Skip to main content

Mets Top 100 Home Runs: From No. 21 (Darryl Strawberry) to No. 25 (Keith Hernandez)

In 2009, I did a project for my website, Mets Walk-Offs and Other Minutiae, celebrating the best home runs in Mets history. I selected the top 60 regular season home runs and the top 15 postseason home runs. The reason I picked 60 was because it represented the top 1% of home runs in Mets history (and 15 just felt right for postseason).

This was fun to do, but it was imperfect. I had one egregious omission. I tended to favor oddities.

It’s time to give that project an update. And why not do it as a top 100?

The Mets have hit 7,671 regular season home runs. The top 80 represent about the top 1%. And the top 20 postseason home runs get us to an even 100 to celebrate.

Come along for the ride. Hopefully you’ll enjoy the reminiscing. Hopefully you’ll find it Amazin’. 


25. Keith Hernandez ends his slump 
(September 1, 1985)
Keith Hernandez likes to reference this game as a key moment in his career. It was a day in which Hernandez was given the day off, even with the Mets in the thick of the NL East race with the Cardinals. But Hernandez was 1-for-17 in his last four games, and with a lefty, Dave LaPoint on the mound for the Giants, Davey Johnson gave Hernandez a day off.

That day off ended with the Mets trailing by a run in the ninth inning with one out, the tying run on second base (after Larry Bowa was thrown out overrunning third base), and another lefty on the mound, Mark Davis.

Hernandez broke out of his slump with a go-ahead two-run home run to right field. The Mets held on for a 4-3 win.

“It’s truly victories like these that take place when you’re a championship club,” said Rusty Staub.

Said Hernandez: “The swing today may be the best I’ve ever executed.”

Hernandez went 5-for-5 in his next game. So much for slumps.

My favorite stat: That home run was the first of two instances in which Hernandez hit a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning or later for the Mets. The other was a walk-off in 1987 against Phillies reliever Kent Tekulve.

24. Mookie Wilson gives the Mets hope 
(September 20, 1981 vs Cardinals)
I wish I’d experienced this win, which isn’t quite as fondly remembered as the Steve Henderson game from 1980 by the people I talk to (that one’s coming soon). Perhaps it’s because it came in the second half of that oddly-setup 1981 season – two halves with a strike in between.

The Mets were 5½ games out of first place with 16 to play, but built a little hope by taking two straight from the first-place Cardinals. In the series finale, they overcame a 5-0 deficit, scoring twice in the sixth and three times in the seventh inning to tie. Then things got a little goofy.

With two outs in the top of the ninth inning, Tito Landrum circled the bases when his fly ball eluded center fielder Mookie Wilson, whose bobble upon catching up with the ball allowed Landrum to score. Great stat in the newspapers: That ended a scoreless streak of 22 innings by Mets relievers.

This would have been a crushing way to lose. But as we know from patron saint Bob Murphy, baseball is a game of redeeming features. After Frank Taveras hit a two-out double, Wilson came to the plate, wishing and hoping.

“A little prayer never hurt,” Wilson told reporters. 

Mookie’s prayers were answered when he hit a game-winning two-run home run.

“Even bigger than Hendu’s,” manager Joe Torre said afterwards.

I don’t think that holds true, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.

Postscript: After another Amazin win the next day (13 innings vs the Pirates), the Mets fell off and finished in fourth place.
 
My favorite stat: Bruce Sutter allowed 10 walk-off home runs in his career. He allowed two to two teams – the Dodgers and Mets. Steve Henderson had the other Mets walk-off homer vs Sutter, in 1980.

23. A Good Knight 
(July 3, 1986 vs Astros)
This is one of my all-time favorite regular season games, so much so that I procured a copy of it through clandestine means (one year at ESPN, each researcher was granted a free DVD of any game in the company library. By some miracle a copy of this game existed).

This was a preview of the 1986 NLCS between the Mets and Astros, albeit with weakened lineups. Ed Hearn might take issue with calling them weak. Filling in for Gary Carter, he hit an early home run. So did Darryl Strawberry. Ron Darling and Jim Deshaies were very good but not untouchable and the game went to the 10th inning, tied 3-3.

The Astros took the lead quickly on Phil Garner’s two-run home run. But the Mets had an answer. Two batters into the 10th, Darryl Strawberry tied the game with what Bob Murphy called a “majestic” home run. 

Two batters later, Ray Knight, who had been fanned four times in a row, won the game with a home run. It was the Mets seventh win in a row. They were spreading the news (as Tim McCarver said) that they were the dominant team in this game.

“I’m a contact hitter,” Knight informed reporters afterwards. “I don’t strike out that much.”

My favorite stat: This game foreshadowed Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. Each ended with the Mets trailing 5-3, then winning 6-5, and Ray Knight scoring the winning run.

22. The record 
(May 3, 1988 vs Braves)
The expectations were always as big for Darryl Strawberry as the 6-foot-6 frame he carried. They came from watching his best swings and his ability to seemingly homer on demand. This was the day that he hit the 155th of his career. It set the franchise record, surpassing the mark held by Dave Kingman. Strawberry’s 252 homers still stands as the most by a Met.

This one came against Juan Eichelberger on a day in which David Cone got the headlines for his first career shutout, an 8-0 win over the Braves.

“Everybody expects me to hit 50 home runs every year, but it’s nice to know that I’ve established myself in the Mets’ organization,” Strawberry said.

As Strawberry home runs go, there are a few others that I prefer to this one … such as the next home run on this list and another he hit a few days later. J

My favorite stat: Darryl Strawberry’s 252 home runs from 1983 to 1990 were the most in MLB in that span, two more than Dale Murphy.

Bonus favorite stat: Thank you, D.B. Firstman for this one! The 22 combined letters in the last names of Darryl Strawberry and Juan Eichelberger are THE MOST by a Mets batter-opposing pitcher combo in team history.

21. Darryl Strawberry hits the roof 
(April 4, 1988 vs Expos)
I feel like gargantuan home runs are somewhat routine now, and we don’t get excited anymore by the 450-foot home run. But Darryl Strawberry homering off the roof of Olympic Stadium on Opening Day in 1988 is ridiculous. It was the most memorable of a then club-record six home runs hit in the game. And it just misses my list of the 20 most memorable regular season homers.

The New York Times did a story on Strawberry’s home run distances later that season and got a physicist to estimate the home run distance as 525 feet (that presumes the ball continued to travel rather than getting knocked down.

“You can get anywhere you want to with that kind of swing,” said Mets broadcaster Tim McCarver. He later offered a one-word analysis of the home run – “Inconceivable.”

My favorite stat: The Mets club record for home runs on Opening Day is 4, shared by Darryl Strawberry and Todd Hundley. David Wright, Mike Piazza, Cleon Jones and Bobby Bonilla each have 3.

The rest of the list can be found here.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Best Games I Know: Phillies (Updated)

  The best wins against the Phillies in Mets history …   May 5, 2022 – Mets 8, Phillies 7 The Mets score 7 runs in the 9 th inning to overcome a 7-1 deficit and win in Philadelphia.   April 29, 2022 – Mets 3, Phillies 0 Tylor Megill and 4 Mets relievers combine on the second no-hitter in franchise history.   September 22, 2016 – Mets 9, Phillies 8 (11) The Mets tie it in the 9 th on a Jose Reyes home run and win it in the 11 th on a 3-run home run by Asdrubal Cabrera.   July 17, 2016 - Mets 5, Phillies 0 Jacob deGrom pitches a one-hitter. Only hit is a single by Zach Eflin in the 5 th inning.   August 24, 2015 – Mets 16, Phillies 7 David Wright homers in his first at-bat in more than 4 months. The Mets hit a team-record 8 home runs.   July 5, 2012 – Mets 6, Phillies 5 The Mets score 2 runs with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9 th to beat Jonathan Papelbon. The winning run scores on David Wright’s bloop down the right field line.   August 13

The best Mets ejections I know

When you think of the Mets and famous ejections, I'm guessing you first think of the famous Bobby Valentine mustache game, when after Valentine got tossed, he returned to the dugout in disguise. You know it. You love it. I remember being amused when I asked Bobby V about it while we were working on Baseball Tonight, how he simply said "It worked. We won the game." (true) But the Bobby V mustache game of June 9, 1999 is one of many, many memorable Mets ejection stories. And now thanks to Retrosheet and the magic of Newspapers.com , we have a convenient means for being able to share them. Ever since Retrosheet's David Smith recently announced that the Retrosheet ejection database was posted online , I've been a kid in a candy store. I've organized the data and done some lookups of media coverage around the games that interested me post. Those newspaper accounts fill in a lot of blanks. Without further ado (and with more work to do), here are some of my findings

Walk-Offs in Movies, TV, and Other Places

Note: I'm leaving this post up through the end of the week, a) because I don't have time to pump out something new and b)because I was hoping to build a really good list of entertainment industry walk-offs...so if you're looking for something new, check back on Monday or so... Of course, if there's a major trade or move, I'll adjust and try to post something... In the meantime, click on the "Table of Contents" link as well. It has been updated. SPOILER ALERT: Read at your own risk Caught the ending of "A League of Their Own" on one of the movie channels the other day and it got me to thinking that it would be fun to compile a list of walk-offs from movies, television, and other forms of entertainment. Here's the start, and only the start, as I spent about 30 minutes or so thinking it over Help me fill in the blanks by filling out the comments section. "A League of Their Own"-- Racine beats Rockford for the All-American Girls Profess