Gwreck

2006 research, as promised: We can declare the myth of Manny Acta as a bad third base coach busted. He had a total of 4 runners thrown out home. Why did I believe this myth? Maybe because all 4 happened in a 3 week period. 6/14 at Philly, Milledge thrown out at home by Dellucci (relay by Utley), Mets up 4 at the time, top of the 7th. Was the 3rd out of the inning. Mets won the game. 6/20 vs. CIN, Valentin thrown out at home by Griffey trying to stretch a triple into an inside-the-parker. Up 7 runs at the time. 1st out of the 8th inning. Mets won the game. 6/27 at BOS, Reyes thrown out at home by Manny Ramirez trying to score from second on a single. Was the second out of the 5th inning, Mets down 3 at the time. Lost the game. 7/2 at NYY, Valentin thrown out trying to score from first on a double. Johnny Damon, relayed by Nick Green. Was the 2nd out of the 2nd inning, Mets up 1 at the time, would score 3 more that inning. Mets lost the game -- Soler would implode later on.

From your CPF research department: 1. The Mets have had 6, not 7 runners thrown out at home from the outfield this year. Daily News was wrong. Dickshot's list is correct, with one typo -- that first out happened on April 3, not April 4 (the other info about that game is correct). 2. a.The Chris Duncan throw to get Valentin was relayed by David Eckstein. b.The Matt Holliday throw to nail Castro was relayed by Troy Tulowitzki. 3. The only other outs at the plate this year were a. on two fielders' choices -- grounders in the infield with the bases loaded (4/6 at ATL, 4/28 at WAS), and b.the botched/missed squeeze play when Green was caught in a rundown, 4/17 at PHI. Do we attribute any blame to Sandy on that play? Hard to say. 4. In addition to the 6 outs at the plate, there have also been two runners thrown out at third (Reyes 4/17 at PHI, Green 5/3 at ARZ).

Gotay 2 Newhan 1.5 Chavez 1.5 Delgado 1.5 Wright 1 Green 1 Burgos 1 Gomez .5

Damn. If we had to go to extras, I think we would've seen Wright at SS anyway (with Gotay at 2nd, Newhan in LF and Gomez in RF.

With Easley already out of the game and Reyes (presumably) unavailable, I don't know how we would've used Wright as the PH. Wright playing SS?

Sosa 5 Easley 2.5 Gomez 1 Wright 1 Smith .25 Wagner .25

Box Score

Moises to the DL to make room for Vargas.

Someone had to represent the CPF for this 3+ hour rain delay and I didn't want to let the team down. Glad I brought a book however. Anyway, after much delayage and a very nice self upgrade (first row of the loge boxes right behind the plate) it turned out to be a fun game. Easley's homer appeared to clear the back wall of the visitors bullpen. I believe it was estimated at 431 feet, IIRC. Sosa got a very nice reception from the crowd after Willie took him out in the 8th. Ticketholders to tonight's game, if there are any out there, can mail them in for free tix to one of the Twins games.

Source? Still looking for something definitive on this.

Johnson is no longer disabled in New Orleans, also.

Bump to save from archiving.

I unfortunately can't start in on 2006 yet (too busy during the day today) but have some good ideas of where to start and will look at it tonight when I get home from the game. For what it's worth -- and I didn't see the replay of last night's -- I don't think there were any bad calls among the 7 outs so far this year. I wonder (and this will undoubtedly be harder to find) if there were any bad calls that went for us...

Green 2

Was there. It sucked. Floyd got a nice reception but shoulda got the standing O. Disappointing.

Urdaneta back to NOLA, Ambiorix back to Shea.

I have Friday tickets in hand but can't decide if I want to go to another one this weekend. The Sunday night special intrigues, especially with Maine due to pitch. Going tomorrow to hopefully see one of my favorite Mets of all-time return to Shea. (I certainly hope he's in the starting lineup against a RHP).

Wright 4 Delgado 2 Feliciano 1 Smith 1 LoDuca 1 Heilman .5 Chavez .5

bmfc1 wrote: Nice win for the Faith & Fear duo who were in attendance tonight. Also a nice win for the CPF regulars in attendance. Not a huge crowd but loud when necessary. No sign of Cliff except for a few innings on the top step of the dugout. Hopefully he's in the lineup tomorrow to receive some well-deserved love from the fans. Fans booed when Heilman was announced into the game in the 9th. Not everybody, but a sizeable chunk. Very disappointing. Glad we pulled it out because I thought Willie shoulda pinch hit for Glavine in the bottom of the 5th (he was at 96 pitches) when he was due to lead off. With Ben Johnson apparently back, I wonder how much longer we can tolerate David Newhan. How long did the HR buy him? A week? Two?

Nymr83 wrote: but where would it have landed with no obstructions in the way? even if it was already falling when it hit the fact that it was 110 feet above the ground meant it had some more distance on it, depending on the angle and speed maybe as much as another 50-75 feet, but without video we'll never even be able to take an educated guess Probably not -- but why would we want to know how far it "could" go? Seems irrelevant to me.

P.S. - Regarding the distance of that homer, I don't think it was quite as far as some think. Using basic triangulation, we know that the upper deck was 95 feet above the ground. We'll add 15 feet from the bottom of the upper deck to aisle where it bounced. The foul pole is 338 feet from the plate -- we'll say that the homer bounced about 25 feet to the fair side of the foul pole -- which means the distance from home plate to the spot of the wall (on the ground) where the ball crossed is about 339-340 feet. Add another 30 feet for the wall-aisle distance. I estimate that homer to be about 386 feet.

Here's something. Found on the Google Book Search, from the book Only in New York: 400 Remarkable Answers to Intriguing, Provocative Questions about New York City, by Stuart Goldenberg of The New York Times: ]Though it is not actually retired, No. 20 belonged to Tommie Agee, a Met center fielder. It marks the spot where, on April 10, 1969, Agee's second-inning home run, one of the most prodigious in Shea Stadium history, fell out of the sky and bounced behind a third-row seat. Agee hit the 3-and-1 pitch, a low fastball, off Larry Jaster of the Montreal Expos. Calling it "one of the longest home runs ever hit in Queens," Joseph Durso wrote in The New York Times that the ball "bounced off the uppermost deck of the five-tiered Shea Stadium, 100 feet above the ground in a no-man's land of empty green seats in left field." It then fell back onto the field. Baseball clubs didn't estimate home run distances in 1969, but the left field foul pole at Shea is 338 feet from home plate, and the Upper Deck begins 95 feet above the ground. In later years, Dave Kingman launched balls into the parking lot, and Darryl Strawberry bounced a few off the scoreboard, but according to the Mets' press office, Agee's blast is still the only fair ball to land in the upper deck at Shea Stadium. Agee, a leadoff hitter who had hit only five home runs the previous year, actually smacked a second home run that afternoon, which just cleared the 398-foot sign on the center field fence. The Mets won the game, 4-2.

Johnny Dickshot wrote: I'd like some indypendent verification. I would...but somehow I don't think that searching the NY Times archives for the story about that game is a permissible use of the company Lexis/Nexis account. I bet somebody out there has access, though.

metirish wrote: BJK never did recover from that meltdown,did he? Eh, there's more myth than truth to that. The season after the blowup in the WS, he was 8-3, 2.04 ERA, 36 Saves for the D'Backs. Took the loss in a Division Series game to the Cardinals that year. His troubles didn't really start until he had a bad year in Boston and then went to Colorado.

Had no idea you could get it online (PDF). http://pressbox.mlb.com/pressbox/media_guides/index.jsp