Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

I went looking through my database for an instance in which a former Met significantly hurt the team, the year after he left them and found one reasonably decent example. And it came against the same franchise for which both Msrs Lo Duca and Milledge now toil The Mets were in the midst of a harmful skid that would hurt them during the stretch run of the 1985 season. Granted, it was only June 15, 1985, but every game counts, and this was one of a few from that span that Davey Johnson would have liked to have had back. The Mets had lost 9 of 12 and were reeling a bit, as Joe Durso of The New York Times described it  "a tailspin accompanied by injuries, slumps and the breakdown of the bullpen." Hubie Brooks developed a rep for playing well against the Mets after they dealt him to the Expos for Gary Carter and he came through in a significant moment in this contest. They got a little salt poured on their wounds in the ninth inning of this game. Due to the injurie...

And then suddenly, we had something to write about... New acquisitions Ryan Church and Brian Schneider have one walk-off RBI apiece, so there's not much to work with there. I'm more concerned at this point, with their abilities in the field of walk-off defense. I can forgive Church for his adoration of Chipper Jones (his favorite player, while growing up in California), so long as he plays with the same kind of intensity, but a little less recklessness than he did on June 22, 2005. That day, both he and Schneider had RBI hits, and Schneider's bloop actually scored Church to give the Nationals a 5-4 lead over the Pirates in the eighth inning. With two outs in the ninth inning, Humberto Cota faced Chad Cordero and crushed a 1-2 offering to left field. Church retreated, crashed into the fence and made a fantastic homer-robbing catch to end the game. ``That won the ballgame right there.'' Expos manager Frank Robinson told the media afterwards regarding the catch, givi...

I will not be writing about Brian Stokes, sorry... Personally, I find these notes from the Transactions wire to be of greater significance TRANSACTIONS MLB METS- activated themselves from 60-day DL. Mets/Marlins game of September 30, postponed due to Glavinitis, will be made up at 7 this evening NBA KNICKS- Fired head coach/GM Isiah Thomas. Announced resignation of assistant coach Herb Williams. Signed G Isiah Thomas to 5-year contract. Signed F Herb Williams to 5-year contract. Signed C Patrick Ewing to 5-year contract. Signed G Henrik Lundqvist to 5-year contract. Released G Stephon Marbury, F Eddy Curry, F Zach Randolph, C Jerome James, F Quentin Richardson, G Jamal Crawford, G Nate Robinson, F David Lee, F Malik Rose, Owner James Dolan, F Jared Jeffries, G Mardy Collins, G Fred Jones, F Renaldo Balkman, F Wilson Chandler. Named Anucha Browne Sanders head coach/GM. The Metsaction wires know... Brian Stokes allowed 2 walk-off home runs last season and probably should not be allowed ...

I refuse to get caught up in the excitement surrounding all the Johan Santana rumors. You can thank Bret Saberhagen for that. For the kids out there who are too young to remember, Saberhagen was Johan Santana, except he was righthanded and injury-prone, as opposed to lefty and injury free. Saberhagen was a two-time Cy Young Award winner, with great control, who won a World Series with the Royals in 1985 (the year before the Mets) and was only 27 on December 11, 1991 when Kansas City traded him to the Mets, along with Bill Pecota, for Gregg Jefferies, Kevin McReynolds, and Keith Miller. On the surface, it looked like a great deal. In fairness, McReynolds and Miller amounted to essentially nothing, and Jefferies, based on his relationship with, well, everybody, was basically unkeepable, so it's not like the Mets got hosed in this deal. It's just that the potential was there to get a lot more from what they got (Saberhagen not Pecota) than they actually did. Saberhagen's Mets ...

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...

September 23, 2001 was one of the darker days for the Mets in the last seven years, though it was a great day for newest Met Johnny Estrada. While Armando Benitez was blowing a 3-run lead against the Braves with 2 outs in the 9th inning (Brian Jordan's 10th inning HR off Jerrod Riggan won it), Estrada and his Phillies friends were having much fun at home against the Marlins. While the Mets entered the day 3 1/2 games back of the Braves, the Phillies were only 1/2 a game back. The Phillies would have moved into first place with a win and a Braves loss and kept their end of the bargain in rather dramatic fashion. The Phillies blew a 3-2 lead in the 8th inning as, after getting two outs, Ricky Bottalico faltered, allowing back-to-back home runs to Preston Wilson and Mike Lowell. Scott Rolen would strand two baserunners in the bottom of the frame and the score held at a 4-3 edge for the Marlins into the home ninth. Marlon Anderson led off against Antonio Alfonseca by striking out looki...

Tom Glavine's first Mets start (Opening Day 2003 against the Cubs) was a disaster. His tenure commenced in the following fashion: Walk-double-single-double. Before Glavine knew what hit him, he was down 4-0. The Mets lost, 15-2. Glavine's last start (Closing Day, 2007 against the Marlins) was a disaster. It concluded with his hitting the pitcher, the first time he'd ever done so in his MLB career. Glavine fully realized what had hit him by this point. He left down 5-0 and would eventually be charged with seven hideous runs. The Mets lost, and I don't even wanna mention the final score. What came in between those two stints was acceptable to some, average to others, distasteful to a few, including this blogger, who never wanted him to begin with. His lasting legacy, in my mind, will be those two appearances, because they were most symbolic of what he'll probably refer to back in Fulton County, of his five-year mistake. Glavine ranked 11th in Mets history with his 61...

I realize that there is a lot of hype regarding the availability of one potential lefthander (Mr. Santana) and what it would cost for most teams to obtain his services. Although I would have no problem with their obtaining Santana, I have come up with another plan. It seems rather unlikely that the Mets can put together the necessary package, so I have a cheaper potential short-short-term alternative, albeit one with more risk and less ability, but there is reasoning behind the suggestion. I'm referencing Randy Wolf, a free agent this winter, who could likely (hopefully) easily be had on a one-year flyer at a rather limited cost, since he hasn't made it through a full season without injury since 2003. Wolf is a good fit for this reason. He's made 13 starts at Shea Stadium since 1999. In that span, he's 6-1 with a 2.61 ERA and a .213 opponents batting average. In 79 1/3 innings pitched, he's struck out 73. He likes pitching there and has said so on numerous occasions...

Apparently he isn't. Forgive me if I'm not jumping up and down about the Yorvit Torrealba signing, as I'm generally resistant to change. My feeling was that if Jorge Posada wasn't signable, the next-best option was to Keep Paul Lo Duca. You'll recall that when I did an analysis of who could catch for the Mets in 2008, my ringing endorsement for Torrealba was that he was "better than Brian Schneider." And this move doesn't exactly console me for what happened at the end of the 2007 season. Baseball-Reference.com lists Torrealba's most similar player as Jason Phillips and it looks like Torrealba is a candidate to join Phillips on the all-slow footed Mets team we drew up a couple years back. Torrealba hit into 19 double plays, struck out 73 times, and hit .201 with runners in scoring position in 396 at bats last season, so that means he's gonna kill his share of rallies. I'll put it this way: I won't be upset any time Ramon Castro draws th...

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...

So I got sucked in to watching a chunk of this major upset in college basketball last night, in which Gardner-Webb shocked Kentucky. Turns out that Gardner-Webb was named after the former governor of North Carolina and his wife, which is funny, because I thought it was dubbed in that manner in honor of a pair of former Mets walk-off winners. We've written about Rob Gardner previously (Wes Gardner never got a walk-off win for the Mets) and I think he could live up to the Gardner-Webb nickname (see blog title) but I don't believe we've ever referenced former Met Hank Webb. Webb (who looked a little like Calvin Schiraldi) won 7 games in his big league career and though he had cameo appearances with the Mets in 1972, 1973, 1974 (his miscue cost the Mets in a 25-inning loss to the Cardinals),and 1976, his only victories came with the 1975 Mets. The first of those came as the result of some walk-off perseverance. Webb had pitched three innings of relief in a 7-3 loss to the Brav...

Kudos to David Wright and Carlos Beltran. Most Gold Gloves Mets History Keith Hernandez 6 (1B) Rey Ordonez 3 (SS) Carlos Beltran 2 (OF) Tommie Agee 1 (OF) David Wright 1 (3B) Bud Harrelson 1 (SS) Doug Flynn 1 (2B) Robin Ventura 1 (3B) Ron Darling 1 (P) Some interesting minutiae * Tommie Agee was the first Mets Gold Glove winner (1970), winning in the same year in which he had a walk-off steal of home. * Keith Hernandez had one more Mets Gold Glove (6) than he had walk-off RBI (5). * Rey Ordonez had as many Mets walk-off hits as he had Gold Gloves (3). * Doug Flynn is the only position player on this list not to have had a walk-off hit for the Mets. * Ron Darling allowed a walk-off home run the year after he won the Gold Glove (he won in 1989). It was the only walk-off allowed by Darling in his Mets career. * Hernandez, Ordonez, Ventura, Beltran, and David Wright all had walk-off hits in years in whic...

I've liked what Marlon Anderson has brought to the Mets in both of his stints with the team, so I'm happy to hear that he's going to re-sign with the club. He is quite the useful player and his value is significant. I also like the following piece of trivia: Marlon Anderson's first career walk-off hit came against the Marlins. How funny is that? That there's a Mets connection throughout this game makes it pretty cool. It happened on April 9, 2001, when Anderson was a second baseman, hitting eighth, for the Phillies, who had to rally to pick up this particular victory. Florida jumped out in front 4-1 edge with four runs in the third, capped by Cliff Floyd's three-run home run against Bruce Chen, following a two-out error. Bobby Abreu's home run cut the lead to 4-2 in the sixth and Philadelphia's game-tying rally would come in the seventh inning when the first two hitters reached, and Brad Penny was chased for Braden Looper. The future Mets closer got outs...

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...

There were no walk-off wins for anybody on the day Moises Alou was born, and while father Felipe wasn't in the delivery room in Atlanta, he was a part of baseball history. July 3, 1966, is famous, not just for the birth of a Met-playing Alou, but for one of the most unlikely great performances of all-time. There were no walk-offs on this date, but this event was neat enough to merit inclusion in this blog. Felipe and the Braves were in San Francisco, taking on the Giants, right around the same time brother Matty's Pirates were squaring off in a doubleheader with the Mets (the teams would split a pair of one-run games). Perhaps distracted by childbirth issues, Felipe Alou went 0-for-3 from the leadoff spot, but was a close witness to something significant. The Braves pitcher that day was Tony Cloninger, and if that name rings a bell, it should. Cloninger was a 24-game winner for the Braves the previous season, but no one remembers that, because of what happened on this day. The ...

And with today being Halloween, the New York Knicks will dress themselves up as a reputable organization. Seriously, this is a tough time for me as a sports fan. The Jets season basically feels as if the Mets merely extended their schedule past the 162-game mark and kept playing as they were throughout the last two weeks. The Rangers looks mediocre too. And I find it hard to root for a team (though I still will) that employs Isiah Thomas and Zach Randolph. So we stick with baseball... * My fav tidbit from the World Series: Jonathan Papelbon's 5-out save was the longest save to close out a World Series since Jesse Orosco's 6-out save in 1986. * Possible slogan for 2008: You Gotta Have Less (The Red Sox had, including postseason, 4 walk-off wins, 3 fewer than the Mets). Though, at this point, I'm leaning towards: Make The Last Game, the Best Game. * A-Rod: Sure, bring him on. Posada: Absolutely, but not for 3 years. Schilling: Yeah, shoot, maybe he'd even post a link to t...

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...

I've been debating whether to purchase one of these CitiField bricks ($195 for a 3-line inscription, in case you hadn't heard), and to this point haven't been able to pull the trigger on a purchase. Being of a background in which both creativity and Metsitivity have been encouraged, I do have a few suggestions on brick phraseology, for those who may be contemplating their own purchase (15-character per line limit). I'd also encourage the Mets to include a smattering of bricks with these historic words of choice. Ya Gotta Believe Baseball Like It Oughta Be The Happy Recap (15 characters exactly) Ball On The Wall Gets By Buckner (15 characters exactly) Mets score 19 And win! Amazin' Amazin' Amazin' The Magic Is Back Welcome to Kiner's Korner (would also make a good name for a concession area) Shoe Polish Play Marvelous Marv It's Outta Here (another 15'er) and here are some that I don't think will slip past the censors Why didn't he swing???...

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...