Skip to main content

From Abbott to Zeile

I'm very excited to announce a new project that I've put together.

With the Mets on the verge of reaching 6,000 regular season home runs, I've put together a Mets home run encyclopedia of sorts. Thanks to the research tools at Baseball-Reference.com, I was able to assemble data for every Mets regular season and postseason home run in one place.

I haven't yet fully figured out how to make the best use of this data, but you'll surely see it sprinkled into my work in the future.

I'm currently working on a series of pieces in which I will rank the most notable (I suppose you can call it greatest) Mets home runs of all-time. That will probably debut in the next week or so.

For now, I leave you with some minutiae to show off the extent of what I can do...

* The Mets have hit 6,055 home runs, if you combine regular season and postseason. They've hit 5,992 in the regular season and 63 in the postseason. The first was hit by Gil Hodges on April 11, 1962. The most recent was hit by Angel Pagan on August 27, 2009.

* The first Met to hit a go-ahead home run was Felix Mantilla against the Pirates on April 15, 1962. The first Met to hit a go-ahead grand slam was Jim Hickman on April 21, 1963.


* The deepest into an at-bat that a Met has been documented to hit a HR: 12 pitches, by Roberto Alomar against Tony Armas on April 14, 2002. (We don't have full data on this stat).

* The biggest deficit at the time of a Mets home run? This one's stood for 47 years. On July 24, 1962, Richie Ashburn hit a two-run homer off Stan Williams, cutting into a 17-0 Dodgers lead.


* The biggest lead at the time of a Mets home run? 16 runs...David Wright's home run against Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon Lyon built on a 16-0 Mets lead.


* By my count, the 500th home run in Mets history was hit by Eddie Bressoud against Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax, on July 14, 1966.


* Pedros the Mets have homered against: Ramos, Borbon (Sr. and Jr.), Astacio, and Martinez

* Two Mets have hit a game-tying grand slam in their careers- Todd Hundley and Carl Everett.

* Alphabetically speaking, Kurt Abbott ranks first on the Mets homer list. Todd Zeile rates last.

* The Mets have homered off 3 pitchers with the last name starting with Z this season: Clay Zavada, Jordan Zimmermann, and Barry Zito.

Comments

Stormy said…
Very cool! I'm looking forward to more nuggets!
11:52 AM
Anonymous said…
Wow. The 500th HR on the day my parents were married! Too cool!
-- BF
3:01 AM
Post a Comment

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
Post a Comment
Read more

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
9 comments
Read more

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
12 comments
Read more