Benjamin Grimm

Edgy DC wrote: Iggy is down! That is one ugly woman!

I tried to think, without peeking, who the six were. I got Berra, Johnson, and Torre easily. I had got Westrum and Torborg pretty much by process of elimination, but never would have gotten Bamberger. (He was one of the ones I eliminated. I completely forgot about his post-Met fate.)

Hmmm... I wonder who? Are we going to have to watch a one-hour special on ESPN to find out?

Voting for Wednesday night's loss to the Reds at Citi Field will close some time over the weekend, perhaps as early as Saturday morning. This game is still lightly voted. If your name isn't themetfairy, John Cougar Lunchbucket, Zvon, G-Fafif, Gwreck, Edgy DC, or Benjamin Grimm, then you haven't voted yet. Schaefer POTG 7/7/10 - Reds 3, Mets 1

I think that's warranted.

I do remember Mookie pulling that stunt twice in a short span, but I had completely forgotten that either, let alone both of them, were game-winning runs, and I had also forgotten the George Foster connection.

Not me. The "many Mets fans" may just have been those in the Wiki editor's clique.

Edgy DC wrote: And the rarest of walkoffs happened twice in ten days in 1983, with the winning run scoring from second on a groundout. In both cases George Foster brought home Mookie Wilson. One of these was Foster's 1,000th career RBI. 7/31/83: METS 12TH: SARMIENTO REPLACED TENACE (PITCHING); Wilson singled to left; Brooks out on a sacrifice bunt (first to second) [Wilson to second]; Hernandez was walked intentionally; Foster forced Hernandez (second to shortstop) [Wilson scored]; 1 R, 1 H, 0 E, 1 LOB. Pirates 0, Mets 1. 8/3/83 METS 9TH: Wilson singled to center; Brooks out on a sacrifice bunt (pitcher to second) [Wilson to second]; Hernandez was walked intentionally; Foster forced Hernandez (shortstop to second) [Wilson scored]; 1 R, 1 H, 0 E, 1 LOB. Expos 1, Mets 2.

Totals for July 6, 2010 (13 votes) New York Mets 3, Cincinnati Reds 0 NameTotal PointsPoints AwardedPlayer PerformanceJohan Santana77.905.99(W) 9.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 SO.Jason Bay21.241.631-4, 2 RBI, SODavid Wright11.370.871-3, R, BBJos� Reyes10.940.842-4, RIke Davis3.100.240-4, SOAngel Pagan1.000.080-3, BB, SBRod Barajas0.500.040-3, SORuben Tejada0.500.041-3, SOJeff Francoeur0.450.031-3 Johan's 5.99 ties Jon Niese for the season high.

I found another case where the Mets lost on a groundout. This is from September 20, 1974. The Mets take the field in Pittsburgh in the bottom of the ninth with a two-run lead. Then: PIRATES 9TH: Howe walked; PARKER BATTED FOR MENDOZA; MCGRAW REPLACED SADECKI (PITCHING); McGraw threw a wild pitch [Howe to second]; Parker struck out; POPOVICH BATTED FOR HERNANDEZ; Popovich singled to left [Howe to third]; Stennett singled to center [Howe scored, Popovich to third]; PARKER REPLACED MCGRAW (PITCHING); Dyer allowed a passed ball [stennett to second]; Sanguillen reached on a fielder's choice [Popovich scored, Stennett to third]; Oliver was walked intentionally [sanguillen to second]; Stargell grounded out (first unassisted) [stennett scored (unearned), Sanguillen to third, Oliver to second]; 3 R (2 ER), 2 H, 0 E, 2 LOB. Mets 3, Pirates 4. The first baseman here is John Milner. When Stargell came to the plate, the game had already been tied, and the bases were loaded with one out. My guess here is that Milner fielded the grounder, got the easy out at first for the second out, and then tried to complete the double play but failed. Notice also how McGraw came in to the game, threw a wild pitch, struck out Dave Parker, then gave up two singles and was removed from the game. Now, of course, that would never happen. As we saw the other day with Frankie Rodriguez, the "closer" can't leave the game while there's still a chance he can get a save. And here's another game that ended on a groundout. September 3, 1992 in Cincinnati. Mets go into the bottom of the ninth with Anthony Young trying to get the save in a 3-2 game. REDS 9TH: YOUNG REPLACED SASSER (PITCHING); GALLAGHER REPLACED BONILLA (PLAYING RF); Sanders walked; O'Neill doubled [sanders scored]; Oliver out on a sacrifice bunt (first to second) [O'Neill to third]; Doran was walked intentionally; Branson forced Doran (pitcher to shortstop) [O'Neill scored (RBI), Branson to first]; 2 R, 1 H, 0 E, 1 LOB. Mets 3, Reds 4. This looks like a case where they tried to end the inning with a double play, but couldn't complete it. Not as mysterious as the original Felix Millan example. I've also found three games that ended in a walk-off triple! That's got to be rare, because it could only happen if the winning run was on first base, and the batter made it to third before the runner crossed the plate. It's been more than thirty years (6/19/1980) since a Mets game ended on a triple. Were there different rules in effect that would have made a walkoff triple more likely? (The other two were on 6/24/1968 and 9/10/1970.) The 1970 game was the only win for the Mets, and the tripler was Cleon Jones. The 1968 triple was hit by Lee May of the Reds, and the 1980 triple was Jack Clark of the Giants. He was only 25 then, and was perhaps more speedy than we remember him as being.

I know nothing about Twitter. What's with the new spelling of #Mets?

I read yesterday that Megan Fox has ugly thumbs. Despite that, I still think she's okay.

I think we can safely put 2009 behind us.

I would too. I'd probably pay $60 or $80 too. But right now they're getting $0 from me. $5 per article is too much, and I don't anticipate I'd ever spend it.

Well, sure, I guess, if you want to think "outside the box." I was, I'm ashamed to say, thinking inside the box. "Get the lefty up" can be conveyed just as easily wirefully as wirelessly. It would make much more sense if Jerry could whisper "bunt" into a microphone and Alex Cora would hear it in his helmet, rather than have Chip Hale do an interpretive dance in the third base box. But baseball hasn't been very innovative, and when they do innovate, it's usually awful. (DH, interleague play, All-Star games that count...)

Would there be any advantage to having the manager and bullpen coach wearing headsets? Maybe without the necessity, there's no invention.

If the Times charged $40 per year instead of $5 per article, I bet they'd end up making more money.

Ideally, Mariano Rivera's last appearance against the Mets will be as a mop-up pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Pete Falcone? Mickey Lolich?

It very clearly said starters.

My two guesses for the non-obviouses: Craig Swan and Frank Viola.

Nolan Ryan, perhaps? I'll guess Nolan and Sid Fernandez.

Might this right-handed bat come from outside the organization? That was the impression I got when I read Jerry's quote, but I don't really have any good reason for having gotten that impression.

Very cool, seawolf, how you were able to pull up that paragraph from 1974. What did we do before the Internet??

Over the past few days, I've been exploring the UMDB data to identify all games, regular season and postseason, that the Mets won or lost on a walkoff. As of now, I've identified 1,022 games, which seems awfully high. (Out of just over 7,800.) Does roughly one in seven games end in a walkoff? I wouldn't think so. I identified walkoffs as games of 9 innings or more in which the home team won the game and scored one or more runs in the bottom of the last inning. I figure I'll eventually put up a page where you can see all the walkoffs, find which ones ended on home runs, walks, errors, etc. and who the pitchers/hitters/fielders were. But first I want to verify that my 1,022 games are correct. Some of them are a little strange. Here's one that popped out. It is a walkoff, but it doesn't really make sense. It's April 24, 1974, and the Mets are playing in San Diego. Going into the bottom of the ninth, the score is tied at 3. Here's how Retrosheet describes what happened: PADRES 9TH: APODACA REPLACED BOSWELL (PITCHING); ALOU BATTED FOR CORKINS; Alou flied to left; Thomas doubled to right; Grubb was walked intentionally; Winfield walked [Thomas to third, Grubb to second]; Colbert grounded out (second to first) [Thomas scored, Grubb to third, Winfield to second]; 1 R, 1 H, 0 E, 2 LOB. Mets 3, Padres 4. Don't be fooled by that first line. Boswell wasn't the previous pitcher; he had pinch-hit for Bob Miller and Apodaca was replacing him in the lineup, not on the mound. Felix Millan was playing second base. When Nate Colbert came to the plate, the bases were loaded and there was one out. Thomas on third, Grubb on second, Winfield on first. Colbert hits a grounder to Millan. Felix either should have thrown to the plate to get Thomas, who represented the winning run, or gone for an inning-ending double play, which would have meant throwing to Harrelson covering second. Throwing to first base to get the second out is pretty much conceding the loss of the game because it eliminates the force play and makes it all the harder to get the second out of the double play. Does this account seem as strange to you as it does to me? Or is there some interpretation that I'm overlooking? Retrosheet box UMDB box