Strange Plays

[Guest Edgy DC]

.

Agee Manufactures a Run, 7-24-1970, Mets vs. Dodgers at Shea.

Game is tied 1-1 in the bottom of the 10th.

1. Jim Brewer takes the mound for Los Angeles in relief of future Met embarrassment Bill Singer, who threw nine innings of one-run ball.
   
   
2. Tug McGraw leads off with a single to cf.
   
   
3. Tommie Agee follows with a sacrifice, but lo! bunts too hard. Slick-fielding Wes Parker fields the bunt and his throw beats McGraw at second.
   
   
4. But lo! (again) Bill Grabarkewitz drops the ball and all hands are safe.
   
   
5. With Bud Harrelson batting, Al Weis pinch-runs for McGraw at 2b.
   
   
6. With the Mets in good position with the winnign run on second in Weis, no outs, their best bunter up, followed by their run producers, Weis gets picked off by Brewer!.
   
   
7. Agee, having none of this crap, steals second base to get the winning run back in scoring position.
   
   
8. Agee, gets particularly peeved as Harrelson strikes out, and advances on a strike-three wild pitch.
   
   
9. With two outs and the winning run on third, the lefthanded Brewer walks switch-hitter Ken Singleton to pitch to match up against lefthanded Mike Jorgenson.
   
   
10. Matchup smatchup, the Mets most productive batter that year is Donn Clendenon, who had the day off and he comes off the bench to bat for Jorgensen and also walked to fill the bases.
    
    
11. Rather than go with righthander Pete Mikkelsen to face him, the Dodgers stick with their closer, Brewer, but decide to walk Clendenon and instead go after Cleon Jones, also a righthanded batter.
    
    
12. With the count 1-1, a still-antsy Agee sees the advantage of a nervous lefthanded pitcher throwing to a righthanded batter, and steals home to win the game!

That's got to be the only walk-off steal of home in Mets history, no?

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

That is a weird inning. Why lead off with Tug with Clendennon on the bench?

[metirish]

Tug was going to stay in the game to pitch the 10th?...very cool inning....

[metirish]

double post...

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think convention then was, rather than trying to win the game now! you try to get the most innings out of your top relievers as you can. Tug had pitched one uneventful inning, and Hodges likely wanted at least two more.

Just as interesting, with Tug due to lead off the bottom of the tenth, why didn't they double switch out eighth-place hitter Jerry Grote or seventh-place hitter Joe Freakin' Foy?

When Gene Mauch died, I was surprised to read that he "invented" the double switch. Did nobody before the early sixties realize the advantage of delaying a reliever's at-bats? I guess the double-switch wasn't so widespread yet.

Tom Haller, the catcher Agee abused, had just entered the game an inning earlier after the Dodgers pinch-ran for future Mets double-switcher Jeff Torborg, apparently more willing than the Mets to lift their catcher in a win now! strategy, and getting burned royally for it.

[Guest iramets]

Hmmm...I just perused this game on retrosheet, too. Baseball was different back in them days, youngun...

[metirish]

That's interesting about Mauch and the double-switch,so I did a little research....Mauch according to where I'm looking was "one of the first " to use the double-switch but this guy claims that Paul Richards was likely the first...

http://www.thebaseballpage.com/players/richapa01.php

http://philadelphia.about.com/b/a/192435.htm

[Guest Edgy DC]

Walter Alston lifting his catcher in trying to win while Hodges neither double-switched out Grote nor pinch-hit for Tugger kind of fits in perfectly with the old-skool "by-the-book" approach of playing for the win on the road and playing for the tie at home.

[Guest Edgy DC]

="iramets"]Hmmm...I just perused this game on retrosheet, too. Baseball was different back in them days, youngun...

While you're bouncing around Retrosheet, check out this uncharacteristic bit of editorializing.

CARDINALS 6TH: Encarnacion grounded out (third to first);

Edmonds walked; Rolen flied into a double play [Edmonds out at

first (left to second to first)];

tremendous catch by Chavez

well over wall, ball nearly came out of glove as he landed;

Edmonds had rounded second and was easily doubled off first;

0 R, 0 H, 0 E, 0 LOB. Cardinals 1, Mets 1.

[Frayed Knot]

Lots of weird stuff in that inning:

- the pitcher bats for himself leading off during a tie game in extra innings
- the pitcher swings away but then Agee bunts
- after Agee bunts, Harrelson doesn't (or tried and couldn't)
- the pitcher, who wasn't pinch-hit for because presumably his arm is wanted for later, is then pinch-run for
- the good defensive play results no outs being recorded
- the pinch-runner then makes a running mistake
- a strike out advances a runner

And finally ... all the advanding runner tries and IWs are essentially meaningless as the winning run, scored by the guy who tried to make out in the first place, takes the next three bases on his own

[Guest Edgy DC]

McGraw, incidentally, batted .308 (4-13) with five RBI that year.