Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

Not a huge fan of the Sheffield signing, though it does bring about a good trivia question... Gary Sheffield has 11 career walk-off hits. We're gonna factor out Willie Mays and Duke Snider because available data (from the likes of Baseball-Reference and MikeMav.com) begins in 1954. Among all those others who have played for the Mets, who has the most career walk-off hits, with 19? The answer: Rusty Staub. Here's a more thorough list with help from MikeMav

The Mets rallied from 8-0 down to beat the Orioles, 9-8 by walk-off on Thursday. So much for the SI prediction jinx... Had it counted in our tally... * It would have been the biggest deficit overcome in a Mets walk-off win. The previous mark is 6, done twice, once against the Padres in 1972, the other against the Expos in 1997 (aka: " The Brand New Shiny One " game) * It would have been Ramon Castro's second Mets walk-off hit, the first coming against the Marlins in 2005. * It would have been the 4th time the Mets beat the Orioles via walk-off, including once in Game 4 of the 1969 World Series, when J.C. Martin's bunt, combined with an error, brought home the winning run. The other walk-off hits against the Orioles came from Carlos Baerga (1998, 1B), and Kurt Abbott (2000, HR) * It would have been the 2nd-earliest walk-off win by date in Mets history, surpassed only by March 31, 1998 (Oopening Day), when the Mets beat the Phillies, 1-0 in 14 innings. * It would

It's very hard to predict a World Series champion. If you picked one at random each year, you'd have slightly better than a three percent chance of being right. I've found from soliciting picks from friends and colleagues over the years, that if you actually think you know something at baseball, your chances are a little better. Unscientifically speaking, I'd put them at about five percent. I bring this up because the baseball preview of Sports Illustrated has come out, and it picks the Mets to win the World Series. Lucky us. I wanted to track Sports Illustrated 's prediction history, because while I know it's not good, I can't put a number to it. Going through their archives proved to be a little more frustrating than I predicted (pardon the pun). Some people seem to be a little nervous about the magazine picking the Mets. The roots of that go back a little ways. In 1987, Sports Illustrated predicted that the Indians would be the best team in the American

With the birth of a new year upon us, I feel it necessary, once again, to both reintroduce and reinvent myself to fit the needs of the blogging community. Walk-offs have run (or walked) their course and it's time to focus on something new. You may recall that I dabbled in such a thought at this time in each of the last three years, but my foolish pursuit to chronicle the history of Mets walks lasted merely one day, my intent to break down every Mets chalk-off turned into a brief endeavor, and my desire to extract the finest details from every collision between ball (or person) and wall ran its (collision) course quite quickly. I don't profess to be an expert in this blogging thing by any means, but I think it has been a worthwhile experience. About 46 months ago, I came across a blog that was very unique- PlunkBiggio - which was devoted to recording Craig Biggio's (since retired) hit-by-pitch count. It is rare to find such a cleverly done "niche blog" and in thin

Totally random musings here while trying to think of the appropriate sort of piece for a couple days down the road. * Can anyone who was at The 'Field for St. John's-Georgetown on Sunday share what song was played as fans approached the entranceway (ie: "walk-up" music). My friend Paul, months ago noted that they'd have to change the lyrics of "Let's Go Mets!" since the wording goes "Hot Dogs, Green Grass, Sold out at Shea ...Guaranteed to have a heck of a day!" Hopefully someone can do better than... "Hot Dogs, Green Grass, Come to 'The Field...Cheer because our baseball team will not yield." * Anyone wanna start the campaign for a Gary, Keith, and Ron bobblehead day. I have a Murphy/Kiner bobblehead, and a Sam Rosen/John Davidson bobblehead. I think they could use some company. Perhaps a bobble-stache for Keith? * Lastly, a plug for a book, and there are a lot of good ones this spring. This one's not on the Mets, but hom