Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

Normally when I sit at a game with Greg from Faith and Fear, I try to bring with me a couple of really challenging trivia questions. Friday night, I came, as the Giants did, with nothing. He hit me with a good one... What do the combination of Andre Dawson Gary Varsho Ryan Theriot have in common? I'll acknowledge being stumped at the trio's distinction, which I'll share momentarily, after allowing you to ponder for a few moments. When I woke up this morning and web-surfed a bit, I discovered that Angel Pagan had made himself part of a significant trio in Mets history. First Mets To Hit Leadoff HR in Home Ballpark Polo Grounds- Felix Mantilla (1962) Shea Stadium- Billy Cowan (1965) Citi Field- Angel Pagan (2009) It only took three home games for Mantilla to make the list, but it would take a bit longer for a Met to christen Shea with a leadoff home run. Cowan hit his on June 29, 1965, but it would be rendered insignificant by later long balls from Hank Aaron and Ed

Forty years ago Thursday is a significant date in Mets history. It was the bottoming out point for the 1969 Mets. An 8-2 loss to the Astros in Houston dropped them to 62-51. By the end of the day, after the Cubs had beaten the Padres, the 1969 Mets were 9 1/2 games out of first place, in third place in the NL East. For whatever reason, the 1969 Astros were the Mets bugaboo. In 12 meetings, Houston won 10, and the Astros outscored the Mets, 78-36. But once the Mets were done with them, something magical took place. It would be nice if the 1969 Mets could transfer their invincibility cloak forward 40 years hence, but I'm not expecting it. But then again, who would have expected something like this. Over their last 49 regular season games, the 1969 Mets highlights included... - Going 38-11 - Going 15-2 in 1-run games - An ERA of 2.06 and an opponents batting average of .207 - Tom Seaver: 9-0, 1.24 ERA - Jerry Koosman: 8-1, 2.35 ERA - Tug McGraw: 4-1, 5 SV, 0.61 ERA - Ron Swoboda: tea

I didn't really watch the Mets last night, other than for a quick peek at the score on a couple of occasions. Tuesday might be more of the same, but for a different reason. The Mets have a terrible walk-off history on August 11. They've never won via walk-off on this date. And they've lost via walk-off on this date 6 times. It's been awhile though. The last time the Mets lost via walk-off on this date was in 1994. Some may remember it as the last game of the 1994 season. It was the game that wouldn't end between the Mets and Phillies, a pretty good pitchers duel between Jason Jacome and Phillie-for-a-minute Fernando Valenzuela. Each pitcher allowed one run- Jacome through seven innings and Valenzuela through eight. I remember remarking that it felt like neither team wanted the game to end. Evidence of that: In the first 14 innings, neither team got a hit with a runner in scoring position. The Mets lone tally came via Jim Lindeman home run. The Phillies scored on a B

In the 556 days we've had Johan Santana. * He ranks tied for 4th in MLB with 29 wins (tied with sandwich-mate CC Sabathia). * He ranks 3rd in ERA at 2.72. * He ranks 3rd in opponents batting average at .234. * He ranks tied for 8th in MLB with 344 strikeouts * He ranks 13th in win percentage at .659 (pitchers with at least 20 decisions).