Skip to main content

Just Win (One For The) Baby

Mike Pelfrey had his start pushed back from Saturday to Monday, allowing him to be with his wife for the birth of their child.

So he won't be pulling a Jon Matlack.

This Date In Mets History is great for anecdotes and one-liners that allow us to learn things such as what happened on July 2, 1975.

"Hours after the birth of his son, Danny, Jon Matlack beats the Cubs, 7-2."

There's a little more to it than that, as I gleaned from reading newspaper accounts of the game, going. beyond the basics (Felix Millan's four RBI and a Joe Torre home run)

For one, Matlack was up at 6 a.m. to get his wife to the hospital for the birth of their third child (a boy).

For another, he pitched a complete game, scattering eight hits., making for a heck of a long day.

Lastly, he somehow managed to walk three times as a hitter.

He was the second Mets pitcher to do that, joining Jay Hook, while tying a major league record in the process (the last MLB pitcher with three walks in a game- Joaquin Andujar in 1984).

Notes like that get me excited, because as you know, I'm a big fan of that kind of minutiae. You know what I think of them?

They're awesome,...baby!

True Mets babies know...One of my favorite Ralph Kiner stories is about how he used to struggle to beat his wife at her sport, tennis (she was a professional player).

Kiner has noted that he was quite pleased the first time he won a match from her. I'm paraphrasing here, but his next line was something along the lines of:

"And a few weeks later, our first child was born."

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

Walk-Offs in Movies, TV, and Other Places

Note: I'm leaving this post up through the end of the week, a) because I don't have time to pump out something new and b)because I was hoping to build a really good list of entertainment industry walk-offs...so if you're looking for something new, check back on Monday or so... Of course, if there's a major trade or move, I'll adjust and try to post something... In the meantime, click on the "Table of Contents" link as well. It has been updated. SPOILER ALERT: Read at your own risk Caught the ending of "A League of Their Own" on one of the movie channels the other day and it got me to thinking that it would be fun to compile a list of walk-offs from movies, television, and other forms of entertainment. Here's the start, and only the start, as I spent about 30 minutes or so thinking it over Help me fill in the blanks by filling out the comments section. "A League of Their Own"-- Racine beats Rockford for the All-American Girls Profess