Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

Though still seething over the events of Wednesday evening, there was a rather pleasant recover on Thursday afternoon, and the train ride/drive home from Shea allowed me to gather my thoughts and convey them here. * On Wednesday, Jose Reyes became the 9th Met to hit for the cycle. He became the first to do so in a Mets loss. * Reyes is the first Met to hit for the cycle at home since John Olerud (September 11, 1997 vs Expos). He is the 4th Met to hit for the cycle at home (Jim Hickman, Tommie Agee and John Olerud). The Mets have never had a walk-off win and cycle in the same game. Interesting to note that the only visitor to hit for the cycle at Shea is Wes Parker (May 7, vs Dodgers) and he drove in the go-ahead runs that day with a 10th inning triple. * Reyes became the 2nd Mets shortstop to hit for the cycle, joining Mike Phillips (June 25, 1976 at Cubs). He became the 4th leadoff Met to hit for the cycle (Jim Hickman, August 7, 1963 vs Cardinals, Tommie Agee, July 6, 1970 vs Cardina...

Steve Trachsel's home run on Tuesday reminded me of the last time a Mets pitcher homered, and if you're visiting this site, chances are, you remember it well. It seems appropriate, given that The Vandal is pitching for the Astros on Thursday night, to re-run, or actually give a first run to an unpublished work I put together a few years ago. Originally written sometime after June 15, 2002 We know what was really troubling you last Saturday, Mr. Shawn Estes. We could tell by the look on your face when the questions started coming. “Here we go…” you said. “I get to talk about my offense now.” Well Shawn, no offense, but with all the talk and hoopla surrounding your pitching matchup with Roger Clemens, we ignored what you’ve brought with your bat to this point in the season. No offense. This group of Mets pitchers is particularly pathetic at the plate. Al Leiter, even with his two-hit game against the Twins, still gets standing ovations for hitting the...

OK, in the words of Phil Mickelson "I'm such an idiot." For some reason, I thought he went from 1-ahead to 2-behind when he actually went from 1-ahead to 1-behind...Oh well, still a good piece... I'm not a big golf follower and I think it has something to do with the fact that I don't like wearing collared shirts, but it was hard to avoid media coverage of Phil Mickelson's Gak-Off at the U.S. Open on Saturday. Not having a real firm grasp on what constitues " major gak " in the world of golf, I wondered what some comparable moments would be in other sports. WFAN's Mike Francesa compared it to Ernest Byner's fumble for the Cleveland Browns in the AFC Championship against the Broncos a few years back. I asked aloud if the baseball equivalent would be that of Game 7 of the Yankees-Diamondbacks in the 2001 World Series, in which the infallible Mariano Rivera yielded two runs in the ninth inning to give Arizona the championship. A colleague told m...

It seemed in bad taste to write about the goathood of a baseball father, on Sunday, so out of respect, I waited a day, and given who's in town, it seemed much more appropriate to pen this tale today. I speak, or in this case, I blog, of July 1, 1990, a day in which rain interrupted the proceedings in Flushing and perhaps the remnants interrupted a throw at a rather crucial moment. The Mets were as hot as the projected New York weather these next few days, having won 20 of 24 under new skipper Bud Harrelson. The Reds would go on to win the World Series, so it's not stunning that this was a pretty good matchup between Ron Darling and Danny Jackson. The Reds had won the previous day, with the key hit being a two-run double by Joe Oliver, who threw a little twist in this matter in the top of the 9th inning. With the Mets leading by a run and John Franco trying to close the game out, Oliver ripped a game-tying one-out double. Franco escaped the jam, but we went to the bottom of the...

http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2005/06/fatherson-walk-off-memory.html This is one of my favorites from last year...enjoy...

The Mets list the best road trip in franchise history as having taken place in 1991, and like this last one just concluded, it ended with a three-game sweep in Philadelphia. The Mets went 7-0 on that Bon Voyage, a two-city mini-venture that also included Montreal. They returned home for a respite and the All-Star Break, with a 46-34 mark and everything looked pretty good for Bud Harrelson's team. Their first game after the All-Star Break took place on July 11 and it makes sense to presume that the Flushing 9 got a rather rousing ovation when taking the field at Shea Stadium against the Padres that night. A second inning home run by Hubie Brooks against Bruce Hurst got the night off to a rousing start, and RBI singles by Dave Magadan (fired as Padres hitting coach, yesterday, by the way) and Mark Carreon provided the home team with a 3-1 cushion by the 8th inning, with Dwight Gooden pitching. With two outs in that frame, Tony Gwynn started a rally that produced two runs, tying the g...

Answers to the quiz of June 15, 2007, questions found here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/06/our-special-bonds-yankees-questions.html 1) Tony Phillips , who made the final out of the 1988 World Series against future Met Orel Hershiser. 2) The way the bullpen has gone lately, the Mets may be wishing they had Jorge Julio to pitch to Derek Jeter. 3) You were probably inclined to guess Mo Vaughn, but that would be incorrect. The correct answer is Rico Brogna . 4) Joe Torre had 35 hits in 100 career at bats, including those eight home runs, against the Dominican Dandy, Juan Marichal . 5) When you think of the 1984 Indians as they relate to the Mets, your first instinct should always be Julio Franco . The other player is Brett Butler .

Stretching out one day's post into two... Adam Dunn's walk-off home run on Wednesday was the 29th of the season. We're more than halfway to last year's walk-off home run total. So we posed the question to Dave Smith of Retrosheet : "How often does a walk-off home run happen?" Simply put... There have been 29 walk-off home runs this season in 976 games. That's one every 33.7 games. In other words, seeing one every other day isn't all that unusual. There have been 88 walk-off wins, so approximately one in every three walk-off wins this season has come on a walk-off home run. The Mets have two walk-off home runs this season. Last season, there were 57 walk-off home runs, a comparitively low number, or one every 42.6 regular season games. The average team hit two walk-off home runs. The Mets, an average team, had two. In 2004, there were 80 walk-off home runs, or one every 30.3 games. That's basically one every two days of fully scheduled play. The Met...

Today, we answer a really simple question. How often does a walk-off win occur? Thanks to David Smith of Retrosheet , we can tell you the approximate rate. Since the start of the 2000 season, a walk-off win occurs approximately once per 11.6 games. Simply put, that means the following: 1) A typical night of baseball features one walk-off win, but it's not all that uncommon to see two. 2) The total number of walk-offs per season ranges from around 200 to 225. 3) In an average season, a team should win via walk-off 7 times (based on playing 81 games at home). The Mets have already won by walk-off 9 times, but as we've seen, this is far from a typical season. Here's the data, for those interested Regular season stats 2006 Through the first 924 games, 84 walk-off wins (on pace for 221). Mets have 9 2005: 2,431 games, 204 walk-off wins. Mets had 8 2004: 2,428 games, 217 walk-off wins. Mets had 8 2003: 2,430 games, 205 walk-off wins. Mets had 4 2002: 2,426 games, 214 walk-off win...

Without further ado, the list of those pitchers who played for the Mets and also homered against them, from our trivia quiz of June 13, 2007. http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/06/our-special-bonds-pitcher-hr-questions.html 1 and 2- Warren Spahn and Tom Seaver. You can understand why I limited my hints. 3- Ray Sadecki , though most people forget he left the Mets, then returned and ended his career with them. Those steered towards Mickey Lolich should let me know, as I had a feeling that would be a common guess. 4- Armando "They should have started Nomo in the last game in 1998" Reynoso. 5- The hint is in the wording. The singular of people is Person, as in Robert Person , whose trading for John Olerud ranks among the best things to happen to the Mets in the 1990s. 6- Again, hint in the wording, as the answer is Mike Hampton whose children hopefully got better benefits from being educated in Colorado than he did. I was tempted to say he "schooled" the Cardinals ...

Basically this was a 1-for-1 deal. One career walk-off for Eli Marrero. One career walk-off for Kaz Matsui. Kaz Matsui was good for 1 at-bat this year and the problem was that he used this year's turn up in his first of the season in San Diego. Other than that, I can't recall him coming within 25 feet of a home run all year. His dealing is a good thing, as it removed the temptation for him to be utilized and than further dissappoint. There was always temptation to use Kaz Matsui because the thinking was that eventually he'd show the type of performance that merited his salary. His inability to do so frustrated both Willie Randolph and his predecessor, both of whom desperately wanted him to succeed. Kaz Matsui was benched for the first time on Mothers Day, May 9, 2004, against the Brewers. The Mets were 13-17 and Matsui was in the midst of the first of many lengthy slumps, so Joe McEwing got the start at shortstop. To show how far the Mets have come in two seasons, consider ...

This is one of those rare days when I'm up for posting twice...if you came directly to this post, or missed the post from overnight, it can be found here... http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/06/mets-blowouts-and-other-minutiae.html The 1963 season didn't start much better than the bumbling 1962 campaign. After their Opening Day loss, manager Casey Stengel was quoted as stating "We're still a fraud." It took the team 20 innings to score a run and six games to string together a multi-run inning. They were outscored 39-10 over their first eight games, all defeats, and were shut out four times within that span. That's what made the events of April 19-21 so unlikely. The Milwaukee Braves, who had already swept the Mets once this season, came to town for four games looking to pad a 7-2 mark. Their lineup featured future Hall of Famers Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews, and future Hall of Famer Joe Torre. Their pitching staff was guided by Warren Spahn and Lew Burdett...

Inspired by Eli Marrero ( if you read the posting this weekend, you'll understand ) and the note from AP that Carlos Beltran had 10 runs scored and 10 RBI this weekend. The Diamondbacks managed to score 9 runs this weekend. For our purposes, let's define a true blowout as a win by 10+ runs because it's easier for me to look things up in that scenario. Sunday marked the Mets first true blowout win of the season * The Mets first true blowout win was a 13-2 triumph over Houston on June 23, 1962. Richie Ashburn homered twice and Jay Hook pitched a complete game. The blowout win was sandwiched around two blowout losses (16-3 vs Houston in Game 2 of a doubleheader the day before and 13-3 against Pittsburgh two days later) * The Mets biggest true blowout was a 19-1 win over the Cubs on May 26, 1964. Dick Smith became the first Mets player with 5 hits in a game. A fan called a newspaper to ask if the Mets won. When told they scored 19 runs, he asked again "Did they win?...

If my blog were titled "Mets Blowouts and Other Minutiae," I'd feel a little better about Eli Marrero. I just spent half an hour going through Retrosheet, clicking on every box score in which Marrero had an RBI at home. What I discovered: When Marrero has a good game, his team usually wins by a lot. That's good for him, bad for me. I guess when you're in lineups surrounded by big boppers there aren't that many opportunities for walk-off dramatics. There also aren't many chances when you're 1-for-your-last-24 as a pinch-hitter, as Marrero is. Marrero made good on one of his few chances on April 13, 2002, as a member of the Cardinals. That day, against the Astros, the score was even, 1-1 in the last of the ninth, after a fine pitchers duel between Darryl Kile and Roy Oswalt. Jason Isringhausen had fanned the side on nine pitches in the top of the ninth, so the Cardinals went into the home half with momentum, expecting to win. The Cardinals had stranded 1...

The reason that we "took inventory" on Thursday was because that it marked the one-year anniversary of the start of this blog and it seemed the appropriate thing to do. Friday marks the anniversary of the first "walk-off posting" so I thought it right to reminisce in a self indulgent manner, just for a bit, before we return to such work. Mets Walk-Offs and Other Minutiae was an idea born out of envy, boredom, and creativity. During our many trips to the world wide web, we came across a blog devoted to cataloguing Craig Biggio's hit by pitches. That intrigued me greatly and made me think "Hey, why can't I do something like that?" It so happened that I had the free time to embark on a major project. For the most part, during the baseball season, I work nights, and there isn't much of interest to do during daytime hours. In past years, I've had a summer project to work on, but during the summer of 2005, my days were still free. The previous ...

Today seemed like as good a day as any to do an inventory check...   METS WALK-OFFS INVENTORY   339 Mets walk-off wins 332 regular-season walk-offs 7 postseason walk-offs 11 interleague play walk-offs 3 Opening Day walk-offs 15 walk-off wins in last calendar year 162 extra-inning walk-offs 2 18th-inning walk-offs 1 6th-inning walk-off 41 doubleheader walk-offs 37 walk-off swings that turned deficits into walk-off wins 1 March walk-off 56 September walk-offs 12 October walk-offs 39 Pirates walk-offs (most vs team) 1 Angels, Blue Jays, Royals, Red Sox walk-offs (least) 108 walk-off home runs 5 walk-off grand slams 1 walk-off "shoulda been a grand slam" 25 walk-off douvbles 1 walk-off triple 143 walk-off singles 15 walk-off walks 12 walk-off sacrifice flies 12 walk-off errors 10 walk-off wild pitches 7 walk-off fielders choices 4 walk-off combos (hit+error) 1 walk-off hit by pitch 1 walk-off steal of home 155 2-outs when winning run scor...

I'm sure I won't be the first and I likely won't be the last to tell you that Roger Clemens is pitching today...on 6/6/06...how appropriate! It came to my attention that Thursday marks 25 years to the day that the Mets selected that particular righthander, out of Spring Woods High, with the 288th overall pick in the 12th round of MLB's Amateur Draft. I do not begrudge him for choosing not to sign. He told the New York Times in 1986 that Mets manager Joe Torre and pitching coach Bob Gibson had watched him pitch in 1981 and neither came oaway particularly impressed. That apparently was a turn-off and enough reason to walk-off. However, there are plenty of reasons to dislike Roger Clemens and I could easily list 100 why, but I'll simply choose to discuss one. There is strong reason to believe that the man is a vandal. I harken back to October 25, 1986, the sixth game of the World Series, which I do every so often in this space, and a particular camera shot not long aft...

The walk-off win on Sunday was the 340th in Mets history and the 10th this season...oh, wait a minute...they didn't win, did they? It's gotten to the point where it's become expected and I guess that's a good thing. This week, the Mets will attempt to become the first team to win in walk-off fashion on the road. In the meantime, since I started writing, here's some Mets Minutiae you might appreciate. * The home run by Lastings Milledge was the 1st of his career, the team's 74th of the season and the 5,447th in Mets history. * Milledge is 754 home runs behind Hank Aaron for most all-time. Aaron's first major-league home run came on April 23, 1954 against Vic Raschi. * Milledge has as many career home runs as Esix Snead and Craig Brazell, each of whose only home run was a Mets walk-off home run. He's 67 behind Steve Henderson, whose first home run was a pinch-hit walk-off home run for the Mets on May 21, 1977. * Milledge has as many home runs as pitcher Ja...

The title is in reference to two family members, both of whom got put in position of having to walk-off prior to a walk-off because of previously purchased tickets to a Broadway show (and not in reference to the book "Tuck Everlasting" which was published in 1975, the year I was born). They got out of Shea in a little better shape than SNY broadcaster and occasional blog reader Gary Cohen, who left, the victim of an appendicitis attack. Get well soon, Gary!! In the meantime, a few quick notes on walk-off #339 as it's late and I have an early day of work on Sunday. * The Mets have nine walk-off wins this season. That's more than they had all of last season. * The Mets have won three games on walk-off "somethings" by Chris Woodward, with the somethings being a home run, a single, and the 12th walk-off sacrifice fly in team history. * For the first time in team history, the Mets have had two walk-off sacrifice flies in the same season. * This was the first walk...

In their illustrious history, the Mets have had one 'Triple Crown Winner,' so to speak and I'm not talking about the typical meaning of the term. I've gotten some queries recently as to whether a walk-off triple is even possible and I'm here to tell you that it is. There has been one, and only one, in Mets history, though I don't have the full explanation of circumstances that I would like. It took place against the Phillies on September 10, 1970. This was a marathon game that would have fit in perfectly with those having taken place so far this season and allowed the Mets to maintain a temporary hold on first place in an NL East race oft forgotten in team history. It went 14 innings, with a tinge of controversy in a negated Ken Boswell home run, a thrilling play by Bud Harrelson, who stole home in the third inning, and some stellar relief pitching, in the form of five scoreless innings from Danny Frisella, aided by Tim McCarver getting thrown out in a rundown b...