Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

Appropos of nothing, I used Baseball-Reference to create a Mets grand slam database the other day. Figured my first use of it would be for some good, fun, trivia questions, ones a little tougher than "Who has the most grand slams in Mets history?" (Mike Piazza, 6). Answers in the comments section 1- The record for most grand slams allowed by a pitcher against the Mets is 3. Name the pitcher who allowed them. Hint: The Mets who hit them were Robin Ventura, Cliff Floyd, and David Wright. 2- Name the 3 Mets who hit multiple grand slams in 2006. Hint: Two are easy. One is hard. 3- Angel Pagan became the 2nd Met whose first name started with "A" to hit a grand slam. Who was the first? Hint: He played in the 1960s. 4- Four Hall of Famers have allowed a grand slam to the Mets. Name them. Hint: Steve Carlton and Don Sutton didn't... 5- What Met was the first to hit 3 grand slams for them in the same season, doing so in 1976? Hint: He played first base 6- Who is the only...

99 players have played for both the Mets and Red Sox in their careers (thank you Baseball-Reference). Let's test your knowledge of some of them...Answers in the comments section. 1- Five pitchers have pitched for both the Mets and Red Sox and won a Cy Young Award. Tom Seaver and Pedro Martinez are two of them. Name the other three. 2- Five players who played in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series have played for both the Mets and Red Sox. Name them. 3- Name the 2 player who played for both the Mets and Red Sox who stole 20+ bases for each of them. Both had "problematic" baseball careers. 4- Name the pitcher who gave up a World Series-ending walk-off hit who pitched for both the Mets (before it) and the Red Sox (after it). 5- Name the pitcher who went 11-25 combined with the Mets and Red Sox. He pitched for them 12 years apart (Red Sox in the 1980s and Mets in the 1990s). His career record with teams other than those two: 229-211. 6- Five players who played for both the Mets a...

Answers in the comments section 1- How many former Mets played for the 2008 Phillies? 2- Name the members of the 1986 Mets who also played for the Phillies at some point in their career. 3-Name the former Met who hit exactly 100 career home runs for the Phillies, most for anyone who played for both the Phillies and Mets. 4- Name the only pitcher to win 40+ games for both the Phillies and Mets. 5- Tug McGraw and this pitcher both pitched for the Mets, and the 1980 Phillies, at some point in their career. Name him. 6- Two infielders who pitched for the Mets also played for the Phillies at some point in their careers. Name them. 7- Name the only player to play for the 1962 Mets and the 1964 Phillies team that choked away the NL pennant. 8- Name the former Met who struck out with the bases loaded and two outs to end GAME 5 of the 1980 World Series. 9- Of those who played for both the Mets and Phillies, who had the most stolen bases FOR THE PHILLIES? 10- Name the members of the 2008 Mets wh...

I could have written a detailed history of Carlos Beltran's strikeouts, but instead I chose to write in honor of the best team in baseball... Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/07/our-special-bonds-know-your-rays.html 1) 20 pitchers have pitched for both the Mets and Rays. Only one of those 20 had a winning record FOR THE RAYS. Name him. 2) The Mets have employed 4 players who hit 10+ career home runs for the Rays. Here are hints for each one Player 1- Navidad Player 2- Shares his initials with those after whom a famous bridge is named Player 3- If you go to Shea, buy a burger in his honor Player 4- Currently plays in the state of Texas 3) The Mets won the first meeting with the Rays. The losing pitcher in that game pitched 2 career games for the Mets. Name him. 4) A man who played against the Mets in a postseason broke up Rick Reed's no-hitter in the 7th inning of that game. Name him. 5) The Rays hitting coach is Steve Henderson. Steve Henderson got his first ...

In honor of the scourge pitching against the Mets on Saturday... Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/04/our-special-bonds-spy-answers.html 1) Who has more World Series titles- the Mets franchise or Tom Glavine? 2) Of the 181 hitters to have a .300 career batting average against Tom Glavine (minimum 10 plate appearances), name any of the 40 that currently or formerly played for the Mets. 3) What would be the historical significance if Tom Glavine allowed 196 earned runs without retiring a batter in his start against the Mets? 4) In the process of doing that, Glavine would jump from 19th to 6th on the all-time list for most career earned runs allowed. What two former Mets lefthanders would he pass? 5) Tom Glavine lost to the Braves 11 times in his Mets tenure from 2003 to 2007. How many other pitchers, in that span, lost to the Braves at least 11 times? 6) If Tom Glavine drove from Shea Stadium to Turner Field immediately following his final Mets start (to celebrate his d...

Now that you've finished your Thanksgiving meal, how about washing it down with some Turk Wendell trivia? Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/11/our-special-bonds-turk-keys-answers.html 1- Name the former Met first baseman with the highest career BA vs Wendell (minimum 10 plate appearances). 2- While a member of the 2000 Mets, Wendell gave up 3 walk-off home runs. Two of them came against former Mets. Name the two, one of whom was a second baseman, the other of whom was a shortstop. 3- Turk Wendell had 3 career major-league hits. Name the former Met who gave up his last hit, while a member of the Rockies. 4- Turk Wendell's first major-league win came against the Padres on October 3, 1993. The losing pitcher was a former Met, whose first initial matched his last initial. Name him. 5- Two batters went 0-for-8 with 6 strikeouts in their careers against Wendell. One is Shane Andrews. The other reached a significant home run milestone against the Mets. Name him. 6- T...

I want to make the quizzes on this site a consistent occurrence during the offseason (ie: weekly) and I was blocked for something to write about until I found out that Friday marks the 72nd birthday for a Mets nemesis (and former pitching coach, Bob Gibson). I've done my fair share of referencing Gibson on this site, though his 28-14 mark against the Flushing fellows makes it hard to find too many positives. I don't know the demographics of my readership, but I'm guessing those that never saw Gibson pitch will struggle mightily with this quiz, while those in the 50-and-older set, will have a better shot. Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/11/our-special-bonds-hoot-and-holler.html (As always, thank you Baseball-Reference.com) 1) Bob Gibson allowed at least five home runs to 7 different players. Two of them have a Mets connection. One played for the Mets for a single season and is not fondly remembered. The other coached for the Mets, the same year that Gibso...

Got a request on Thursday from someone who was looking for a list of the Mets all-time leaders in walk-off home runs. I obliged with an answer, and it occurred to me how that query should be acknowledged among my most frequently asked questions. Rather than to provide the list in its simplest form, let's have a little fun, with another trivia challenge. The answer to each of these questions is a Met who hit at least 3 walk-off home runs in his career. As a hint, I will provide the name of at least one pitcher against whom the answer hit a walk-off HR. That will allow you to establish the era for the player in question. Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/11/our-special-bonds-most-mets-walk-off-hr.html 1) This Met hit 3 walk-off HR in his tenure and all 3 came with at least one man on base. Pitcher hint: Blas Minor 2) I wouldn't identify this Met as being part of club royalty, but among his 3 walk-off HR was one that came in the 17th inning of a game. Pitcher hin...

Going away for about 10 days or so (maybe a little less). May try to post once while I'm on the road, but don't count on it. In the meantime, try out a quiz on the 2007 World Series and its relationship to the Mets. Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/10/our-special-bonds-2007-world-series.html 1) Among pitchers Todd Helton has had more than 10 plate appearances against in his career, his highest career batting average is against this former Met, who pitched against the Rockies on Opening Day, 1995. Name him. 2) Name the Red Sox regular, who homered off a former teammate, giving his team a walk-off win against the Mets on May 29, 2004. 3) This former Mets and Rockies pitcher held Manny Ramirez to 1 hit in 10 career at-bats when the two faced each other (including postseason). He struck Ramirez out 4 times. Name the pitcher. 4) Terry Francona hit 1 career home run against the Mets. It came in 1985 against a pitcher better known for pitching in only one game for t...

Happy anniversary to the Grand Slam Single (October 17, 1999), and we'll make this the last of 3 straight days of Mets quizzes, with these questions specifically geared towards that game and series. If you want to read a remembrance of the game, go here http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2005/08/walk-off-most-foul.html Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/10/our-special-bonds-grand-slam-single.html 1) Masato Yoshii started and pitched 3 innings, Octavio Dotel relieved and pitched 3 innings, but name the Met whose 3 1/3 inning stint was the longest for the Mets in Game 5 of the 1999 NLCS. 2) Three players for the Braves in that game also played for the Mets at one point in their career. Name the backup catcher, the starting outfielder, and the relief pitcher, the latter of whom was the losing pitcher in Game 4 of this series. 3) Name the (now-disdained) Met who had the team's highest batting average in the series (minimum 10 AB), though he played, but did not bat in...

Today is a Sweet 16th in Mets history, as in a celebration of October 16th, 1969, when the Mets (the Colorado Rockies of their time) clinched the World Series with a win over the Orioles. We thought we could best commemorate that with a quiz. Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/10/our-special-bonds-miracle-mets-answers.html Just a note: We hope you like these quizzes...expect to see a lot of them this winter. They're easy to write. They're entertaining. They're difficult (that's the point...you shouldn't be able to easily think of the answer). And they're the kind of clever discourse we like to encourage in this space. 1) The 1969 Mets won exactly 100 games during the regular season. How many teams prior to the '69 Mets won exactly 100 games in a regular season? Name them. 2) The Met who took the worst 0-for in the 1969 World Series (0-for-7) had the game-winning hit in the game in which the Mets won their 100th game. Name him. 3) Three Mets ...

Monday marks the 21st anniversary of "decision-day," in which I picked going to Hebrew School over watching the seventh through ninth innings of Game 6 of the NLCS between the Mets and Astros. In honor of the memory of that game, I figured it worthwhile to offer another of my trivia quizzes. This one is 6 questions, in honor of Game 6 (instead of 16, in honor of 16 innings). As always, thanks to Baseball-Reference.com for the assistance. Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/10/our-special-bonds-1986-nlcs-game-6.html 1) Among players with at least 50 plate appearances against the Mets in 1986, this "player of significance" had the 5th-best batting average, .347. Name him. 2) Only two players hit walk-off home runs against the Mets in 1986. One was Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn. The other was an infielder, who went 0-for-3 in this game, and struck out to open the 16th inning. Name him. 3) The Mets had two hits through the first eight innings against Bob Kne...

Faced without baseball for two days, we look for things to do to fill our spare time. In such situations, we like to fill our voids with trivia and offer up this October baseball quiz you might enjoy. Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/10/our-special-bonds-october-notables.html 1) Let us begin with a question of recent significance. Prior to Jorge Posada, this Met was the only player to strike out FOR THE YANKEES to end a postseason series. Name him. 2) The opposing catchers in the October 3, 1951 game in which Bobby Thomson hit the "Shot Heard Round the World" both later worked for the Mets. Name them. 3) What future Met was the winning pitcher in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, in which Kirk Gibson hit the game-winning home run against Dennis Eckersley? 4) What former Met was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS, in which Francisco Cabrera singled in the tying and winning runs in the bottom of the 9th. 5) Ralph Terry gave up the World Series-winn...

At some point today, Tom Glavine will announce that he's declining the 2008 option on his contract, thus making himself a free agent while he contemplates retirement, a return to the Mets, or the likeliest option, signing with the Braves. http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/10/our-special-bonds-hopefully-this-means_04.html I've already made it known that I don't want him back and I don't want to rehash my reasoning. I had this whole plan to write another essay, nicknaming him "The Stench," but it's just not worth it. I guess I softened slightly after hearing his appearance on WFAN the other day (reduced my Glavine anger to 99 on a scale of 100). I'll say this...had it just been a couple dink hits and a 2-3 run first-inning, I think I could have lived with it better. But the throwing error and the HBP basically ended any chance of us ever having a positive relationship. Let's just complete the divorce proceedings with this goodbye tribute trivia. ...

Equal time for the other member of the Mets broadcast crew as we continue to wallow in the misery of this great malaise Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/09/our-special-bonds-ron-darling-answers.html 1) Ron Darling lost to the Phillies in his major-league debut. I'd ask who the winning pitcher was for the Phillies, but I don't believe that's a challenging question, once I refer to him as a former Met. So I ask instead: What future Hall of Famer struck out as the first batter of that game? 2) On the subject of strikeouts. Name the Hall of Famer who was Darling's most frequent strikeout victim? From 1983 to 1991, this player (not a pitcher) had 82 AB against Darling and whiffed 21 times. 3) The first 3 batters to hit home runs against Ron Darling all played for the Mets at some point in their careers. The first played only a season for them, playing 79 games, with 10 home runs on a team that didn't hit many home runs. The second hit a grand slam, one...

Wednesday is the 22nd anniversary of one of my favorite regular season walk-off wins and since I don't feel I could write it any better than this http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2005/08/ode-to-playgrounds-and-egg-creams.html I'm going to use it as a means of segue to ask some trivia about a favorite, whose base hit won that game, for whom there's a short film out bearing his name, and who has taken some flak from local media for spending too much time goofing off in the booth. So without further ado, let's get to some Keith Hernandez trivia questions. As always, mucho thankyous to Baseball-Reference.com, without which such frivolity would not be possible. Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/09/our-special-bonds-im-keith-hernandez.html 1) Keith actually shortchanged himself on the air the other day, claiming he only he had one multi-homer game in his career. That wasn't true. He had three, and his first was against the Mets. But getting back to the t...

As per usual, a trivia quiz (with much help from Baseball-Reference.com ) centered around an appropriate theme. Perhaps it will provide you with something to do this weekend, either between games of the Mets day/night doubleheader or prior to induction ceremonies on Sunday. Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/07/our-special-bonds-hall-of-fame-answers.html 1) The first player inducted into the Hall of Fame, who at the time of his induction could say that he had played in a regular season game against the Mets hit .405 with 6 home runs and 21 RBI in 30 games against the Mets for his career (including the first 3-HR game against the Mets). Name the man who also happened to be a teammate of Ruben Gotay's uncle. 2) Hall of Fame pitchers went 14-3 against the 1962 Mets. Name the three Hall of Fame pitchers that the '62 team managed to beat. 3) The best example I could find of a pitcher DOMINATING a Hall of Famer is for this pitcher vs Willie Stargell. This pitcher he...

The Mets enter Monday's game with an all-time record of 205-205 against the Padres. In honor of that and that this blog is approaching post # 500, I figured it be worth it to break out another series of trivia questions. If you bat .500, I'll be impressed. Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/07/our-special-bonds-even-steven-answers.html 1) How amazing is it that this pitcher's record as a Met was 47-47? 2) Name the six 500-HR hitters to hit a walk-off HR against the Mets 3) This Met was 36 when he joined the team. He only had 2 at-bats, but after striking out in his first, had a memorable extra-base hit in his second. Name him. 4) This man went 11-11 against the Mets, the most wins by a pitcher who finished his career with a .500 record against the Mets. He's better known for two things- having won the clinching game of a World Series, and the bizarre manner in which his career ended. 5) This former one-year Met pitcher ranks second, with a 10-10 record ...

Seems like the right thing to do today is to pay tribute to 7/7/07 with a 7-question quiz devoted to that number. And we want to be a little more challenging than to ask questions about Jose Reyes or Dwight Gooden's total number of Mets home runs Answers can be found here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/07/our-special-bonds-lucky-7s-answers.html 1) The Met who ranks 7th on the club's all-time list in home runs never hit a walk-off home run for them. The six who rank above him in home runs all had walk-off home runs for the Mets. Name the Met whose career with the team featured 120 home runs. 2) The pitcher who ranks 7th on the club's all-time wins list pitched in parts of 7 seasons for the Mets. That he was a lefty and pitched in a Game 7 for the Mets should narrow down the list (it's not Oliver Perez!). Name the pitcher whose 82 Mets wins are one more than David Cone. 3) Only one player in club history has won 7 games with a walk-off RBI. My telling you that his...

Chew on these as you try to figure out who the NL's closer should be, should it have a 9th inning lead in San Francisco next Tuesday. Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/07/answers-to-trivia-quiz-posted-on-july-3.html 1) In honor of snubbed John Maine, who's probably a little steamed about not making the team, the only All-Star born in Maine is also the state's winningest all-time pitcher (115 wins). He pitched in the All-Star Game in 1979 and 1983, and has a significant connection to Mets history. Name him. 2) Most really intense Mets fans probably know that Richie Ashburn was the team's first All-Star in 1962. What member of baseball royalty was the second, the next season? 3) The pitcher who lost the 2001 All-Star Game happens to be a former Met, and wasn't a Met for long. Name him. 4) Three players who played in the 1969 All-Star Game went on to play for the Mets later in their careers. Willie Mays is the outfielder in that trio. Name the two inf...