centerfield maz

Tuesday April 20th, 1976:  Early on in the 1976 season, the New York Mets managed by Joe Frazier were in second place in the NL East, 1.5 games behind the Pirates.  Tonight, the Mets were at Bush Stadium in St. Louis, to play Red Schoendienst's sixth place St. Louis Cardinals, who were just 3.5 games behind the Astros.  This Cardinals team featured two future Hall of Famers, the reigning All-Time stolen base leader Lou Brock & the 2020 HOF inductee, catcher Ted Simmons.  Also on the Cardinal team was young first baseman, Keith Hernandez. Keith was playing in his third season overall & his first full season as a regular player. That year the Cardinals would finish in fifth place (72-90).  As for the 1976 Mets, they would win 86 games but finish in third place. Once again, they had one of the leagues top  pitching staffs with Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman & tonight's starter Jon Matlack.  Their star slugger was Dave Kingman who fi...

Saturday April 18th, 1970: On this afternoon matinee at Shea Stadium, Gil Hodges' reigning World Champion New York Mets were still flying high, nine games into the 1970 season.  The previous night Tom Seaver had thrown an eight hit shut out victory over the Phillies in the series opener.  The Phil's were on a six game losing streak & playing so bad that manager Frank Lucchesi called a team meeting before this series began calling the team out to play better. The Mets were 5-4 at this point playing their first weekend home stand of the season. 23,500 fans came to Shea as young flame thrower Nolan Ryan made his first start of the season taking on Jim Bunning. Trivia: Back on Fathers Day 1964, Jim Bunning threw a perfect game over the Mets at Shea Stadium. The Young Nolan Ryan was one of the hardest throwers in the game but was still having control issues at this point of his career. This drove manager Gil Hodges crazy & with the abundance of young pitching tale...

Sunday A pril 18th , 1971 :     On this windy Sunday afternoon at Shea  Stadium Gil Hodges New York Mets (5-2) hosted Danny Murtaugh's Pittsburgh Pirates (6-4) for a  doubleheader.   Pirates Trivia: The Pirates had won the NL East the previous year losing to the Reds in the NLCS. This year the Bucs would go on to win the World Series beating the Baltimore Orioles in seven games.  Hall of Famers Roberto Clemente & Willie Stargell were among their top players. Trivia: Entering the game Willie Stargell had 13 RBIs more than the entire Mets team, who had only scored 12 runs thru their first seven games. In the first game of this twin-bill, the Mets sent 24-year-old Gary Gentry (0-2) to the mound to face the Pirates Luke Walker (1-0). Gentry Trivia: Gary Gentry was another fine young pitcher for the Mets, in the 1969 Championship season, Gentry was a rookie going 13-12 with a 3.43 ERA. He was the winning pitcher the night the Mets clinched ...

Friday, April 18th: After a 2-3 start to the season including a three game losing streak, the last game to their arch-rival reigning NL Champion Cardinals, the Mets were already getting some early bad press.  After a couple of rain outs, the Mets hosted the Philadelphia Phillies as veteran future Hall of Fame pitcher, Steve Carlton went up against Ron Darling. Steve Carlton Trivia: Carlton, known as "Lefty" had a career 30-36 record against the Mets dating back to 1966 including legendary matchups against Tom Seaver. In 1969, Carlton set a then MLB record striking out 19 Mets in a game, although he took the 4-3 loss to the eventual World Champs. In the top of the 1st, the Phils Milt Thompson & Mike Schmidt both hit HRs off Darling for a 2-0 lead. But the Carlton had a rough start as well, after Lenny Dykstra led off with a single, Lefty threw a wild pitch, a passed ball & walked the bases loaded. He then walked Darryl Strawberry bringing in the Mets first run. Later...