centerfield maz

Sunday September 28th, 2008:   On the final day in the history of Shea Stadium, the Mets honored many of the teams' heroes from the past.  In 1964 Shea Stadium opened up as a grand new ballpark in the shadows of the World's Fair making it a happening place to be. The Mets brought in many old NL New York players from the Giants & Dodgers in the early years to attract fans.  By 1969 they went from loveable losers to World Champions shocking the baseball world becoming the all time underdog in the world of sports. In 1973 they won another pennant falling one game short of a World Series victory. By the late seventies, Shea was known as Grant's Tomb as the team fell to the cellar under M. Donald Grant.  In the 1980's Shea once again became the place to be with a cocky 1986 team that won their second World Championship. After almost a decade of first & second place finishes things went bad again thru the 1990's. But as the Bobby Valentine era began, the Mets went...

Wednesday September 27th, 2000:   The Mets entered  tonight's game needing a win to guarantee them at least a tie for NL Wild Card spot.  Bobby Valentine's Mets (89-68) had just five games left to play in the regular season, as they were also going for their 90th win. Tonight,  the Mets hosted their biggest rival of that era, Bobby Cox's first place Atlanta Braves (94-64).  Bobby Cox sent Kevin Millwood (10-12) to the hill to face the Mets Rick Reed (10-5) in front of 48,858 wild & crazy Mets fans. In the bottom of the 1st, the Braves Andru Jones hit a solo HR putting Atlanta on the board first. Rick Reed would give up a hit in each of the next three innings but kept the Braves from scoring. From the 5th inning thru the 8th inning he did not allow a hit, the only base runner reached on a Mets error. In the bottom of the 4th inning, Timo Perez led off with a single. Timo had been a September call-up & was batting .275 seeing steady actio...

September 27th, 2012: The 2012 Mets (74-88) finished fourth in Terry Collins second season as manager. The highlight of the year was veteran R.A. Dickey who turned his career around when he developed his forkball into a knuckleball. That season went on to be the first knuckleballer to win a Cy Young Award having his career year. R.A. Dickey has finished the first half of the season 12-1 with a 2.40 ERA having thrown back to back complete game one hitters as well. But NL manager Tony LaRussa decided not to give him the start because the erratic knuckleball would be a problem in a game that meant home field advantage in the World Series, as well as a possible cause of injury for catcher Buster Posey. LaRussa was criticized for his decision.  Dickey went 7-5 with a 3.20 ERA leading up to this game, after back-to-back losses for the first time & only time of the season, he beat the Marlins on September 22nd for his 19th win.  On this afternoon matinee at Shea 31,506 fans came...