After he set a rookie record for strikeouts, posted an ERA of 2.60, went 17-9 and completely captivated New York, it’s hard to believe that Dwight Gooden almost didn’t start the ’84 season in the majors. But Davey Johnson, the first-year Mets manager who saw Gooden up-close when the teenager helped Johnson’s Triple-A Tidewater club, insisted upon it. Smart move. Johnson...
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Talk about a flying start. Mets bats slugged what was an Opening Day record six home runs against the Expos, the most prodigious coming from Darryl Strawberry — challenging the confines of Olympic Stadium. Strawberry went deep twice. So did fellow outfielder Kevin McReynolds. Kevin Elster and Lenny Dykstra supplied the rest of the power in a 10-6 win. Dwight Gooden didn’t pitch his best,...
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It’s rare that a comeback is largely forgotten, but the defensive wizardry displayed by Rey Ordóñez in his major league debut is still what’s most remembered from Opening Day 1996. The Mets had sliced a 6-0 deficit in half by the time the Cardinals were at bat with two outs in the top of the seventh and Royce Clayton on first. Ray Lankford went down the left field line — a hit that...
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The old saying goes that the baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint. But it took just one game into the 1998 season for the Mets to feel like they had already done a marathon. At least they could celebrate when it ended. In a 1-0 victory over the Phillies that took 14 innings and more than four hours to complete, a Mets catcher supplied the necessary offense. Not Mike Piazza — he was two...
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Looking back, the Mets got a bargain. At the time he agreed to a five-year, $137.5 million deal which would keep him a Met for the foreseeable future, Jacob deGrom had emerged from obscurity to become the game’s best at his position. A ninth-round selection who didn’t enter the majors until age 26, deGrom was the NL Rookie of the Year in 2014 and solidified himself as a high-leverage...
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