1
2012
My Best Mets Moments Of 2011
An article by 
Yes, there were some forgettable moments in 2011, but they weren’t all bad. These were five of my favorite moments last season.
Best Moment #5
The Mets beat the Phillies 2-1 in a 14 inning nail-biter at Citizens Bank Park. But the best moment of the night came in the middle of the game when the crowd began to chant ‘USA – USA” as news broke that President Obama announced that terrorist Osama Bin Laden had been killed by Navy Seals.
Best Moment #4
Jason Isringhausen pitches a scoreless tenth inning to preserve a Mets 5-4 win over the Padres. In doing so, Izzy becomes the 23rd closer in baseball history to record 300 saves, joining John Franco and Billy Wagner as the only men to do it in a Mets uniform. Wrestling with the decision to retire rather than return after missing two seasons, Izzy came to Mets spring training camp for an audition and was signed the next day. After the Mets traded K-Rod in July, Isringhausen became the team’s closer and the most reliable arm in the bullpen.
Best Moment #3
Carlos Beltran hit a career-high three home runs – all two-run shots – in a 9-5 win over the Rockies. The six RBIs matched a career high for the Mets rightfielder who was finally healthy and having a great season. Beltran became the eighth Mets player to hit three home runs in one game – the last player to do it was Jose Reyes who hit three homers against the Philadelphia Phillies on Aug. 15, 2006. ”I have never seen a day like that before,” Mets manager Terry Collins said.
Best Moment #2
After bunting for a single in his final at-bat of an amazing 2011 season, Jose Reyes becomes the first Batting Champion in Mets franchise history. The hit lifted Reyes’ average to .337 which was too much to overcome for Ryan Braun who finished five percentage points behind with a .332 average. It was a remarkable season for Reyes who also led the National League in most at-bats per strikeout (13.1) as well as multi-hit games and sharing the league lead in triples.
Best Moment #1
Chris Capuano pitched the game of his life – a complete game, two hit shutout, striking out 13 and facing only one over the minimum as the Mets beat the Atlanta Braves 6-0. Cappy had a perfect game until a broken bat single by Dan Uggla in the fifth inning. It was considered by most as the best pitched game in the major leagues in 2011. For Capuano it was his first complete game since 2006.
* * * * *
Honorable Mentions
Justin Turner, who was a nice surprise this season, became the first Met to win the NL Rookie of the Month award.
How about that four-game span during interleague play in late June.. The Mets exploded for 52 runs by beating the Rangers 14-5 and 8-5,and then the Detroit Tigers 14-3 and 16-9. The 52 runs were the most the Mets have ever scored in a four game stretch.
During that Tigers series in Detroit on June 28, Jason Bay and Carlos Beltran both hit grand slams in a 14-3 rout of the Detroit Tigers. It was only the second time in Mets history that they slugged two grand slams in the same game.
The 9/11 Ceremony at Citi Field was very emotional for all of us, but what a beautiful job the Mets did in putting it all together. It was certainly one of the more memorable moments of the season.
There were a couple of brilliant starts by R.A. Dickey and even Ronny Paulino ignited a sweet comeback against the Yankees during the Subway Series.
These are some of the best moments I will take away from the 2011 season.
I hope you enjoyed all of my Mets art and graphics in 2011, and I look forward to creating more Mets graphics in 2012. Happy New Year, everybody!
About the Author: Kelly Horn
MMO's graphic/web designer, the former Met Carlos Beltran's biggest fan, and one of the few but proud Oklahoma Mets Fans
10 Comments + Add Comment
Recent Comments
- Michelle: on Reds vs Mets: Harvey Looks For Sixth Win, Hawkins Unavailable Today, Red Hot Byrd Batting Fifth: Ankiel is red hot!
- Connor O'Brien: on Sandy Disappointed With Some Of His Moves And The Team’s Performance: The Nationals have done that very well.
- Connor O'Brien: on Sandy Disappointed With Some Of His Moves And The Team’s Performance: Agree compleely Mr. NJ. Three years. We...
- Metsie: on Sandy Disappointed With Some Of His Moves And The Team’s Performance: Well Phillip ask any Banker.... They don't care...
- Kerry: on Sandy Alderson Says He Will Stick With Ike Davis A Little While Longer: When Davis first came up the entire...
MMO Mets Chat
Need Tickets To The Mets Game?
Check Out These Great MLB Links!
Photographs From Gordon Donovan
5382 Fans Follow Us On Twitter!
1269 Fans Like Us On Facebook!
2341 Fans Read Our Feed!
1702 Fans Subscribe via Daily Email!
Ironic that 4-1 involve players who aren’t on the 2012 team…..
I’m not convinced this year’s team will be ‘fun to watch’ as it’s likely we struggle to stay out of last place but here’s to looking forward to the start of the climb back up.
Too true. Izzy, Cappy, Beltran and Jose have moved on, That Osama is so gone.
Wow, that stinks!
Hopefully within the next few years this list will include getting into the postseason
Happy New Year Kelly. Nice list of moments indeed. Another memorable moment in 2011 for me was this one.
http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=16384849
I see you gave the Grand Slam game an honorable mention as well.
The Mets 4 game stretch where they scored 52 runs was my best moment of the season. It seemed like everybody on the team was on fire those 4 games…..And Reyes was just unstopable – Nobody could get him out….And the best part about it was that was when everyone was starting to talk about trading everyone and how much we sucked, meanwhile, we were just DESTROYING arguably the two best teams in the AL – That was by far my favortie part of the year…..It was only four games, but it was great.
The worst part of the season was when they traded Beltran – It was just awful. The team was fighting to stay alive, and they gave up on the season by trading their best hitter. It was so disapointing to see the team still alive to just give up like that – That was the worst moment of the year.
I agree with the Moments but I do think they should be listed in reverse order Kelly!
The night OBL was killed harkened me back to that first game after 911!
The Mets started off the healing in 2001 and were part of the national TV game when the closure of those events in history were finally realized! My only regret was that I had to switch channels during commercials to check the news while the game was still on! LOL
Izzy was our second best story as far as I’m concerned. Former Met coming home to finish out and doing so by making one last stab at making history. Storybook stuff!
Only way it could have been better is if we had played in a WS with him as our closer!
I would have put Reyes winning the Batting Title next, too bad that he won’t be here any longer! Guess we know why he was our First batting Champ now! Will probably be our last for a very long time unless Murphy finds a spot to play!
I would put the Beltran and capuano as the last two. The Capuano game was a great effort but I was kind of reminded of all those Late game useless Kingman HRs that were great for a moment until you realized just how insignificant it was to the bigger picture and end results!
Personally I would have replaced the Capuano game with the near no hitter from Dickey against the Phillies!
My favorite moment of 2011 was hands down the Capuano game. I remember listening to Howie on the radio a few days ago talking about why people still go to the game, even in the midst of a losing season. I was screaming and cheering and lost my voice, and thought to myself, “THIS is why I still come to the games”.
I would have put how the Wilpons handled the day after ridding the world Bin-Laden and the tenth anniversary ceremonies of 9/11 as the two lowest points of the season.
After that Sunday night in Philly they began connecting the significance of their upcoming home game to that of the emotional impact of when baseball returned to the city after 9/11. I think Mookie Wilson put it into proper perspective when asked by Kevin Berkhardt to compare the two. He said there was none and the only thought was preparing for that next contest. What they should have concentrated on was the impact the news had on the players that night while in the dugout and thoughts of 9/11. But the Mets via SNY tried milking it for the upcoming home stand instead which was a shameless act of using the event for their own advantage.
But what was even more shameful was ordering players not to wear those special hats to honor the first responders, police and fire department due to MLB’s contract with Nike. Throughout the country, it was agreed New York City’s ceremonies would be the most poinent and I doubt MLB or Nike would have taken issue due to the bad publicity it would have created. But instead the Wilpons claimed they were following the directive of the Commissioner’s office and the uniform dress code and would be subject to a massive fine if violated. It got to the point to where the front office telephoned David Wright in the dugout and ordered him to remove the cap he was wearing when not on the field. All this did was anger the fans and damper the otherwise highly respectable pre-game ceremonies and create a black eye for MLB.