centerfield maz

Sunday April 29th, 1962: At this early point in the Mets inaugural season,  Casey Stengel's Mets had only won two games in their first 14 tries. It would be a long year trying to earn wins for the 1962 Mets.   On this day, Casey's team would earn their third Met victory & see first shut out thrown by a Mets pitcher in team history.  On this Sunday afternoon double header at the Polo Grounds, t he Mets hosted Gene Mauch's Philadelphia Phillies.  A good crowd of just under 20,000 came to the old ballpark in Washington Heights to see 26-year-old Al Jackson pitch for the Mets, against the Phillies Art Mahaffey. In the bottom of the 2nd inning, Mets slugger, Frank Thomas hit a solo HR off Art Mahaffey. It was already Thomas' sixth HR on the young season. Frank Thomas Trivia: The 32-year-old Frank Thomas was the Mets first true slugger.  In 1962 he hit 34 HRs with 94 RBIs. Thomas would hit 25 or more HRs seven times in his 16 year career. He finished...

Monday April 28th, 2025: On this Monday matinee, on "get away day" the Mets tried to even the series with the Nationals in D.C. The Mets were coming off their worst loss of the year, blowing a 6-0 lead the previous game.  This afternoon Mets manager Carlos Mendoza sent Griffin Canning to the mound. Canning a pleasant surprise for the Mets came in at 3-1 with a 3.12 ERA. He would go up against The Nat's Trevor Williams. Williams pitched for the 2022 Mets going 3-5 making nine starts in 30 appearances with a 3.21 ERA. After a quiet 1st inning thing started brewing in the next inning. In the top of the 2nd, Mark Vientos singled to right field. Brandon Nimmo collected his first hit of the day with a single to centerfield. Francisco Alvarez doubled bringing in Vientos & Jeff McNeil's sac fly made it 2-0. In the top of the 5th, Jeff McNeil hit his first HR of the season making it 3-0. Jeff began the season on the IL with this being his third game. Jeff would later hit...

Ron Swoboda had come up with the Mets in 1965 as one of Casey Stengel's "Youth of America" players & immediately became a popular figure on the young ball club. Swoboda led the team with 19 HRs that season & was being labeled the slugger of the future on a poor team that was looking for a star. Things didn't quite work out that way but Swoboda did have some memorable moments in his career. Never known for his glove work, he would make one of the best catches in World Series history preserving Tom Seaver's 1969 Game #4 win at Shea Stadium. In 1968, he had a great start to the season as well. At the time Gil Hodges was in his first moth of managing the Mets & was observing the players he had to work with. New York opened the 1968 season in San Francisco facing the former NL New York club the Giants. It had only been ten years since the Giants & Dodgers had left New York. In a great Opening Day pitching matchup, Tom Seaver went up against Juan Maric...

Edwin Douglas Charles was born on April 29, 1933, in Daytona Beach, Florida. Charles grew up in a poor house in a family of nine children in the segregated south. He suffered the serious conditions of racism but overcame his hardships. Ed was once a school dropout who later educated himself to earning a college degree later in life. His childhood hero was Jackie Robinson whose Brooklyn Dodgers played Spring Training in Charles childhood town. He would follow Robinson out of the ballpark onto the team bus with the other black children in awe of their hero. Quotes-  E d Charles: On seeing the Brooklyn Dodgers train pulling away- “So now we’re walking down the platform, looking in the windows trying to see where Jackie was seated. Finally, we come to the right coach, and there is Jackie, playing cards. We waved and, you know, he waved back to us. Then the train starts pulling out, and we start slowly walking with it, just waving to Jackie. The train picked up speed. We k...