Skip to main content

Just Not In The Cards

I'm not convinced that Daniel Murphy slipped.

I think he was trying to avoid the baseball for safety's sake.

I say that because we've seen that sort of thing in St. Louis before, in a similar kind of gakking encounter.

I've alluded to the game of June 1, 1991 once before and the memory of it is still etched in the brain some 18 years later.

It was a similar sort of affair, one in which the Mets built a 5-0 lead with single runs in the first and second, and a 3-spot in the fourth.. But once the Cardinals bullpen went to work, the Mets bats went silent.

A Frank Viola balk aided a three-run Cardinals fourth. An error by Kevin Elster led to another tally in the fifth and then a miscue by Rick Cerone eventually brought the tying run home in the seventh.

The Mets did nothing over a five-inning span against Scott Terry and Lee Smith, than went into full Bad News Bears mode in the 10th. The Mets managed three hits and a walk, and only one batter made out, yet they did not score.

That's because Vince Coleman played the Carlos Beltran role, getting thrown out at the plate on a base hit, failing in his attempt to bowl over Cardinals catcher Tom Pagnozzi.

Once that happened, defeat was inevitable, and instead of an outfielder ducking a baseball, it was a first baseman ducking a bat. A John Franco wild pitch put a runner on third with one out for Milt Thompson. A broken-bat chopper followed, except that both ball and bat headed in the direction of Dave Magadan. The Mets first baseman, not the best defensively at the position, sidestepped both bat, and ball, watching the latter roll into right field for a game-ending single.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch had some fun with this one, quoting official scorer Jack Herman, who referred to the play as an act of God. Those same baseball gods seemed to reappear at Busch Stadium on Tuesday night.

The truly carded Mets fan knows...That Tuesday's loss dropped the Mets record against the Cardinals to 82-83 since 1991.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Trip(le) Through Time

In their illustrious history, the Mets have had one 'Triple Crown Winner,' so to speak and I'm not talking about the typical meaning of the term. I've gotten some queries recently as to whether a walk-off triple is even possible and I'm here to tell you that it is. There has been one, and only one, in Mets history, though I don't have the full explanation of circumstances that I would like. It took place against the Phillies on September 10, 1970. This was a marathon game that would have fit in perfectly with those having taken place so far this season and allowed the Mets to maintain a temporary hold on first place in an NL East race oft forgotten in team history. It went 14 innings, with a tinge of controversy in a negated Ken Boswell home run, a thrilling play by Bud Harrelson, who stole home in the third inning, and some stellar relief pitching, in the form of five scoreless innings from Danny Frisella, aided by Tim McCarver getting thrown out in a rundown b

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