centerfield maz

Monday July 1st, 2024: The Mets were coming off their best month of the season so far as they went 16-8 in June, although they had lost their last two games to the Astros at Citi Field.  Carlos Mendoza's Mets came into tonight's game 40-41 in third place, two games out of the wild card race with seven teams at the halfway point of the season. The Mets sent David Peterson (3-0) up against the Nat's Mackenzie Gore (6-7) in front of 26,719 at Nationals Park in Washington D.C.  David Peterson did not get his first start until the end of May, after a no decision he won three straight starts. In his last start before this, six days earlier, he had just given up one run in 4.1 innings of the subway series. Peterson entered the game with a 3.67 ERA. After two scoreless innings, in the bottom of the 3rd, the Nat's CJ Abrams walked & Lane Thomas singled to right field. Next back-to-back RBI singles from Harold Ramirez & Joey Meneses made it a 2-0 Washington lead. The g...

Saturday June 30th, 1979: Joe Torre's Mets (31-39) were on the road for a weekend series at Wrigley Field in Chicago to take on Herman Franks second place Cubs (36-32).  The 1979 Cubs had a good summer, getting as close to within a half game of first place by the end of July. But they went 26-40 the rest of the way finishing in fifth place as Herman Franks was fired.  On this afternoon, 28,394 fans filled Wrigley Field as New York's Craig Swan (7-6) went up against their fan favorite Rick Reuschel (6-5). Reuschel spent 12 years in Chicago (1972-1984) winning 135 games. That year he was an 18-game winner (18-12) & had won twenty games two years earlier. That season the Mets Craig Swan would win the NL's ERA title. In the bottom of the 2nd, the Cubs got on the board first with a HR from Steve Ontiveros.  In the top of the 3rd, after the first out, the Mets got three straight singles from Craig Swan, Joel Youngblood & Frank Tavares to load the bases. Lee Mazzilli hi...

Wednesday June 27th, 1973: Mets 25-year-old pitcher Buzz Capra attended his father's funeral that morning  in Illinois just  outside of Chicago. He quickly caught a flight back to New York to join the team & was ready in case he was needed for that nights Twi-night double header against the Phillies at Shea Stadium. Having come up in 1971,  Capra was in his third season with New York. He had been used as both a starter & reliever in those three seasons. He began 1973 at AAA Tidewater getting called up on June 11th. The Mets had lost seven of their last nine & fell into fifth place. Soon a New York Post newspaper poll would ask the fans who should get fired, manager Yogi Berra, GM Bob Scheffing or Chairman M. Donald Grant. The fans chose Grant with Scheffing right behind him. With the popular Yogi Berra was safe from the fans there was no way the front office was going to anger them & the season went on. At the time the Cubs were in first place with a 7.5 g...

 Monday June 26th, 2000:   Bobby Valentine's Mets (42-31) were on a four-game win streak, in the midst of a seven-game win streak where they also took nine of ten games. They were hit as they were in second place chasing the Atlanta Braves, just 3.5 games back. On this evening, they hosted John Boles' Florida Marlins (38-39) in front of 19,657 at Shea Stadium. John Boles had taken over as manager of the Marlins the previous year, replacing Jim Leyland who won the 1997 World Series with them. Boles would get replaced by Tony Perez in 2001, then Jeff Torborg would take over in 2002, until May 2003, when he was replaced by Jack McKeon who would take the Marlins to another World's Championship that year. Tonight's starters were Al Leiter, who came into his game at 8-1 with a 3.08 ERA. Leiter would go 16-8 for the 2000 NL Champions, posting a 3.20 ERA behind Mike Hampton. He went up against former Met Reid Cornelius who went 3-7 in ten starts for the 1995 Mets. In the top of...

Bruce Kastulo Chen was born on June 19, 1977 in Panama City, Panama. Although he was born & raised in Panama, he is of Chinese descent.  The six foot two left hander was originally signed by the Atlanta Braves in 1993 making it to the big leagues five years later. In 1998 he was a 12-game winner at A ball Macon, getting promoted to AA the next season. In 1999 he was 15-8 with a 3.09 ERA at AA Greenville & AAA Richmond.  MLB Career:  On September 7th, 1998, Bruce debuted with Atlanta pitching against the Mets & Masato Yosi in a Mets win at Shea Stadium. Chen gave up HRs to Luis Lopez & Tony Phillips. He won his next two starts & finished the year 2-0. Chen stayed with the Braves for parts of three seasons as a starter & reliever. In the 2000 season he began at 4-0 before getting traded to the Philadelphia Phillies that June. In Philadelphia he fell to 3-4 & the next season was traded to the New York Mets for Turk Wendell & Dennis Cook...

Gil Hodges Mets were in second place opening up a Father's Day weekend four game set with the Frank Lucchesi's last place Phillies. Less than two weeks earlier the Mets had been tied for first place but had fallen to 2.5 games back of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Things looked good as they won eight of ten games, but a horrible July saw them lose 16 of 19 never able to catch the eventual world champion Pirates. Saturday June 19th, 1971:  Today Tom Seaver took the mound against Rick Wise. Seaver would win his second Cy Young Award that season, leading the league in ERA (1.76) & strike outs (289) winning twenty games (20-10). Rick Wise would win 17 games in his final season in Philadelphia getting traded to the Cardinals for Steve Carlton.  After a scoreless 1st inning, the Phillies put up two runs on Deron Johnson's two run HR in the 2nd inning. In the top of the 3rd, Tim McCarver doubled to right center/ Seaver walked Willie Montanez then Ron Stone singled in McCarver gi...