Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

For old postings, check out the Table of Contents , an easy-to-read reference guide for previous stories . Alas, this again has nothing to do with walk-offs, but it's as good a Mets-related story as I can tell, even if it is a little bit of a downer. This seems like as good a time as any, with the news of Dwight Gooden's fugitive status being resolved on Thursday. As was mentioned in a previous post, I was a Shea Stadium tour guide for 10 weeks or so in the summer of 1994. Long story short, I showed up at an open audition advertised in the New York Times and showed enough enthusiasm in a videotaped tryout to be one of 20 or so employees hired by Nickelodeon, which was building a mini-carnival beyond the right field bullpen. In order to prepare us to give tours, we had a couple of weeks of rehearsal time. The tour script was dreadful (those in the know realized there was no way Jay Horwitz, the Mets PR director, could have approved any of this), penned by someone who hadn't

Check back in this weekend, as I'll have another "Minutiae Break," albeit a rather sad one related to Dwight Gooden's arrest on Thursday. The Mets have had more than their share of unusual walk-off moments against the San Francisco Giants. A cursory glance at my database shows the presence of the five-run rally , the muffed pop up , the 1-0 14th-inning triumph and a bunch of walk-off walks. For whatever reason, it seems that when these two teams meet, the stars align with the rest of the baseball world to produce something memorable. On August 31, 1990, the Mets were 1 1/2 games behind the Pirates for first place in the NL East and hosting San Francisco, while Pittsburgh was visiting Houston. This was right on the eve of the postseason roster deadline, one in which, on the cusp of the trade deadline, the Mets obtained Tommy Herr, Charlie O'Brien and Pat Tabler in separate last-minute deals, but the events on the field proved to be more important. Both games turned

Trace the lineage of Mets cult heroes and you must begin with the man whose initials were M-E-T: Marvin Eugene Throneberry. If you're a regular reader of this site, you probably know of the legend of the man known as "Marvelous Marv," who according to multiple sources, looked like Mickey Mantle. They failed to mention that he hit like Mickey Klutts . The last word of the previous sentence was a good way to describe Throneberry, whose foibles as a member of the 1962 Mets were legendary. The stories have been sourced in many places before, so I don't object too much to repeating them. Throneberry once was called out after an apparent triple. In his haste to race around the basepaths, he failed to touch first base. When manager Casey Stengel came out to argue, he was told not to bother. Throneberry had missed second as well. Throneberry made Mo Vaughn look like a Gold Glove at first base. In 97 games, he made 17 errors. Frank Thomas told a story on "The Miracle Mets

Part II of a series of oft-forgotten notes regarding the most famous walk-off win in Mets history. Part I can be found here Every story you read about Game 6 of the 1986 World Series will tell you that John McNamara screwed up big-time when he didn't bring Dave Stapleton into the game at first base as a defensive replacement for Bill Buckner. Those pieces cite how Stapleton played first base at the end of every other Boston win that postseason, and how Buckner, dealing with a myriad of injuries, had no business being in the game. The decision was a total no-brainer for McNamara and he blew it, particularly after what happened in the next-to-last at-bat of the final frame. Most people stop their videotape after Dave Henderson's home run, and fast forward to the bottom of the 10th. They miss two moments of significance. One is the single by Marty Barrett that bring in Boston's second run. The second is Bill Buckner's at-bat. Buckner came up with Barrett on second and two

On a side note...I've changed the settings to allow comments from anyone...thus anyone who wants to make remarks regarding "The Tidrow List" (see prior post) can do so in an easier fashion...back to walk-offs today. Had there been a wild-card race in 1973, the Mets would have been 18 games behind the Cincinnati Reds at this juncture, so as it was, it was best that they set their sites on winning the NL East title. Their predicament was slightly similar to both the current Mets (on the brink of escaping last place) and the present Diamondbacks (11 games under .500 entering the day). August 24, 1973 was a few weeks removed from Tug McGraw's "Ya Gotta Believe!" rallying cry and the Mets had shown flashes of being a better team. They had back-to-back walk-off wins over the Dodgers on August 21-22 (we'll write about those another time) and had developed a penchant for playing in one-run games (they were in the midst of a run of seven straight such contests).

It occurs to me after 79 straight walk-off related posts and some fatigue still remaining from Saturday's finish that I did promise to bring Metspective on other issues related to the Flushing 9, so I offer this posting up as a "Minutiae Break." This came about after several discussions related to the offhand Dick Tidrow/Danny Graves remark the other day , the conclusion of which indicated that it would be fun to create a list of the worst Mets relievers of all-time. I don't want to step on the territory of other bloggers, like " Faith and Fear in Flushing ," Mets Guy in Michigan " and " Metstradamus ," so I'll tread carefully here, aided by their influence. Should any friends, family members, or fans of these pitchers visit this site, I mean no harm. I'm just here to have a little fun with this topic. The ground rules are as follows: The pitcher must have had a Mets stint as long as Dick Tidrow's (11 games, 15 2/3 innings), for wh

Some spare, somewhat useless notes from Saturday, with the possibility of more to come, plus a bonus note from Sunday's game. Documented walk-off #328, the 9-8 triumph on Saturday, was the sixth Mets walk-off win of the season, the second in a row by a 9-8 score. It was the 22nd walk-off win against the Nationals/Expos franchise and the first walk-off win vs the Nationals/Expos franchise since a 7-6 triumph on July 1, 2003 ( Tony Clark single ). It was the first walk-off win to take place on an August 20th. The Mets have had one walk-off win on an August 19 (1969, Tommie Agee homers in extra-innings to beat Juan Marichal and the Giants, 1-0 ) and an Amazin' five on August 21sts. It is the second walk-off win this month. The last time the Mets had two August walk-off wins was August, 1999. It was the fourth Mets straight walk-off win to take place in extra-innings. The last time the Mets had a run of four straight walk-offs, all of which took place in extra-innings and during th

You don't have to believe me when I tell you that my pre-game Mets media guide random page stroll on Saturday, August 20, took me to , among other places, the bottom of page 166 of the current edition. The guy on the No. 7 train riding back from Shea Stadium seemed a tiny bit skeptical when I told him that the biggest lead the Mets had ever blown in a loss was not the seven runs that he had been told earlier in the day, but rather an eight-run cushion (for the record, against the Cubs, a 9-1 edge turned 12-9 loss on April 19, 1980. The seven-run advantage has led to a Mets demise three times, including once as part of the worst 24-hours in New York sports history (Mets blew an 11-4 eighth inning lead vs Reds on May 6, 1995. Later that night, the New York Rangers hockey team blew a 4-2 third-period lead in their playoff opener with the Quebec Nordiques. The following afternoon, the Indiana Pacers stunned the New York Knicks in their series-opener, when Reggie Miller scored eight poi