Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

"When you know something, say what you know. When you don't know something, say that you don't know. That is knowledge." -- Confucius (used as a Stuyvesant High School yearbook quote by my friend, David Cooper) By my count (using Baseball-Reference.com at this late hour), the Mets have played 3,537 regular season and postseason home games to a decision (ties not included). Friday's 14-inning victory, for which I was in attendance, gave them an unofficial count of 334 walk-off wins. That equates to 9.44 percent of all home games being walk-off victories. I don't know how many of them included a Met getting 5 hits. I don't know how many of them included the Mets tying the game in an extra-inning, than winning the game in another extra inning. I don't know if 19 is a Mets walk-off record for men left on base. I do know that David Wright has two walk-off RBI this season I do know that getting three walk-off wins in a week is a pretty impressive feat. I do

It was 40 years ago Saturday that Rob Gardner won his first game as a New York Met, which may not seem like a big-deal anniversary kind of thing, but let's first examine what Mr. Gardner had to go through to get that inaugural triumph before stating that. Gardner made his major-league debut on September 1, 1965 and the 20-year old southpaw (who had 37 minor league victories in three seasons) must have been nervous. The first six Astros batters that day reached base, and with the assistance of two errors and Rusty Staub's three-run home run, Gardner's first big league inning concluded with him allowing five runs. Gardner lost that day and lost his next appearance too, though he allowed only two runs in six innings against the defending champion Cardinals. By the time we got to the final days of the season, Gardner had pitched four times and hadn't really done anything special. That was about to change. The Mets were concluding a campaign in which they'd drop 112 gam

Six years and change is a long time between walk-offs against one particular rival. Consider that the Mets hadn't beaten the Pirates via walk-off since October 3, 1999. That's pretty lengthy. * Since their last walk-off win against the Pirates, the Mets had beaten the following franchises in walk-off fashion...Diamondbacks, Braves, Brewers, Dodgers, Orioles, Expos/Nationals, Giants, Marlins (8 times!), Phillies, Royals, Reds, Cubs, Padres, Cardinals, Tigers, Yankees, Astros, and Angels. The only NL team they hadn't beaten in walk-off fashion since then: the Rockies, whom they last dinged on May 19, 1997. * In between Mets walk-off wins against the Pirates, Carlos Delgado hit 230 home runs, including two that were walk-offs. For more info, see this post from wintertime. http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2005/11/del-gone-o.html Some other extracted minutiae from Wednesday's win (also known as "Unofficially walk-off #333). Feel free to stump your friends, regardless o

I feel a little like Mulva/Gipple/Bovary/Dolores from Seinfeld right about now, but am greatly appreciative of Gary Cohen's on-air mention on Tuesday night. Yes, he erred ever so slightly on the blog name, but judging from the reaction of friends and family, it was a pretty thrilling mention nonetheless. Speaking of forgotten names, I've got a neat one from past Metsdom for you: Hal Reniff. Remember him? Probably not. He lasted two months with the Mets in 1967 and though the overall numbers aren't particularly memorable, his pitching performance in his first three weeks is unrivaled in team history. Reniff was claimed off waivers by the Mets from the Yankees on June 28 of that season. He toiled for the Bronx Bombers for parts of seven seasons and closed for them regularly in 1963, before the save was considered fashionable or statistical. He was an average pitcher for the most part, and apparently in 1967, when mediocrity reigned in the Bronx, he was deemed no longer useful

Atlanta was fine, thank you very much, but I'm glad the walk-offs waited until I returned home. By my count, which is by no means flawless, Monday marked only the second time in team history that the Mets won a regular season (the distinction is important) game on a walk-off error by the opposing pitcher. I hope to get official confirmation of this at some point in the near future. The other known occurrence took place on the day prior to Bicentennial, July 3, 1976, in which the Mets were riding an eight-game win streak entering their game against the Cubs. The weather was unpleasant, with rain throughout the contest and that served to the aid of both starters, Tom Seaver and Rick Reuschel. The Cubs struck first on a third-inning RBI single by Jose Cardenal, but the Mets evened things up in the fifth inning on a home run by Wayne Garrett, than took the lead in the seventh on consecutive hits by Garrett, Ed Kranepool and Ron Hodges, with the latter knocking in Garrett with a double.