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[Edgy MD]

Felix Mantilla
John Stephenson
Art Shamsky
Don Hahn
Wayne Garrett
Chico Walker
Rubén Tejada
Curtis Granderson

What club do all of these beloved Mets belong to?  What, besides their Metly status, do they all have in common?

[whippoorwill]

Florida born?

[MFS62]

They were struck out by Nolan Ryan?

Later

[seawolf17]

Eight people who have never been in my kitch--- ah, dammit. We had Shamsky over for dinner that one time.

I have no idea where to start on this, but I'm going to guess it has something to do with leading off, maybe? They're all hitters, so I assume it's something hitting-related.

[Edgy MD]

A quick check suggests Felix Mantilla was not born in Florida, and Curtis Granderson was not struck out by Nolan Ryan.

They are indeed all hitters.

[whippoorwill]

Yeah after I said that I looked up Mantilla

[Edgy MD]

I'm thinking the last active player who could say he was struck out by Ryan was Manny Ramirez, who debuted in 1993 and lasted until 2011.

OE: That's a no.  Manny's only appearance against Texas that year came with Kenny Rogers on the mound.

[Edgy MD]

Best I could find on the Ryan front is Eduardo Perez, who faced Nolan Ryan three times in 1993 and struck out two times, and then went on to last until 2006.

Jim Edmonds faced Ryan as a rookie in 1993, and lasted all the way through to 2011, but he disqualified himself by showing heart, putting the ball in play all three times against the 46-year-old phenom.

[MFS62]

They appeared on Kiner's Korner?

Later

[Edgy MD]

I would doubt that as Kiner's Korner last aired in 1995 to the best of my knowledge.

It's theoretically possible that Ruben Tejada appeared on Kiner's Korner as a five-year Panamanian, but I think I would have remembered that.

[Benjamin Grimm]

All had their legs broken by Chase Utley?

[MFS62]

They did the same thing in their first major league at bat - struck out or got a hit?

It wasn't clear if they are the only members of that club.

Later

[Gwreck]

There’s one specific thing I’m certain Chico did as Met, and I see two 2015 Mets here so my guess is they all made the last out for a team being no-hit?

I don’t think there were that many no hitters thrown against the Mets so I’m guessing some of these guys were the final victim for other teams.

[Edgy MD]

1 hour ago, Gwreck said:

There’s one specific thing I’m certain Chico did as Met, and I see two 2015 Mets here so my guess is they all made the last out for a team being no-hit?

This is correct.

A review of Mets no hitters suggests a couple of things:

• As much as any dog may be able to have his day, better pitchers are going to get these things more frequently, and the Hall of Famers more frequently than that.
• These things tend to happen more frequently in mid-summer, perhaps when a lineup is fatigued from the grind.
• They also tend to happen the last week of the season, perhaps when a lineup has one foot in the offseason.
• They also tend to happen in doubleheaders, perhaps when the line-up is checkered with subs and perhaps conserving their bullets.

Date	Opponent		Pitcher	Last Out	Note(s)
June 30, 1962	Los Angeles Dodgers		Sandy Koufax	Felix Mantilla
June 21, 1964	Philadelphia Phillies		Jim Bunning	John Stephenson	Perfect game; first game of DH
September 20, 1969	Pittsburgh Pirates		Bob Moose	Art Shamsky
October 2, 1972	Montreal Expos		Bill Stoneman	Don Hahn	First MLB no-hitter pitched outside US; first game of DH
August 24, 1975	San Francisco Giants		Ed Halicki	Wayne Garrett	Second game of DH
September 8, 1993	Houston Astros		Darryl Kile	Chico Walker
June 9, 2015	San Francisco Giants		Chris Heston	Rubén Tejada
Octtober 3, 2015	Washington Nationals		Max Scherzer	Curtis Granderson	Second game of DH

[Gwreck]

I had completely forgotten about the Moose, Halicki, and Stoneman games.

At the time of the Moose game, the Mets were up 4 on the Cubs, a magic number of 7 with 11 left to play (including a final 2 games against the Cubs that wound up not mattering).  Not quite a meaningless game but the Miracle was clearly in sight.

By contrast, the season was long over for the 72 and 93 Mets, and the 2015 game was meaningless as the Mets were locked into the third seed at that point.

No pitch count data is available for 1972 but Stoneman walked 7 and struck out 9…must have been quite a few pitches thrown.

 

[smg58]

What I get from 1969 and 2015 (twice!) being on this list is that getting no-hit is in no way the mark of a bad team.