centerfield maz

October 1st, 1973: The fate of the 1973 New York Mets season, all came down to the last day of the regular season. The Mets had a scheduled double header planned at Wrigley Field to close out the season. If they could win the first game, the second game would not be necessary. The St. Louis Cardinals & Pittsburgh Pirates both lost their final games of the season. T hese were the NL East standings, on Monday Morning October 1st, 1973: New York Mets 81-79 - St. Louis Cardinals 81-81 (1.0 back) Pittsburgh Pirates 80-81 (1.5 back) Montreal Expos 79-83 (3.0 back) Chicago Cubs 77-83 (4.0 back) Philadelphia Phillies 71-91 (11.0 back) Starting Lineups   Mets 1 Wayne Garrett 3B 2 Felix Millan 2B 3 Rusty Staub RF 4 John Milner 1B 5 Cleon Jones LF 6 Jerry Grote

Peter Frank Falcone was born October 1, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York. The six-foot, two left hander attended Lafayette High School in Brooklyn. This is the famous school the Mets John Franco & Dodgers Sandy Koufax graduated from as well as 21 other major leaguers including brothers, Bob & Ken Aspromonte, Al Ferrara, Kevin Baez, Luis Lopez & Mets owner Fred Wilpon. Falcone is also second cousin to long time Mets coach Joe Pignatano. After high school Falcone attended to Kingsborough College in Brooklyn, getting drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the first round of the 1973 draft. That year he we was 8-1 in the Pioneer Rookie league posting a 1.50 ERA. In 1974, he jumped through all three levels of the minor leagues going 12-8, averaging 11 strikeouts per nine innings. He was brought up to the Giants staff the next year. Falcone debuted at Candlestick Park on April 13th, 1975, pitching eight innings against the Atlanta Braves & earning his first career win. I

Wednesday October 1st: 1969: Gil Hodges New York Mets had already clinched the NL Eastern Division & today were winding down the regular season. It was their last series before the post season was to begin. Fitting enough, they were closing out the season at Wrigley Field in Chicago.  The Cubs who were the heavy favorite to win the NL East at the beginning of the season. The team that featured four future Hall of Famers in Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo & Ferguson Jenkins held a commanding ten game lead over the Mets in mid-August.  Manager Leo Durocher worked his regulars too hard playing them every day & it began to wear them down. But mainly because the Mets had the best pitching in baseball & Manager Gil Hodges had his team playing to the best of their abilities. Everyone contributed in some way to the Mets winning as the club  went 38 -11 since that time on August 13th when they were ten games back. Now the Cubs were nine games behind the Amazing's