G-Fafif

Gary said something a few minutes ago about "no home runs so far in this series". Gosh, I wished he hadn't said that as soon as he said it. I wish it more now.

Frayed Knot wrote: Why don't they make it easy on themselves and just read the CPF more often? I know! It's all right here...

Mets media notes today said Wright passed Cleon for second place last night. Howie read it as if it were fact. Later turned on the TV and heard Gary said he "misspoke" when he read the same thing and corrected the order to Kranepool, Reyes, Wright (though Keith immediately sold out the PR department for having it wrong in the first place). Obviously not enough Metsian big shots tracking Jose vs. David vs. the Krane.

For aesthetic reasons alone, a Giants-Pirates NLCS would be the most sumptuous HD matchup possible. Two more beautiful ballparks there are not. Let the winner play three game in Fenway in the World Series of venues. And as long as we're dreaming non-Mets dreams, Phillies-Pirates NLDS (not out of the question if Bucs and Braves hold their current positions) would revive a great rivalry. I think we can write in the CPF choice for winner of that theoretical matchup right now.

Edgy DC wrote: Miguel Cairo is like a bad penny. Ain't it the truth? This fucker was the crusty old veteran when we had him and that was like a hundred years ago, give or take 94 years.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: We'll see a lot of Doodoo before this week is over. I've forgotten that I'm mature and have taken to calling him Mucous Duda in my mind. Mucous Doodoo, however, seems excessive.

Big moments from two Mets all-timers and one just-in-timer. 097: 2005 -- Jose Reyes gets a great jump 098: 1994 -- Rico Brogna strikes before everybody does 099: 1985 -- Doc Gooden lets one get away, keeps everything else in order Also: 097: 2011 -- Carlos and Angel find GKR in the Pepsi Porch 098: 1979 -- Dave Kingman's 3 of a kind trumped by a pair of Stearns and Mazzilli 099: 2000 -- Too soon for Grant Roberts but never too late for Matt Franco

Inspired by the batmags picture show in the KTE, following is the story of the legendary Mets-Reds game of July 22, 1986, as described recently in the FAFIF series, The Happiest Recap. For those of you who haven't necessarily been following along here or here, THR is on a seasonlong mission to choose, for lack of a better word, the "best" 163 wins in Mets history by Game Number. We started with Opening Day (best Game 001) and have proceeded apace, three at a time, twice a week (with an Also Quite Happy alternate choice thrown in for each entry). Game 090 appeared orginally here in the company of two other epics: the Matt Franco game from 1999 (088) and the Tug McGraw start from 1973 in which the Mets fell behind 7-0 and rallied to win 8-7 at Atlanta (089). This game in Cincinnati, however, resists being boiled down to one line. PROLOGUE: PROBABLY Howard Johnson blasted a three-run homer in the top of the fourteenth inning that proved to be the difference in the Mets� eventual 6-3 win this Tuesday night in Cincinnati, but y�know what? It was maybe the fifth-most noteworthy aspect of what was probably � and this is saying a ton � the most bizarre game the New York Mets have ever played. We have to say �probably,� because it was only 382 days since the other most bizarre game the New York Mets have ever played, the one that had started 383 days before and required a night and a third of a morning to complete. That was the 19-inning rain-soaked Fourth & Fifth of July marathon in Atlanta the Mets won 16-13 after Rick Camp tied it in the eighteenth with�well, you know. Yeah, that might have been more bizarre than this one, but this one did a fantastic job of compressing its weirdness. For the first eight innings, this game�s only really strange quality was that the first-place Mets were losing, 3-1. Bobby Ojeda scored the Mets� only run in the fifth, and Darryl Strawberry was ejected for arguing a called strike three in the sixth, but otherwise, it was just another tepid Tuesday. Then the ninth and a different kind of Fireworks Night erupted. PART I: THE DROP Reds player-manager Pete Rose had the right pitcher in the game to end things routinely. Ron Robinson was 7-0 on the season and began the inning as a perfect pitcher might, by striking out Johnson, who was pinch-hitting. But his catcher, Bo Diaz, dropped the ball and HoJo kicked it away, ran inside the baseline and was hit by Diaz�s throw. He was ruled safe anyway. It might have been just the spark the Mets needed, except Robinson grounded Mookie Wilson into a 4-3 double play, leaving him with just one out to attain. Robinson, however, walked Dykstra and gave up a double to Tim Teufel to put runners at second and third and compel Rose to make a pitching change. He called on his tough lefty closer, John Franco. Franco had been pitching quite effectively of late. Back in his hometown of New York just two weeks earlier, he garnered a save and a win at Shea against the team he rooted on from the upper deck when he managed to clip enough milk-carton coupons. Franco threw two-and-a-third and two innings in those respective outings. Here his task figured to be briefer, if challenging: get Keith Hernandez to make the final out of the game. Franco did his part. Got a simple fly ball out of Hernandez. Couldn�t have been any simpler. It was lofted to right field, almost directly to the sure hands of Dave Parker, three times the winner of a Gold Glove award. All Cobra, as he was known, had to do was snare the kind of ball he no doubt hauled in with ease thousands of times in his life. If you were the impatient type, it was a real Warner Wolf �you could have turned your sets off right there� kind of moment. But if you�re the kind to stick with a ballgame all the way through, then stay tuned. Parker � whose two-run homer off Ojeda in the third gave the Reds a lead they hadn�t surrendered clear to the moment Hernandez swung � dropped the ball. Or, technically, he didn�t catch it. It glanced off his glove. He didn�t use two hands. He said he was concerned about having a play on Teufel if it came to that and stumbled a bit in his approach. Whatever. The ball was not caught. Dykstra scored. Teufel scored. Hernandez was on second on an E-9. The right fielder�s error pulled open the curtain on a whole new ballgame, one so determined to leap off the charts in its bizarreness that Parker�s misplay would have to rank as maybe the fourth-most noteworthy aspect of the night. Because, really, the Mets and Reds were just getting rolling. PART II: THE BRAWL Gary Carter left Hernandez on second to end the visitors� ninth. Doug Sisk, Davey Johnson�s fourth pitcher of the game, was entrusted with getting the Mets to extras. Two Reds reached, but Sisk escaped the bottom of the ninth. After one out in the top of the tenth, Sisk was due to bat. Davey looked down his bench and saw little from which to choose. The circumstances of the first nine innings had strained the resources of his 24-man roster. He had used three pinch-hitters, made one double-switch and was forced to replace Strawberry upon his ejection. So for the fourth time in 1986, Davey called on Rick Aguilera (the previous night�s starter and winner) to pinch-hit. And for the first time in 1986 in that role, Aggie reached base when Franco walked him. The Mets were in good shape that was getting better. Ray Knight singled Aguilera to second, and Franco wild-pitched both of them up a base. HoJo, however struck out. Rose ordered Mookie intentionally walked and, with the bases loaded, Franco struck out the side when he fanned Lenny Dykstra. Jesse Orosco replaced Sisk on the mound and struck out Parker to start the bottom of the tenth. Pete Rose called on his favorite pinch-hitter in the entire world, Pete Rose, and Rose came through for himself, singling to center for the 4,247th hit of his 24-year career, setting the all-time major league record for hits for the 56th time. Rose thought less of his baserunning skills at the age of 45 than he did his hitting, so he removed himself and inserted Eric Davis to pinch-run for him. Rose made a good bet betting against himself. While Eddie Milner batted, Davis stole second without incident. He then took off for third. Where there would be incident. Davis was running for Rose but might have been channeling his manager circa 1973 when he slid hard into Ray Knight just as Rose took aim at Buddy Harrelson thirteen years earlier, precipitating a legendary NLCS melee at Shea. Now, Harrelson was the Mets� third base coach and had a ringside seat for arguably the fiercest regular-season donnybrook in which the Mets had ever engaged. Not that fights were new to the 1986 Mets. They�d been in three of them already. It seemed to come with the first-place territory or perhaps the methods by which the Mets laid claim to the top of the heap that season. The Mets gave more than lip service to taking no prisoners as they pillaged their merry way through the National League. Tom Niedenfuer of the Dodgers, Rick Rhoden of the Pirates and David Palmer of the Braves had all incurred the Mets� wrath in the preceding two months. The Mets offered each of those opponents fist service. They had developed a reputation. And they had no compunction about living up to it. Davis�s hard slide struck third baseman (and former Golden Gloves boxer) Knight as unnecessarily hard. The players pushed each other and said a few things. The last thing Ray said was, in essence, �POW,� via a right hook to Davis�s pretty � and pretty enraged � face. �He said, �You pushed me,�� Knight recounted. �I said, �I didn�t push you on purpose.� He said, �Don�t push me again, you so-and-so.�� This round of he said/he said could only say so much. �He came at me,� Knight continued. �His eyes looked like he was mad. He was moving toward me, so I popped him. It was just reaction.� The Mets didn�t need much provocation to react when pushed, and every one of Knight�s teammates poured on the field to defend Ray�s honor � everybody but apparent pacifist George Foster. All the Reds came rumbling in, too, and the main event was on. It was like one of those cartoons in which Popeye and Bluto went at it, except there were approximately two-dozen Popeyes and two-dozen Blutos taking swings and nobody needed any spinach. It was a fight for the ages, though probably, at best, the third-most noteworthy aspect of the game. Its real significance came into focus just after everybody stopped punching everybody else. For when the infield-cutout dust settled, the Riverfront Stadium turf was deprived of the company of four ejectees: Knight and Davis, quite obviously, along with Reds pitcher Mario Soto and Mets right fielder Kevin Mitchell. Which was a problem, because Mitchell, unlike Soto, was playing in the game at the time, and he was playing because Strawberry had been thumbed four innings earlier. Remember, Davey Johnson was so hard-pressed for reserves in the top of the tenth that he had to use a pitcher to pinch-hit. Now, with Mitchell (who would take on Popeye, Bluto and Olive Oyl at the drop of a hat) ejected, Johnson had a problem. PART III: THE RESHUFFLE Wally Backman had started at second, but Teufel pinch-hit for him in the seventh. Danny Heep had started in left, but Wilson replaced him in a double-switch in the eighth when Sisk took over the pitching from Randy Myers. Foster had earlier pinch-ht for Ojeda. Rafael Santana was the starting shortstop, but that�s who HoJo was pinch-hitting for in the ninth. Straw, as mentioned, got himself thrown out by Gerry Davis; Mitch drew the same punishment when he attempted revenge on Eric Davis. That left Davey with the following players in the game: Carter behind the plate, Hernandez at first, Teufel at second, HoJo at short, Wilson in left and Dykstra in center. He just lost his third baseman and right fielder to crimes of passion, and he had but one position player on his bench, backup catcher Ed Hearn. Johnson hated to not have a catcher in reserve because if your last catcher goes down, then what? Even in the 19-inning game in Atlanta, Davey managed to hold out Ronn Reynolds altogether. But he had no choice here. Hearn would have to come in. Which was fine, but that gave Johnson seven position players and he needed to fill eight positions�and not to be picky about it, but he has two catchers yet only three infielders at this point. And still no third outfielder. Let�s see, then�Hearn was a rookie catcher, so he was told to go catch. Carter, a veteran catcher, once played one inning of third base for the Expos eleven years before, when he was a rookie. So he became the Mets� 80th third baseman right then and there. It may not have been ideal, but it literally covered the Mets� bases. But still no third outfielder. How to compensate for that shortfall? By inventing one, of course. Davey Johnson made like Dr. Frankenstein and created a right fielder comprised of the most useful parts his two relief aces. While lefty Orosco was finally allowed to continue his figurative battle with Eddie Milner, righty Roger McDowell was directed to right field. McDowell was a pitcher, but even a team that holds a double-digit lead in its division encounters desperate times across the vast expanse of a 162-game season. This was one of them, and Johnson responded to it with a plainly desperate measure. Two of them, actually, because once Orosco struck out Milner (with pitcher Tom Browning on third, running for Davis), Davey made a defensive change unprecedented in the quarter-century history of the New York Mets. He sent Orosco to right and brought in McDowell to pitch. It was desperation born of lefty-right discomfort, for sure � not of concern for lefty-righty pitching matchups but for whether lefty or righty Reds were likely to hit a ball to a pitcher playing right instead of left. Yet it was audacious, too. It seemed of a 1986 piece with the slamming down of bats and the charging of mounds and the inevitable curtain calls that made the Mets appear �arrogant� to the rest of the outclassed league. Let other teams running short on arms and legs struggle with their personnel depletions. The Mets would bask in theirs and turn them into opportunities. Seriously, the only thing that would have made Johnson moving his nine pieces around more perfect would have been Roger and Jesse high-fiving as they literally passed in the night. Oh, and McDowell struck out Wade Rowdon to end the tenth inning. Would you believe that the Jesse-Roger tango, repeated several times (and eventually incorporating Mookie, who gamely shuttled between left and right when Davey tried extra hard to hide a hurler), was probably only the second-most noteworthy aspect of this game? Maybe nothing beat it for peculiarity � a sense enhanced when Rose flipped through a rule book in the Reds� dugout in an effort to protest Orosco being allowed to throw warmup tosses when he and McDowell switched in the midst of the eleventh inning � but the presence of a pitcher in the outfield didn�t truly define the classic this game was about to become. PART IV: THE DP That defining moment arrived in the bottom of the twelfth. It was still 3-3, the two-headed pitching outfielder experiment proceeding apace when Orosco allowed a leadoff single to Buddy Bell. As McDowell scurried from right to left and Wilson glided from left to right, lefthanded slugger Parker singled up the middle. The Reds now had first and second with nobody out. Carl Willis, the Cincinnati relief pitcher, was up in a clear bunting situation. It was Willis�s first plate appearance of 1986. But it wasn�t Keith Hernandez�s first rodeo at first base. The best defensive first baseman anybody had ever seen was not shy about playing close in on bunts. He was, as the clich� went, close enough to the lefty-batting Willis to shake hands�or, more accurately, pick his pocket. Willis got down his bunt. Hernandez pounced and fired to the third baseman, who, let us not forget, was a catcher. In the bottom of the twelfth of a game that was all but over in the top of the ninth, though, Gary Carter wasn�t interested in labels. He had already proven himself a quick study by handling two balls cleanly in the eleventh, so he was a third baseman now. And third baseman Gary Carter took Hernandez�s lightning-fast throw for the force on Bell and then zipped a throw of his own across the diamond to Teufel, who was covering first on the bunt play. The throw nabbed Willis. The Reds went from two on and nobody out to one on and two out on the 3-5-4 double play of a lifetime. Its brilliance and beauty, engineered by two of the top players of the decade, have to make it the most noteworthy aspect of a game where the notes piled up almost as high as the worthiness. Though you could take the Orosco-McDowell business if you like. Orosco kept pitching, flying Milner to center to end the twelfth after that sparkling DP, and later returned to fielding, catching Tony Perez�s liner to right to help McDowell record a 1-2-3 thirteenth. It was more than Dave Parker had done for John Franco when Franco could have used a little help. PART V: THE BIG HIT Hearn, who had come in only because Davey had to break the glass on the EMERGENCY case in which he preferred to leave his last catcher, doubled off Willis to start the fourteenth. After Orosco walked for the sixth time in his seven major league seasons, Rose took out Willis and brought in the intimidatingly named Ted Power, who fanned McDowell for the first out of the inning. Howard Johnson, however, wasn�t intimidated at all. The 1986 Mets never were. �We�re probably the cockiest team in the league,� HoJo said after speaking power to Power in the form of a resounding three-run homer to give the Mets a 6-3 lead. �You can�t push us around.� Nor could you beat them, even if you held a two-run lead with two outs in the ninth; even if you attempted to shove their players from the game; even as you forced them to resort to their wits in a pinch. These Mets had those in spades and were no more hesitant to use them than they were their fists. They had Orosco and McDowell pitching a combined five innings in non-consecutive fashion. They had Carter, a man who crouched for a living, standing tall at a corner so hot four guys had just been thrown out from it. They had Hernandez, a deceptively selfless soul who wouldn�t allow an opponent to even think about sacrificing. Geez, they even had two pitchers, Aguilera and Orosco, drawing walks in extra innings. EPILOGUE: HOW BIZARRE? Most of all, they had a 6-3 win in fourteen innings in one of their, let�s say, two most bizarre games ever. It was either this one or the 16-13 spectacle from the year before. That one had twenty more runs, five more innings, went several hours later and you can�t forget about Rick Camp and the 4:00 AM fireworks. This one had�well, let�s ask the manager who won both of them. �This is the strangest game I�ve been involved in,� Davey Johnson declared in picking the set-to in Cincy over the jaw-dropper in Georgia. �Even stranger than Atlanta. I�m out of pitchers, and I�m out of extra players.� Yet never out of whatever it took to win. For the 1986 Mets, there was nothing strange about that.

BEST SINGLE-SEASON BATTING AVERAGE IN METS HISTORY Through 102 NYM Games 2011: REYES -- .351 1969: Jones -- .350 1998: Olerud -- .329

METS HITS IN A SEASON Through 102 NYM Games Johnson 1996: 137 REYES 2011: 135

Kevin Mitchell didn't deck anyone, Gary Carter didn't pivot on a 3-5-4 and Jesse Orosco wasn't seen in the outfield, but that was a pretty darn good NYM @ CIN game.

METS ALL-TIME HIT LEADERS Through 7/25/2011 1. Ed Kranepool 1,418 2. JOSE REYES 1,254 3. DAVID WRIGHT 1,190 Live long and prosper, Cleon, but the Top Three are now these three.

Murphy 2.0 Dickey 1.5 Bay 1.5 Turner 1.0 Isringhausen 1.0 Reyes 1.0 Parnell 0.5 Byrdak 0.5 Wright 0.5 Beltran 0.5

These images are priceless. Thanks BMF.

More progress for the Hall of Famer who couldn't make it to Cooperstown this weekend. Gary Carter's daughter Kimmy Bloemers continued to express optimism about the progress of the Hall of Fame catcher. Carter hit 15 golf balls last week and also drove a vehicle. He is due for an Aug. 2 MRI at Duke University to determine whether cancerous brain tumors have been eradicated. The Carter family, which was visited by Mets PR man Jay Horwitz during the weekend, expressed appreciation at the love emanating from Cooperstown during Hall of Fame weekend. Carter was unable to attend, but plans to return next year. �Dad watched the HOF ceremony and was touched by the kind words from the inductees,� Bloemers wrote in a private online journal to which ESPN has been granted access. �He wished so badly he could have been there. My mom and dad both wanted to thank the Hall of Famers and their wives for their support, love and encouragement. They can't wait to be with you all next year!� Carter underwent his final radiation treatment and ingested his last chemotherapy pill for the time being last Tuesday. He also is being weaned off steroid pills. As for Carter driving, Bloemers wrote: �His mind was clear and he felt wonderful. He knows that he won't ever go behind the wheel unless he is feeling terrific. It was a great moment for him!� She concluded: "Cancer is hard to understand. Aside from having tired moments, dad is talking, walking and acting like himself (for the most part). The only sign that shows dad is not 100 percent is his hair loss. No one could believe that there is something dangerous inside his body. We recognize the cancer, but we keep a positive mindset and we pray, pray, pray!�

This one was a helluva lot fun. Nice retro KTE, MFS.

Newsday's Mark Herrmann (as picked up by Toronto Star) on the newest Hall of Fame New York Met. COOPERSTOWN, N.Y.�We have it on good authority that Roberto Alomar really could play at Shea Stadium, after all. Pat Gillick, a fellow inductee into the Hall of Fame on Sunday, said he saw Alomar taking grounders and batting practice there as a little kid. Sandy Alomar was playing for the Yankees at the time, the Yankees were playing home games at Shea and Gillick was working for the Yankees. He couldn�t help but be impressed. �I thought then that there were probably good bloodlines, with his brother and him,� said Gillick, who tried unsuccessfully to sign 14-year-old Alomar for the Blue Jays, then traded for him in 1990. After that, Alomar blossomed into the great player whose career was celebrated Sunday. He became a terrific hitter. His older brother Sandy Jr., in a taped introduction during the ceremony, recalled that when they were teammates in Double-A ball, they could afford only a one-bedroom apartment. The deal was that whoever had the best game that day would get the bed that night. �I slept on the couch the whole year,� Sandy Jr. said. Roberto was even better as a fielder at second base, winning 10 Gold Gloves and earning praise as one of the best of all time. No argument there. He clearly is a deserving Hall of Famer. He belonged on the stage Sunday with Joe Morgan and Ryne Sandberg and Bill Mazeroski. But as for the people � such as Gillick � who say he should have gone in on the first ballot, we say things worked out just fine the way they did. Alomar made it in his second year of eligibility, which seems right in retrospect. Consider the one-year wait to be his payment for the way he played as a big-leaguer at Shea Stadium: not so hot. When he was a Met in 2002 and the first part of 2003, he just wasn�t the star the Mets thought they were getting. His batting average in 2002 was 70 points lower than it had been for the Indians the previous year, his home run and RBI totals were barely more than half. Yes, there is merit to the argument that a player either is or isn�t a Hall of Famer. He doesn�t get any better in his sixth year of retirement than he had been in his fifth year of retirement. In fact, this peanut stand did vote for Alomar the first time he was on the ballot. But it just seems right that he didn�t get the extra gold star as a first-ballot guy. He made only a passing reference to his time at Shea during his induction speech: �To the New York Mets, Chicago White Sox, Arizona Diamondbacks, Tampa Bay Rays, I wore your uniform with pride and dignity. And I want you all to know that I gave you my best, each and every time I hit that field to represent you. Thank you.� We will have to take his word for it. Maybe he really was trying his hardest for the Mets. Maybe his back hurt. Maybe age caught up with him; he never did regain his form. That was stellar form while it lasted. As Sandy Jr., who played with Roberto on the Indians and White Sox, said, �He�s Robbie Alomar, he�s the best.� It was touching to hear him address his family from the stage, acknowledging his mom as she was crying for joy, and telling his dad that as far as he was concerned, Sandy Sr. belongs in the Hall of Fame. Also, it was heartwarming to see how beloved Alomar is among fans at home in Puerto Rico and in Toronto. The biggest cheers of the day came when he acknowledged being the first player to go into the Hall as a Blue Jay. �My heart,� Alomar said later, �is half Puerto Rican and half Canadian.� It�s just too bad he didn�t leave a piece of his heart at Shea.

BEST SINGLE-SEASON BATTING AVERAGE IN METS HISTORY Through 101 NYM Games 2011: REYES -- .353 1969: Jones -- .348 1998: Olerud -- .328

METS HITS IN A SEASON Through 101 NYM Games Johnson 1996: 136 REYES 2011: 134

METS ALL-TIME HIT LEADERS Through 7/24/2011 1. Ed Kranepool 1,418 2. JOSE REYES 1,253 T-3. Cleon Jones 1,188 T-3. DAVID WRIGHT 1,188 Our Top Three now contains four.

Wright 3.0 Reyes 2.0 Beltran 1.5 Acosta 1.5 Bay 1.0 Gee 0.5

Gaby. Anibel. Nearly the fifth anniversary of Duaner's midnight ride. Let's get out of Miami Gardens alive.

BEST SINGLE-SEASON BATTING AVERAGE IN METS HISTORY Through 100 NYM Games 2011: REYES -- .352 1969: Jones -- .346 1998: Olerud -- .325

METS HITS IN A SEASON Through 100 NYM Games Johnson 1996: 136 REYES 2011: 132

METS ALL-TIME HIT LEADERS Through 7/23/2011 1. Ed Kranepool 1,418 2. JOSE REYES 1,251 3. Cleon Jones 1,188 4. DAVID WRIGHT 1,185