centerfield maz

August 6th, 1975: This was the first game the Mets played without Yogi Berra who had been fired the previous night. After that evening's double header sweep, where Montreal shut out the Mets in both games, coach Roy McMillan was called to M. Donald Grant's office & was named the team's interim manager. Tonight a small crowd of 9,001 came to Shea Stadium as the Mets hosted the Expos in the fourth game of a five game series. The Mets were on a five game losing streak, falling 9.5 games behind the first place Pirates. The Mets George Stone (3-2) took the mound against Steve Renko. Stone was coming back from rotator cuff surgery, one of the first pitcher's to come back after having the surgery.  Unfortunately his come back was short lived seeing action in 13 games that year before ending his career. Steve Renko had come up in the Mets organization & in 1969 was traded to Montreal along with Kevin Collins in exchange for Donn Clendenon. In the top of the 2nd inning,...

Thursday August 5th 1993:  The Mets (38-70) were in seventh place 30.5 games back & going no where. After the disastrous 1992 season where the team lost 100 games for the first time since 1967, things didn't improve much.  1993 Low Points: In May, manager Jeff Torborg was fired & Dallas Green took over.  This was the year Anthony Young lost 13 decisions in a row &  a personal 27 game losing streak dating back to last year. The year  Bret Saberhagen sprayed the media with bleach, Bobby Bonilla physically confronting a reporter & a two weeks earlier Vince Coleman threw an M-80 injuring fans outside Dodger Stadium.  It was another dark period in team history with some disturbing players.  On June 21st, the team brought up Jeromy Burnitz from AAA Norfolk where he had hit eight HRs with 44 RBIs in 65 games, good enough to come up to the low offensive team. Stade Olympique- Montreal The Mets went into Montreal to face a good Expo team (...

Monday August 5th, 1985: Entering today's game, Davey Johnson's New York Mets (62-42) were one half game out of first place behind the St. Louis Cardinals. At the same time a baseball strike was looming as the Players Union & the owners were in contract negotiations. Back on May 11th Darryl Strawberry had torn a ligament in his thumb missing seven weeks of action. In that time the Mets fell into third place. Straw returned at the end of June & the Mets went on to win 23 of 34 games getting back into first place. Today the Mets were in Chicago going up against Jim Frey's fourth place Chicago Cubs (54-50). In 1984 the Cubs won the NL East losing the NLCS to the San Diego Padres.  The Mets had dropped the first game of the series, ending a three-game win streak. They took the next two games of this four-game series & had won six of their last eight games.  Mets Trivia: On Sunday, Dwight Gooden had won his franchise record 11th straight game, passing Mets legend T...

Sunday August 5th, 2007: The sellout crowd at Wrigley Field in Chicago was host to the first place New York Mets (63-48) & second place hometown Cubs (58-52) on ESPN's Sunday Night baseball. There was plenty of hype & excitement as Mets pitcher Tom Glavine was going for his 300th career win.  Just a few nights earlier in Milwaukee Glavine had left the mound with a 2-1 lead, but the Mets bullpen blew the lead & lost the game in extra innings.  Tom Glavine Trivia: Glavine had spent 1987-2002 with the Braves usually an archrival of the Mets. In that time, he was a five time twenty-game winner collecting 242 wins.  Kristine Glavine In 2003 he joined the Mets & struggled to 9-14 on a poor team. In 2004 he won 11 games, then as the team improved, he won 13 or more games over the next three seasons.  In the 2006 post season in his first two starts, he was 2-0 not allowing an earned run in the first 13 innings before giving uo three runs in the ...

Cleon Jones (Part Two):   After the Championship-   1970:  Cleon started the season with a pair of hits & an RBI in the 5-3 Opening Day win in Pittsburgh.  Multi- Three RBI Game: On April 16th he had his first multi-RBI game of the year, driving in three runs in a 7-4 loss to the Pirates. Thru the first ten games he hit well to bat over .300 but then slumped & was batting at the .200 mark by the end of May, although he did have twenty RBIs. On May 27th, Jones hit a two-run single off the Cardinals Steve Carlton, bringing two of the three runs in Gary Gentry's three hit shut out at Shea. In that game Tommie Agee stole home for the third run.  On May 30th, Jones helped the Mets come from behind 2-0 with a 6th inning RBI single off Houston's Larry Dieker. In the 8th inning his RBI triple off Dieker tied the game. Cleon then scored what was the games winning run-on Ken Boswell's base hit.  Jones was still struggling at the plate as he was only...