What I seek to provide here is my recollection of certain small chapters in Mets’ history that stand out from the pack, not necessarily for their place in a championship campaign or a particularly important game, but for their unique qualities which occasionally move them into the realm of the strange or even at times, the poetic.

RUSTY AND THE RUNDOWN

The first of these instances involves one of my favorite Mets of bygone days, Rusty Staub. During his first go-round with the Mets, Rusty provided more in the way of consistent offense and heady play than fans had come to expect from a Mets team that relied primarily on the arms of Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Jon Matlack , Tug McGraw and whatever offense could be scrounged from the day’s lineup. In 1973, two years into their second decade of existence, the Mets had still not had a player produce a 100 RBI season. The team would make its second trip to the World Series that year, but would wind up second to last in the NL in runs scored with a paltry 608. As a result, defense was a key component to go along with that vaunted pitching staff. In June of that year, the Mets were playing a series at Shea against the Dodgers. The Saturday game of that set (on June 9th) was Old Timers’ Day and a good crowd was on hand. The offensive heroes for the day were Staub, with two doubles and 3 RBI, and Willie Mays who homered for the other run in what would be a 4-2 complete game win for Jon Matlack.

It wasn’t Rusty’s offense that made this game memorable for me, but his defense- specifically, his role in a play that took place in the top of the seventh inning.  By virtue of a pinch-hit double by future Met Tom Paciorek and a bunt single by Davey Lopes, the Dodgers had runners at the corners with no one out and Bill Buckner (of all people) coming to the plate. The Mets were clinging to a 3-2 lead at this point that looked to be in jeopardy. Buckner was an up-and-coming young batsman of 24 at this time, but was coming off a season where he had hit .319 and shown a penchant for making contact. With Lopes dancing off first, Matlack made a successful pickoff throw and a rundown ensued.

Rundowns always make me nervous if it’s my team trying to execute one. We’ve all heard how, if properly done, only one or two throws should be needed to nail the runner. Invariably, as the number of throws involved in the play increases, so does the percentage that one will ultimately wind up in the stands, the dugout, or the outfield while the runner advances.  On this particular play the infielders involved, Bud Harrelson, Felix Millan, and John Milner, were no slouches with the glove  but Lopes was fleet and managed to elude a tag. A number of throws were made, back and forth, with Paciorek looking for a chance to score from third. Ultimately, with the middle infielders out of position, Lopes dashed for second, seemingly uncovered until…Rusty Staub, having run in from his position in Right Field, took the throw at second, slapped a tag on Lopes diving for the base, then fired a strike to the plate to catch Paciorek trying to sneak in with the tying run. Double play! Buckner flied out to center and the inning ended with no damage done.

As a mere 16 year-old at the time, my depth of baseball knowledge was not substantial, but I had been bitten by the bug at a young age and had read more about the game’s history than many of my peers. Nowhere had I come across an account of a similar play, which, while not the weirdest thing to happen on a baseball field, was without a doubt the most heads-up piece of fielding I had ever witnessed.

Rusty went on to play heroically in the LCS (3 HR’s and a great catch where he badly injured his shoulder), and World Series that year (hitting .423 with a 5 RBI game while playing hurt). In 1975, he became the first Met to reach the century mark in RBI while setting a club record with 105. Management rewarded this by trading him to Detroit for a washed-up Mickey Lolich and fans were left to pin their hopes on Mike Vail. Spoiler alert: it didn’t work out too well.

Regardless, Rusty’s place in the annals of Metdom is assured, but is just that much more deserved, in my opinion, because of that nifty double play.

Whether you were alive, a child, a baby, an adult, not even born yet, chances are an elder has sat you down and either played the last inning of the game or has told them the story verbatim. I like to say that Mets fans are into the history of the team like no other fan base…we celebrate it and love to analyze it more than any other I am aware of (Yankees don’t count since mostly it’s about them winning…we appreciate the losing years a little TOO much at times). All the ghosts of miracles past came into play that fair night and as one of my dad’s friend put it, “God put his hand over Shea Stadium tonight.”

I was at home, watching the game with my mom. She fell asleep around the time Dave Henderson hit the go-ahead home run in the top of the 10th inning. I was 10 years old. My dad, as I alluded above, was at the game. I know it sounds cliche to say this 25 years after the fact, but at 10 years old, sitting on my mom’s bed watching the game, I wasn’t aware that the Mets *could* lose, that they were allowed to. I often say that in Dwight Gooden’s rookie year, he lost nine games, and I swear I witnessed four of them live. I knew the Mets could lose or had the capacity to, but I also didn’t think they would lose THIS game.

This isn’t going to be a retrospective of “What did I do during Game 6,” though Mark Simon from ESPN Mets Blog does that for me today. It’s how history has rewritten Game Six as a Red Sox loss rather than a Mets win. Sure, today we have a bunch of warm fuzzies discussing the event in most Mets forums today (after all, it’s much better to look at the past today than the present or at least the very near future), but for the most part if you look at how Game Six is in the lexicon of baseball fans, it’s how the Red Sox, Cursed Team of the North, were one strike away on several different occasions from tying up the win AND the series, but did not. It’s never been about how the Mets were going on sheet guts and guile to win the game in a dramatic come-from-behind victory.

I’ve also felt bad for Bill Buckner for several years. Just like how history rewrote the game as a Red Sox loss and not a Mets win, Buckner has gotten his share of the blame for the last play of the game. Even the documentary Catching Hell discussed how the Red Sox media and fans treated Buckner afterwards. Certainly, I can understand the power of the scapegoat…I am a Mets fan who has had to deal with the nuclear fallout of Carlos Beltran taking strike three in 2006.

Yet, being an amateur Mets historian as I like to think of myself, it amazes me just how many people think that the Mets actually WON the World Series in that game. If it was…why was the loss and subsequent comeback so dramatic? They still have Game 7 to play. The Red Sox STILL blew a 3-run lead that game.

Buckner misplayed the “little roller along first,” but in order for the Mets to win, they had to have tied it at that point, right? Furthermore, the dynamic changer of that inning was not the bunch of singles that got the Mets’ juices flowing, but it was Bob Stanley’s wild pitch. I’ve often said that no one was happier about Buckner letting the ball go through his legs than Stanley, who had allowed a run to score from third on the play (we can also point out Mookie Wilson jumping out of the way or Rich Gedman’s misplay of the ball too.)

Yes, even the good times in Mets lore have been marred by backhanded compliments, and ways to discredit their victory. The biggest discredit of them all is blaming Buckner. I’d like to hope that people don’t blame him or look at the bigger picture. I know that five years after the fact, people still blame Beltran for all the Mets woes to this day (I, personally, blame Duaner Sanchez for getting hungry on July 30, 2006, in Miami). Did you know, as a “for instance,” that then-Red Sox manager John McNamara usually replaced Buckner defensively in later innings but opted to keep him in the game so he could “celebrate?” Where’s the ire towards him for putting the proverbial cart before the horse? (Actually, I think it exists amongst Red Sox fans, but that’s neither here nor there.)

Today is a significant day in Mets culture. There is no question about it. However, I hope it doesn’t take another 25 years before people see the bigger picture of what really happened here…and that the Mets earned this victory by sheer determination, hard work and grit.

In sports, it has its own special meaning.

I recently saw a movie called “Catching Hell,” which was a documentary surrounding Steve Bartman. Perhaps you’ve heard of him, he was a guy who was infamously singled-out by not only the Cubs fanbase but the Cubs players themselves in 2003, when he reached for a fly ball coming his way during the National League Championship Series against the Florida Marlins. When the Cubs started to fall apart and was letting runs score left and right and backwards and forwards, the fans started to turn on Bartman, an unassuming quiet fellow who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, and ultimately, he had to be escorted out of Wrigley Field. He has since retreated in anonymity, and declines to do interviews.

Perhaps the most poignant line in the film was “It’s not up to Chicago to forgive Steve Bartman, it’s up to Bartman to forgive Chicago.” The idea was multifaceted: the players singled him out and acted irrationally, the fans reacted to the players and the play, and singled out their scapegoat for the Cubs’ notorious bad luck in Octobers: the meek looking guy wearing the glasses (never mind Alex Gonzalez who booted a routine double-play ball…never mind the pitchers who couldn’t hold a lead…never mind a WHOLE OTHER GAME needed to be played).

It takes a rational person to take all that in and be able to see that not only was it not Bartman’s fault, but that it easily could have been any one of us in that position.

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The Mets have had their share of scapegoats over the years.

Namely, the most recent one is Carlos Beltran. I’ve had my own opinions about Beltran over the years.

In 2005, I thought he was an overhyped and overpaid star who was short of “super,” yet was being paid like one.

In 2006, I thought it was convenient that he had his buddy Carlos Delgado taking pressure off him in the lineup. What, all that money wasn’t enough of a motivation for you?

In 2007, I said some pretty nasty things about him, especially when he used that stupid 85% description when he wasn’t feeling, well, 100%.

But it was odd. There was nothing to suggest to me in 2008 that I’d feel any different. I even rolled my eyes when he claimed the “Mets were the team to beat” and telling the reporters to tell Jimmy Rollins about it. There was more. By the end of the season, I was Carlos Beltran Supporter #1, especially when I saw that for once, a Met was taking their late season faltering a bit personally.

I even predicted he’d be MVP in 2009. Of course, that was all washed aside when he got hurt. But he was on his way to having his best season ever.

And if someone had told me when he opted to get surgery a month prior to spring training that I wouldn’t have driven him out of town myself, I probably would have thought that person crazy. Because I used to be Carlos Beltran Enemy #1.

If you told me that I would be sad about Carlos Beltran’s time being up with the Mets seven years ago when he joined the team, I would have told you that you were crazy. And now, I will be sad to see him go. Whether he will be gone at the trading deadline or when his contract expires.

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The Mets also benefited from a scapegoat. Possibly the most famous that his body no longer hanging in effigy after 2004. And that’s Bill Buckner, the notorious first baseman for the Boston Red Sox in 1986.

Mets fans would enjoy the “Catching Hell” movie for a few reasons. One is, it’s about baseball for crying out loud. Another reason would be that the director really focused on the 1986 World Series. Of course, we were on the receiving more-joyous end of the scapegoating of Buckner. In case you haven’t followed not only one of the greatest games in Mets history but in baseball history, period, Buckner was responsible for making an error that cause Mookie Wilson to reach base and allow the winning run to score in Game Six of the World Series.

You say “Game Six” to any Mets fan, and they know exactly what you are referring to. As a fan said on the SNY documentary Simply Amazin’, “Game Six is like saying ‘Kleenex.’”

Never mind that the Red Sox had a two run lead going into the bottom of the 10^th inning. Never mind that the Mets were down to their last out and even their last strike during SEVERAL at-bats. Never mind that the game was tied on a wild pitch by Bob Stanley, thus allowing Kevin Mitchell to score. And never mind, that even losing that game, the Red Sox still had one more game to play. See, history revisionists have made this a game about the Red Sox failures, and not about the Mets glorious come from behind win.

But Buckner got the brunt of the vitriol. Because his play was so visible. Because the error was directly related to the walk-off situation for the Mets. There were several Saturday Evening Quarterbacks about the situation, how Buckner shouldn’t have even been in the game, as John McNamara usually went to a defensive replacement in late innings. But the “nostalgia” part was to have Buckner on the field to celebrate. Talk about putting the cart before the horse. In any case, throughout the years, especially prior to the Red Sox winning the World Series in 2004 and 2007, Buckner was not held in high regard with Boston. And Buckner didn’t feel the same way.

The olive branch was extended to Buckner, and he accepted, throwing out the first pitch at a Fenway Park Opening Day 2008 after their World Series win in 2007.

In that case, it was up to Bill Buckner to forgive Boston.

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In 2006, the Mets were riding high. A few key acquisitions and maturing and development of internal superstars led to one of their best seasons ever, and allowing them to waltz into the playoffs.

Most Mets fans don’t remember how Paul LoDuca tagged out two runners at home in one play (or so it looked) in the NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Most Mets fans won’t tell you how Tom Glavine came through in Game One, especially being down a starter. Most Mets fans barely talk about how Shawn Green muffed a fly ball out in right field, causing the dynamic to shift in Game Two at Shea. Most Mets fans won’t talk about Guillermo Mota and how he was just a waste in the bullpen that series.

Most Mets fans won’t remember that Carlos Beltran had a line of .296/.387/.667 with 3 home runs and 4 RBIs.

No, most fans don’t appreciate that. What EVERYONE remembers is that he struck out, looking, with men on base, to end the great 2006 postseason run, thus causing a domino effect of Mets string of bad luck in seasons after that.

No one will tell you how the Mets failed to score in the bottom of the 6^th inning with the bases loaded, after Endy Chavez’s amazing catch. No one will bring up that the Mets were in that position of a tie game because they failed to score on so many opportunities. No one will EVER talk about how Aaron Heilman gave up a 2-run home run to a barely .200 BA hitter in the top of the 9^th inning. How about when the Mets were winning in Game Two, lost the lead and subsequently their momentum (I may not believe in clutch hits, but I do believe in momentum).

No, people will unfairly target Carlos Beltran for looking at strike three. Even when I didn’t particularly like him, I saw the whole game and watched the whole series. I knew it wasn’t his fault. He just happened to be the last out of a particularly heartbreaking series.

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According to the Bleacher Report article, when Carlos Beltran leaves the Mets, he will be ranked in the top 10 in several offensive categories in franchise history. I’ll remember him for his defense, especially when he made the running catch on Tal’s Hill in Houston’s Minute Maid Park. And for the record, I still love that Astros fans still boo the beejeezus out of him for walking about 2004, and I’d like to think for that phenomenal catch.

People chide him for being too “stoic” and not showing enough “emotion.” But I happened to attend a Mets event where all those assumptions were thrown out the window. Carlos Beltran wants to win, he IS competitive, and has passion. Does anyone honestly think that he PLANNED to get hurt? Does anyone think that he wanted the Mets to mishandle his knee injury? It’s evident that he took 2008 personally, and was one of the only players who didn’t owe Mets fans an apology after that season.

Sure, I know he made the last out of the NLCS, but I also know just how underrated he is, and that most of us will miss him when he’s gone.

Yes, even YOU. There is an old saying that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone. And Carlos Beltran is one of those where we lose paradise and get a parking lot in whoever replaces him in the outfield.

Something my husband and I talked about the other day was whether (providing he is still on the team then) on the last home game of the season, will the Mets honor him with a video montage a la Mike Piazza in 2005. And I said, no, it wouldn’t happen.

Don’t get me wrong. I would love to see it. But it’s not something that would suit Carlos Beltran, the quiet leader. I also wonder how many people wouldn’t cheer him. That would make me very sad if that were to happen.

And in the end, like Bartman with Chicago, Carlos Beltran will need to forgive New York for treating him shabbily and underappreciating him.

Carlos, it took me awhile, but I appreciate you, and I know several other fans who do. Don’t listen to the vocal minority. I’ll always wonder “What might have been” with you, but I’m very proud to have had you as a Met for these years.