MMO’s partnership with Out of the Park Baseball (OOTP) continues as our 16-team Mets Madness bracket is well underway. Next up, MMO and OOTP pit the 2022 Mets team against the 1999 Mets team. Jack Ramsey, MMO and Mets Minors writer, is set to control the 1999 team, while James Villani, MMO editor and writer, will control the 2022 team. Each round will be best-of-seven. We will be posting...
Do the New York Giants and San Francisco Giants ever get together? If Mike Francesa doesn’t know, nobody will. Playing for the Bay Area’s National League baseball team and the current New York NL resident that took their place (and their main color) is as close as we can get. Here are a few who suited up in blue, orange, and black. Willie Mays – Giants (1951-72), Mets (1972-73)...
The San Diego Padres had won 188 straight games when leading after eight innings. The New York Mets hadn’t won in three games. Both streaks, one long-term and one short, ended with a swing by Mike Piazza — a game-winning two-run ninth-inning homer to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 walk-off victory. Everything pointed to Trevor Hoffman, who converted on 53 of his 54 save opportunities in...
John Franco was not your stereotypical closer. He didn’t strike out many. He didn’t throw 100 miles per hour. But in terms of the end result, he’s among the best ever. Against the Marlins in the early stages of his 16th major league season, the 38-year-old Brooklyn native reached a milestone only one other relief pitcher had achieved and just four others have gotten to since....
It was no surprise a Mets catcher delivered the big hit which propelled his team into the League Championship Series. As for which catcher — that was about as improbable as any in postseason history. Todd Pratt lasted four pedestrian seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies. After no major league team would sign him, he spent 1996 as an instructor at Bucky Dent’s baseball camp and managed a...
The 2000 New York Mets qualified for the postseason as the National League’s wildcard team, in the time when there was only one wildcard entrant per league. Their first round opponent was the San Francisco Giants, who had the best regular season record in all of baseball at 97-65. The best-of-five series began in San Francisco, where the two teams split the first two games. In Game Two,...
June 22 is a day in Mets’ history that saw two iconic franchise pitchers achieve important career milestones. On June 22, 1994, reliever John Franco set the record for all-time saves by a left-handed pitcher, when he sealed a victory against the Braves at Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium with his 253rd career save. Franco, the Brooklyn native, would end his career in 2005 with 424...
On December 6, 1989, the Mets and Reds traded left-handed closers, with the Mets sending Randy Myers to the Reds and obtaining John Franco in return. Myers was very effective in his three full seasons (five overall) with the Mets. He posted a 17-13 record, with 56 saves. He shared closing responsibilities with Roger McDowell in 1988, and became the Mets’ full-time closer half way...
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...
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...
Twenty years ago today, Mets outfielder Derek Bell stepped to the plate leading off the bottom of the eighth inning against Braves pitcher Don Wengert with New York trailing 8-1. The Mets were all but toast against the first place Braves. With two outs in the inning, the Mets were still losing 8-2 and only had one runner on base. Back-to-back singles by Todd Zeile and Jay Payton brought the...
With the start of summer came more meltdowns. Entering their series with the Phillies and a homestand of almost two weeks, the Mets had found themselves leading in each of their last 15 straight contests — yet found a way to lose six of them. That streak would continue long into this temporary Shea residency, but the initial two games versus Philadelphia exposed New York’s latest...
