Skip to main content

Hop To It

When I went to sleep, I was rather annoyed with the lack of Mets involved in the postgame "bunny hop" (Chris Russo's term) at home plate. I thought it paled in comparison to that which I saw from the Marlins after Dan Uggla's walk-off grand slam not long before, and its paled comparitively from those which I've seen from a team like the Rays (who as a colleague noted: "They're the team you wish yours was.").

However, upon second look, thanks to a photo from the NY Daily News, and watching the highlight, I feel a little better.

Those teams are younger, and a little more demonstrative. The Mets are old and creaky, so it's hard for them to match the spirit or leap-height of those other squads (didn't it look like Beltran jumped off the wrong foot?). It may have been a celebration lacking in fire, but not in numbers.

I can see Beltran, Wright, Delgado, Schneider, Easley. Maine, and Aguila...via TV I saw Reyes (first one in line for any hopathon), Moises Alou (no hop, but a congratulatory helmet tap), Vargas, Chavez, Tatis, Castillo, Perez, and Pedro (a little late, but why risk injury?).

Who else are we looking for? (My apologies if any of these guys were spotted)

* Castro- Showed up for it an hour late

* Heilman- he's usually there...he may be one of the unidentified sets of legs, though he's easy to spot because of his height

* Pelfrey- showered and street-clothes attired

* Santana- Guessing he probably went home, since he's pitching at 1

* Sanchez, Schoeneweis- still in the bullpen

* Wagner- not too popular these days

* Willie- off to the side, in his usual spot

They say you can tell how much a team likes each other by how many guys are at home plate for the "bunny hop." I think we already knew that there's some tension with these guys, but I don't know that judging the bunny hop is the way to go.

Comments

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...

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 ...

Best Games I Know: Phillies (Updated)

  The best wins against the Phillies in Mets history …   May 5, 2022 – Mets 8, Phillies 7 The Mets score 7 runs in the 9 th inning to overcome a 7-1 deficit and win in Philadelphia.   April 29, 2022 – Mets 3, Phillies 0 Tylor Megill and 4 Mets relievers combine on the second no-hitter in franchise history.   September 22, 2016 – Mets 9, Phillies 8 (11) The Mets tie it in the 9 th on a Jose Reyes home run and win it in the 11 th on a 3-run home run by Asdrubal Cabrera.   July 17, 2016 - Mets 5, Phillies 0 Jacob deGrom pitches a one-hitter. Only hit is a single by Zach Eflin in the 5 th inning.   August 24, 2015 – Mets 16, Phillies 7 David Wright homers in his first at-bat in more than 4 months. The Mets hit a team-record 8 home runs.   July 5, 2012 – Mets 6, Phillies 5 The Mets score 2 runs with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9 th to beat Jonathan Papelbon. The winning run scores on David Wright’s bloop down the...