 1962. It came against Cardinals pitcher Larry Jackson with one out in the seventh inning and the Mets trailing, 10-4. Mantilla was also the first Met to draw a walk, which he did in the third inning of that same game, and the first Met to be the last out of a game, a grounder to third base two innings later. True Metophiles know...The 1,000th double in Mets history was hit by Jerry Grote in Game 2 of a dou

I've been getting a lot of searches from Bing and Google recently. I'm going to try to answer the questions posed by those people so that if they ever search again, they'll end up finding what they're looking for. Hopefully this will help others out as well. I'll put the newest questions on top. 11/28/2009 What happened in the Mets game on July 27, 1985? Ooh, I like this one a lot. The Mets beat the Astros in a doubleheader, 16-4, and 7-3. The highlight of the doubleheader is that in Game 1, all 16 of the Mets runs were unearned. (I was there). What Mets have hit a home run in their first at-bat? Benny Ayala (1974), Mike Fitzgerald (1983), Kaz Matsui (2004), and Mike Jacobs (2005) Does a sacrifice count in batting average? No. Did Willie Mays hit a home run off Tom Seaver? In 26 plate appearances against Seaver, he did not. Did Willie Mays hit a home run against Steve Carlton? Yes, two of them, in 75 plate appearances. He hit one for the Giants on August 23 1967 and

Chone Figgins is a good player, but he isn't worth mega-millions, and since the two positions he's played most in the majors are third base and center field, he's not exactly the best fit. For the record, the priority for Mets Walk-Offs this offseason is to put the team in a situation in which no player is playing a position with which he's uncomfortable. But I would take Chone Figgins on my 2010 Mets, and the story of why dates to the Angels-Astros game of June 18, 2007. The Angels (winning pitcher: Francisco Rodriguez) beat the Astros, 10-9, in a rather wild affair. Figgins had an amazing game that day, one that would be hard to match in Mets history. * He had six hits in six at-bats, something a Met (Edgardo Alfonzo) has only done once. * And he had a walk-off triple, also something that the Mets have only had happen once (Cleon Jones). Figgins has five walk-off hits in his career, and we're a fan both of that one, and the one from August 10, 2008. That one came

The final part in our series on the top 60 regular season home runs in Mets history. To read the full series, click here , or on the "Best Mets HR" label at the bottom of this post. 10- Carl Everett, September 13, 1997 (#4,040) I know that there are home runs that ranked lower on the list for which you could make a good argument that they belong higher, but I really, really, really like this home run. To reset the circumstances: The Mets were trailing the Expos 6-0 with two outs and two men on base in the ninth inning. Roberto Petagine scored two runs with a single, and then hits by Luis Lopez and Matt Franco loaded the bases with two outs. The odds against a comeback when you're down 6-0 with two outs in the ninth inning are astronomical, but given that Everett is a man with significant doubts about the astronomical (he believes the moon landing was faked), I'm guessing that he neither cared nor realized that the chances of success were minimal. On a 3-2 pitch, Evere

Chances are that you know the stories of these moments, so the descriptions are brief, but we figured we should rank the postseason home runs as well. Our top 15: 15- Robin Ventura, 2000 NL Division Series Game 4 It was a lot easier for Bobby Jones to relax and throw his one-hit shutout, knowing he had the cushion of a lead from the first inning on, thanks to Ventura's two-run home run. True Mets postseason home run historians know...Robin Ventura had 7 singles (including his grand slam single), 5 doubles, and 2 home runs in his Mets postseason career. 14- Mike Piazza, 1999 NL Championship Series Game 6 This game-tying shot off John Smoltz in the seventh inning would have made the top couple had Kenny Rogers not walked Andruw Jones in the series-concluding moment. True Mets postseason home run historians know...Mike Piazza and Al Weis are the only two Mets to hit a game-tying home run in the 7th inning or later of a postseason game. 13- Gary Carter x 2, 1986 World Series Game 4 The

Continuing along with out list of the top 60 Mets regular season home runs of all-time. You may have to wait a bit for the top 10 to come out... 20- Ray Knight, July 3, 1986 (#2,413) One of my all-time favorite regular season moments is this one, the conclusion of a Mets-Astros game that foreshadowed how the key game in October would play out. The Mets and Astros went to the 10th inning tied, 3-3. Houston scored twice on a two-run home run by Phil Garner. The Mets responded quickly in the home half when Darryl Strawberry hit a monstrous game-tying home run against Astros reliever Frank Dipino. Knight came up a couple batters later. He had fanned four times previously against the combo of Jim Deshaies and Charlie Kerfeld. This time, he got up, 2-0, and took advantage, homering to left field to win the game. It was the first time that season that the Mets had rallied with three runs in the 10th to win a game, 6-5. It wouldn't be the last. True Mets home run historians know...Four Met