Skip to main content

Peeing Like It Oughta Be

Please do not be offended by the title of this blog. As fellow blogger Greg at "Faith and Fear" noted when I dropped the line on him:

"I'm not offended. When you're a Mets fan these days, you're unfamiliar with the concept of offense."

You know you've had a bad week at the ballpark when the highlight is discovering that the urinals in the Caesar's Club have dividers. Those for us common folk in the promenade do not.

But enough talk about luxuries. If you think that being one-hit and two-hit in the same week is bad (not to mention also being three-hit, four-hit, and five-hit within an eight-game span), ponder rooting for the 1967 Mets.

The 1967 Mets had seven games in which they were held to either one or two hits. They had it even worse than the current squad. They were one-hit and two-hit in consecutive games.

The difference is that they managed to win one of those. On April 29 in Cincinnati, the Mets got beat by Gerry Arrigo 7-0. It was a dominant effort, one in which the only yielded hit was a first inning single by Jerry Grote. He was subsequently erased via double play. The Mets bungled their way into three errors, leading to five runs being unearned (what else is new?)

The next day, in Game 1 of a doubleheader against the Reds, the Mets managed only two hits. However, the first was a home run by Ron Swoboda in the second inning (the game story notes it was his first since last August 4), and the second was a Tommy Davis single that eventually led to a run in the third frame, thanks to a timely wild pitch.

Those two tallies stood up, even as 19 consecutive Mets went down, because Don Cardwell pitched a gem against the first place hosts. Cardwell allowed only three hits and went the distance, clinching the win by inducing Pete Rose to hit into a game-ending double play. The Reds managed only one runner into scoring position the entire game.

Also of significance from that April 30 twinbill was the second game, one in which the Mets managed eight hits, but lost to 18-year-old Gary Nolan, 3-2. The losing Mets pitcher that day was Tom Seaver and it was the first defeat in his major league career.

The singular Mets fan knows...The Mets are now 0-39 in games in which they manage one hit or no hits.

PS: I vote for Curly Shuffle for the 8th-inning singalong song.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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

Minutiae Break: Worst Mets Relievers

It occurs to me after 79 straight walk-off related posts and some fatigue still remaining from Saturday's finish that I did promise to bring Metspective on other issues related to the Flushing 9, so I offer this posting up as a "Minutiae Break." This came about after several discussions related to the offhand Dick Tidrow/Danny Graves remark the other day , the conclusion of which indicated that it would be fun to create a list of the worst Mets relievers of all-time. I don't want to step on the territory of other bloggers, like " Faith and Fear in Flushing ," Mets Guy in Michigan " and " Metstradamus ," so I'll tread carefully here, aided by their influence. Should any friends, family members, or fans of these pitchers visit this site, I mean no harm. I'm just here to have a little fun with this topic. The ground rules are as follows: The pitcher must have had a Mets stint as long as Dick Tidrow's (11 games, 15 2/3 innings), for wh

The 'Duca of Earl (and walk-offs)

If I told you that the Mets had just obtained a guy who is a career .316 hitter with runners in scoring position? How about if I told you that the Mets just traded for a hitter who has consistently ranked among the toughest in baseball to strike out? Or if I mentioned that the Mets just dealt for a player who was selected to the NL All-Star team the last three seasons, with the last honor coming via a vote by his peers? So, although he's on the down side age wise, his throwing arm isn't as good as it used to be, and he doesn't provide much power, there are a lot of good things that Paul Lo Duca brings to the New York Mets. For example: He'll sacrifice his body for the good of the team The Dodgers and Braves squared off on August 23, 2002 and Lo Duca made an impact both on the start and finish of this game. Three pitches after being dusted by Greg Maddux, Lo Duca made him pay with a first-inning home run. The Braves rallied to tie the game, 3-3 in the ninth, but their bu