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All Is Wright With The World

I really thought, off the swing, that David Wright had hit his first career walk-off home run.

It wouldn't have been the first walk-off home run of Wright's major league career. It wouldn't have been the first walk-off home run of Wright's professional career.

It would have been the first walk-off home run that David Wright had ever hit in his life.

I know this because, in the bizarrest of coincidences, my quest to find out whether David Wright had ever hit a walk-off home run ended about 10 hours earlier when a Mets PR person replied to a request I had made a few days before. I'm told that Wright pondered the query for a couple minutes before answering that he had never hit one. Never as in never ever.

My reply to the Mets official was: "Thank you. I look forward to his first."

So you can imagine my reaction when the ball left the bat, and of course, I'm at work and sitting in a part of our offices in which ones rooting interest should not get in the way of ones employment. So when the ball landed (though those watching on TV never quite saw where), the look on my face was of, to use a phrase previously referenced to describe another walk-off against the Pirates. Restrained jubilation.

However, I take consolation in knowing the following pieces of information, and hopefully David will too.

* Mets walk-off win #351 (by our tally) was their 3rd of the 2008 season. It was the first since the 3-2 14-inning win over the Nationals on April 17. It is the second consecutive walk-off win that Willie Randolph described as "ugly."

* It is the 40th Mets walk-off win against the Pirates, the first since Carlos Delgado homered in the 12th inning to beat the Pirates on May 3, 2006. I don't know (and don't really care) if Delgado took a curtain call for that. Coincidentally, the walk-off win of May 3, 2006 also featured Ian Snell in a starting role, a Jose Reyes triple, and a Billy Wagner blown save.

* It is the 2nd Mets walk-off win to take place on Met broadcaster Gary Cohen's birthday (kudos to Ultimate Mets Database for noting that birthday on Tuesday). Coincidentally, the other was also a 5-4 11-inning win, this one against the Cardinals, on Joe Orsulak's walk-off single.

* It is the 6th career walk-off RBI for David Wright, the first since a double to beat the Athletics on June 23, 2007. He's got 3 singles, 2 doubles, a sacrifice fly, and again, no walk-off home runs.

Most Walk-Off RBI
Mets History

Kevin McReynolds 8
Rusty Staub 7
David Wright 6
George Foster 6
Cleon Jones 6
Ed Kranepool 6
>> All but Wright have hit a walk-off home run

* It's the first time that the Mets have 3 walk-off wins in April since 1998. The third of the walk-off wins that season was April 22, 1998, and the game ended with a Jim Tatum walk-off home run.

Career Comparison

Jim Tatum
35 games for the Mets
173 career MLB games
201 career MLB at-bats
1 walk-off home run

David Wright
568 games for the Mets
2,118 career MLB at-bats
0 walk-off home runs

* Jorge Sosa has all 3 Mets walk-off wins this season.

* Mets broadcaster Keith Hernandez hit 1 career walk-off home run: August 3, 1987 against the Phillies and reliever Kent Tekulve. In an ideal situation, David Wright would be facing someone who pitches underhand, like Tekulve. Where's Mike Myers (against whom Wright is 2-for-2 with 2 HR) when you really need him?

* Mets pre/post-game analyst Darryl Strawberry hit 3 walk-off home runs for the Mets-- 2 off John Franco and one against Lee Smith.

* Jose Reyes reached base 6 times, tying a Mets record, previously done 18 times. The last Mets to do it: Jose Reyes and David Wright in a walk-off win against the Braves on May 5, 2006. Wright had the walk-off hit in that game...against Jorge Sosa!

* Among active players, your leader in most home runs without a walk-off home run is Lance Berkman with 267. The all-time leader is Norm Cash with 377. Thanks to HR guru David Vincent (find his book on the history of the HR, coming soon in paperback, here)

Most Home Runs
No Walk-Off Home Runs

Norm Cash 377
Lance Berkman 267
Danny Tartabull 262
Goose Goslin 248
Ken Caminiti 239
Jim Bottomley 219
Jason Thompson 208
Rico Carty 204


* David Wright is one of 2 David Wrights to play in the major leagues. Dave Wright (real first name: David) probably didn't hit any walk-off home runs in his lifetime either. Of course, he was a pitcher who appeared in 1 game in 1895 and 1 more in 1897, so I don't suspect he had too many opportunities.

* I do want to say something nice about David Wright, so...Wright is now 21-for-44 with the bases loaded, a .477 batting average. Even if you throw in his 5 sacrifice flies, his numbers would still, by my guess, make him the best bases-loaded hitter in Mets history.

Those doing truly Wright by the Mets know... Willie Randolph never hit a walk-off home run in the major leagues (no idea on whether he did elsewhere). However, Randolph can one-up Wright by pointing to his numbers against recently DL'd John Smoltz: 3-for-8 with 4 walks and NO strikeouts

For those who missed it, we wrote about Wright vs Smoltz prior to Sunday's game, here:
http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2008/04/smoltzs-wright-hand-man.html

Comments

Julie said…
I really thought when that ball was hit it was going to be gone. Oh well. I'm sure he'll take it this way, just as we will too.
Anonymous said…
As a Wright fan, I'd like to think of this as a sign that he is taking the right approach at the plate in these situations: don't try to do too much, just get the run. There was one out and a fast runner on third, and he correctly put it in the air to right field rather than trying to pull the ball over the fence. I'd rather him keep up his pace of walk-off singles than hit home runs every once in awhile.
metswalkoffs said…
Anonymous-

I think that's a good perspective...I'm just a) having a little fun with the stats and b)noting that he seems to want one of these...

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