centerfield maz

September 12, 1963:   In a pregame ceremony before the Mets & San Francisco Giants, the team honored future Hall of Famer Duke Snider. This also marked the last time the Giants would play in their former home the Polo Grounds. Duke Snider was a legendary Brookyln (Los Angeles) Dodger who among his many accomplishments, had the most RBIs in the 1950's (1031) & was one of two players, along his teammate Gil Hodges to drive in over 1000 runs in the decade.  Snider was an eight-time All-Star, one-time HR champ (1955) one time RBI leader (1956) becoming the Dodgers all time HR (389) RBI (1271) & extra base hits leader (814). Duke won six NL Pennants with the Dodgers & two Championships; he is also the only player to hit four HRs in two different World Series. After the 1962 season, the 37-year-old veteran was sold to the expansion New Mets due to his popularity in New York. This was the case for the early Mets as they brought in as many old New York NL fan favorites...

Wednesday September 12th, 1984: On this night Dwight Gooden set the single season strike out record for Rookies, in what was one of his most dazzling performances of the year as well as his career.  centerfieldmaz was one of 12,876 at Shea Stadium that night to witness, in person Doctor K at his best. Davey Johnson's Mets (81-65) had had an exciting year, which was the first winning season for the franchise since 1976. Among the highlights was Rookie phenom, Dwight Gooden. Although the Mets would finish second to the Cubs that year, they were not mathematically out of the pennant race just yet. They were seven games out with sixteen left to play , hence the small crowd. Personally, after being on hand for so many of Gooden's games that season, I had to be at this one to see another record broken. Dwight Gooden went up against John Tudor for Chuck Tanner's sixth place Pittsburgh Pirates (63-83). Tudor would move on the St, Louis Cardinals the next year & b...

Wednesday September 11th, 1974: Tonight 13,460 fans came out to Shea Stadium to see Yogi Berra’s fourth place Mets (65-75) take on manager Red Schoendienst’s second place St. Louis Cardinals (75-68). The Mets were still the reigning N.L. Champions at the time, but their days were numbered, as they were eleven games behind the first place Pittsburgh Pirates.  The St. Louis Cardinals were in heavy pursuit of the Pirates just 2 ½ games back, alive & well in the pennant race. Eventually the Pirates would win the NL East in 1974 but lose to the L.A. Dodgers in the NLCS. Jerry Koosman (13-9) was the clubs top pitcher that year, as Tom Seaver was struggling through the season with back issues which effected his mechanics. Koosman took the mound for the Mets at 7:05 PM, going up against the Cardinals rookie, Bob Forsch (4-4). The Cardinals Hall of Famer, Lou Brock had just set a modern-day single season record for stolen bases (105) the night before in St. Louis, breakin...

  Wednesday September 11th, 2024:   On the 23rd Anniversary of the 911 attacks, the New York Mets donned FDNY- NYPD logos on their caps in honor of the fallen . Francsico Lindor had a specially painted glove to commemorate the tragic events as well.  The Mets entered tonight's game tied with the Atlanta Braves for the third wild card spot in an exciting four team wild card fight. After a nine-game win streak the Mets lost two of three & had just been beaten by former teammate Chris Bassitt in Toronto.  Tonight was the rubber game of the series with John Schneider's disappointing Blue Jays who found themselves nine games under .500 (69-78). Mets manager Carlos Mendoza sent Sean Manea to the mound to face the Blue Jays Bowden Francis. Since July 30th Manea was 5-1 with a 2.81 in eight starts. Bowden Francis ad won four of his last five starts. A good crowd of 29,399 came to the Rogers Center with many Mets fans in attendance. After three scoreless innings, the Jays...