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 Cardinals, and Phillips).
* Reyes became the 3rd Met to finish his cycle with a single, joining Phillips and Keith Hernandez (July 4, 1985 at Atlanta in 19 innings). Hernandez is the only Met to need more than 5 AB to hit for the cycle (he got the single in his 7th AB).
* Reyes became the first Met to hit for the cycle since Eric Valent (July 29, 2004 at Expos). This bring me to my favorite note. Valent batted 7th in the Mets lineup that day. The No. 8 hitter was 8 games into his major-league career that day. His name was David Wright.
With that we segue (and I don't want to dwell on cycles, because they're overrated) to the "Star of David" portion of Minutiae. David Wright is a good road trip away from becoming the first Met to win NL Player of the Month honors since Howard Johnson did it in September, 1991.
Wright is hitting .378 (31 for 82) with 9 HR and 25 RBI in June. He leads the majors in June HR and RBI. He has 9 multi-hit games, 2 multi-HR games and 6 multi-RBI games in that span. He had a string of 3 straight games with a HR, on the road against a second-place team. He saved one of those wins with a Gold Glove-caliber play to start a double play at third base. On back-to-back days, he's been the unsung hero (2-strike hit preceding Jose Valentin's HR) and the outsung hero (2 HR, 4 RBI in nice recovery-game win).
Some brief Minutiae history on the Player of the Month award...
* A Met has won NL Player of the Month on 9 occasions.
June, 1970- Tommie Agee .364 BA, 11 HR, 30 RBI
April, 1973- Jerry Koosman 4-0, 1.06 ERA
July, 1975- Dave Kingman .322 BA, 13 HR, 31 RBI
July, 1985- Keith Hernandez .392 BA, 4 HR, 29 RBI
September, 1985- Gary Carter .343 BA, 13 HR, 34 RBI
September, 1987- Darryl Strawberry .317 BA, 8 HR, 27 RBI
September, 1988- Kevin McReynolds .345 BA, 7 HR, 22 RBI
June, 1989- Howard Johnson .340 BA, 11 HR, 24 RBI, 6 SB
September, 1991- Howard Johnson .296 BA, 10 HR, 28 RBI, 10 SB
* Amazingly, Mike Piazza was never an NL Player of the Month as a Met, despite posting the following numbers in a Mets uniform
September, 1998- .378 BA, 6 HR, 22 RBI
May, 1999- .340 BA, 6 HR, 20 RBI
August, 1999- .323 BA, 11 HR, 33 RBI
May, 2000- .375 BA, 9 HR, 20 RBI
June 2000- .349 BA, 8 HR, 32 RBI
July, 2002- .329 BA, 7 HR, 24 RBI
* There have been 84 recipients of the NL Player of the Month award since the last Met won it. Barry Bonds has been NL Player of the Month 11 times since a Met last won it. Others include
Felix Jose (May, 1992)
Cory Snyder (June, 1992)
Brett Butler (July, 1992, what a trifecta in 1992!)
Jeff Conine (June, 1995)
Ken Caminiti (August and September, 1996)
Jeromy Burnitz (June, 1999)
Richard Hidalgo (September, 2000)
Randy Winn (September, 2005)
* 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 Cardinals, and Phillips).
* Reyes became the 3rd Met to finish his cycle with a single, joining Phillips and Keith Hernandez (July 4, 1985 at Atlanta in 19 innings). Hernandez is the only Met to need more than 5 AB to hit for the cycle (he got the single in his 7th AB).
* Reyes became the first Met to hit for the cycle since Eric Valent (July 29, 2004 at Expos). This bring me to my favorite note. Valent batted 7th in the Mets lineup that day. The No. 8 hitter was 8 games into his major-league career that day. His name was David Wright.
With that we segue (and I don't want to dwell on cycles, because they're overrated) to the "Star of David" portion of Minutiae. David Wright is a good road trip away from becoming the first Met to win NL Player of the Month honors since Howard Johnson did it in September, 1991.
Wright is hitting .378 (31 for 82) with 9 HR and 25 RBI in June. He leads the majors in June HR and RBI. He has 9 multi-hit games, 2 multi-HR games and 6 multi-RBI games in that span. He had a string of 3 straight games with a HR, on the road against a second-place team. He saved one of those wins with a Gold Glove-caliber play to start a double play at third base. On back-to-back days, he's been the unsung hero (2-strike hit preceding Jose Valentin's HR) and the outsung hero (2 HR, 4 RBI in nice recovery-game win).
Some brief Minutiae history on the Player of the Month award...
* A Met has won NL Player of the Month on 9 occasions.
June, 1970- Tommie Agee .364 BA, 11 HR, 30 RBI
April, 1973- Jerry Koosman 4-0, 1.06 ERA
July, 1975- Dave Kingman .322 BA, 13 HR, 31 RBI
July, 1985- Keith Hernandez .392 BA, 4 HR, 29 RBI
September, 1985- Gary Carter .343 BA, 13 HR, 34 RBI
September, 1987- Darryl Strawberry .317 BA, 8 HR, 27 RBI
September, 1988- Kevin McReynolds .345 BA, 7 HR, 22 RBI
June, 1989- Howard Johnson .340 BA, 11 HR, 24 RBI, 6 SB
September, 1991- Howard Johnson .296 BA, 10 HR, 28 RBI, 10 SB
* Amazingly, Mike Piazza was never an NL Player of the Month as a Met, despite posting the following numbers in a Mets uniform
September, 1998- .378 BA, 6 HR, 22 RBI
May, 1999- .340 BA, 6 HR, 20 RBI
August, 1999- .323 BA, 11 HR, 33 RBI
May, 2000- .375 BA, 9 HR, 20 RBI
June 2000- .349 BA, 8 HR, 32 RBI
July, 2002- .329 BA, 7 HR, 24 RBI
* There have been 84 recipients of the NL Player of the Month award since the last Met won it. Barry Bonds has been NL Player of the Month 11 times since a Met last won it. Others include
Felix Jose (May, 1992)
Cory Snyder (June, 1992)
Brett Butler (July, 1992, what a trifecta in 1992!)
Jeff Conine (June, 1995)
Ken Caminiti (August and September, 1996)
Jeromy Burnitz (June, 1999)
Richard Hidalgo (September, 2000)
Randy Winn (September, 2005)
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