In the now 60 years that my dad has lived (effective July 12), he has seen a lot. But during our celebration of his birthday this past Saturday, he saw 2 things he never had before.
The first was a 90-year-old woman, falling out of her motorized scooter, and onto the curb at the corner of 75th street and Park Avenue. Good samaritans that we were, we helped rescue Judith and escorted her to the ER at Lenox Hill Hospital where she was treated for a rather nasty gash on the arm.
The next was having the couple sitting next to him at dinner, a couple of strangers maybe separated from us by 3 feet, agree to get married. The happy bride-to-be spent the next half hour calling friends and showing her engagement ring to anyone who would look- except us.
It seems that things like these tend to come in threes, so there was the expectation that something else unique might happen before the night was out. As it turned out, we had to wait for 24 hours or so, although in my dad's case, he's still waiting.
In all his years of watching baseball, he'd never seen the Mets score more than 10 runs in an inning, and since, on Sunday night he ended up attending a Paul Simon concert with my sister, he still hasn't.
So in an effort to update him beyond what he'll read when he checks out the AP gamer online upon arriving home, we offer up the following.
On July 16, 2006, the Mets set a club record for runs in an inning by scoring 11 runs in the 6th inning against the Chicago. Just in case you were wondering, with the help of the 2006 Mets Media Guide and some other resources, we can tell you that...
* I don't have an official tally, but the approximate number of innings it took for the Mets to score more than 10 runs in an inning is going to top out at about 63,000.
* The 1st time the Mets scored at least 10 runs in an inning was June 12, 1979 against the Reds. As in the game of July 16, the Mets entered their half of the 6th inning trailing, 5-2 (the Reds had scored 5 in the top of the 6th). The damage consisted of 10 runs, 5 hits, and 2 errors, and included an inside-the park 3-run home run by Doug Flynn The Mets ended up winning, 12-5.
* The 2nd time the Mets scored at least 10 runs in an inning was on June 30, 2000 against the Braves. The Mets entered their half of the 8th inning trailing 8-1. The damage consisted of 10 runs, 6 hits, 4 walks and an error, and included a very memorable 3-run HR by Mike Piazza.
* 2 grand slams in an inning (Msrs. Beltran and Floyd) is a rather rare feat, accomplished only six times previously in major-league history, most recently on April 23, 1999 (Fernando Tatis hit both for the Cardinals against the Dodgers). Prior to that, the last occurrence was by the Orioles on August 6, 1986 (Larry Sheets and Jim Dwyer). Amazingly, the Orioles lost that game to Texas, 13-11.
* The last NL occurrence prior to Tatis happened against the Mets, on July 30, 1969, in the 9th inning of Game 1 of a doubleheader against Houston, in which Dennis Menke and Jimmy Wynn each hit grand slams. In the 2nd game of this double drubbing by the Astros, Gil Hodges walked out to left field and removed Cleon Jones, in mid-game, as punishment for not hustling. Many regard this as a key point in the 1969 championship run. It was one of 4 times in Mets history that they allowed a club-record 11 runs in an inning.
* The Mets have had 11 seasons in which they have failed to hit 2 grand slams, including most recently, 2004, in which they only had 1. They had never before had a game in which they hit 2 grand slams.
* If the Mets hit another grand slam in their next game, they'll be only the 7th team ever to hit 3 grand slams within a 2-game span
* The Mets hadn't scored as many as 11 runs in a game at Wrigley Field in nearly 10 years, since scoring 11 on August 7, 1996.
* Wrigley Field is now the site of the Mets biggest output for an inning and their biggest total for a game. They scored 23 runs against the Cubs in a 23-10 win on August 16, 1987.
* The most runs scored in an inning by the Mets, in a game that they won in walk-off fashion is 6 (to tie in the 9th inning, September 13, 1997 vs Montreal). That's the famous "Brand New Shiny One" game.
* The most runs ever scored in a walk-off inning by the Mets is 5, done twice ( May 23, 1999 vs Phillies and June 14, 1980 vs Giants) and both have been documented on this site several times.
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