Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

We haven't done a quiz in awhile, so consider this one a tribute to the perfect (Ruddy Lugo), the imperfect (the Giants beating the Patriots), and the newest Mets ace (Johan Santana). Answers here: http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2007/02/our-special-bonds-perfection.html Let's start with this: Since the Mets began playing in 1962, 31 pitchers have had seasons with a record of 6-0 or better. Newest Met Ruddy Lugo is one of the members of that group, whose others include... 1- The winning pitcher in the July 10, 1999 instant-classic walk-off win against the Yankees (Matt Franco's 2-run single). It was one of eight wins for this unblemished Met that season. Name him. 2- The pitcher who got a 15-inning walk-off win in 1983 and an 18-inning walk-off win in 1985. He went 6-0 for the 1984 Mets, but is best known for getting a non-walk-off win in a game that lasted longer than either of the two mentioned. Name him. 3- The pitcher who went 7-0 for the 1992 Braves, but went 4-10 for...

Johan Santana, you cost us the 2007 NL East. But we'll welcome you to New York anyway. My flawed logic is based on the idea that had the Mets beaten Santana, rather than suffered a rather humiliating, 9-0 defeat last June 19, they would have won 89 games, instead of 88, and thus finished in a first-place tie. There are certain things I learned about Santana that put him back in my good graces, though. * He persevered : While things were super-rosy for the 2000 Mets, they were anything but for Santana. The first nine games in which Santana pitched, a year after being nabbed as a Rule V draft pick (and subsequently dealt to the Twins), he lost. On June 6, Santana earned his first major-league win, although I'll admit I considered striking that victory from your record when I learned it came against Jose Lima. In that first season, Santana pitched in 30 games. The Twins lost 28. Santana posted a 6.49 ERA. Apparently he got a lot better since then. * He throws harder than ol' w...

Sorry, got too many projects to deal with at the moment...will resume blogging in the near-future and will be back at it on full-time basis once we get closer to season... Keep checking back, and read the archives...there's good stuff there.

"I want to leave something that's going to stand for a long time. I want to leave a legacy." -- Isiah Thomas prior to another humiliating Knicks defeat. Isiah may have forgotten. His legacy has already been left in Madison Square Garden. The last shreds of the Evil Empire that was the Bad Boys Pistons were actually buried in that building on May 3, 1992 when they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by a Knicks team that had both hope and heart, two things that the current squad is pathetically lacking. The Knicks implemented a one-year program to win young fans back that year, bringing back the G.O. cards that my dad used to use to get into the cheap seats when he was a kid. They allowed you to get 2-for-1 deals on selected nosebleed seats if you were a high school student, so my friend Dan Gordon and I took advantage for that game. The record shows that the Knicks won the game 94-87 behind 31 points and 19 rebounds from Patrick Ewing, but that's not wh...

I know that earlier this year I made a comparison of Rangers center Chris Drury to Keith Hernandez, but I think my initial instincts were correct. The better choice is Drury's teammate, Brendan Shanahan. I'm in need of a new favorite Met now that Paul Lo Duca has departed (the besmirching of his name via Mr. Mitchell didn't help either) and I think that role is well-suited for Shanahan. The thing that's great about Shanahan is that he's 38, but plays hockey like someone who is 28 (he also took a very reasonable salary to stick around, aiding the team in a time of salary cap issues). He is often not only among the best offensive players in the game when he's on the ice, but one of the best defensive players. He's someone who makes the smart play and the clutch play, the latter in evidence on Sunday when he scored his 12th career regular-season overtime goal (5th-most among active players). He's a leader, who got a standing ovation at a game I attended on ...

Not sure how many folks might have seen the obit for former Met Jim Beauchamp, who died earlier this week. Beauchamp holds a special place in our blogging hearts, as he's the only Met with a rather notable walk-off distinction- he hit a walk-off home run on his birthday. So feel free to check out the link and remember one of the happier memories from this man's lifetime. http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2006/08/quickies.html

Admittedly, this is coming from someone who once thought that Carl Everett for John Hudek was a good trade, but I have to tell you that I like last week's signing of Matt Wise. Yes, I know of Wise's struggles in the last two months of the season, but let's look at what he did in the first four months. 3-1, 2.70 ERA, 43 1/3 IP, 34 H, 30 K, 10 BB That's better than what Aaron Heilman gives you. It's basically as good as what Duaner Sanchez gives you. And it's a hell of a lot better than what Guillermo Mota gave you. And from what I remember seeing of Wise, I liked. In six appearances against the Mets over the last three seasons, he allowed only one run in eight innings This is a low-risk, high-reward kind of move, basically the pitching equivalent of signing Endy Chavez or Ramon Castro a couple of years ago. If the Mets are a good team this year (there seems to be a lot of doubting at this point) and Wise's mental problems are fixed, he'll be a very valuab...

The Mitchell Report as it pertains to Mets walk-off wins. * Len Dykstra had one walk-off home run for the Mets. It came in Game 3 of the 1986 NLCS against the Astros. * Todd Pratt had one walk-off home run for the Mets. It clinched Game 4 of the NLDS, thus winning the series, against the Diamondbacks. * Todd Hundley hit a walk-off home run for the Mets, to beat the Pirates in the 12th inning, on July 30, 1996. * Matt Franco had 3 walk-off singles for the Mets, most notably a two-run game-ender against Mariano Rivera, to give the Mets a very satisfying 9-8 win over the Yankees on July 10, 1999. * Mo Vaughn had a walk-off single to beat the Reds on July 26, 2002, and a walk-off single/error combo to beat the Royals on June 21, 2002. * Fernando Vina had a 15th inning walk-off single to beat the Padres on April 27, 1994. (He also had a walk-off hit against the Mets, September 2, 2000, while with the Cardinals) * Gary Bennett, Mark Carreon, Chris Donnels, Paul Lo Duca, Gary Matthews Jr., an...

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...