Skip to main content

First Time For Everything

Thanks to reader Daniel Altman for the tip on this...

Well, at least the Mets didn't lose the way that their Double-A Binghamton squad did in Game 2 of its doubleheader against the Reading Phillies on Wednesday night.

The B-Mets dropped a game in a manner I've never heard of before for any game at any level: walk-off catchers interference.

The details are a little sketchy at this point, but I'll try to find out some more. The B-Mets press release (put out by occasional reader/contributor Robert Ford) simply states

"The score remained tied until the bottom of the seventh, the last scheduled inning. Spidale led off with a single before Jesus Merchan bunted him to second. After (Robert) Paulk (2-1) intentionally walked Mike Costanzo, Randy Ruiz reached on a fielder’s choice that moved Spidale to third. Once Jacobs was intentionally walked to load the bases, (Jason) Hill reached on catcher’s interference by Mike Nickeas, bringing home Spidale with the winning run."

The Phillies website posts a game story by Tony Zonca with a little more detail

"At first he appeared to line a 2-1 pitch to the shortstop for a rally-ending third out. The next thing you knew, the Phillies were high-fiving near their dugout, their coaches shaking their heads and smiling impishly as they walked off with a most unlikely victory."

Still trying to figure out why the ump made the call (catcher must've hit the bat on the swing?)...Rob Ford subsequently e-mailed me to say that Binghamton tried to get an inning-ending force out at second after the Reading players began celebrating the win, claiming that the runner on first never went to second, but that attempt was unsuccessful.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Been There, Won That

The Dodgers had 19 hits in their loss to the Mets on Thursday night in a game that, no offense (pardon the ironic pun), was excruciating to watch for many, many reasons, none of which I feel like getting into at this hour. Willie Randolph summed it up in his press conference afterwards, saying simply "It's not fun!" I wonder if Tom Hanks, Alyssa Milano, Ray Romano and Kareeem Abdul-Jabaar (all in attendance) stuck around for the finish? I do wish to note briefly, again with the aid of Baseball-Reference, that the last time the Dodgers had 19 hits and lost a game, it was to the Mets. The difference between that game and this one was that this contest, of May 24, 1973, lasted an interminable 19 innings., with the Mets winning, 7-3. Rusty Staub's fifth hit of the game drove in the go-ahead run. Ken Boswell added an RBI single and Ed Kranepool salted the game away with a two-run double. Some other noteworthy anecdotes from a quick box score gleaning: * Like Thursday's...
9 comments
Read more

The best Mets ejections I know

When you think of the Mets and famous ejections, I'm guessing you first think of the famous Bobby Valentine mustache game, when after Valentine got tossed, he returned to the dugout in disguise. You know it. You love it. I remember being amused when I asked Bobby V about it while we were working on Baseball Tonight, how he simply said "It worked. We won the game." (true) But the Bobby V mustache game of June 9, 1999 is one of many, many memorable Mets ejection stories. And now thanks to Retrosheet and the magic of Newspapers.com , we have a convenient means for being able to share them. Ever since Retrosheet's David Smith recently announced that the Retrosheet ejection database was posted online , I've been a kid in a candy store. I've organized the data and done some lookups of media coverage around the games that interested me post. Those newspaper accounts fill in a lot of blanks. Without further ado (and with more work to do), here are some of my findings ...
Post a Comment
Read more

They Don't Make Em Like The Mook Any More

"There are certain things that stay with you, your whole life in sports. Mookie flying is one of those things." -- Blogger's father, 1:10pm on Feb 9. During the 1987 season, Mookie Wilson was on first base in seven instances in which the batter at the plate hit a double. How many times do you think Mookie scored? I'll give you a hint: Every time. According to some recent reading I've done, The average runner scores from first base on a double around 40-45 percent of the time. Mookie's career percentage: 65 percent (45 of 69) The average runner goes first to third on about 27 percent of singles hit. Mookie's percentage: 50 percent (120 of 240) The average runner scores from second base on about 58 percent of singles hit. Mookie's percentage: 75 percent (162 of 215) How good was Mookie Wilson? Let me put it to you this way. The guy turns 54 years old today (and got an early present by being re-hired by the Mets as a minor league instructor). I'd take...
8 comments
Read more