Remembering Mets History: (2005) Dae-Sung Koo Has His Day In The Sun

Saturday May 21, 2005: On a Saturday matinee nationally televised, Fox Game of the Week, 55,800 fans came out to Shea Stadium to watch Willie Randolph's Mets (22-20) host a regular season match up of the annual subway series. 

This year's Mets, led by new manager Willie Randolph, along with newly acquired players Carlos Beltran & Pedro Martinez ushered in a winning era for the team. The Mike Piazza era was in its final year & the Mets had been struggling since the 2000 team won the NL Pennant.

With a new GM, a new manager, the signing of some of the top free agents on the market as well as the established stars Piazza, David Wright, Tom Glavine & Cliff Floyd there was a new excitement at Shea Stadium.

With plenty of celebrities on hand thru the weekend, Cyndi Lauper stated the game singing the National Anthem.

For the Mets Kris Benson got the start facing the tall, lean, Randy Johnson. 

Benson a promising young pitcher had come over from the Pirates the previous year along with Jeff Keppinger in exchange for Ty Wigginton & future slugger Jose Bautista.

Kris's highly publicized model wife, Anna brought a lot of drama along to the organization like she did in Pittsburgh. Benson went 10-8 with a 4.13 ERA. With his underachieving & the problems Anna caused, the two were traded to Baltimore in January of 2006.

Hall of Famer Randy Johnson was in the twilight of his career, although he did win 17 games in both seasons in New York, he never captured a championship that he thought he'd win. He retired after the 2009 season with 303 (303-166) career wins & 4875 strike outs.

Kris Benson started the game retiring 13 of the first 14 batters he faced, getting to the 5th inning holding a 2-0 lead.

In the bottom of the 2nd, with two outs, Kaz Matsui & Kris Benson collected back-to-back single. Jose Reyes then added the third straight Mets hit, bringing in Matsui with the game's first run.

In the bottom of the 3rd, Carlos Beltran led off with a base hit. Mike Piazza's grounder forced Beltran at second. With two outs David Wright doubled scoring Piazza with the Mets second run.

In the top of the 5th, Benson issued a one out walk to Alex Rodriguez. With two outs, Jorge
Posada doubled putting runners on second & third. 

Next Randy Johnson, who spent nine seasons hitting in the National League, hit a fly ball to deep center field that Carlos Beltran caught to end the inning. In his hitting career Johnson had one HR with 40 RBIs.

In the top of the 7th, after getting Alex Rodriguez at second trying to stretch a single into a double, Benson was removed. He put in a fine afternoon, pitching 6.1 shutout innings, allowing just three hits with three walks & three strike outs. 

Korean born pitcher Dae-Sung Koo came on to pitch for the Mets. 

Koo Trivia: The 35-year-old Dae-Sung Koo was the tenth Koren born player in the major leagues. He had pitched his first eight years as a closer in the Koren Baseball Organization collecting 150 saves. 

He then moved on to pitch four years with Orix in Japan where he eventually became a starter. In 2005 he signed with the Mets where he would spend parts of one season making 33 appearances.

Koo struck out Tino Martinez & Jorge Posada to the delight of the cheering Mets fans to end the
inning.

In the bottom of the 7th, manager Willie Randolph sent Koo to hit as he wanted him to stay in the game. FOX, broadcaster Tim McCarver, told the TV audience that Koo "was the biggest give-up at bat" & was going to be an easy first out. With or without McCarver's comments, it was what everyone watching was expecting. 

At first, it seemed Koo was afraid to even step in the batter's box against "the Big Unit" Randy Johnson. 

In the Mets dugout, Mike Piazza found the whole scenario was amusing. Piazza said to David Wright "I will donate a million dollars to charity, if he gets a hit".

As Koo stood in the batter's box, he proceeded to swing at Johnson's pitch. He blasted the 91-mph fastball over the center fielder Bernie Williams head all the way to the wall. Koo dashed into second base with an amazing stand-up double. The crowd went crazy, chanting "Kooooooooo" as a new folk hero was born. The Mets dugout also went wild, laughing & cheering their teammate.

Tim McCarver then stated, "This is the greatest hit of his career, period, of his life".

Quotes- Dae-Sung Koo: "Other people say that I swung my bat with my eyes closed. But of course, I saw it, I hit it. It's been 18 years since I batted last, when I was in high school."

With Koo now on second base, he put on the customary jacket, pitchers wore while on base. Next, Jose Reyes dropped a bunt to sacrifice Koo over to third. The bunt was successful. 

As Koo ran into third base, he saw no one was covering home plate, as the catcher Jorge Posada was still up near the first base area.

Koo made a mad dash for home plate, with Posada realizing his blunder he raced to try to beat Koo to the plate.  Dae-Sung dove headfirst into home plate beating the awkward attempt of a tag, getting ruled safe by home plate umpire Chuck Meriwether.

The Shea crowd went wild, as did the amazed Mets dugout. He returned to the dugout to high fives & cheers. Doug Mientkiewicz even fanned him down to cool him off with a towel.

Koo had his moment in the sun, as he laughed along with everyone else in the dugout. He said his teammates said a lot of things to him in the dugout he just didn't understand what.

Piazza could only laugh in amazement at Koo, realizing he has some big checks to write out to charity over the next few years.

As play resumed Miguel Cairo homered for the Mets to make it 4-0. After retiring Cliff Floyd, Randy Johnson was done. 

Trivia: The Big Unit took the loss, as he gave up four runs while striking out five. For Johnson, the twelve hits allowed were the most of any game in his entire career. 

In the top of the 8th, Koo went to the mound to a huge ovation. He pitched to just one batter striking out Robinson Cano. Roberto Hernandez & Braden Looper finished out the game.

In the bottom of the 8th, Mike Cameron singled & David Wright collected his second double of the game, driving in Cameron with his second RBI as well, making it 5-0. 

David Wright Trivia: In 2005 Wright would hit a career high 42 doubles, matching that two more times in his career. That year he drove in 102 runs, the first of four straight seasons (2005-2008) with 100 or more RBIs. He would have five 100 plus RBI seasons in his career.

Later with two outs, pinch hitter Eric Valent drew a walk. With two on Jose Reyes hit a two-run triple giving the Mets a 7-0 lead. 

For Reyes it was his third hit of the game. He also collected a season high four RBIs as well.

Jose Reyes Trivia: Jose would lead the NL in triples (17) that year & the next. Overall, he led the league in triples four times in his career. Jose hit a total of 131 career triples, the most in Mets history & 78th all time.

The Mets belted out seven runs & fifteen hits on their way to a 7-1 win. Besides Reyes &Wright, Mike Piazza & Carlos Beltran also had multi-hit games.

Kris Benson (six innings), Koo (1.1 innings) Roberto Hernandez (0.2 innings) & Braden Looper (one inning) combined for a five hitter, as Looper allows a run in the 9th.

Kris Benson got the win, as the Mets kept pace with the first place Florida Marlins, getting to two games back.