Skip to main content

Thank You, Dave Parker

This blog will likely be going on hiatus, either until Thursday night or Friday morning, though there is the slight possibility of a posting (particularly if the Mets get a walk-off win) while I attend to some company business on the West Coast. In the meantime, I don't have a lot of time to write, so I'll just say...

That while the Yankees were busy scoring 21 runs, the Mets were busy celebrating a 21st anniversary, of an extraordinarily bizarre game that typified and foreshadowed the 1986 season.

For those too young to remember the greatness of July 22, 1986 (I was 11...I watched), it bore a resemblance or two to the game you watched between the Mets and Dodgers Sunday. Such as...

* Instead of Matt Kemp charging in to drop a potential game-ending fly ball (yes, there was one out, but I had visions of a 9-2 double play), you had Dave Parker drifting back to muff a potential final out off the bat of Keith (absent from the booth, darn) Hernandez.

* People playing out of position, only then it was Gary Carter at third base and pitcher's Roger McDowell and Jesse Orosco rotating in the outfield instead of Shawn Green looking like a pitcher playing first base.

* Remember how Paul Lo Duca was miffed about a strike call during his last turn at bat. Imagine someone that fiery throwing a couple punches, and you'd have had the famous brawl between Ray Knight and Eric Davis.

* As for unlikely heroes, the Mets had the key batter of that 1986 triumph, Howard Johnson (3-run HR in the 14th) advising the key batter of this one. Welcome to the hit club, Chip Ambres. Your ticket back to New Orleans should be handed to you by Mr. Alou on Tuesday. (gonna have to check out how many 1-hit Mets had a game-winner for their only hit, other than Ross Jones).

* Oh and for a little drama, we get a repeat of John Franco (the pitcher when Parker dropped the fly ball) of Barry Bonds (oh, is he in the news?) from the 2000 NLDS Game 2 with that Wagner/Nomar matchup. That's another story for another time, but my reaction to that one is similar to that which I had 21 years ago, and that which I had today: What an "Amazing" win!

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