Best Games I Know: 2007 Mets

Alright...after a week of bitterness, it's time to focus on some of the positives from this season. Let's start with this list.


#10 July 7- Mets 5, Astros 3 (17)

The final spot on the list came down to this game, the 1-0 walk-off against Oakland on June 23, and the crazy 7-6 win in Florida on September 23. In the end, this game had too much goodness to pass up. Carlos Beltran, in his best moments of 2007, saved the game with the top defensive play of the season, than won it in the 17th, snapping an 0-for-6 in the contest with a go-ahead single.

#9 September 12- Mets 4, Braves 3

In future games of Mets word association, September 12, is going to have the most negative of connotations, because it will be remembered in the following manner.

"The Mets had a 7-game lead over the Phillies after a win on September 12..."

But what a win it was, one in which Shawn Green celebrated the Jewish New Year with a go-ahead hit in the 8th, one that made up for multiple bullpen foibles in the top of the inning.

http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/09/rosh-to-judgment.html

#8 May 18- Mets 3, Yankees 2

A Mets-Yankees game needed to make this list, and I picked this one, which was the first meeting of the two this season. I think what I liked most about this game was how intense it was. This had the feel of a World Series preview, with Oliver Perez matching Andy Pettitte pitch-for-pitch. There was never a moment of comfort until the final out was recorded and for that alone, this game merits mention.

#7 August 21- Mets 7, Padres 6

This is one that fans of the opposing team will spend much of the winter rueing, moreso than one that we'll enjoy. Perhaps the Padres should have realized then that Trevor Hoffman wasn't quite all that he had previously been, as his performance in this series foreshadowed that from the end of the season. The Mets beat him in this game with two runs in the bottom of the 9th, in the first of three thrilling games that should have been a preview of the first round of the NLDS.

http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/08/castillo-of-thousands.html



#6 August 8- Mets 4, Braves 3

It doesn't get any more exciting than the way this game concluded. When you load the bases, up a run, with nobody out in the 9th inning, you're supposed to somehow f*** it up. That Billy Wagner somehow escaped had me thinking that maybe this was, in fact, going to be Mets year after all.


http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/08/walking-off-tightrope.html

#5 July 22- Mets 5, Dodgers 4 (10)

One of the reasons I believe in baseball karma is because of games like this. How is it possible that 21 years to the day of the Mets tying a game in the 9th inning on a dropped fly ball, that it would happen again? There would be no Ray Knight-Eric Davis-style skirmish (that would be saved for the final Saturday with Msrs. Olivo and Reyes), but there would be an unlikely hero in this one. Chip Ambres won this one with his only hit as a Met, thus earning him Ross Jones cult-icon status in the process.


http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/07/thank-you-dave-parker.html

#4 April 24- Mets 2, Rockies 1 (12)

The bunt-off...enough said.


http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/04/kind-of-drag.html


#3 May 29- Mets 5, Giants 4 (12)

There weren't many times this season that I thought that the 2007 season could have the same kind of magic as 2006. This was the one where I thought it the most. Where was "Balkin' Bob" Davidson in the final week of the season, when the Mets could have used the favor they got in this game (Armando Benitez's balk-in of the tying run), just prior to Carlos Delgado's walk-off home run?


http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/05/what-about-bob.html

http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/05/more-than-you-ever-wanted-to-know.html

#2 September 29- Mets 13, Marlins 0

Because it was the most needed win of the season

Because it was the best pitching performance of the season

Because it showed that the team had woken from its collective stupor

Because it showed that the team still had some fight

Because it gave fans hope

And then it took one man to snuff all that away the next day. Boy, am I bitter.

#1 May 17- Mets 6, Cubs 5

"The Great Hebrew School Debate of 1986," in which I put my Judaism ahead of my Mets is one of the longest-lasting memories of my childhood, and it's one of my great baseball regrets that I didn't get to see the ninth inning of Game 6 of the NLCS live.

To supplement that we have its adult sequel: "Is It Really A Crime To Be 5 Minutes Late To Work?" in which I missed viewing the conclusion of the best game of the 2007 season in the interests of being honest when I filled out my time sheet.

Years from now, the 2007 collapse will be a footnote in our Mets memories, and the details will become peripheral to the overriding headlines from the season. But this is the game I want to linger in my brain, the one where I sent my dad an IM just prior to the 9th inning stating "If they do this, it better be 5 runs in 10 minutes."

As it turned out, it took them 15 minutes, the 15 most Metmorable of the season as the Mets rallied from 5-1 down against the Cubs in the 9th. For those forgetting the order, it went something like this

*David Newhan, single (his only positive contribution on the field all season)


*Ramon Castro, lineout, in which Newhan was inches from being doubled up

*Carlos Gomez, 2-strike single, sending Newhan to 3rd

*Carlos Beltran, 3-2 walk, loading the bases

*Endy Chavez, 3-2 walk, forcing in the first run

*Ruben Gotay, 2-strike single, bringing in another run, making it 5-3 Cubs

(Pitching change, blogger bolts for car, commences drive to work)

*Pinch-hitter(!) David Wright, first-pitch single off reliever Scott Eyre, bringing in one more to make it 5-4

* Carlos Delgado, 2-run single to right, bringing in the 2 runs to win it.

http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/05/quick-getaway.html