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Remembering Mets History (1970) Jim McAndrew Tops Padres as Preston Gomez Removes Clay Kirby in the 8th Inning With a No-Hitter Going

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July 21st, 1970: From June 24th thru July 10th the reigning World Champion Mets had either been in sole possession or tied in first place. After a seven game win streak New York dropped five straight games, three at home to the Expos & the first two games of the West Coast road trip in Los Angeles.  The Mets salvaged the final game of the series at Dodger Stadium then split a four game set at Candlestick in San Francisco. Tonight Gil Hodges Mets (50-43) opened a series against Preston Gomez's last place Padres (38-59). A small crowd of 10,373 came out to Jack Murphy Stadium in beautiful San Diego for the matchup. In the top of the 1st, Tommie Agee started the game with a walk then stole his 21st base of the season. Agee stole 31 bases & scored 107 runs that year setting Mets single season marks at that time. Ken Singleton also drew a walk then Gil Hodges put on a successful double steal, getting Agee to third base. Art Shamsky grounded to second base, Agee scored on the pl...

Remembering Mets History (1975) Joe Torre Grounds Into a Record Four Double Plays

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Monday July 21, 1975: A small crowd of 13,414 came out to Shea Stadium to see Yogi Berra's third place Mets (46-44)  host Preston Gomez's last place Houston Astros (34-63). The Mets were barely over .500 & ten games back of the first place Pittsburgh Pirates. It was a disappointing season as New York started the year with high expectations after acquiring slugger Dave Kingman, veteran Joe Torre & outfielder Del Unser to supply more offense to a team with a fine pitching staff. Tonight the Mets sent George Stone (2-1) to the mound. Stone was returning from rotator cuff surgery & was one of the first pitchers to successfully come back after the procedure. In 1974 Stone went on the DL at the end of July, had surgery which usually meant the end of a career in those days. On June 13th, 1975 he made his return. This was his sixth start of the year. His opponent on this night was the Astros Ken Forsch (3-7). Ken  was the brother of pitcher Bob Forsch who spent e...

Remembering Mets History (2008) Jose Reyes Sets Mets All Time Triples Mark

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Sunday July 20th, 2008: Jerry Manuel's Mets (53-46) had just dropped the last two games in Cincinnati after coming off their season best ten game win streak. They had begun July a disappointing one game under .500 but were 12-4 in the month up to todays game. During the Mets win streak Jose Reyes had hit .395, with four extra base hits, three stolen bases & five RBIs with six runs scored. This afternoon 31,195 came out to the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati to play Dusty Baker's fourth place Reds (48-52). The starters were the Mets Mike Pelfrey (8-6) & the Reds Edinson Volquez (12-3).  In the top of the 1st inning Jose Reyes led off the game with a base hit. He advanced to second on a wild pitch & then scored a typical Reyes run on a Carlos Beltran base hit.  In the top of the 2nd inning, with one out & one on Jose Reyes singled to left field for his second hit of the day. He would be left stranded at first base. In the bottom of the 2nd inni...

Remembering Mets History (1973) Jon Matlack Tosses His First Career One Hit Shutout

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Tuesday July 10th, 1973: A crowd of 19,942 fans came out to Shea Stadium to see Yogi Berra's Mets (36-46) take on the Houston Astros (47-44) at Shea Stadium. The Mets had been struggling & would not start their pennant run that took them one game shy of a World Championship until the end of the month. Tonight's pitching matchup was certainly a good one, the Mets' John Matlack (6-10) went up against Houston's Jerry Reuss (11-5).   Two months earlier, Matlack had been hit in the face with a line drive but luckily returned with overcoming the situation. Quotes- Jon Matlack: "A couple of inches lower & I'd have needed major surgery. I was told it would be doubtful I'd ever pitch again if that had happened. Now there's no effect. I'm not ducking, I'm not flinching, not closing my eyes."  In his last two starts, Matlack had given up one earned run over 15 innings. The Astros were in fourth place at the time & were manager by legend...

Remembering Mets History (1986) Ron Darling, Bob Ojeda, Tim Teufel & Rick Aguilera Get Arrested at a Houston Nightclub

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Saturday July 19th, 1986:  In the mid-eighties one of the hottest nightclubs in Houston, Texas was a place called Cooters. Cooters was known throughout the country as a famous hangout for pro athletes, mainly because the owners would allow the celebrity sports heroes to drink for free.  This attracted athletes from all sports to the club, catering to the home teams & visiting teams as well.  This custom certainly brought more girls into the place & that made more guys want to get in as well. Cooters was a landmark goldmine. Tim Teufel, a rather quieter guy from the 1986 Mets team, was a new father & wanted to go out to celebrate.  Pitcher Bob Ojeda said he heard of this place called Cooters. Mets relief pitcher Doug Sisk had been there before, he claimed he came out of the bathroom one night returning to his table, only to find the cops waiting for him. He said he had been roughed up a bit, insisting he did nothing to get himself into trouble. D...

Remembering Mets History (2025) Mets Retire David Wright's Uniform #5 & Induct Him Into the Team's Hall of Fame

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 July 19th 2025: Although the retirement of Mets uniform numbers had become an annual thing since the new ownership took over, Todays ceremony was still a special one. On this day the Mets retired the uniform number of "the Captain" David Wright one of the most beloved players in Mets history. Also one of the most professional, good hearted people & a true gentleman. David was joined by his wife Molly, his three children & his parents. Many of Wrights teammates who he chose were on hand, Jose Reyes, Daniel Murphy, Cliff Floyd, Michael Cuddyer, Joe McEwing & Josh Satin as well as managers Terry Collins & Willie Randolph. His long time agent, former Met, Keith Miller, his former coach & former Mets player Howard Johnson as well as long time bullpen coach Dave Racaniello. David came out from a gated area & walked over to the third base line standing on the golden base saluting the fans, put there in his honor. Along the way to the main area he greeted his...

Remembering Mets History (2006) Carlos Beltran Hits Record Three Grand Slams in a Month

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Sunday, July 16th , 2006 :   Willie Randolph's first place Mets (55-376) were 18 games over .500 at this point in the season, with a thirteen-game lead atop the NL East.  They had just come off a 5-3 homestand in games with the Pirates & Marlins. They began a six game road trip splitting the first two games at Wrigley Field against Dusty Baker's last place Cubs (35-56).    They would continue to win throughout the summer going 15-9 in July with Carlos Beltran leading the mighty offense that month hitting 10 HRs with 32 RBIs with a 1.002 OPS in 24 games that month. In the bottom of the 1st, Mets starter Orlando Hernandez gave up three hits including back-to-back RBI doubles to fall behind 2-0.  In the bottom of the 2nd, Sean Marshall led off with a HR, then Juan Pierre singled stole second & scored on Michael Barrett's RBI double. Jacque Jones added an RBI single to make it a 5-0 Cubs lead. In the top of the 4th, Chris Woodward hit his third HR of the sea...