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...

Christopher Michael Woodward was born on June 27, 1976, in Covina, California.  In high school he played both football & baseball. Woodward attended San Antonio College getting named All Conference. In 1994, the scrappy player was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 54th round. He was primarily a short stop in the minor leagues thru five seasons. In 1992 at AAA Syracuse, he batted .292 for the Chiefs. MLB Career: On June 7th, 1999, Woodward, got a call up making his MLB debut against the New York Mets in an 8-2 Mets win at Skydome. He collected a base hit & a sacrifice fly off Orel Hershiser, driving in both Blue Jays runs. Woodward would spend six years in Toronto as a utility infielder & designated hitter. He was the teams main short stop for parts of three seasons. In 2002, he got into 90 games batting .276 with career highs in HRs (13) triples (4) & RBIs (45). On August 7th, he became the first Blue Jay short stop to hit three HRs in a game. Nine of hi...

Ronald Wray Hodges was born on June 22, 1949, in the rural town of Rocky Mount, Virginia. He was one of nine children to Daisy & Anthony Hodges. Although he shared the same name, he was not related to Gil Hodges in any way. The six-foot one catcher attended Appalachian State University where he was drafted three different times. First by the Baltimore Orioles (1970) then the Kansas City Royals & Atlanta Braves, (1971) but didn’t sign with any of those teams.  In 1972 the Mets offered him a bonus & he did sign, as a second-round draft pick.  Hodges spent the season at A Ball Pompano Beach bashing 15 HRs with 15 doubles & 48 RBIs in 112 games. In 1973 Hodges was playing at AA Memphis, hitting only .173 but all of a sudden, things changed very quickly.  In June he was called up to the Mets big league squad when catchers' Jerry Grote & Jerry May went down with injuries. Hodges was needed to help back up Duffy Dyer, who had t...