Remembering Mets History (1999): Rick Reed's Shut Out Guarantee's The Mets of A Wild Card Tie

-
Saturday October 2nd, 1999: Bobby Valentine's New York Mets (94-66) hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates (78-81) in front of 36,878 at Shea Stadium.

It was a big game for an exciting team. A Mets win would guarantee them of at least a tie for the NL Wild Card. The Mets would indeed come through with a win, as they were destined to face off in Cincinnati against the Reds for a Wild Card tie breaking game.

But the Mets had to win this one first with Rick Reed (10-5) taking the mound against the Bucs, Francisco Cordova (8-9).

For Reed he had not earned a winning decision in two months. At that point he had won seven straight decisions, then missed a month of action returning September 7th. He had three no decisions & then took a 3-2 loss at Philadelphia in his last start leading to this game.

The Mets had also hit hard times as they had lost eight of their last ten games, nearly blowing the chance to get to their first post season since 1988.



Tonight, Mets pitcher Rick Reed was spectacular, pitching a three hit complete game shutout. He struck out 12 Pirates along the way & walked no one. It was certainly one of the better outings of the season as well as his career. This was his only shut out & complete game of the 1999 season. The 12 Ks were also a season best.

The Mets loaded the bases in the 2nd but couldn't capitalize. The game remained scoreless until the 6th inning. John Olerud led off the home half of the 6th with a walk. Then Mike Piazza reached on an error.

Robin Ventura then doubled, bringing in his 119th run of the year. Rey Ordonez then line out, but a Pirates throwing error by Aramis Ramirez led to Piazza scoring the Mets second run.

In the 8th, Roger Cedeno singled & Ordonez doubled. 

Rick Reed helped his own cause with a base hit bringing home two runs. Matt Franco then drew a pinch-hit walk. Next John Olerud singled in the Mets fifth run. Mike Piazza sealed it with a two run HR, his 40th of the season RBIs 123 & 124 on the year. 

The Mets went on to the 7-0 win & assuring them of the wild card match up.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering Vixen Founder / Guitarist; Jan Kuehnemund (1961-2013)

-
Image
centerfieldmaz was shocked to learn of the sudden passing of Jan Kuehnemund, the founding member of the all female metal band Vixen. Jan was a fantastic guitarist, song writer & women pioneer in Heavy Metal. I am a huge fan of hard rock all girl bands & Vixen were one my long time favorites. Janice Lynn Kuehnemund was born November 18th, 1961 in St. Paul Minnesota. The female guitarist formed one of the first all female Metal bands in Minnesota with singer Janet Gardner while in high school in 1980. By 1985 they moved the band to Los Angles California, to be part of the Heavy Metal scene. In 1987 the classic Vixen line up of Jan Kuehnemund (lead guitar) Janet Gardner (vocals/ guitar) Share Pederson (bass) & Roxy Petrucci (drums) formed & released their debut album the following year. Vixen 1988 In a world of all male Heavy Metal bands during its heyday, Vixen were groundbreaking in being an all female metal band. The Runaways, with Joan Jett & Lita Ford
Read more

The 1970's Oakland A's Ball Girls- (MLB's First)

-
Image
In the days of the early seventies the Oakland A's won three straight Championships & changed the face of baseball forever.  The team's controversial owner was known to be cheap in paying his star players & known to meddle in the teams on field affairs. He drove managers crazy & even had Dick Williams resign after winning his second straight World Series. But Finley also revolutionized baseball in many other ways. He was instrumental in getting the designated hitter in the American League & have the World Series played at night, so fans could attend after work. He gave his players fancy names like Catfish, Blue Moon & True Blue.  When his star Reggie Jackson refused to shave his beard, he encouraged the whole team to grow facial hair by paying them $200 each.  The A's team even grew their hair long, a sign of the times. But before that baseball players had not had facial or long hair since the 1800's.  He introduced bright colored yello
Read more

Remembering Bobby Ojeda's Tragic Boating Accident (1993)

-
Image
Steve Olin, Tim Crews & Bob Ojeda March 22 nd 1993: was an off day from Spring Training, for three Cleveland Indians pitchers; Former Mets 1986 World Champion pitcher; Bobby Ojeda, Tim Crews & Steve Olin. The three friends, took out an 18-foot open-air bass boat & went out fishing & gator hunting in the darkness of the evening on Lake Nellie in Clermont, Florida. Tragedy struck, when the boat rammed into a private dock that jutted out some 250 feet into the still waters. Two other Cleveland Indians personnel had arrived to meet the fishing party just as the horror took place. They heard Bob Ojeda saying they needed help. The two men jumped into the water and called out for someone to call 911. 27 year old pitcher; Steve Olin was killed instantly. 31 year old pitcher; Tim Crews was alive but was struggling to breathe suffering from massive head wounds. Bobby Ojeda was in & out of shock, he was suffering from head lacerations but was coherent. The
Read more

The Story of the New York Mets Logo

-
Image
On November 16, 1961 cartoonist Ray Gotto (1916-2003) unveiled the circular New York Mets logo, a symbol which has virtually gone unchanged since its birth 55 years ago. Gatto was the illustrator of the "Ozark Ike" & "Cotton Woods" comic strips as well as having drawn many classic sports cartoons for the Sporting News. He won a contest that the club sponsored in order to start up a fan base beating out over 500 other entries for his design. The prize was not only to have his logo used but also $1000.  Artist Ray Gotto The original New York Mets team colors are blue and orange, the colors represent the two former National League teams who left New York for the West Coast. The orange represents the former New York Giants & the blue represents the Brooklyn Dodgers. Blue & orange are also the official colors of New York State. T he logo design is a round baseball with orange stitching and the Mets orange script lettering outlined in white ac
Read more

Steve Dillon: Former Bronx Native Who Pitched in The First Night Game at Shea Stadium Then 58 Years Later at Old Timers Day at Citi Field (1963-1964)

-
Image
Stephen Edward Dillon was born on May 20th, 1943, in Yonkers, New York. He was raised in the Bronx & attended Cardinal Hayes High School.  T he five-foot ten left-handed pitcher was originally signed by the A.L. New York club in 1962. That year he was 14-7 in the Florida State League at Fort Lauderdale. In November of 1962 he was drafted away by the new National League team, the New York Mets in the first-year draft.  He pitched at AAA Buffalo going 4-6 with a 4.94 ERA in 31 games, making 22 starts.  Mets Debut: He got a September call up making his MLB debut on September 5th, 1963, in St. Louis. Dillon came in relief of Roger Craig the 6th inning with two men on & one out. He got Dick Groat & Bill White to both ground out.  In the 7th, he gave up three hits including a two-run triple to Tim McCarver, in the Mets 9-0 loss to the Cardinals. In 1964 he found himself on the Mets staff at the start of the year. He pitched one inning of relief at Pittsburgh on April 24th,
Read more