The No-Homers Club

[Edgy MD]

The New York Mets just ended a streak of nine games without a homer. And as amazing as it was, it's extra amazing that it was ended by Eric Campbell, who had been doing a pretty excellent imitation of a human dampening switch for most of the season.

I investigated whether this approached our team's longest-ever clout drought, and I found the question had already been investigated back in 2011 during a similar dry time, when Justin Turner ended a 10-game period of power rationing. And according to baseball-reference, this recent streak didn't even crack the franchise's top ten. (I checked, and the list hasn't expanded since 2011).

Rk	Strk Start	End	Games	W	L	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SO	BB	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Opp
1	8/27/80	9/13/80	17	2	15	561	48	127	15	2	0	44	109	59	18	16	.226	.300	.260	.560	SDP,SFG,LAD,MON,PHI,CHC
2	4/16/80	5/2/80	13	4	9	431	40	100	23	0	0	33	56	56	15	7	.232	.320	.285	.606	MON,CHC,PHI,HOU,SDP
3	5/7/80	5/23/80	12	6	6	404	40	104	15	4	0	35	55	36	13	7	.257	.321	.314	.635	CIN,MON,ATL,HOU
4	7/19/76	7/30/76	11	4	7	375	26	76	10	5	0	24	57	42	6	2	.203	.282	.256	.538	ATL,CIN,MON,PHI,PIT
5	9/27/69	4/16/70	11	6	5	388	39	88	17	5	0	37	67	51	5	2	.227	.316	.296	.613	PHI,CHC,PIT,STL
6	5/21/11	5/31/11	10	3	7	349	40	107	17	4	0	36	62	21	10	3	.307	.346	.378	.724	NYY,CHC,PHI,PIT
7	8/26/79	9/4/79	10	1	9	334	23	73	10	0	0	22	44	20	10	4	.219	.265	.249	.514	CIN,ATL,HOU,MON
8	8/19/78	8/29/78	10	3	7	328	28	79	16	3	0	26	49	31	9	3	.241	.315	.308	.623	LAD,SFG,SDP
9	8/17/67	8/28/67	10	1	9	357	25	93	8	5	0	23	59	14	2	1	.261	.287	.311	.598	PIT,PHI,CHC,STL
10	9/18/64	9/27/64	10	1	9	306	10	52	7	1	0	7	73	20	0	1	.170	.223	.199	.422	HOU,STL,CIN

Four takeaways:

1. In case your Daddy never told you, the 1980 Mets were pretty atrocious at the hitting thing.

2. The 2011 streak stands out, amazingly, in that the Mets otherwise didn't seem to be hitting poorly. But the 1969 team actually went 11 games without a homer... and produced a winning record over the same span!

3. Just look at September 1964. I've seen offenses struggle and I've seen them fail, but team is being carried across the finish line. Even compared to the rest of the teams on the list, those numbers are terrifying. They didn't even steal a base!

4. Home runs are good things. The can cover a lot of ills, anyhow. And Terry, they're bad to waste in the leadoff position.

[Frayed Knot]

As mentioned by Gary the other day, the last NYM HR not by Granderson (prior to Campbell's) was by Travis d'Arnaud, who's now been gone so long I've forgotten what he looks like.




actually it was June 20th but it just seems like ancient history. It was in the top half of the 6th inning vs the Braves and was his 3rd RBI of the night. He would be injured in the bottom of that same inning