Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

On Opening Day 2002, Gary Matthews Jr. pinch-hit for Al Leiter and flied to left field against Pirates reliever Mike Lincoln. That was the only at-bat of Matthews' Mets career...at least probably until Opening Day 2010. Matthews will soon depart from what is a prestigious Mets club- the one at-batters. There are currently 43 players whose Mets vanity plate could read ONEAB. * Most of them are pitchers. That position numbers 35, headed by current Met middle-man Sean Green. * Green is one of 18 players whose only Mets at-bat was a strikeout. Class of '62 Met Dave Hillman is at the front of that line, alongside teammate Bob G. Miller. . For him, bat silence was Golden, as in Jim Golden, who struck Hillman out and also holds the distinction of having a multi-triple game against the Mets. * Imperfection is the mark of many a one at-batter. Their collective account reads just five hits in 43 tries, which explains why most of them only got one turn at the plate. There was no Met fo

When I was at the Hall of Fame a few months back, I got taken by surprise by one piece of memorabilia in Cooperstown's collection. A shattered shard from Jolbert Cabrera's bat was donated as a remnant from the greatest walk-off comeback win ever, the 15-14 Indians win over the Mariners on August 5, 2001. Cabrera, the newest Met, had the game-winning hit in the rally from a 14-2 seventh-inning deficit, an 11th-inning single against Jose Paniagua. Should Cabrera play for the Met, he'd join this roster of former/future Mets, who were a part of history. John Olerud, who was 2 for 3 with an RBI, before being pinch-hit for with his Mariners team up 12-2 in the fifth inning. Mike Cameron, who played the entire game for Seattle in center, and went 3-for-6 with 3 RBI. Mariners starter Aaron Sele, who was charged with 5 runs in 6 2/3 innings, and who can blame this game for his failure to reach 150 victories (he's at 148). Roberto Alomar, who went 0-for-2 as the Indians starting