Skip to main content

Almost Goodenough

It seems like today is a good day, given the events of Msr. Sabathia and his near no-no'ness on Sunday, to tell the story of September 7, 1984.

The timing is particularly good because I recently purchased an audio cassette of the game, and recently got to hear the details of the pertinent parts.

It's the story of a day on which the Mets came as close as close could be to throwing a no-hitter.

Dwight Gooden was the pitcher. The Chicago Cubs were the opponent. The score was not an issue, as the Mets coasted, 10-0 behind home runs from George Foster and Darryl Strawberry. It was also a record-setting evening, as Gooden broke the NL record for strikeouts by a rookie pitcher, set when Grover Cleveland Alexander struck out 227 in 1911.

The only blemish on Gooden's mark that evening, an infield single by Cubs third baseman Keith Moreland, in the fifth inning, somewhat akin to that of Marlins catcher Paul Hoover in the 161st game of the 2007 season.

The hit was legit, a slowly topped ground ball on a 1-2 count that Ray Knight fielded, but couldn't release. Murphy and Lamar did not question the judgment of the official scorer (unlike the current Brewers skipper) and neither did the writers of the two game stories I read. Knight had some regrets after the game, lamenting that he was playing too far along the third base line, and that when he reached into his glove to try to make a throw, he couldn't get a good grip on the ball.

"From where I was playing, you'd have to call it a hit," Knight told the media afterwards (thanks, Chicago Tribune and NY Times). "But I'd take an error, gladly."

In fairness, Knight did more than enough later in his Mets career to make up for any thought-to-be miscue.

Gooden would get his no-hitter, nearly 12 years later, though his five-strikeout, six-walk effort was not comparable to the 11 K, 4 BB hurting he put on the division champs to be. I've only gotten through the first five innings, but the Mets crew was gushing about Gooden's marvelousness in this contest after almost every batter.

"The hit doesn't matter," Gooden said. afterwards "I just wanted to win the game."

True Metbathias know..Mets pitchers have thrown 23 complete game one-hit shutouts (including postseason). Gooden and Bobby Jones (2000 NLDS Game 4) are the only ones to do so against division winners.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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 right field line.   August 13

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

Walk-Offs in Movies, TV, and Other Places

Note: I'm leaving this post up through the end of the week, a) because I don't have time to pump out something new and b)because I was hoping to build a really good list of entertainment industry walk-offs...so if you're looking for something new, check back on Monday or so... Of course, if there's a major trade or move, I'll adjust and try to post something... In the meantime, click on the "Table of Contents" link as well. It has been updated. SPOILER ALERT: Read at your own risk Caught the ending of "A League of Their Own" on one of the movie channels the other day and it got me to thinking that it would be fun to compile a list of walk-offs from movies, television, and other forms of entertainment. Here's the start, and only the start, as I spent about 30 minutes or so thinking it over Help me fill in the blanks by filling out the comments section. "A League of Their Own"-- Racine beats Rockford for the All-American Girls Profess