Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

Walk-Off win #336 was a bit of an adventure, eh? * It was the 5th walk-off win this calendar month. My initial research indicates that is a first in franchise history * It was the first to go at least 16 innings since that 1-0, 17-inning Kenny Greer only MLB win classic against the Cardinals on September 29, 1993 * It's the longest decided by a HR since Dave Kingman hit one in the last of the 17th to beat the Expos on June 10, 1983 * It's the second to go exactly 16 innings. The only other took place on September 1, 1963, won on a two-run HR in the 16th by Tim Harkness. By coincidence, just a few days ago, I received an e-mail from an attendee of this game. * It is the 8th decided by a 9-8 score (we had one last year- Mike Piazza walk-off walk vs Milwaukee on August 2, 2005) * Carlos Beltran is the 3rd Met to go 3-for-7 and collect a walk-off hit, joining the previously mentioned Harkness and Del Unser (September 16, 1975, 18-inning walk-off walk vs Expos) * It's the first

We're going to break a rule here, one we stated early on in our blogdom, of how we would speak only of triumph rather than heartache, because in looking back to Saturday's contest, we felt it would be rather cathartic to produce another of our famous lists. I was irked enough yesterday to yell at a number of personalities through my television set, not limited to Jon Miller, Joe Morgan, Tom Glavine and Billy Wagner. I was peeved, miffed, annoyed, bothered, flummoxed and angry, and although much of that washed away after Sunday's victory, there is still some residue resting in chip form on my shoulder. It comes from "The Gak-Off." A Gak-Off, in case you were wondering, is a Mets loss that fits the criteria of absurdity (as opposed to one that is bothersome, a category filled to the brim with varying degrees of devastation that we'll probably approach at a later date). It is a group of games from which the Hollywood screenwriter may someday borrow, to conjure up

The first time the Mets ever defeated the Phillies in walk-off fashion marked a key moment in the career of one of the most memorable Mets. My dad likes to tell the story of the game that got away from Ed Kranepool, the NY City high school championship game in 1962 against Curtis High of Staten Island (my dad and Kranepool, though they didn't know each other, were classmates) in which Kranepool went something like 0-for-5 with 5 infield popouts in a rather hideous defeat. A few weeks later, he was pulling up to his school in the Bronx in a brand new car, having been signed by New York's newest baseball team for an $85,000 bonus. Kranepool was good enough, or rather the Mets were bad enough, such that he earned looks from the big club while still a teenager. Three games as a 17-year-old in 1962 allowed him to eventually boast of playing in each of the first 18 Mets seasons. Kranepool became a semi-regular by 1963, at least until he hit a slump partway through. The Mets injected