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Our Special Bonds: Ron Darling (answers)

answers to the trivia quiz posted here

http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/09/our-special-bonds-ron-darling-questions.html

1) The leadoff hitter in Ron Darling's major-league debut was Joe Morgan and Darling struck him out. The winning pitcher in that game? Former Met Tug McGraw.

2) Telling you it was a Hall of Famer that Darling whiffed most should narrow it down enough such that one of your first couple of guesses should be the correct one, Ryne Sandberg.


3) The first three batters to HR off Darling were Claudell Washington (10 of the Mets 61 HR in 1980), Gary Carter (4 grand slams for the Mets) and Juan Samuel (traded for HR-hitter of significance Len Dykstra)


4) The other Yale-educated Mets pitcher was an original Met, Ken Mackenzie, who was 5-4 for the 1962 Mets (others were 35-116) and 3-1 for them in 1963.


5) The two future Mets drafted between Terry Blocker and Ron Darling were Kevin McReynolds (6th by the Padres) and Darryl Boston (7th by the White Sox).


6) The last out of the 1988 division clincher was, like Gary Carter, a catcher, Lance Parrish, and it's kind of neat that both finished their careers with 324 home runs.


7) Terry Pendleton had the tying home run, but it was Tom Herr who had the go-ahead hit that day and Vince Coleman who scored the go-ahead run. The Cardinals starting pitcher that day was one of the greats Mets nemesises of the era- John Tudor.


8) Ron Darling's first major-league shutout concluded when New Orleans Zephyrs (the team's Triple-A affiliate) manager Ken Oberkfell hit into a double play.


9) Jason Jacome didn't get many wins after pitching a shutout in his 2nd MLB start, but he did get the win for the Royals in Ron Darling's last MLB start.

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