This Day In NY Mets History..

[metirish]

First the Bad news...

On June 15, 1977, the New York Mets trade franchise pitcher Tom Seaver just moments before the trading deadline. In an unpopular move, the Mets send Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds for four lesser players: infielder Doug Flynn, outfielders Steve Henderson and Dan Norman, and pitcher Pat Zachry. Seaver will go on to win 75 games for the Reds in five and a half seasons.

Then some good news..

On June 15, 1983, the New York Mets acquire first baseman Keith Hernandez from the St. Louis Cardinals for pitchers Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey. The onetime MVP will help the Mets win the World Series in 1986.


one more..

On June 15, 1969, the New York Mets acquire first baseman Donn Clendenon from the Montreal Expos for infielder Kevin Collins and pitchers Steve Renko, Bill Carden, and Dave Colon. Clendenon will hit 12 home runs over the second half of the season and help the Mets to their first world championship�

Any thoughts on this day for thse who remember?

http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/history/index.htm

[Guest cooby]

The Mets traded Mike Phillips away on June 15, 1977 too, and he was my favorite player at the time

[Willets Point]

Remembering June 15, 1977 is another reason to visit the Triple Crappiness thread

[MFS62]

This is also the day the Mets acquired Keith Hernandez. Both he and Clendenon were to lead the team to World Championships. Imagine, first basemen who could hit. What a concept. I wonder if Omar can see this and the light bulb will go on.

Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

Also, Kingman to the San Diego Padres for Bobby Valentine and Paul Siebert, which, in a sense, helped us win a pennant, as well as bringing in the current first player on our Freaky 500.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

A dark day indeed :(

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

We missed the 25th anniversary of this game:


[url]http://www.leaptoad.com/mets/gamedetail.php?gameno=2987[/url]

[Guest Edgy DC]

That game makes me love the web. It was a tiny engram in my memory. I wasn't even sure if it had taken place or was just a myth of my youth until somebody else recalled it at the MOFo.

Great feats by run-of-the-mill teams would get lost to hisotry if not for the archives and communities you find on the web.

Retrosheet says that 22,918 were paid for that game, which is hard to believe. It seemed like about 1,500 gathered around the dugouts for Henderson's curtain call.

[Willets Point]

Holy Shit!!! That was the first Mets game I ever attended. The crowd after the game was freakin' estatic. I was a Mets fan for life at that point.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Excellent.

This day isn't so craptastic after all.

[Willets Point]

The thing I remember about that game is that we had just gone on vacation to California and my sister was wearing a San Francisco t-shirt, and since the Mets were playing on the Giants I ragged on her for that. We both had on Mets caps though and a woman told us we were good kids for being Mets fans. Henderson's home run was grand slam right? I don't see that noted in the memories section.

[Guest sharpie]

The other side of that game (or at least that part of that season):

In 1980 the Giants went into the season with emerging slugger Mike Ivie as the starting first baseman, displacing Giant legend Willie McCovey. McCovey was still on the team as a backup -- but McCovey really really hated Ivie and, given his standing in the clubhouse, wore him down with snide comments until the sensitive Ivie was completely useless, going from 27 homers to 4 in '80. As I recall, Ivie was placed on the dl in early June and Rich Murray (your cleanup hitter in this game) was brought up. Rich was (is) the brother of Eddie Murray. McCovey proclaimed that now that first base was being adequately covered by Rich Murray he could retire, which he did a few weeks later with a big ceremony. Murray was a disaster and, other than 10 at bats a few years later, was never heard from again. Ivie was traded early the next season.

[metirish]

From what I have read in the fans memories section it was a 3 run shot...

best Met moments ever and certainly the best from 1977-Seaver's return in '83.

John Autero
May 19, 2002
What an unbelieveable game! It was Fathers's Day, and I was there with my parents and sister. "The Count" of Montefusco was pitching a perfect game and leading 6-0 into the 6th. The Mets finally broke through but trailed 6-2 heading into the 9th. With two outs and nobody on they loaded the bases, then scored two on a single by Claudell Washington. That is when Henderson came up (who had struck out 3 times in the game) and deposited a game-winning HR off the bottom of the scoreboard in RF. The "crowd" (what was left of them) went crazy. I was only 15 and it was one of my first recollections of a big Mets win. Plus we were sitting over the Mets dugout in the 8th and 9th since so many people left. It was a great night.

[Guest Edgy DC]

It was a three-run jobbie, but it seemed like a granny (I thought it was at the time) because it came in a five-run rally. It would have been a grannny, but showoff Mazzilli had to go and score from second on a single in the previous play.

METS 9TH:
Maddox grounded out (shortstop to first);

Flynn singled to second;

Cardenal grounded out (shortstop to first) [Flynn to second];

Mazzilli singled to center [Flynn scored];

Taveras walked [Mazzilli to second];

Washington singled to center [Mazzilli scored, Taveras to second];

RIPLEY REPLACED MINTON (PITCHING);

Henderson homered [Taveras scored, Washington scored, Henderson scored as well, of course];

5 R, 4 H, 0 E, 0 LOB. Giants 6, Mets 7.

[Guest SI Metman]

June 15th has also been a busy day recently in team history:

2002: Clemens-Estes, Mets wallop Yanks 8-0
2003: Trax 1 hits the Halos, Reyes hits his first homer, a Grand Slam and records 5 RBI's
2004: Mets fire Denny Walling and name Don Baylor hitting coach as Trax leads them to victory over the tribe.

[soupcan]

Oddly I have no memory of that game.

Odd because I was so friggin' into the team then.

The Seaver trade:

I still have a button that says 'GRANT MUST GO!' in the middle and curved around the top it says 'SAVE OUR METS', curved around the bottom it says 'REMEMBER TOM'

It's also bittersweet for me as I came to truly love Steve Henderson and Doug Flynn.

Dan Norman not so much.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

sharpie wrote: The other side of that game (or at least that part of that season): In 1980 the Giants went into the season with emerging slugger Mike Ivie as the starting first baseman, displacing Giant legend Willie McCovey. McCovey was still on the team as a backup -- but McCovey really really hated Ivie and, given his standing in the clubhouse, wore him down with snide comments until the sensitive Ivie was completely useless, going from 27 homers to 4 in '80. As I recall, Ivie was placed on the dl in early June and Rich Murray (your cleanup hitter in this game) was brought up. Rich was (is) the brother of Eddie Murray. McCovey proclaimed that now that first base was being adequately covered by Rich Murray he could retire, which he did a few weeks later with a big ceremony. Murray was a disaster and, other than 10 at bats a few years later, was never heard from again. Ivie was traded early the next season.

Wow! What a Dick move by McCovey!

[Guest Edgy DC]

With not a small amount of racial overtones.

Putting yesterday behind us.

June 16: Baltimore Orioles claimed Rich Becker of the New York Mets on waivers on June 16, 1998.

[metirish]

On June 16, 1978, Tom Seaver hurls the first no-hitter of his brilliant career. Seaver strikes out three and walks three as the Cincinnati Reds halt the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-0. Seaver had barely missed pitching no-hitters on three previous occasions, losing the bid each time in the ninth inning.

http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/history/index.htm

[Frayed Knot]

Meanwhile, back to the Henderson HR for a second:

http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2005/06/hendu-can-do.html

from a blog where the writer (an espn BB2N producer of some sort) takes it upon himself to begin a chronicle of NYM walk-off wins; 324 of them in their history he claims.

[Guest Edgy DC]

That's a good memory by MagicIsBack, thought he incorrectly identifies bullpen coach Joe Pignatano as the pitching coach. I wanted to invite him to post here, but his profile was blank.

The other guy said about his grilfriend: "she wasn't to bright about baseball." Make sure you proofread yourself when you're disparaging somebody else's intelligence.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

Uyo og, grilfriend!

[Guest metswalkoffs]

Hi there

Thanks for posting the link to my blog...it was on my list of things to do in the next few days. I hope that a lot of you will come over and check it out.

One of the challenges with this project is to get perspectives on these walk-offs that are fresh and unique. It's not easy. Sometimes you'll see me summarize the game from reading newspaper articles and books. Sometimes I'll try to track down the walk-off'er (talked to Ron Swoboda, still waiting for Steve Henderson to call me back). Sometimes I'll offer a personal experience story. Hopefully the site will serve as a nice companion to what's offered at the Ultimate Mets Database and the Crane Pool Forum.

Feel free to send me an e-mail with your thoughts on the site.

-mark
http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com
metswalkoffs@aol.com

PS- The 324 total is one that I'm hopeful is correct...spent 90 minutes a day for 2 weeks going thru Retrosheet boxscores. Hopefully I didn't miss one...

[Guest Edgy DC]

Please continue to visit us as well.

Where can we see the master walkoff list?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Please continue to visit us as well.

Where can we see the master walkoff list?

[Willets Point]

Someone hit Edgy, he's skipping.

[metirish]

On June 22, 1987, future Hall of Famer Tom Seaver announces his retirement after a brief comeback attempt with the New York Mets. Known as �Tom Terrific,� Seaver leaves the game with a career record of 311-205, a 2.86 ERA, and 3,640 K�s.

[Frayed Knot]

I didn't realize that came so relatively late in the season. I would have thought it was still in the Spring.
Seaver had gotten hurt at the tail-end of '86 - it's the reason he didn't pitch against us in the WS - so he must have still been recovering from whatever it was.

What I do remember is that he would up testing his stuff by pitching a few simulated games and then called it quits when he got smacked around by the likes of Barry Lyons.
Lyons wondered at the time if that meant he'd be inducted into the 'Simulated Hall of Fame'.

[metirish]

I love this one

On June 23, 1963, New York Mets� outfielder Jimmy Piersall celebrates his 100th career home run by running the bases backward. Piersall�s stunt angers Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Dallas Green and Commissioner Ford Frick�


fan memories explain why he ran backwards....

http://www.leaptoad.com/mets/profile.php?PlayerCode=0052&tabno=7

[Guest metswalkoffs]

I'm not making the master list public, but i'll be glad to answer any Mets-walk-off related questions if anyone e-mails them to the address on my blog.

-mark
http://metwalkoffs.blogspot.com