Skip to main content

Needle in the Haystack

So I just spent the past hour and 15 minutes searching for games in which newest Met Julio Franco got a walk-off RBI. It was not an easy process by any means, combing thru a few hundred Retrosheet boxscores and Lexis-Nexis stories before I hit paydirt.

I think the most important thing I learned from this is that Julio Franco has played a lot of baseball. And I don't use the term "a lot" loosely.

In 1982, Franco's rookie season, he played in games in which megastars Mike Schmidt and Pete Rose had walk-off hits. Later in his career, he appeared in contests in which not-so-immortals Doug Frobel and Jerry Willard had their walk-off moments in the sun. He hit two home runs in a Nolan Ryan no-hitter. He's been on dreadfully bad teams (like the 1985 Indians), reasonably average squads (pick a Rangers team from 1990 to 1993), and pretty good clubs (the 2001-2004 Braves)., though he's yet to appear in a World Series. He has played as little as one game in a season (1999 Devil Rays) and as many as 160 (1984-85 Indians).

Baseball's version of Forrest Gump went 13-for-31 against Floyd Bannister and perhaps in 6 months, he'll be teammates with Floyd's son, Brian. If we could coax Floyd's ex-teammate Rich Dotson out of retirement (he quit in 1990), Franco would be a happy man, as he hit .450 in 40 at bats against the White Sox ace. Franco has seen every type of pitch from every type of pitcher. He knows to beware of the submarine styler (he went 0-for-17 against Dan Quisenberry) and has had mixed success against past knuckleballers (7-for-19 against Phil Niekro, but 1-for-12 against Phil's brother, Joe).

Franco claims to be 47, though he may be older than that. He's hit .300 in Butte, Montana, Reading, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma City, in addition to Cleveland, Texas, Chicago, and Atlanta, as well as Mexico, Korea, and Japan. He was once traded for Oddibe"Young Again" McDowell (in 1988) and Von "Purple" Hayes, but he lives a clean life and keeps his body in better shape than most half his age.

Rosa Franco's husband is a former batting champion (1991), has made as many All-Star teams as Paul Lo Duca (three), and has the most singles (1,903) and ground-ball double plays (299) of any active player. He last played third base in 1982, shortstop in 1987, the outfield in 1992, and second base in 1997. He's hit .272 against the Mets but will be getting his first ups for them come April, likely serving as Carlos Delgado's caddy (backing him up at first base), Pedro Martinez's daddy (he's viewed as a good clubhouse presence) and the top righty bat off the bench.

Every so often he might come up in a big spot and the Mets hope he'll deliver like he did on August 20, 1990. It was on that date that Franco got a walk-off hit for the Rangers, a single with the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the ninth inning to give Texas a 6-5 win over Seattle and pitcher Mike Jackson. Speaking of which, it seems like people have been telling Franco to 'Beat it' for quite some time, but Old Man Baseball isn't quite ready to hang them up just yet.

True Metcos know...The oldest player to get a walk-off hit for the Mets is Willie Mays, who was 41 years old (and less than a month from turning 42) when he got one against the Phillies on April 7, 1973.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Trip(le) Through Time

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

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