If hitting is the most difficult feat in sports, as some claim, then think of the challenge that pinch-hitting presents. Inning after inning on the bench without a chance to get into the rhythm of the game, and oftentimes being asked to then produce in a clutch situation. The late Rusty Staub made this demanding task his calling card during the back-end of his storied major-league career...
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Mike Piazza and Mariano Rivera. The greatest hitting catcher and the greatest closer. It was the bottom of the ninth at Shea Stadium in Game 5 of the first all-New York Fall Classic since 1956. The Mets trailed the Yankees 4-2 on the scoreboard and 3-1 in the series. With a man on base, the tying run was at the plate — represented by a person easily capable of delivering such a swift...
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Cue the Baha Men. The Mets embraced this one-hit wonder musical group’s top track during the postseason, as most of the country did in the summer. They even allowed them to alter “Who Let the Dogs Out?” with a Mets theme. And speaking of things that were confined to the year 2000, Mike Hampton in New York had already been considered a success by the time October arrived. He was...
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The Division Series match-up pitting the Mets against the 97-win Giants assumed the usual headliners: New York’s duo of Mike Piazza and Edgardo Alfonzo along with San Francisco’s power odd couple of Barry Bonds and former Met Jeff Kent, the likely MVP of the National League. Postseason baseball, though, has a way of placing the spotlight on the unheralded — those who happen to...
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Six up with six to play. Not even the Mets, well-accustomed to late-season collapses in recent years, could possibly succumb to such a freefall. Fortunately, either a New York win or a loss by the Los Angeles Dodgers would ensure a second consecutive trip to the postseason. But the Mets — specifically their general manager — had no interest in settling for a wild card berth, even if...
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