Skip to main content

Angels and Demons

Some leftovers from a Friday ...

* The Mets had it just as bad, walk-off error-wise, in 1971. Over a one-month span, they lost 3 games due to miscue.

- On July 17, they lost when Ken Boswell misplayed a Cesar Cedeno infield hit, and the subsequent error made Tom Seaver a loser when Roger Metzger scored the run that ended a 2-1 Astros win.

- On August 11, they fell 1-0 in 12 innings to the Padres, spoiling a great effort by Tom Seaver when catcher Jerry Grote made an errant throw to third trying to nail Larry Stahl, who was completing a double steal. Stahl would score the winning run.

- Three days later, they lost to the Giants, 6-5 in 10 innings, blowing a 5-4 edge in the ninth and dropping the game when centerfielder Don Hahn dropped a fly ball hit by Jimmy Rosario with the bases loaded (the play was scored SF-E8). It was one of three errors in the loss, which dropped the Mets to 13-30 over a 43-game span (sound familiar???)

* One quick note for those of you who remember 1980 fondly (and for 113 games, there was good reason to), keep this in mind: The team went a 2009-esque 11-38 over its last 49 games.

* Lastly, let's talk about the number 10, and I'm talking triples, not home runs.

Angel Pagan hit his 10th triple on Wenesday and is assured of being the 12th player since 1900 to hit 10+ triples in a season in which he played fewer than 90 games.

In fact, he's going to be only the 5th player to hit 10+ triples in 90 games or fewer since 1932 (the first since Juan Uribe in 2001). Quite impressive, though not enough for me to commit to him as an everyday player in 2010.

Also on this list. None other than Casey Stengel, who had 10 triples in 89 games in 1919 and 10 triples in 84 games in 1922. Amazin'

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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

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

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