G-Fafif

I'll throw in one more in the spirit of those rare things you see in the course of a baseball season even though it doesn't technically involve what we'd call a position player: a Met pitcher hitting a home run. That's the sort of delightful happenstance that convinces you everything is going your way. But it ain't necessarily so. Mets pitchers have hit 46 home runs, from Carlton Willey in 1963 to John Maine in 2007. Somehow, 11 of them came in Met losses. The most egregious episode, no doubt, occurred at Shea on May 20, 1967. Jack Hamilton walloped a grand slam off ex-Met Al Jackson (who himself had homered off future Met and Hall of Famer Warren Spahn in a 1964 loss to the Milwaukee Braves) to break a 0-0 tie in the second inning. Staking himself to a 4-0 lead on the only grand slam ever hit by a Met pitcher, Hamilton gave up three runs in the top of the third (starting with an RBI single to Jackson) and had let the Redbirds tie it in the fourth on an Orlando Cepeda home run. Wes Westrum let Jack face one more batter, Tim McCarver. McCarver, no doubt inspired by the twinkle in the eye of Derek Jeter's father seven years prior to the shortstop's birth, singled and Hamilton was removed. Final score: Cardinals 11 Mets 9. Since we are using the last 30 years for our parameters, let us note a Met pitcher has hit a home run in a losing cause five times since 1980: Rick Aguilera once, in 1986 (Aggie had 3 career Met HRs); Jason Isringhausen twice, in 1996; and Doc Gooden twice, in 1990 and 1993. Most appropriate to include here among best individual "position player" performances in a Met loss, I believe, is this one: May 27, 1990: With two out and the Mets trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh, Dwight Gooden, having allowed two runs (only one earned) and five hits, bats for himself. Gooden homers to left off Ed Whitson to knot the score at two. It's the third home run of Doc's career (he will hit seven as a Met, eight overall). Doc goes out for the eighth, surrenders a leadoff single to Fred Lynn, is victimized by a Mike Marshall error on a Bip Roberts sac bunt -- putting runners on second and third with nobody out -- and, after retiring Robbie Alomar on a groundout and intentionally walking Tony Gwynn to load the bases, is touched for a single through the right side by Joe Carter. With the Mets now trailing 4-2, Davey Johnson removes his starting pitcher. It's the last time Davey Johnson will do that, as the Mets will be rained out the next night in Cincinnati, and Frank Cashen will replace Davey with Buddy Harrelson the day after that. Padres beat Mets, 8-4. FYI, the other four Met pitcher home runs that came in losses: Jerry Koosman in 1968 (one of two Kooz blasted as a Met); Don Cardwell in 1968 off future Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry (one of three Cardwell hit as a Met out of 15 lifetime); Tom Seaver in 1972 (one of three Seaver hit that season; Tom homered six times as a Met and six more times as a Red); and, in relief, Tug McGraw in 1972.

Incidentally, earlier editions of Snooze and Pest each had variations on BAY CITI on the back page, with one helpfully adding ROLLERS. Nobody remains more immersed, 30+ years after the fact, in '70s Top 40 than yours truly, and even I had to stop and think about that for a few seconds.

Continued research on the topic has unearthed several more examples of great individual Met position player performances in regular-season losses over the past thirty years: August 12, 1982: Rusty Staub crowns four-run, sixth-inning rally with a bases-clearing double to give Mets a 5-3 lead at Shea. Before the seventh-inning stretch arrives, the Mets will have used four pitchers to record three outs. Cubs beat Mets, 13-6. June 26, 1983: Rusty Staub ties the National League record for consecutive pinch-hits with eight to start the ninth at Shea. The hit begins a rally that will see the Mets load the bases and bring the potential tying run to bat with George Foster. But Staub is stranded on third. Phillies beat Mets, 8-4. June 22, 1985: Rusty Staub hits what turns out be the last home run of his 22-season major league career, a pinch-hit three-run job off Jeff Reardon that gives the Mets a lead in the bottom of the seventh. Expos beat Mets, 5-4. June 18, 1997: In the signature moment of his brief major league career, pinch-runner Steve Bieser coaxes a two-out, eighth-inning balk out of David Cone to score from third base and tie the rubber game of the first Subway Series at Yankee Stadium. Yankees beat Mets, 3-2. May 1, 2000: Jay Payton dashes to the Pac Bell Park left-center field wall and leaps above it, his shoulder crashing into the padding, his glove stretched just above the hands of a teenage fan, to rob Bill Mueller of a sure home run to end the bottom of the third inning. Giants beat Mets, 10-3. June 26, 2002: Mo Vaughn�s second home run of the night is a blast off Kevin Gryboski that hits about two-thirds of the way up the Budweiser sign on the Shea Stadium scoreboard and leaves a dent. Braves beat Mets, 6-3. August 21, 2005: All but packed off and sent back to Norfolk after not having played as an emergency callup, Mike Jacobs is given a pinch-hitting assignment on the wrong end of a blowout. He uses that plate appearance, the first of his major league career, to blast a three-run homer and help secure his place on the Mets� roster for the rest of the season. Jacobs becomes the fourth Met to hit a home run his first time up. Nationals beat Mets, 7-3. August 23, 2007: Marlon Anderson caps a six-run sixth-inning rally with a three-run pinch-homer, giving the homestanding Mets a 7-6 lead. Padres beat Mets 9-8. July 26, 2008: Jose Reyes sets tone for Mets offense by doubling to lead off bottom of first and coming around to score on an Endy Chavez triple. He will add a double in the second, a homer in the fourth and a single in the tenth, going 4-for-8 by the time the night is done. Cardinals beat Mets, 10-8.

Star of stage and screen Oliver Platt found by Fox during Saturday's game in black Mets jersey.

I hope we get Oswalt for one reason: So he can go on Francesa's show and tell him, "It's OH-swalt, you dope. Not OZ-walt. I've been in the league for ten years, get it straight."

His Met span: 17 days, 17.1 innings and a couple of memories that transcend his ERA.

MLBN's pickup of the Minny-Milwaukee feed continued after the Mets game was underway. It was gripping in its own right with extra innings, jams escaped and what appeared to be dandelions blowing all through Target Field. Perhaps if I wasn't a partisan, I wouldn't have stayed with Fox's game of the week. But the more baseball there is, the more likely I am to watch all of it. Expansiveness, not exclusivity.

Fox and MLB will soon announce a revised schedule for the second half of the 2010 season, in which all games will be Mets-Yankees. "It gave us good ratings that one weekend in May," said commissioner Bud Selig. "It will obviously give us good ratings every single day." When the subject of golden geese and their egg production was raised, Selig had no comment.

Wins are wins are wins and all wins are highly appreciated in this series, but gol'dang it, I'd sure like a ninth-inning against these fuckers that involves nothing more than calm reflection and warm satisfaction.

Santana 3.5 Bay 3.0 Cora 1.0 Wright 1.0 Feliciano 0.5 Rodriguez 0.5 Davis 0.5

UMPIRE STATE OF MIND Girardi talks Blue streak after call goes off rails

Daniel Murphy: Notoriously fast starter. Notorious because he doesn't hit .500 for whole or partial seasons. If he doesn't keep up the .727 pace, we'll have to cope. I thought the idea was to let Murph play some different positions at Buffalo for a while. But if he's got the hot bat, I can't see not exploiting it right away somewhere. Where? Danged if I know.

Two members of the 2006 Mets, too. Geremi Gonzalez, who briefly followed Jose Lima in the rotation that May, died almost exactly two years ago. Was not effective as a Met, I think it's fair to say, but he seemed to love being here and I appreciated that.

Why does Dessens get destay? Simple need for a long man? I'd rather have Manny than Elmer (which sounds like a draft for a fantasy league of imaginary friends).

Brian Daubach managing indie team in Pittsfield. Berkshire Eagle reporter can't spell Alfonzo.

Pelfrey 2.5 Bay 2.5 Wright 1.5 Pagan 1.0 Mejia 1.0 Rodriguez 1.0 Cora 0.5

SteveJRogers wrote: Ten years burning down that road... From last night's "gathering" of members of the 2000 Mets before the game ] Fonzie, Hampton, Reeder, Turk, Franco, Benny, Mike

Box Takahashi 5.0 Davis 1.5 Bay 1.0

metsguyinmichigan wrote: Maine is headed to the 15-day DL with "shoulder weakness" with Elmer Dessens taking his spot. Dessens, out of madness.

Bobby O was obsessed on postgame with Angel throwing his helmet after going around on strike three versus Chamberlain. That, I do believe, is not why we lost.

seawolf17 wrote: Led the league with 20 sacs in 2006. Mets have 25 players, but I'm not convinced they have as many as 20 sacs.

At this stage of the 1990 season, the Mets had the exact record they do now: 20-22. At two games below .500, Davey Johnson was fired, and won a World Series and a division title for them, finishing first or second six years in a row.

The appropriateness of this KTE has an edge all its own.

Agreed that Thole has yet to deserve coronation as catcher of the inevitable future. Nevertheless, Barajas is a short-term solution. A swell one for now, but probably not for very long.