Mets Walk-Offs And Minutiae

News and notes on the newest Mets * New signee Josh Fogg has allowed 1.28 HR per 9 innings in his MLB career. The Mets have employed 3 pitchers who have logged more than 1,000 innings and have a HR per 9 rate of 1.28 or worse: Jose Lima, James Baldwin, and Oliver Perez . * Mike Hessmann, billed by the Daily News as the real life Crash Davis, has averaged a HR per 12.9 at-bats in his major league career. That's the same home run rate that Barry Bonds had in his career. We'll leave out that Hessmann strikes out every 3 at-bats. * Frank Catalanotto, if he plays, would become the 60th Met from New York state to play for the Mets. That's a group that includes Joe Torre, Ken Singleton, John Franco, Warren Spahn, and Shawon Dunston . It also includes Bobby Bonilla.

This is for all those who wonder what could have been. Let's play a game of make believe, just for a moment. Let's pretend Darryl Strawberry had, instead of signing with the Dodgers, re-signed with the Mets. Let's pretend that all the issues he dealt with- marital, financial, drug and alcohol related, didn't exist. Let's say he played six more seasons with the Mets at a Darryl Strawberry level. We can say they went something like this. .253 BA, 36 HR, 104 RBI .277 BA, 27 HR, 91 RBI .286 BA, 32 HR, 110 RBI .274 BA, 27 HR, 97 RBI .297 BA, 29 HR, 89 RBI .300 BA, 41 HR, 111 RBI You might recognize those numbers. They're the stats from the seasons in which Reggie Jackson was from the ages of 29 to 34. Let's now build in a fade to Strawberry's career, because producing at his level for 14 years definitely takes its toll. But let's make the presumption that he stayed a Met for life, and didn't have the luxury of the DH to fall back upon. We'll give ...

I want to look at where Dwight Gooden ranks among pitchers in Mets history, and I want to show just how much better he is than anyone who has followed him. Here's one way that we do that. Since the 1984 season began... * Dwight Gooden is your leader in Mets victories with 157. No one else has even reached 100. Most Wins for Mets Since 1984 157-Dwight Gooden 98- Sid Fernandez 98-Ron Darling >>Leader among current Mets: John Maine, 38 * Dwight Gooden is your Mets leader in complete games with 67, nearly doubling the next-closest person. Most CG For Mets Since 1984 67-Dwight Gooden 34- David Cone 24- Ron Darling 23- Sid Fernandez >> Leader among current Mets: Johan Santana, 3 * Dwight Gooden is your Mets leader in strikeouts with 1,875. No one else is within 400 of that. Most K For Mets Since 1984 1,875- Dwight Gooden 1,449- Sid Fernandez 1,172- David Cone >> Leader among current Mets: Oliver Perez, 457 * Dwight Gooden is your Mets leader in ERA, by a hair...(among t...

On Opening Day 2002, Gary Matthews Jr. pinch-hit for Al Leiter and flied to left field against Pirates reliever Mike Lincoln. That was the only at-bat of Matthews' Mets career...at least probably until Opening Day 2010. Matthews will soon depart from what is a prestigious Mets club- the one at-batters. There are currently 43 players whose Mets vanity plate could read ONEAB. * Most of them are pitchers. That position numbers 35, headed by current Met middle-man Sean Green. * Green is one of 18 players whose only Mets at-bat was a strikeout. Class of '62 Met Dave Hillman is at the front of that line, alongside teammate Bob G. Miller. . For him, bat silence was Golden, as in Jim Golden, who struck Hillman out and also holds the distinction of having a multi-triple game against the Mets. * Imperfection is the mark of many a one at-batter. Their collective account reads just five hits in 43 tries, which explains why most of them only got one turn at the plate. There was no Met fo...

When I was at the Hall of Fame a few months back, I got taken by surprise by one piece of memorabilia in Cooperstown's collection. A shattered shard from Jolbert Cabrera's bat was donated as a remnant from the greatest walk-off comeback win ever, the 15-14 Indians win over the Mariners on August 5, 2001. Cabrera, the newest Met, had the game-winning hit in the rally from a 14-2 seventh-inning deficit, an 11th-inning single against Jose Paniagua. Should Cabrera play for the Met, he'd join this roster of former/future Mets, who were a part of history. John Olerud, who was 2 for 3 with an RBI, before being pinch-hit for with his Mariners team up 12-2 in the fifth inning. Mike Cameron, who played the entire game for Seattle in center, and went 3-for-6 with 3 RBI. Mariners starter Aaron Sele, who was charged with 5 runs in 6 2/3 innings, and who can blame this game for his failure to reach 150 victories (he's at 148). Roberto Alomar, who went 0-for-2 as the Indians starting ...

5 trivia questions about Mark McGwire and the Mets, that have nothing to do with Steve Trachsel. 1- Mark McGwire's first career home run came in 1986 against a former Met, whose first name starts with W. Name him. 2- Mark McGwire's 50th home run in 1998 came against the Mets, and the pitcher who allowed it had a first name that starts with W. Name him. 3- Mark McGwire's 400th career home run came in 1998, also against the Mets. The pitcher who allowed it had 16 Ws that season. Name him. 4- Mark McGwire's 50th home run in 1999 came against the Mets. The pitcher who allowed it had a 3-letter last name, and had 1 career W with the Mets. Name him. 5- The pitcher who allowed the most home runs to McGwire is a former Met lefty. He pitched one miserable season for the Mets, in which he had 7 Ws. He did not allow a homer to McGwire while with the Mets. Name him.

It's been over a year since we elected anyone to the Mets Walk-Offs Hall of Fame, and we're going to make an addition today. The choice may be deemed slightly controversial, but it's our Hall of Fame and what would a Hall be without controversy. For those unfamiliar, the following 30 people are members of the Mets Walk-Offs Hall of Fame. If you're wondering why any of them are in, do a search of their name within this blog and you should find your answers. Benny Agbayani, Tommie Agee, Bill Buckner, Gary Carter, Lenny Dykstra, Wayne Garrett, Kenny Greer, Steve Henderson, Keith Hernandez, Gil Hodges, Ron Hodges, Cleon Jones, Ross Jones, Ray Knight, Hobie Landrith, J.C. Martin, Rodney McCray, Kevin McReynolds,Kevin Mitchell, Rey Ordonez, Mike Piazza, Todd Pratt, Tom Seaver, Rusty Staub, Darryl Strawberry,, Ron Swoboda, Marv Throneberry, Robin Ventura, Al Weis, Mookie Wilson Our newest inductee is one who comes up on the Cooperstown ballot next year. He's unlikely to re...

We haven't done any Mets home run breakdown analysis here since the conclusion of our Top 60 Most Metmorable Home Runs, so I thought I'd take a bit and look at a fun piece of trivia. Most Mets REGULAR SEASON home runs by opposing pitchers first name. Again, this information was compiled with the help of Baseball-Reference.com, from which I garnered a list of every Mets home run. #1 Mike (246) The total: The Mets have hit 246 home runs against pitchers named Mike. That doesn't count: The three they've hit against pitchers whose first name was Michael (close doesn't count). Name variety: Those Mikes encompass 57 different last names Who dat?: Among those Mikes who gave up one: Mike Davison, Mike DuPree, and Mike Roesler. Some of the best home runs vs a Mike : Del Unser hit a 17th-inning game-winning home run against Mike Wallace on April 19, 1976; Howard Johnson hit the Mets 3,000th home run against Mike Scott on May 5, 1990. The most victimized Mikes : Morgan 22,...

Tomorrow, they will announce the BBWAA inductees for the Hall of Fame class of 2010. One potential honoree holds a special place in Mets history, though it's probably one with which you're not familiar. Andre Dawson has batted into the final out of the game in more Mets wins than any other player. Dawson has made the walk-off out 17 times, three more than the man with the next-most, Jose Cruz Sr (14). This is a record that doesn't look like it will be broken any time soon. The leader among active players is Andruw Jones with 11, one more than Pat Burrell's 10. Yes, I actually took the time to figure that out, with great assistance from Baseball-Reference.com, because that's just the sort of thing we do here. In 10 of those 17 instances, Dawson represented either the tying or winning run, so these were some pressure-packed moments that the Mets pitchers survived. In fairness, he did get three walk-off hits against the Mets, including a pair of walk-off home runs, Th...

Let's celebrate 2010, and not just with my brand new "Images of Shea Stadium" 2010 calendar, whose cover features the ballpark's namesake giving a ceremonial wreath to Joe Torre on Opening Day, 1978 (they didn't have a more apt image than that?) I'm in a joyful mood, and not just because it's the New Year. I've finally found a needle in my haystack, and wouldn'tcha know who was involved, albeit indireectly. Those of you who know this blog know that there's one type of ending that I was particularly intrigued by , but had been unable to find evidence of it occurring in a major league game. It turns out that it has happened, more or less. I'm referring to the Dodgers-Reds game, the only documented one to end in this manner within the last 55 years, on August 1, 1971. Our protagonist didn't make his impact until the 11th inning of this game, or rather, the game made an impact on him. With one out and the bases loaded, Bill Buckner was hit ...

Some things about Jason Bay that you probably don't know... * He's Canadian, from Trail, British Columbia. He'll be the 6th Canadian-born Met, joining, in order of success: Ron Taylor (1969 closer), Tim Harkness (early-years infielder), Ken MacKenzie (winning record for 1962 Mets), Ray Daviault (not much to say about him), and Brian Ostrosser (1973 cup-of-coffee guy). Harkness is the only one of those to hit a home run. * He's 59-for-his-last 66 in stolen base attempts (13-for-16 last season) That's 89 percent, which is quite good. * Jason Bay was NL Rookie of the Year in 2004. Rookies of the Year for Others Went on to Play for Mets Hideo Nomo Mike Piazza Vince Coleman Pat Zachry Willie Mays Angel Berroa Carlos Beltran Sandy Alomar Jr. Eddie Murray Tommie Agee * He went to Gonzaga That was also the school of choice for former Mets Tom Gorman (6-0 for the '84 Mets) and Rick Sweet (ex-backup catcher). * He's hit Joba Chamberlain, Andy Pettitte, and Brad Lidge ...

Let's play a little end-of-decade trivia. Answers in the comments section. 1- Two pitchers had the most shutouts for the Mets in the decade. The easy one is better known for a shutout he pitched in another decade. The harder one allowed only nine hits over the 36 innings of those four shutouts. Name them. 2- What Mets pitcher do we remember for having the most strikeouts in a game in the 2000s? 3-In the very first game of the decade, a Mets pitcher came within one ____ of tying a club record. Fill in the blank, name the pitcher, and name the pitcher who is the record-holder for that stat (hint: they share a first name). 4- Every Mets starting pitcher in a game this decade retired at least one batter, except one, who left with an injury that would sideline him for a month. This pitcher had an ERA over 5 in his lone season of the decade with the Mets, but is remembered pleasantly. Name him. 5- Among pitchers with 10+ starts for the Mets this decade, this one had the LOWEST percentag...

The Ultimate Mets Database tells me that 874 players have played in a game for the New York Mets. I'd guess if you were going to rate them on performance, compared to expectations, Roberto Alomar would rank 850th or below (but I haven't actually done this). It is very hard for me to reconcile the Roberto Alomar, Mets version, with the one that, in my mind, is a pretty easy check-off for this year's Hall of Fame class. It is essentially a case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, or in this case Robbie Fameful and Roberto Shameful. In 2001, for the Indians, Alomar had the best statistical season of his career. He hit .336. He never had a better batting average than that. He had an OPS of .956. He never had a better OPS than that. He had 100 RBI. He only had one season with more than that. He had 113 runs scored. He only had two seasons with more runs scored than that. In 2002, for the Mets, Alomar had the worst statistical season of his career. He had a .266 batting average. To that p...

I'm a couple days late on this, but the Mets have a new Hall of Fame inductee- Whitey Herzog. Herzog was a farm director for the Mets and spent one season in an on-field role in 1966, as the team's third base coach. In terms of eventful events, 1966 had a few, most notably drafting catcher Steve Chilcott with the No. 1 pick instead of Reggie Jackson, then lucking into Tom Seaver when the team's name was drawn out of a hat in a special drafting procedure. On the field, the Mets avoided losing 100 games for the first time in franchise history, going 66-95. Their roster included a number of players who became major contributors on the 1969 team- Kranepool, Harrelson, Jones, Swoboda, McGraw, and Ryan. Ryan has been in the news recently, as the Texas Rangers, for whom he is team president, are being sold, and Ryan said he will leave the team if it is sold to the ownership group headed by agent Dennis Gilbert. Ryan appeared in only two games, but he must have made quite an impres...

Have a little time to spare (or sacrifice) away from the rumors of the Winter Meetings (most of which won't come true anways). If so, saddle up for our lengthy look here at the most Metmorable of the Mets 2,074 (regular and postseason combined) sacrifice flies. The First (April 11, 1962) The Mets trailed their first-ever game, 2-0 in the third inning when they staged the first rally in team history. Charlie Neal got the team on the board with an RBI single, and then with one out and runners on the corners, Frank Thomas delivered the first 'clutch' play in Mets history, putting himself into the history books with a fly ball to center that scored Felix Mantilla. The score was tied. The Mets had hope. The Mets had life. The Mets had very little. They'd lose to the Cardinals, 11-4. Their next sac fly didn't come for another week. True Metophiles know...Ed Kranepool holds the Mets career record with sacrifice flies with 58, though David Wright (38) is gaining fast. The ...

Let's hope the most exciting news of the rest of the year isn't that the Mets just signed a catcher whose most similar players stat-wise include Charlie O'Brien and Kelly Stinnett. I was in favor of pursuing Jose (not Bengie) Molina, so I actually like the signing of Henry Blanco, for the purposes of walk-off prevention. There are few better than Blanco on the defensive end, and throwing out would be basestealers is his strength. In his career, Blanco has thrown out 43 percent of those attempting to steal on him, and for those who fear he's getting old, he threw out 18 of 45 (40 percent) for the Padres in 2009. And after reading a little bit on Wikipedia and MLB.com, I'm feeling a little (albeit not much) better about the prospect of Blanco batting late in a close game. Turns out Blanco has a walk-off hit that is viewed as a big deal. In the final game of the 2006 Carribean World Series, Blanco's popup hit the head of Dominican shortstop Erick Aybar and caromed ...

"Why Coste ???" IM received at 9:29 PM Monday I have a theory. Omar has decided that his strategy for the winter is to accumulate a collection of free agents who have had walk-off RBI against the Mets over the last two years. That nets Coste to compete with Josh Thole and Omir Santos in a 3-for-2 battle at catcher. It lands Aubrey Huff and Troy Glaus as the first base platoon, meaning Daniel Murphy can be used as trade bait. It yields Darin Erstad to bring veteran leadership and a bat off the bench. And oh yes, it brings along a left fielder too. Someone named Holliday. Mets fans who beat the high Coste of living know... Chris Coste's walk-off RBI against the Mets is the only walk-off RBI in his major-league career.

Bill Buckner is in the Hall of Fame. For that matter, so is Bill Buckner, the pitcher, with whom the research librarians in the Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown, made sure I wasn't looking for when I asked for the Buckner file. Every major league player has a file in the Hall of Fame Library, filled with newspaper/magazine clippings, photos, correspondence, signature samples, and all sorts of other goodies. These are of great value to folks such as myself. You have to wear white gloves when handling the contents. When I went to Cooperstown about a week or so ago, near the end of my visit, I stopped in the library. There was only one file I wanted to see, and it took me an hour to sift through everything in the folder. Its contents were fascinating to me. And two nuggets in particular stood out. On April 4, 1981, the New York Daily News headline read "Mets may acquire Cubs' Buckner." Jack Lang quoted a source that the Mets were talking to the Cubs about trading Joe...

I was watching the end of Game 2 of the 1969 World Series on MLB Network a day or so ago, and was intrigued by something that happened right at the end of the game. When Jerry Koosman departed after 8 2/3 innings, pitching the Mets to within an out of victory, the Orioles fans IN BALTIMORE gave him a very loud and sincere ovation. Perhaps they were happy because he was pulled from the game (Koosman allowed only one run and two hits), but it seemed to be more than that. Greg of Faith and Fear tells me that it was a custom of that time that the road pitcher would get cheered if he did well, and I have a vague recollection of that being so from my early days as a fan. Anyway, I just thought it made for a cool moment, and it also got me to look up the most ovation-worthy Mets pitching performances. But let's go one further on the criteria and limit it strictly to ROAD GAMES. In 1988, Bill James invented a stat called Game Score that evaluates starting pitching performance. An average ...

When you think of the most memorable postseason moments in Mets history, doubles don't immediately come to mind. There have been no "grand-slam doubles" or walk-off doubles that would rank among the best-of-the best, and there have been a few postseasons bereft of any really important doubles. But we're here to recognize the underappreciated, and with that, as a companion to what we previously wrote , we present our notes on those that were most Metmorable. 1969 Go figure that the first really, really significant double in Mets postseason history was hit by a pitcher, and one who finished his career with an .095 batting average. But in another of the many signs that 1969 was just meant to be, Gary Gentry, who was 6-for-74 with 52 strikeouts in the regular season, helped his own cause with a two-run double in the second inning of the eventual 5-0 win over the Orioles in Game 3. It's an oft-forgotten hit, lost in the heroics from Mets centerfielder Tommie Agee that ...