Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

For old postings, check out the Table of Contents , an easy-to-read reference guide for previous stories . Alas, this again has nothing to do with walk-offs, but it's as good a Mets-related story as I can tell, even if it is a little bit of a downer. This seems like as good a time as any, with the news of Dwight Gooden's fugitive status being resolved on Thursday. As was mentioned in a previous post, I was a Shea Stadium tour guide for 10 weeks or so in the summer of 1994. Long story short, I showed up at an open audition advertised in the New York Times and showed enough enthusiasm in a videotaped tryout to be one of 20 or so employees hired by Nickelodeon, which was building a mini-carnival beyond the right field bullpen. In order to prepare us to give tours, we had a couple of weeks of rehearsal time. The tour script was dreadful (those in the know realized there was no way Jay Horwitz, the Mets PR director, could have approved any of this), penned by someone who hadn't...

Check back in this weekend, as I'll have another "Minutiae Break," albeit a rather sad one related to Dwight Gooden's arrest on Thursday. The Mets have had more than their share of unusual walk-off moments against the San Francisco Giants. A cursory glance at my database shows the presence of the five-run rally , the muffed pop up , the 1-0 14th-inning triumph and a bunch of walk-off walks. For whatever reason, it seems that when these two teams meet, the stars align with the rest of the baseball world to produce something memorable. On August 31, 1990, the Mets were 1 1/2 games behind the Pirates for first place in the NL East and hosting San Francisco, while Pittsburgh was visiting Houston. This was right on the eve of the postseason roster deadline, one in which, on the cusp of the trade deadline, the Mets obtained Tommy Herr, Charlie O'Brien and Pat Tabler in separate last-minute deals, but the events on the field proved to be more important. Both games turned...

Trace the lineage of Mets cult heroes and you must begin with the man whose initials were M-E-T: Marvin Eugene Throneberry. If you're a regular reader of this site, you probably know of the legend of the man known as "Marvelous Marv," who according to multiple sources, looked like Mickey Mantle. They failed to mention that he hit like Mickey Klutts . The last word of the previous sentence was a good way to describe Throneberry, whose foibles as a member of the 1962 Mets were legendary. The stories have been sourced in many places before, so I don't object too much to repeating them. Throneberry once was called out after an apparent triple. In his haste to race around the basepaths, he failed to touch first base. When manager Casey Stengel came out to argue, he was told not to bother. Throneberry had missed second as well. Throneberry made Mo Vaughn look like a Gold Glove at first base. In 97 games, he made 17 errors. Frank Thomas told a story on "The Miracle Mets...

Part II of a series of oft-forgotten notes regarding the most famous walk-off win in Mets history. Part I can be found here Every story you read about Game 6 of the 1986 World Series will tell you that John McNamara screwed up big-time when he didn't bring Dave Stapleton into the game at first base as a defensive replacement for Bill Buckner. Those pieces cite how Stapleton played first base at the end of every other Boston win that postseason, and how Buckner, dealing with a myriad of injuries, had no business being in the game. The decision was a total no-brainer for McNamara and he blew it, particularly after what happened in the next-to-last at-bat of the final frame. Most people stop their videotape after Dave Henderson's home run, and fast forward to the bottom of the 10th. They miss two moments of significance. One is the single by Marty Barrett that bring in Boston's second run. The second is Bill Buckner's at-bat. Buckner came up with Barrett on second and two ...

On a side note...I've changed the settings to allow comments from anyone...thus anyone who wants to make remarks regarding "The Tidrow List" (see prior post) can do so in an easier fashion...back to walk-offs today. Had there been a wild-card race in 1973, the Mets would have been 18 games behind the Cincinnati Reds at this juncture, so as it was, it was best that they set their sites on winning the NL East title. Their predicament was slightly similar to both the current Mets (on the brink of escaping last place) and the present Diamondbacks (11 games under .500 entering the day). August 24, 1973 was a few weeks removed from Tug McGraw's "Ya Gotta Believe!" rallying cry and the Mets had shown flashes of being a better team. They had back-to-back walk-off wins over the Dodgers on August 21-22 (we'll write about those another time) and had developed a penchant for playing in one-run games (they were in the midst of a run of seven straight such contests). ...

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...

Some spare, somewhat useless notes from Saturday, with the possibility of more to come, plus a bonus note from Sunday's game. Documented walk-off #328, the 9-8 triumph on Saturday, was the sixth Mets walk-off win of the season, the second in a row by a 9-8 score. It was the 22nd walk-off win against the Nationals/Expos franchise and the first walk-off win vs the Nationals/Expos franchise since a 7-6 triumph on July 1, 2003 ( Tony Clark single ). It was the first walk-off win to take place on an August 20th. The Mets have had one walk-off win on an August 19 (1969, Tommie Agee homers in extra-innings to beat Juan Marichal and the Giants, 1-0 ) and an Amazin' five on August 21sts. It is the second walk-off win this month. The last time the Mets had two August walk-off wins was August, 1999. It was the fourth Mets straight walk-off win to take place in extra-innings. The last time the Mets had a run of four straight walk-offs, all of which took place in extra-innings and during th...

You don't have to believe me when I tell you that my pre-game Mets media guide random page stroll on Saturday, August 20, took me to , among other places, the bottom of page 166 of the current edition. The guy on the No. 7 train riding back from Shea Stadium seemed a tiny bit skeptical when I told him that the biggest lead the Mets had ever blown in a loss was not the seven runs that he had been told earlier in the day, but rather an eight-run cushion (for the record, against the Cubs, a 9-1 edge turned 12-9 loss on April 19, 1980. The seven-run advantage has led to a Mets demise three times, including once as part of the worst 24-hours in New York sports history (Mets blew an 11-4 eighth inning lead vs Reds on May 6, 1995. Later that night, the New York Rangers hockey team blew a 4-2 third-period lead in their playoff opener with the Quebec Nordiques. The following afternoon, the Indiana Pacers stunned the New York Knicks in their series-opener, when Reggie Miller scored eight poi...

Most people don't like going to the dentist. I've become somewhat desensitized to it, as I've gone through enough painful experiences (4 wisdom teeth and I believe 8 regular teeth pulled in my days as a youngster) to know that a trip for a cleaning, like the one I'm making into NYC this morning, is a walk in the park. My dentist happens to be a baseball fan, which makes things a little easier. An excursion like this gives me the opportunity to ruminate on a Mets comparison. What is the Metsian equivalent to a trip to the dentist? I suppose that for some, the answer could be "Watching Keith Miller try to play centerfield." A couple of days ago I hinted at Miller's lack of skill in the outfield. Today I'll approach it in more of a full-fledged manner. Keith Miller was not a very good centerfielder. There you have it. I don't know why, but my most significant memory of Miller is watching him take a blooper of a 65 mile-per-hour curveball from Bob Knep...

I have been asked if I take "blog-requests" and indeed I do. My first request comes from the folks at " Faith and Fear in Flushing " who wanted to read my take on the walk-off of September 12, 1985. Since one of those bloggers works in the beverage industry, I think he'll appreciate my special twist on this story. First, some context. In 1985 I was 10, so the memories are a little fuzzy, but baseball moments tend to stick in my head, like watching Cesar Cedeno's two-strike home run fly over the left field fence, and John Tudor's whiff of Darryl Strawberry to end a 1-0 10-inning classic Cardinals win the night before the game we're referencing. I believe our seats that night were along the left field line and Cedeno's homer whizzed right past us. That allowed the Cardinals to tie the Mets for first place in the NL East. The night was historically notable because during one half-inning break, the DiamondVision showed us that Pete Rose had broken Ty...

I got into a lengthy discussion with a couple of Mets fans regarding Antonio Perez's no-hitter-ending triple off Pedro Martinez on Sunday. Among the things we wondered were whether Carlos Beltran or Mike Cameron would have caught the ball (For the record, I think Beltran would have and I think Cameron would have jumped and missed it). So then you start playing the mental game...Tommie Agee would have caught it, the oldtimers will say. Len Dykstra would have crashed into the fence going after it. Keith Miller would not have caught it. I don't know whether or not Joe Orsulak would have caught the ball, but it would have been interesting to see him try. I'm not sure why Orsulak's name came to mind (perhaps it had something to do with scanning the list of players in my database as I searched for something to write about), as he was primarily a corner outfielder during a career that began in 1983 and ended in 1997, with a 338-game stop with the Mets from 1993 to 1995. But Or...

So I was sitting at work on Monday night, getting things done, when one of my colleagues at his desk flipped on ESPN Classic. The program that was on was "5 Reasons You Can't Blame Bill Buckner for Losing the 1986 World Series" (I must admit, that's rather catchy). This colleague, a Red Sox fan, watched rather intently, and I peered over his shoulder for a little while. A shot of Dave Henderson's go-ahead home run in the 10th inning of Game 6 appeared on the screen, with a quick cut to Roger Clemens giving high-fives to his teammates in the Mets bullpen. I pointed out to my colleague, that just behind Clemens, there was some grafitti on the bullpen wall. In big red letters, were the spray-painted initials "R.C." I casually mentioned that it was good to see that Roger Clemens was such a class act back then that he (or some other vandal) felt the need to leave his signature at Shea. That, of course, created the bad karma that caused the Red Sox to lose tha...

Sometime around 1979 or 1980, a couple of Mets were working a local baseball clinic and one particular skinny teenager from Brooklyn bugged them the whole time they were there. "I'm gonna make the big leagues some day," the young man insisted. Little did those Mets know then how valuable the kid from Thomas Jefferson High, Shawon Dunston, was going to be to their team someday. In 1982, Dunston was the prize of the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft, selected with the No. 1 pick by the Chicago Cubs. He was in the majors as a shortstop and Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg's double-play partner by 1985 (he reminded those Mets from the clinic what he told them a few years before) and gained a reputation as a bit of a free swinger, whose golden arm was capable of throwing out a batter from anywhere on the infield (Joe Morgan said it was the best he ever saw), and who had potential to be a great hitter if he could cut down on the strikeouts. Prior to the Mets trading Roger McDo...

There was one walk-off I was saving for a special occasion, and much to the dismay of Mets fans, the ideal circumstances for such an entry came up with Sunday's Mets-Dodgers game, in which Pedro Martinez lost his no-hitter and then the ballgame in the eighth inning of a 2-1 loss to the Dodgers. The diehard Mets fan is probably with some similar such games. Ron Darling had a no-hitter against the Phillies for seven innings before the Mets blew a 4-0 lead in horrific fashion. The folks at Faith and Fear in Flushing recalled seven innings of glory for Randy Tate against the Expos in 1975 before he too lost no-hitter and game. The Mets have been on the winning end of blown no-hitters, most notably one by Jim Maloney in 1965 that went 10 innings, before Johnny Lewis homered to beat him in the top of the 11th. The Mets have a history in regards to no-hitters on both ends of the spectrum, of famous breakups and near no-nos (I've been to a few), and while they've been no-hit, (most...

The Dodgers put the Mets to bed at a rather late hour on Friday night/Saturday morning. It might be of consolation to weary-eyed Mets fans today to know that the Mets have given the Dodgers their fair share of sleepless nights. Lets take August 1 and 3, 1977, shall we? Sure, Los Angeles was well ahead in the NL West and the Mets were a hopeless last-place team, but the games fit our purpose of today's entry anyway. That August 1 game was one of those that the team that bats last was destined to win. Even facing future Hall of Famer Don Sutton and company, the Mets were undaunted by deficits of 1-0, 3-1, 6-3, and 7-6. Steve Henderson's two-run home run in the sixth inning evened things at six and ended Sutton's night, and when the Dodgers subsequently left the bases loaded in the seventh, there must have been a feeling in the air that good things were going to happen for the Mets this day. This one went extra frames and the Dodgers pulled ahead in the 11th inning on a home r...

Jim Hickman is the answer to about a million good trivia questions, Mets related and otherwise. For example: Q: Who was the first Mets player to hit for the cycle? Jim Hickman, August 7, 1963 Q: Who hit the last home run at the Polo Grounds? Jim Hickman, September 18, 1963 Q: Who was the first Mets player to hit 3 HR in a game? Jim Hickman, September 3, 1965 Q: Who had the winning walk-off hit in the 1970 All-Star Game, the one most remembered for Pete Rose knocking over catcher Ray Fosse to score the winning run? Jim Hickman and then there's this one... Q: Whose walk-off grand slam, one that broke Roger Craig's 18-game losing streak, did this blogger forget to enter into his walk-off database, thus throwing all his data out of whack? Jim Hickman, of course, August 9, 1963 . I'd tell you more, but I'm in the midst of an elusive game of phone tag with Mr. Hickman, who still works in professional baseball, and I don't want to spoil the fun of any future posts. True Me...

Someone mentioned autographs in the comments section regarding the Neil Allen posts, and how Allen was the first autograph he ever got. My first baseball autograph was Dave Kingman. If I remember right, the circumstances were such that they used to hold baseball card shows at Shea Stadium. This was sometime during the spring/summer of 1982/83 and to that point, my collection of baseball cards consisted primarily of packs that my dad used to bring home from his candy store. But apparently the decision was made that we would take up card collecting as a more serious hobby. At this Shea show, each attendee had the chance to get a ticket to get an autograph of a current Met. Ours happened to be for Dave Kingman. Kingman had two stints as a Met and both were rather unpleasant. Yes, he was a giant, who could hit the ball higher and farther than anyone else in the majors, but the price paid for that was an embarassingly low batting average and a lot of strikeouts. Kingman played parts of six ...

Continuing along with the Neil Allen-lovefest, there's a good story behind his first major-league victory. It occurred on May 20, 1979, against the St. Louis Cardinals in a season so pathetic that the highlight video was called "Fireworks" (I'm told by fellow bloggers that this was the first year the Mets had Fireworks Night) and the team had to win its final six games to avoid a 100-loss season. It was not the type of game you'd expect them to win, but then you remember, these are the Mets . The Mets only beat the Cardinals once in nine meetings at Shea that season, and for all intents, they should have gone 0-for-9. What started as a topsy turvy matchup pitting Mets ace Craig Swan against Bob Sykes (later traded for Willie McGee) turned into what appeared to be a Cardinals extra-inning win, after St. Louis scored three times in the top of the 10th to go ahead, 7-4. Allen stranded a pair of baserunners in relief of Dale Murray, who yielded all three runs. The Car...

I was on the No. 7 train coming back from Flushing a couple weeks ago and my uncle Richard told the story of how his son, my cousin Michael, cried the day that the Mets traded Todd Zeile in January, 2002. I don't remember how I reacted the day that my favorite Met was dealt, and I don't have any recollection of why I picked this player as my favorite, but I do have a neat story to tell about him, and I can tie it in to walk-offs, if you'll indulge. Neil Allen (middle name Patrick) was born in Kansas City, Kansas, on January 24, 1958. That part I know by heart, as his birthday was a week before mine (the January 24, part, not 1958). He was drafted in the 11th round in 1976, made his Mets debut in 1979 as a starter but was moved to the bullpen shortly after recall. His chronology of pictures his Topps cards are rather oddly sequenced. His 1980 rookie card shows him in mid-delivery, ball in hand. The 1981 card has him just about to plant his front leg and the back reveals he ...