Scoreboard Shots

[Frayed Knot]

Delgado banking 'em off the scoreboard over the past few days caused Ronnie to call today's shot as one of the 4 or 5 longest he's seen at Shea.
So, sticking strictly to scoreboard shots, any particular ones come to mind before we close down the old girl?

I got two:
- Strawberry off Valenzuela in a game I was at. Hit on the side where the Met lineup is listed right next to the 22-LF for McReynolds batting in the 5th slot.
- Mo Vaughn in a game where we were getting blown out to the point where I turned it off. Saw it later on the highlights hitting about 1/3 way up the big Bud ad.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

McGwire to the opposite field, knocking out lights on one of the lineup boards. I don't remember when, just that I was young and at the game. Might've been during a double header, I'm not positive.

Time to nose around UMDB.

[Elster88]

I was at the Mo Vaughn game, it was against the Braves. I know it's not possible but that ball looked like it was still rising when it hit the Bud sign.

[Frayed Knot]

Gary just mentioned that McGwire one on TV.

I don't remember seeing that one or know specifically when it was. At one point in his record season (he set that record 10 years ago this week) the Cards had two DHs at Shea in a row due to rainouts but I don't think it was one of those. I know it wasn't in the first one because I was there that day.

[Guest OlerudOwned]

August 20, 1998 would seem to fit. Doubleheader, and McGwire homered in each game. I looked up the Times article on it, thought, and it says both homers went to left field. One in the picnic area and one off the foul-pole screen.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9904E0D8103DF932A1575BC0A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

Also, some very amusing word choice, in retrospect.

]It is hard enough to hit a round ball 400 feet with a round bat, and it should be even harder when everyone is expecting it. But McGwire kept defying that theory and made it a night to remember for his newfound fans by injecting his 51st for those among the crowd of 45,308 who were tardy.

Like I said, I was young. I may be blending two different trips to the park together. I'll keep looking.

[Guest AG/DC]

My grandmother swore she remembered Felix Millan hitting one halfway up the scoreboard.

Not altogether reliable, but possible.

[Guest cooby]

Amen

[seawolf17]

I was at that McGwire 2-home-run game. Don't remember either one going off the scoreboard.

I remember Vaughn's.

[Guest cooby]

Amen, brother

[Guest OlerudOwned]

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EED61038F930A1575BC0A96F958260

Turns out just googling "McGwire Shea Scoreboard" was the easier way to go about this.

http://www.leaptoad.com/mets/gamedetail.php?gameno=6027

August 22, 1999. Game one of a doubleheader, and his first of 2 homers that game. Olerud also had a grand slam in that one, which you would think I would've remembered over the McGwire shot. Some fanboy I was.

[Frayed Knot]

Was THIS the Mo Vaughn game?

I remember it was in the last inning of a blow out but I can't remember the opponent.
If so it was his last ML HR ever!!

[Guest OlerudOwned]

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E5D61F3DF932A35756C0A9659C8B63

]The Mets went on to lose by 13-3 after another embarrassing chapter in what was to be Vaughn's comeback season. Tonight, they were trounced by 13-4, with Vaughn hitting a home run into the upper deck in right field in the ninth inning, when it didn't matter.

I'm guessing you're right, and our reporter is wrong in his account. We'd certainly know about it if Mo, or anyone else, popped one into the red seats.

[Frayed Knot]

No it isn't.
I'm an idiot since that game was in St Louis.

[Guest AG/DC]

We had an argument here whether Vaughn had any business swinging with the tying run behind him in the ninth. I think he swung 3-0. KC, in particular, was of the mind that, if the ball is still bouncing the next morning, the point is moot.

[Fman99]

OlerudOwned wrote: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EED61038F930A1575BC0A96F958260 Turns out just googling "McGwire Shea Scoreboard" was the easier way to go about this. http://www.leaptoad.com/mets/gamedetail.php?gameno=6027 August 22, 1999. Game one of a doubleheader, and his first of 2 homers that game. Olerud also had a grand slam in that one, which you would think I would've remembered over the McGwire shot. Some fanboy I was.

I was at the park the next day for a Mets-Astros tilt. You could see the lights that had busted from Mac's shot the day prior (we were sitting on the right field side).

[Fman99]

Elster88 wrote: I was at the Mo Vaughn game, it was against the Braves. I know it's not possible but that ball looked like it was still rising when it hit the Bud sign.

Hmm. Why did I think that was a HR off of Boomer Wells in a Mets-MFYs game? Maybe that was another long one that he hit...

[Frayed Knot]

The HR off Wells was an 8th inning game-winner but that one was down the line up in the 2nd or 3rd deck (IIRC).
A monster shot, but not the scoreboard one.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I was at the game where Mo hit one near the top of the Shea Scoreboard. It was against the Braves in 2002, during Mo's first season. Mo had slumped terribly for the first few months of his Met stint, but caught fire near the middle of the season, very close to the All-Star break, though I forget which side of the break. For about two weeks during this streak, Mo was hitting some of the hardest balls I'd ever seen. Mo's HR was unforgettable.

I also remember a monster Strawberry shot off the Scoreboard against an Astro pitcher, Xavier Hernandez.

And I was there when Piazza hit a homer to left-center field at Shea that is considered the longest ball Piazza ever hit in a Met uniform. It went far and fast.

[Elster88]

AG/DC wrote: We had an argument here whether Vaughn had any business swinging with the tying run behind him in the ninth. I think he swung 3-0. KC, in particular, was of the mind that, if the ball is still bouncing the next morning, the point is moot.

Remember the Cliff Floyd game not too long ago? Same argument that day. Bases loaded, down 5, and he hit a grand slam in the ninth on a 3-0 count.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Mo's 505 foot Home Run was hit on June 26, 2002.

Link to NYT article on Vaughn hot streak

[DocTee]

George Foster dented the auxiliary scoreboard in left-- that was a laser.

[Elster88]

What are they doing with the circle in the left field upper deck? They should stick it on a flag pole or light or something.

[Fman99]

Elster88 wrote: What are they doing with the circle in the left field upper deck? They should stick it on a flag pole or light or something.

The Agee marker? I suspect it gets blown up with the rest of the park.

Which is fine -- that is a Shea-specific marker to me. Man, though, I wish there was video of it.

[Guest AG/DC]

="DocTee"]George Foster dented the auxiliary scoreboard in left-- that was a laser.

I don't remember that. I do remember him bursting a seam in the padding under that auxiliary board. That one (in my memory anyhow) was never more than 15 feet off the ground.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

AG/DC - "My grandmother swore she remembered Felix Millan hitting one halfway up the scoreboard."

They must have let him hit from his fileding position.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Elster88 wrote: I was at the Mo Vaughn game, it was against the Braves. I know it's not possible but that ball looked like it was still rising when it hit the Bud sign.

I wuz at that game too. The night was super humid and overcast and the bat-on-ball barely made a sound. High as a ball could be hit, I thought.

[Frayed Knot]

So this must be the Vaughn game.

He only hit 3 as a Met against the Braves and two were in this game while the other was in late Sept and probably not a hot, humid night.
I thought it came in more of a blow-out but down by 4 kinda seemed like too tall a hill to climb against the Braves in those days.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Yeah, we had no shot that night and everyone knew it. IIRC, it was a Wednesday night -- a weeknight for sure. I was supposed to play softball that night but the other team was scared it would rain and didn't show and somehow I wound up with a ticket from one of my teammates.

[Gwreck]

I will admit to having left that game early, after Strickland gave up the grand slam to Sheffield. Heard the call while driving on the Cross Island Parkway.

[Frayed Knot]

As if on cue, The NY Daily News proves themselves to be CPF readers and prints a piece on long Shea HRs.
The Mo & McGwire HRs are mentioned.