Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

I'm a little slow to react as I've been quite busy, but I see that on Wednesday the Mets lost a spring training game against the Red Sox via walk-off grand slam. For the record, this is a fate that has befallen the Mets on six different occasions in regular season play. The culprits have been, for the most part, as unlikely as Boston's wannabe rookie Ed Rogers. Most will probably single out the walk-off grand slams by Bo Diaz (1983, trailing by 3 runs), Tom Herr (1987, set the tone for the season) and Brian Jordan (2001, basically finished off hopes of a miracle finish) as the least Metmorable in team history, but there's another one that stands out in my mind as having caused great anguish. I'm referring to the particularly painful clash with the Phillies on Friday, August 13, 1993. That, for those who forget, was a misery-filled campaign, which hit the lowest of low points on this unlucky day. I was a few weeks away from going off to college for the first time in ...

OK, I've returned from my hiatus. Let's review what happened while I was away. * Gil Hodges didn't get into the Hall of Fame That's unfortunate, because he deserves it, and I have a feeling what's holding him back is a lack of appreciation from those whose careers began after Hodges' untimely death. Perhaps Tom Seaver would be wise to educate them on facts such as this, gleaned from Hodges' Wikipedia bio: Of the 21 players who had 300+ career home runs at the time of Hodges' retirement, Hodges is the only one not in the Hall of Fame. True Metges know: Hodges had the second walk-off hit in Mets history, just a few hours after the first, a game-winning home run against the Braves, in game 2 of a doubleheader on May 12, 1962. * Spring Training games began, and the Mets got a walk-off win We don't count spring games in our tally, but if we did, we'd probably spend some space singing the praises of Carlos Gomez, who we got to see in one appearance for...

My apologies for not posting for awhile, but I've been busy with other endeavors. I'll be back up and running soon...Probably my next post will be on Monday March 5.

A hearty welcome to Sandy Alomar Jr. with the hopes that he fares better than his namesakes did in Mets jerseys. You may just think I'm referring to Roberto, but keep in mind that Sandy Sr. went 0-22 with the 1967 Mets. If Sandy Jr. makes the team (which would require something happening to Ramon Castro) he would have the distinction of becoming the first person to play for the Mets who had a walk-off RBI in an American League Championship Series. Chris Chambliss had one too, but he was only a Mets coach. You may think that we're talking about Sandy's home run off Mariano Rivera but that wasn't a walk-off (it was a game-tying shot in the 8th inning) and it wasn't the ALCS (it was Game 4 of the ALDS). Our reference is to Game 4 of the series that followed- the ALCS against the Orioles. There's a nice Mets twist to this game in that it featured six one-time players, including a couple who played a prominent role in the game's outcome, and a significant former ...

Now that camp has begun, I've decided to unveil my slogan for the season. In the recent past I've gone with Ya Gotta Deceive (1991-93), Ya Gotta Make Believe (2005) and I Wanna Believe (2006) and looking back, I can come up with variations on the theme such as Ya Gotta Conceive (1962), and Ya Gotta Achieve (1969 and 1986). This year, my philosophy is a simple one: Ya Gotta Get Worse. The reasoning for this is easy to explain and I could probably even persuade Willie and Omar of its validity. In 2005, the Cardinals won 100 games. In 2006, they won 83. The 17-game decline from '05 to '06 was the biggest in the majors. And yet, the Cardinals emerged as champions. I'm all for copycatting what worked in previous instances, so let's take that same approach as the folks from St. Louis. So it doesn't really bother me that the Mets don't really have any established answers in spots three through five in the pitching rotation. It doen't worry me that the leftf...

By now you've probably heard about the miracle of birth that is Ty Wigginton's son , Cannon (yes, that's the name), delivered by the ex-Met by hand. On MetsBlog, they referred to it as one of Wigginton's finest defensive plays. My joke was going to be that it's the most clutch Wigginton has been since July 15, 2004, the date of his only walk-off hit as a Met. I liked Ty Wigginton as a player, but I never felt like he was clutch. The numbers bear that out for his second season, when Wigginton hit only .190 with runners in scoring position before being traded to the Pirates (he hit .288 with RISP the season before, but there weren't many notable Mets hits in 2003). The closest thing Ty Wigginton got to a big Mets hit was in this game, against the Phillies, an 11th-inning triumph that moved the Flushing False Hopes to 45-43 and within a game of first place. The story of this game, prior to its conclusion, was the performance of the Mets bullpen in relief of Steve T...

It seems a little too easy for me to write about former Mets Bobby or Ellis on this day of amore, so I shall look for something a little more challenging. There is another former Met with a name connection to this date and his place in team history is underrecognized. That's expected when your big league career consists of but one major league hit and your only baseball card is put out by "The Wiz." Those are the kind of Mets who are among my favorites- the Mike Glavine's and Ross Jones' of the world. For every superstar, there is someone like this, whose name is meant to be kept alive through the magic of blogs like this. The fellow of whom I speak today is Greg Harts, who I imagine from time to time wonders what might have been, with his three-game major league career. I can fill you in on what was. Here's what I know. * Greg Rudolph Harts was born on April 21, 1950 in Atlanta. He was a scholastic MVP in baseball and football at David Howard High but went un...

It seems an appropriate time to tell this story, with catchers and pitchers due to report in a couple days. You may recall that Casey Stengel once said something to the effect of "You've gotta have a catcher. Otherwise, you're going to have a lot of passed balls." Well, it took the Mets five years to bear this out, but Stengel's wisdom proved to be prophetic. The bizarre season that was 1967 took a twist ever so unusual on that July 27, when the Mets were in Los Angeles to take on the Dodgers. We'll pick up the action in the 7th inning, wiht the Mets trailing 3-2. With two on and two outs, backup catcher John Sullivan struck for a game-tying single to center. Mets manager Wes Westrum elected to pinch-hit for pitcher Danny Frisella with another catcher, Greg Goossen. That move, in and of itself wasn't so strange, but the companion to it- having regular catcher Jerry Grote run for Sullivan- put the Mets in the position of using all three of their catchers in...

* Of the 799 players to have played in a game for the Mets, 374 (46.8 percent) have thrown a regular-season pitch for the team. * Of the 799 players to have played in a game for the Mets, 71 have played catcher (8.9 percent). For comparitive purposes, 134 (16.8 percent) have played third base. * The full list of those 21 who have caught for the Mets, who also had a walk-off RBI as a Met: Jerry Grote Mike Piazza Todd Hundley John Stearns Ron Hodges Gary Carter Mackey Sasser Duffy Dyer Todd Pratt Jason Phillips Alex Trevino Jesse Gonder Choo Choo Coleman John Stephenson Ramon Castro Tommie Reynolds Alberto Castillo John Sullivan Norm Sherry Jim Tatum Hobie Landrith * 115 pitchers have recorded a walk-off win for the Mets and I'm not going to list them all. * 2 Mets pitchers had a walk-off RBI for the Mets, and the names tell you that we're playing trickery: Derek Bell and Matt Franco. No Met whose primary position was pitcher has had a walk-off RBI for the team * 29 players have ...

Saturday, Chan Ho Park, think it was the 4th of July. --Chicago, circa 1972 I've found that I usually prefer my misheard interpretation of song lyrics to the actual wording, but in this instance I do like the real version of the song referenced above, often played at Shea Stadium for weekend affairs. It wasn't the 4th of July the last time that Chan Ho Park pitched in the Flushing ballpark, but rather a Sunday, May 20, 2001 and the Mets were seriously sputtering at 16-26 with the Dodgers in town. Park was starting for the visitors against Rick Reed and this was a rare occasion in which things went right for the home team early in the contest. Back-to-back doubles by Rey Ordonez and Reed brought in two runs and Timo Perez added a single to give the Mets a 3-0 edge on Park and that lead had a long-lasting effect. While Reed was cruising, Park was dodging bullets. The Mets had at least one baserunner in all six innings that Park worked but produced no further results. In the sixth...

I shall ruminate on Chan Ho Park at another time, but I have a personal matter I've been wanting to write about lately, so hopefully you'll indulge my perspective on that. Those who know me know that one of the passions that keeps me going through the winter months is broadcasting small-college basketball. It's something I've been doing for the past decade, since my college days and I get great enjoyment from it. I have broadcast baseball, football, soccer, field hockey, ice hockey, softball, and lacrosse as well, and have enjoyed my experience in those, though for whatever reason it seems that basketball is the best fit for my skill-set. I've had the pleasure of calling the game-winning field goal in a national championship, a home run to cap a six-run ninth inning rally on Opening Day, and a winner-take-all overtime goal in an ice hockey regional final. But I've never called a walk-off shot in a basketball game. As a connoisseur of fine broadcasting, I have a ...

With all the hullaboo over Barry Bonds that's sure to come this spring and summer, lest we forget the accomplishments of home run king Hank Aaron, who turns 73 this February 5. Super would seem to be an appropriate word to describe Hank Aaron as a hitter today and Aaron performed quite well against the Mets, hitting .295 with 45 home runs against them. The 650th home run of Aaron's career came on June 13, 1972, and it came in a game that would probably still bug us to this day, had we been around to see it. The Mets at this time were in a battle for first place in the NL East, legit contenders or so it seemed based on early-season success, so each game was rather vital. They entered against the Braves having lost seven of 10 and clinging to a tie for first by a thin thread. The result that followed was probably not all that surprising given the circumstances. The Mets had control of this game through the first seven-and-a-half innings. Tom Seaver homered in support of his effor...

Answers to the trivia quiz posted February 5, 2008 http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2008/02/our-special-bonds-perfection.html 1-(Name the Met who went 8-0 in 1999, including a walk-off win against the Yankees) That would be Pat Mahomes , best remembered by me for standing out on the mound, making sure to wish the pitcher who relieved him good luck after being pulled in Game 5 of the 1999 NLCS. 2- (Name the Met who went 6-0 in 1984, who was well known for winning games of extraordinary lengths) That would be Tom Gorman who was the winning pitcher in the wacky 19-inning Mets-Braves game of July 4, 1985. 3- (Name the Met who was 7-0 for the 1992 Braves, whose first name started with P) That would be Pete Smith , who finished his career with a rather imperfect 47-71 record. 4- (Name the Met who went 7-0 in 1987 and was traded for a "familiar voice") That would be Tim Burke , who was not only once traded to the Mets for current broadcaster Ron Darling, but was also involved in a ...

Before we welcome Ruben Sierra in and out the same door through which Andres Galarraga and Bret Boone walked, we welcome him to the fold, at least temporarily, while gawking at a career that has produced a dozen walk-off RBI. Sierra has been playing baseball long enough such that he impacted our favorite season, 1986, ever-so-slightly and we revel in the accomplishments in one particular game that year. Bobby Valentine was managing the Rangers in 1986 when Sierra, then a raw rookie came through. Back then, Sierra was a wower, with a nifty combo of power and speed and a penchant for extra-base hits. He homered in his major-league debut on June 1 and became a Rangers regular pretty quickly. Flash forward to August 25 in Arlington and a Monday Night Baseball matchup between fireballing youngsters Bobby Witt and Roger Clemens, who was bidding for his 20th victory for the Red Sox. For seven-and-a-half innings this was a pretty good battle, with the only runs coming in the fourth on RBIs by ...

Before we begin, I must admit to pilfering this idea from the website Bleed Cubbie Blue , which went on a similar venture in search of the Best Cub Ever. That website is worth a visit when you finish here. A fellow blogger is doing a rather comprehensive analysis of the 50 greatest Mets of all-time at the website Amazin Avenue (also recommended for visitation), and my friends at Faith and Fear did a wonderful job with something similar not long ago. I must admit that I don't have the time or patience to attack that cumbersome a project at the moment, so I prefer to cut right to the chase. I have a write-in candidate whom I feel is as worthy as the likes of Seaver, Strawberry, Hernandez, and Piazza. His name is John DeMerit. John DeMerit, an outfielder from Wisconsin played 93 major league games, mostly for the Milwaukee Braves and hit .174. He raised his average over the final 14 games of his career by going 3-16 (.188) for the 1962 Mets. In those contests he had one home run, one...

I typically pay respect on January 31st to those of baseball fame born on this date- most notably Jackie Robinson, Ernie Banks and Nolan Ryan but it occurred to me today that there are some other fine folks who celebrate January 31 with me and I thought it apt to pay tribute to those with a Mets connection. I offer congrats on another year of life to Rafael Santana, the only player among the regulars on the 1986 Mets not to have had a walk-off hit for the team at some point in his career (though he did win a game via walk-off error). If you were going to salute what I call the "best-worst" Mets of all-time, Santana is a good place to start. His .218 batting average was acceptable for that season because of those who preceded him in the lineup. Santana filled his role legitimately. After struggling through the first four months with a sub-Mendoza batting line, Santana hit a rather robust .295 in August to bring his numbers to a more respectable level. It's oft-forgotten th...

In the vast swath that covers the entire history of major league baseball, newest Met Aaron Sele holds the distinction of having the most wins for any pitcher with an ERA equal or higher to his. Sele has a 4.59 ERA yet has somehow amassed 145 career victories. If you wanted to call him the Worst Good Pitcher in baseball history, I wouldn't have a problem with that. But we won't yet put him on "The Tidrow List" , not until we see his body of work anyway. You never know. He might end up starting in Game 7 of the 2007 World Series, although his current postseason mark of 0-6 would make us a little nervous come October (offset slightly by a 19-9 record in interleague competition). One memo I'd write to Willie Randolph is to not let Sele (or Guillermo Mota for that matter) face Scott Spiezio because Spiezio is 18-for-36 against him. Basically, he's a poor man's Steve Trachsel. In four of Sele's eight wins as a starter last season, his team proffered up 10 o...

This whole Willie Randolph contract "dispute" turned out to be much ado about nothing, eh? While some newspaper columnists were panicking or taking issue with the pace of the negotiations, I never had any worries about Randolph's future status. This is the best job that Randolph might ever have and I couldn't see a scenario in which he chose to walk away from running a team in the city in which he grew up. Besides, Willie has only "walked off" the job once in his career, and I couldn't see him doing that now. I'm referring to the Yankees-Red Sox clash of August 16, 1985. Boston carried a 4-3 lead into the last of the 9th, but the Red Sox of that time lacked an established closer (as does the current squad) and couldn't finish this one out. Ron Hassey led off the final regulation frame for the Yankees with a single. Randolph, batting in the 7th spot in the lineup, did his job, bunting pinch-runner Billy Sample to second base. Mike Pagliarulo follo...

The answers to our Tom Glavine-themed trivia quiz of June 22, 2007 http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/06/our-special-bonds-nibbler-questions.html 1- Andy Benes , whom many forget posted the only Cardinals win in the 2000 NLCS, allowed 6 hits to Glavine in 22 at bats during his illustrious career. His 116 losses in the 1990s are the most among any pitcher. 2- Kevin Mitchell owned Tom Glavine, to the tune of a .356 batting average with 5 home runs, 12 RBI and 10 walks in 45 at bats. 3- The opposing starter that day of Glavine's debut was former Met Mike Scott . The lone future Met in the lineup was rightfielder Kevin Bass . 4- It would seem natural to guess plunkmaster Craig Biggio (283 career HBP, 4 shy of the MLB record) , whom Glavine has never hit with a pitch (in 113 plate appearances), but the correct answer is actually Barry Bonds . 5- Somehow the Mets beat the Braves 9-7 that day without getting any RBI from either Edgardo Alfonzo, John Olerud or Bernard Gilkey (2 thru 4 ...

Within the span of 48 hours this weekend, I got e-mails from two different high school acquaintances, both now attorneys, indicating that they were relocating. Eddie Lieber, whom I had lost touch with for a long time, is returning to New York after a brief respite in San Antonio. Jeff Piroozshad, based in Miami for a stretch, has moved to California, where he'll be toiling for the Upper Deck baseball card company. I bring this up because I'm hurting for something to write about in the short term, and their e-mails provided an inspiration. Jeff, Eddie, and I once attended an otherwise-forgettable Mets walk-off win just prior to the start of our time in college. Jeff and Eddie were classmates and members of my fantasy sports leagues. We also played in a computer baseball league utilizing the now-antique"Earl Weaver Baseball" and to this day, many of us are still convinced that Eddie cheated (his record was something like 75-5 when we were all struggling at .500), though...