Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

...but I don't feel like writing today...might have something to do with the lack of sleep or the frustration of an 8-hour-15 minute drive round-trip (through rain) to watch 4 1/2 innings of baseball (Memo to Bud Selig: Mandate all new ballparks to have retractable roofs. The NFL, NBA and NHL all play games to their rightful conclusion. Baseball should follow suit)....Mama said there'll be days like this, I guess... Instead, I offer up a few "instant classic" appropriate for today... Like the one about the rain-shortened walk-off win http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2005/11/walk-off-asterisk_113133903264154526.html the one that happened 20 years ago Friday http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2005/11/roger-codger.html or the one that started it all...Mets walk-off #1, which happened 44 years ago Friday. Happy anniversary, Hobie! http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2005/06/and-so-we-begin.html TrueMetmasboys know... That, by my count, I've written I've written about 1

I got an e-mail from a former colleague (for anonymitys sake, we'll call him "Eric Terrapin") a few days ago lamenting his visit to Citizens Bank Park this past Sunday, particularly a badly timed walk-off of sorts. "So I take my wife to see Bonds last night...My seat: Section 202, Row 8, Seat 24...The man who caught the (713th home run) ball: Section 202, Row 7, Seat 24...The man who caught it was Carlos, the very nice young man who sat right in front of me...Where was I during Bonds's at-bat in the sixth? I was trying to buy my wife a fleece because she got cold so we were not in our seats and missed a chance to get the ball. As soon as I saw where the ball landed, I knew it was right at our seats." Naturally Eric Terrapin was a bit perturbed by this course of events (both because he missed history and missed a chance to get rich by obtaining something he could purchase for $8 in a good sporting goods store) and properly so. If you go to a baseball game, y

It seems that everyone these days is winning via the walk-off E1. The tradition has even seeped down to the minor league level. In between the Mets both winning and losing by walk-off pitcher miscues, their Double-A affiliate, the Binghamton Mets took advantage of a mound miscue to beat the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. The May 5th contest was a 1-0 10th inning thriller that snapped a four-game losing streak. With the bases loaded and one out in the final frame, Michael Abreu's 20-foot chopper was barehanded, than dropped by pitcher Tracy Thorpe, allowing speedy Carlos Gomez to race home with the winning run. That's one of a couple of walk-off parallels between the Mets and the "Baby Mets." Both teams got off to hot starts (the Binghamton Mets were 7-1 and winners of six straight before slumping a bit) and both had a marathon walk-off triumph. The Binghamton Mets version on April 9 lasted one inning longer than the 14-inning classic the Mets played last week. Jorge Padil

Let's be honest here and acknowledge that Kurt Abbott's Mets career was unrewarding. He was a member of the 2000 squad that went to the World Series but did little to advance their cause. Abbott was a fill in at shortstop for Rey Ordonez and a rather mediocre one at that. He wasn't good enough to play everyday once Ordonez went down for the season, forcing Steve Phillips to trade Melvin Mora for Mike Bordick. The expectations were high, or at least modest, for a guy that showed in past years that he could hit a little bit and Abbott had a solid April, hitting .308, but he was a sub-.200 batsman after that. Abbott's most redeeming Mets moment came on June 8, 2000, when he hit a walk-off home run in the 10th inning, giving the Flushing 9 an 8-7 win over the Orioles. The Mets rallied from a four-run deficit and blew a ninth inning lead before Abbott's long ball ended things off Orioles reliever Jose Mercedes. You're much more likely to remember Abbott as the shorts

On Friday night, Jose Reyes had 5 hits in a 14-inning win against the Braves. With the help of page 139 of the 2006 Mets Media Guide, here are some interesting nuggets about Mets 5-hit games. * This was the 29th time a Met had at least 5 hits in a game (though the team media guide says it's the 27th, a count reveals 29 such instances). The only 6-hit game belongs to Edgardo Alfonzo (August 30, 1999 at Houston). The other 28 occurrences were 5 hits. * Reyes became the 25th different Met with at least 5 hits in a game. Keith Hernandez (3), Mike Piazza (2) and Rusty Staub (2) are the only Mets to get at least 5 hits in a game on multiple occasions. * Reyes became the first Met to get at least 5 hits in a home game since Dave Magadan (July 24, 1987, Game 2 of doubleheader vs Houston). He's only the 5th Met to get at least 5 hits in a game at Shea Stadium (Magadan, Wally Backman, Staub and John Milner). * Reyes became the 2nd Met named Jose to get at least 5 hits in a game. The othe

To the folks at the alma mater, The College of New Jersey, which won its second consecutive New Jersey Athletic Conference championship on a walk-off grand slam by Gerard Haran. More details can be found here... http://www.nj.com/sports/times/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1147075775284600.xml&coll=5 The get well is for TCNJ baseball coach Rick Dell who feared afterwards that he tore his Achilles tendon in the celebration at home plate (Hopefully he'll be able to walk-off soon). TCNJ, with the win, qualified for the NCAA Division III Tournament. True Metjerseyites know... That a few years back, TCNJ beat Division I Brown University on a walk-off home run (might have even been a grand slam). The Brown baseball team was coached by former Met Bill Almon. I also recall a game from my time as a student in which Coach Dell broke his nose during a walk-off celebration. I have an inquiry out to determine whether the games are one and the same.

"There's never a better feeling than to get a game-winning hit and be able to round the bases and see those guys walking off while our team is running on. No better feeling." -- David Wright to media, sometime after midnight on what was technically, May 6, 2006. While you're contemplating whether the Victor Zambrano injury is a devastating loss or a blessing in disguise, ponder these tidbits as well. * Friday's 14-inning win over the Braves was only the second in which a Mets player had 5 hits and the team had a walk-off win. The only other such occurrence took place in an 11-inning win over the Phillies on September 20, 1975. Rusty Staub went 5-for-6 and the Mets won 9-7 on a 2-run home run by Ron Hodges. * This was the 27th Mets walk-off win lasting at least 14 innings. The last Mets walk-off win in a game lasting at least 14 innings was Game 5 of the 1999 NLCS. The last regular season game was a 4-3, 14 inning win over the Blue Jays on June 9, 1999, in which th