Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

Ok, so on Friday's SNY broadcast, Gary Cohen told you of Harry Danning, the last player nailed trying for an inside-the-park home run with a cycle at stake...What they didn't tell you, besides Danning's status as the greatest Jewish catcher of all-time (so says his Baseball-Reference.com page ), was... * That Jose Reyes became the first player in Mets history with a single, a double, and two triples in a game. While that had never been done by the Mets, it had been done against them. I could give you 800 guesses at the former Met who put forth that kind of game and you wouldn't get the name. Only 829 players have played for the Mets (so says Ultimate Mets Database ), but I bet it would take until guess 801 to come up with this guy... Junior Noboa. Two great notes from that game of June 5, 1990 1) Mets broadcaster Ron Darling allowed the double, and the second triple to Noboa. 2) Despite Noboa's unbelievable effort, his team didn't win. The Mets did...in walk-off

Let's just pretend Thursday's game didn't happen... Things I Learned While Trying to Put David Wright's .465 batting average with the bases loaded into proper perspective He's Positively Tablerian Pat Tabler hit .282 in a major league career that spanned 12 seasons and more than 1,200 games. But his biggest value was what he did when the bases were loaded. He was 43-for-88, and even if you factor in his nine sacrifice flies (which batting average doesn't), his numbers are still off-the-charts good. David Wright's .465 is in the Tabler stratosphere (Tabler-Rosa?) and that's pretty impressive. Of course, Wright will never be able to match Tabler's 2-for-2 performance with the bases loaded as a 17-game Met. That's perfection. He's Not The Best In The Majors, But He's Close Enough So Taguchi is a .500 hitter with the bases loaded (20-for-40). Jose Lopez is a .484 hitter with the bases-loaded (15-for-31) Ichiro is a .473 hitter with the bases

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 th

7 More Things I Learned While Putting Nelson Figueroa's 2 Wins As a Mets Starter Into Perspective (A continuation of : http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2008/04/were-number-won.html ) * Tom Seaver has held the Mets STARTERS wins record for a long time On June 8, 1969, Tom Seaver struck out 14 Padres in a 3-2 victory, his 41st as a Mets starter, breaking the previous record for most wins by a Mets starting pitcher. Three weeks later, he'd win his 44th game, breaking the mark for most wins by a Mets pitcher OVERALL, both records set by Al Jackson. On July 4, 1975, Seaver officially put the starting pitcher's mark out of reach with his 158th victory, a 4-3 triumph in Philadelphia, won on Jerry Grote's 2-run home run with two outs in the ninth, off former teammate Tug McGraw. He could have stopped there and still had the mark, as the second-closest Mets starter, Dwight Gooden, finished at 157. To put Seaver's mark of 198 wins as a Mets starter in its proper place: Nelso

10 Things I Learned After Trying To Establish Where Nelson Figueroa's 2 wins ranked among Mets STARTING pitchers...(with apologies to "Studes" at the Hardball Times for utilizing his format for such articles) The one-win STARTERS are best remembered for being traded... Tom Parsons got 1 win as a Mets starter. So did Rick Ownbey. As did Bill Denehy. And David West, too. They're better known as the guys dealt for Jerry Grote, Keith Hernandez, Gil Hodges (managerial version) and Frank Viola. The twos aren't so terrible... Some good pitchers won twice as a Mets starting pitcher. John Candelaria. Dock Ellis. Brian Bannister (grr...). And now, Nelson Figueroa. Calvin Schiraldi even won two games as a Mets starter, though he's certainly best known for losing two against the Mets in a relief role. Johan Santana enters Monday with as many wins as a Mets starter (3) as John Pacella I apologize to any Pacella fans (and I'm one, having written a Where Are They Now a

If you came straight to this post, please check out my other post today at http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2008/04/were-number-won.html There was some major weirdness in that Friday night game, in which the Mets drew 3 CONSECUTIVE bases-loaded walks, producing their only runs of the night. Three bases-loaded walks, while unusual, is not unheard of in Mets history. I'm guessing more than a few readers will recall the 10-run eighth inning against the Braves on June 30, 2000, capped by Mike Piazza's go-ahead home run. What you may have forgotten in the rally from that 8-1 deficit is that the reason the Mets got close in that game is because they drew 3 consecutive bases-loaded walks (Mark Johnson, Melvin Mora, and Derek Bell). However, I'm guessing most readers here will not recall another such occurrence, the one from June 29 , 1962. You could argue that this game, between the Mets and the Dodgers, was one that had major implications on the pennant race, since the Dodgers fi

I'm glad that David Wright broke his career worst 0-for string on Saturday, because the matchup on Sunday, while fascinating, is a bit troubling. John Smoltz pitches for the Braves on Sunday and he's essentially the kryptonite to David Wright's Superman status. Smoltz has struck Wright out 19 times in 52 meetings (plate appearances) in holding him to a .233 batting average. Why is that significant? Take a look at this list. Most K By David Wright vs Pitchers John Smoltz 19 Brett Myers 7 Dontrelle Willis 7 Jason Bergmann 6 Randy Johnson 6 Mike Mussina 6 (in 8 plate appearances, 7 AB!) Among active players, there's no one who Smoltz, who just passed 3,000 career strikeouts, has whiffed more than David Wright. That's particularly amazin' considering that Wright has only played the equivalent of 3.5 major league seasons. Not only has Wright struck out 19 times. He's gone to a 2-strike count against Smoltz 34 times (well more than half their meetings), going 4-fo