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Peeing Like It Oughta Be

Please do not be offended by the title of this blog. As fellow blogger Greg at "Faith and Fear" noted when I dropped the line on him:

"I'm not offended. When you're a Mets fan these days, you're unfamiliar with the concept of offense."

You know you've had a bad week at the ballpark when the highlight is discovering that the urinals in the Caesar's Club have dividers. Those for us common folk in the promenade do not.

But enough talk about luxuries. If you think that being one-hit and two-hit in the same week is bad (not to mention also being three-hit, four-hit, and five-hit within an eight-game span), ponder rooting for the 1967 Mets.

The 1967 Mets had seven games in which they were held to either one or two hits. They had it even worse than the current squad. They were one-hit and two-hit in consecutive games.

The difference is that they managed to win one of those. On April 29 in Cincinnati, the Mets got beat by Gerry Arrigo 7-0. It was a dominant effort, one in which the only yielded hit was a first inning single by Jerry Grote. He was subsequently erased via double play. The Mets bungled their way into three errors, leading to five runs being unearned (what else is new?)

The next day, in Game 1 of a doubleheader against the Reds, the Mets managed only two hits. However, the first was a home run by Ron Swoboda in the second inning (the game story notes it was his first since last August 4), and the second was a Tommy Davis single that eventually led to a run in the third frame, thanks to a timely wild pitch.

Those two tallies stood up, even as 19 consecutive Mets went down, because Don Cardwell pitched a gem against the first place hosts. Cardwell allowed only three hits and went the distance, clinching the win by inducing Pete Rose to hit into a game-ending double play. The Reds managed only one runner into scoring position the entire game.

Also of significance from that April 30 twinbill was the second game, one in which the Mets managed eight hits, but lost to 18-year-old Gary Nolan, 3-2. The losing Mets pitcher that day was Tom Seaver and it was the first defeat in his major league career.

The singular Mets fan knows...The Mets are now 0-39 in games in which they manage one hit or no hits.

PS: I vote for Curly Shuffle for the 8th-inning singalong song.

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