Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

I was sad to hear that former Giants shortstop Jose Uribe died on Friday and that went beyond the sadness that comes with the hearing that someone died too young. During my time in college, I was very involved with the campus radio station as its sports director and play-by-play announcer. During one of our weekly board of director meetings, it was announced that one of our board members would have the name of his title changed slightly. As we went around the table, each director congratulated the board member on the title change in a humorous manner. When it got to my turn, I knew I had to trump those who previously came before me. So I said something to the effect of "There was once a major league baseball player in the 80s named Jose Gonzalez who got frustrated because it seemed that there were many baseball players with that name. So he changed his name to Jose Uribe (Uribe being his mom's maiden name). I hope you have better luck with your name change than he did with his

I've written about new first base coach Howard Johnson several times, such as... http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/06/hitting-in-pinch.html http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/01/bad-for-goose-bad-for-gander.html http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2005/08/stars-in-alignment.html http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2005/06/inspired-by-charles-schulz.html

Considering how bad Ambiorix Burgos has been over the past two years, it was actually somewhat surprising to me that he'd only allowed one walk-off hit. Albeit this one was a doozy, a three-run triple to Indians centerfielder Grady Sizemore this past August 11, which turned a 3-1 lead into a 4-3 defeat. You might remember from past readings that I was very much in favor of keeping Brian Bannister , but I don't really have any qualms about this deal. To get a young power arm for the bullpen, you have to give up something of value, and if Bannister is going to be starting on Opening Day, better that he do it for the Royals than the new Mets Triple-A franchise in New Orleans. Bannister was slated to be behind young arms Mike Pelfrey and Phil Humber, among others, in the Mets pitching plans for 2006. Bannister was also likely behind Clint Nageotte, who was recently signed to the Jose Lima Exemption (oops sorry, wrong sport) and, in a best case scenario could morph into a righthande

My first encounter with Barry Zito pitching in New York took place, albeit in indirect fashion, on August 8, 2000. I don't recall the occasion, but I was in the city, visiting my family that day. I took a New Jersey Transit train back towards my then-home in Yardley, Pa. (right on the NJ border, near Trenton) sometime around 10:30pm. At some point, either on the train, or just before bording, I saw a group of folks who were obviously Yankees fans, based on their attire. I asked them who won the game that they had clearly attended, between the Yankees and Oakland Athletics. "I don't know," one said. "We left in the 9th inning and they were losing. But when we were leaving, we heard the crowd get real loud, twice, so I'm thinking the Yankees might have won, and we missed it." If you've read this blog before, you know that one of my biggest pet peeves is people who leave baseball games early. Would you depart a Broadway show before viewing the ending? O

The hubbub surrounding Tom Glavine's re-signing failed to intrigue me enough to cure my case of blogger's block and in search of inspiration, I went to my freshly purchased 1986 World Series DVD set. My viewing of choice was Game 7 and the "Extras" bonus collection that adds some fresh perspective to the memories. The most entertaining viewing on the latter came in the form of a discussion between Mike Piazza and Mookie Wilson in which Piazza asks Mookie just what it was like to be a part of the most memorable moment in Mets history. Mookie recounts the usual stories and mentions that he and Buckner chat about their most significant encounter and tells how Buckner has made good money by turning a negative situation into a positive one. I wonder if they ever got around to discussing their come-togethers in Game 7, lesser appreciated than that in Game 6, but each bearing some significance on the final outcome. For those who forget, the first came in the second inning, a