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Showing posts from May 17, 2009

Didja Ever Notice: Would They Have Beaten Seaver?

Long Island Ducks manager Gary Carter recently wrote on his blog about how he's sure the Mets would have beaten Mike Scott in Game 7 of the 1986 NLCS , had the Astros beaten the Mets in Game 6. To a man, every member of the 1986 Mets says that. And I have no problem with that, other than that I've heard it a million times. But let me ask this: Would the Mets have won Game 4 of the 1986 World Series if Tom Seaver had been healthy and had started for the Red Sox? Carter had two home runs against Red Sox starter Al Nipper in that Game 4 win(he also hit his 300th homer off Nipper, noted in a subsequent blog entry ). But is there any guarantee he or his teammates would have had the same success against Seaver? Not at all. Take a look at this: Tom Seaver vs Key Members of the1986 Mets Gary Carter: .188 BA, 1 HR, 64 AB Keith Hernandez: .196 BA, 0 HR, 46 AB Mookie Wilson: .267 BA, 4 K, 15 AB Ray Knight: .300 BA, 10 AB Granted, the Tom Seaver of 1986 was on his last legs and wasn'

'Way To Go

Couple bits of fence-jarring minutiae from Friday's losing streak-snapping win in Boston * Johan Santana entered Friday with a 6.89 ERA at Fenway Park, his worst ERA in any ballpark. By allowing 2 earned runs in 7 innings, he dipped it to 5.56. His new worst ballpark: Rogers Centre in Toronto, 5.76. * This was the 71st time the Mets played a game in which their first baseman led off, the first since 2004 (Eric Valent, 9 times). Among those who have played first base and led off for the Mets in the same game: Lee Mazzilli, Joe McEwing, and Willie Mays. * David Wright's streak of reaching base at least three times ended in 7 consecutive games. HOWEVER: Wright has now reached base at least twice in 11 consecutive games, one shy of the Mets record of 12, set by John Stearns in 1977. Most Consecutive Games Reaching Base At Least Twice (Mets History) 12- John Stearns (1977) 11- David Wright (2009) 11- Derek Bell (2000) 11- Ron Hunt (1964) * As bad as the Mets have been with runners i

Our Special Bonds: 99 Bottles of Mets on the Wall

99 players have played for both the Mets and Red Sox in their careers (thank you Baseball-Reference). Let's test your knowledge of some of them...Answers in the comments section. 1- Five pitchers have pitched for both the Mets and Red Sox and won a Cy Young Award. Tom Seaver and Pedro Martinez are two of them. Name the other three. 2- Five players who played in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series have played for both the Mets and Red Sox. Name them. 3- Name the 2 player who played for both the Mets and Red Sox who stole 20+ bases for each of them. Both had "problematic" baseball careers. 4- Name the pitcher who gave up a World Series-ending walk-off hit who pitched for both the Mets (before it) and the Red Sox (after it). 5- Name the pitcher who went 11-25 combined with the Mets and Red Sox. He pitched for them 12 years apart (Red Sox in the 1980s and Mets in the 1990s). His career record with teams other than those two: 229-211. 6- Five players who played for both the Mets a

"Viss"itude

Taking a day to recover from the Mets. In the meantime, for an opposing viewpoint on the use of the phrase walk-off ... http://www.cbssports.com/cbssports/story/11761444

Dodging Bullets

It is possible not to hit with runners in scoring position and win. It just doesn't happen very often. That's why the win of September 9, 1985, in the finale of an exhilerating three-game series in Los Angeles (first game: Gooden-Valenzuela showdown; second game: Dodgers walk-off win) is one to treasure. The Mets and Dodgers played 14 innings that day. It was a long enough game that the Mets got 20 at-bats with runners in scoring position. You know how many hits they got? One. The Mets failed on their first nine and last 10 opportunities with runners on second and/or third base. The hit was a Keith Hernandez single off Orel Hershiser with two outs in the eighth that scored Mookie Wilson, and put the Mets up 3-1. Mike Marshall tied the game with a two-run, 44o-foot (by newspaper accounts) home run off Jesse Orosco in the bottom of the eighth, depriving Sid Fernandez of a decision in a finely-tossed effort (7 IP, 1 R, 3 H). If the recent offensive output of the current squad is e

To Live and Die In LA

If you were ever wondering why people mock the Mets ... I'm guessing that Church missed second too... * Walk-off loss #383 is the Mets 3rd walk-off loss of the season, the second of which didn't require a hit to end the game. * It's the Mets first walk-off loss against the Dodgers since August 12, 2005, when Dioner Navarro's 10th-inning HR off Braden Looper beat them. * The Mets have lost 3 games in their history that ended on an error by the first baseman. The first was against the Dodgers on September 13, 1964 (Ed Kranepool, 9th inning) The second was in Game 1 of a doubleheader against the Phillies on July 2, 1983 (Keith Hernandez, 9th inning) * The Mets only other walk-off loss on May 18 was in 1970, when they got beat by a grand slam by Expos pinch-hitter Bob Bailey. * This wasn't the first time the Mets lost a game in Los Angeles because of a mistake by someone playing out of position. http://www.metswalkoffs.com/2007/02/catch-as-catch-can.html On that subject

Balkin' Around

Much like Sunday night, the last (and only other) time a Mets pitcher committed three balks in a game, the story was the end of a winning streak due to missed opportunities. The 1963 Mets had won 4 straight, their longest win streak in franchise history heading into their game in Philadelphia on April 22, 1963. It would be, amazingly enough, the only game that Don Rowe would start in his major league career, and perhaps it was the jitters from that which resulted in his three-balk effort, part of a game in which Mets pitchers balked four times in all. The visitors built an early 3-0 lead, but left pairs of runners on base in each of the first two innings. That allowed the Phillies to play catch-up, and after a fifth inning in which Rowe balked twice before being removed, the score was even, 3-3. The New York Times does not speculate on the cause of Rowe's woes, though we did notice a rather odd trend from that 1963 season. There must have been some sort of issue regarding balks, be