Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

It was mentioned on Friday's telecast how much success David Wright has had at Coors Field (career batting average of .391, entering Saturday), so that got me to thinking about Mets batting averages at other ballparks. Thanks to BaseballMusings.com, I was able to generate a chart of Mets players best batting average by ballpark. How to read the chart The first name and number listed is the best batting average by a Met, minimum 50 plate appearances If there are 2 names, The 2nd name and number, noted with an *, is the best batting average by a Met, minimum 100 plate appearances Best Mets Batting Average By Ballpark Astrodome (Houston) Bruce Boisclair .453 Kevin McReynolds .307* Atlanta Fulton County Stadium Todd Hundley .342 Kevin McReynolds .328* Bank One Ballpark (Arizona) Edgardo Alfonzo .352 Old Busch Stadium (St. Louis) Daryl Boston .400 Ed Kranepool .347* Candlestick Park (San Francisco) Lance Johnson .417 Mookie Wilson .307* Cinergy Field (Cincinnati) Tim Teufel .373 Keith

I don't know if Trot Nixon is a "Gangsta" (am I the only one who doesn't like that reference), but he did become the 335th player to hit a home run for the Mets. * Of those 335, 64 have hit exactly one home run for the Mets. Among those he's tied with: Tug McGraw, AFLAC answer from the other night Tim Foli (200+ games for Mets and Angels), Jimmy Piersall (who backpedaled around the bases), and recently deposed Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. * He's the 6th player whose last name starts with "N" to homer for the Mets. Most HR For Mets Last Name Starts with N 14-Xavier Nady 14-Charlie Neal 9-Dan Norman 2- Jon Nunnally 1- Trot Nixon 1-David Newhan * Trot Nixon now has 137 career home runs. That's the same number of home runs hit by Jackie Robinson, for whom the rotunda in the Mets new ballpark is named. He entered the season with 136 home runs, the same number of home runs hit by former Mets manager Davey Johnson. * Trot Nixon had 133 home runs for

Normally, I'm a big-time mocker of people who suddenly become fans of a team, just because the going is good at the moment. However, in this case, I must admit that I'm enjoying my adoption of the Tampa Bay Rays as my No. 2 team. Let the record reflect that my first acknowledgement of Rays fanhood came on May 14th , when I lamented that Tampa Bay and the Mets would not be playing this season. And for those wondering, I'm not copying the folks at MetsGeek, who pretended to change their site's name to RaysGeek. I was a few days ahead of them :) This is not a Scott Kazmir thing, a Cliff Floyd thing, and it's not even a Dan Wheeler thing (my early candidates for favorite Rays are third baseman Evan Longoria and pitcher Andy Sonnanstine). Maybe it's a Steve Henderson thing (he's a coach), but I don't think so. It's more just a 'I've seen them play and I think they've got a good thing' thing. It's totally fair-weather. It's totally

My usually-stellar memory is a bit hazy today. Back in my newspaper-reporting days, I remember covering a Rider-Seton Hall baseball game in which one of the Seton Hall players was Tony Bernazard Jr. Tony Sr. was at the game and that part I recall distinctly. I know I conversed with Tony Jr., who being from Princeton, was local for our circulation. I seem to remember approaching Tony Sr. as well and my inkling is to say he wasn't particularly pleasant, but I'm wondering if that's clouded by all the stories I've seen the last few days. I've heard/read that he isn't the nicest man around (anyone remember the Carlos Delgado quote about Bernazard being the highest-paid translator in the majors?). There's one area in which Tony Sr. was good in a 1-1 scenario and that was on the baseball diamond itself. Tony Sr. had four walk-off RBI in his major-league career. Three were singles and one was a sacrifice fly. Here's the weird part. All four came in games that we

Oh, I'd say almost 2,000 hours or so... My internet connection finally got fixed. The Mets season? Still a lot of fixing to do. Perhaps it's worth noting that this win came on a day in which the Mets started a different right side of the infield than usual Clearly a new manager was just what David Wright needed to snap his 1-for-20-in-the-9th-inning funk...But why be bitter? * This marked the 84th time in Mets history, and the first this season that the Mets got a game-tying RBI in a situation in which they were one out from defeat. To make things easier, from now on, let's just call them GT2O RBI's (I'll add it to my dictionary ). * The Mets are 45-38-1 when they get a GT2O-RBI, 17-25 when they get one on the road. * It is David Wright's first career GT2O-RBI with the Mets. He has as many for the Mets as Damion Easley does. Easley got one last season, on April 24 against the Rockies, a game won on Endy Chavez's bunt single. * The Mets have won 4 of the last

Here's the difference between a really good team and a really mediocre one. Carlos Delgado has made eight errors this season. Tampa Bay 1st, 2nd, and 3rd basemen have combined to make six errors this season. Did you see the walk-off brilliance that was the end of the Rays-Cubs game on Tuesday night? Down a run, with a runner on third and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the Cubs tried a squeeze play to try to tie the game. Rays third baseman Evan Longoria made a great play to barehand the ball, then fired off-balance to first, on a bounce. The Rays first baseman, Willy Aybar, playing his 10th career game at the position, made an incredibly difficult play to handle the throw, twisting to grab it a split-second before the baserunner crashed into him, all while holding his foot to the base. Game over. The Rays are 41-29. Had that been the Mets, the throw would have bounced off Delgado's stomach and caromed into the outfield. Tie game. Then, Billy Wagner would have walked a lef

Let's just say I thought that 3 a.m. firings were the kind of thing that James Dolan would do... At least Willie walks off looking like the good guy in this scenario. * Willie Randolph's tenure ends with him as the 4th-winningest walk-off manager in Mets history. Most Walk-Off Wins By Mets Manager (includes postseason) 55 Davey Johnson 54 Bobby Valentine 35 Gil Hodges 31 Willie Randolph 29 Joe Torre 29 Casey Stengel Mets Walk-Off W-L By Manager (In order of tenure, includes postseason) Casey Stengel 29-34 Wes Westrum 17-24 Salty Parker 2-1 Gil Hodges 35-27 Yogi Berra 19-34 Roy McMillan 3-6 Joe Frazier 7-9 Joe Torre 29-42 George Bamberger 6-17 Frank Howard 11-3(!) Davey Johnson 55-51 Bud Harrelson 11-5 Mike Cubbage 0-1 Jeff Torborg 7-13 Dallas Green 25-32 Bobby Valentine 54-39 Art Howe 12-15 Willie Randolph