centerfield maz

October 1st, 1973: The crazy 1973 New York Mets season, all came down to the last games of the regular season which had ended for the rest of the league the previous day. After the previous rain outs earlier in the weekend, a double header was scheduled between the Mets & Cube at Wrigley Field to close out the season. All the Mets had to do was win one game in order to clinch the N.L. East. as both the St. Louis Cardinals & Pittsburgh Pirates lost their final games of the season on Sunday. In recapping, most of the Mets regular players were struggling through injuries most of the season, not getting healthy as a team until the final month. Also, they had the best pitching staff in the league & everyone stepped up from starters to relievers. The Mets had won 22 of their last 31 games dating back to August 27th when they were still in last place, six & a half games of first place. They had won eight of their last ten games as well. They took over first place on Friday Se...

Monday, September 30th,2024: On this cloudy afternoon in Atlanta, the Mets (88-72) & Braves (88-72) played a double header with each team needing to win a game to get to the post season. If any team swept the twin bill, the other team would be eliminated & the idle Arizona Diamondbacks would get in.  These games were make-up games after Hurricane Helene postponed two games last week. The MLB regular season officially ended for everyone else yesterday. Carlos Mendoza went with Tylor Megill (4-5 / 3.98 ERA). Since August 29th, Megill was 2-0 with a 1.78 ERA & 28 strike outs in 25.1 innings over five starts.)   Braves skipper; Brian Snitker went with Spencer Schwellenbach (8-7 / 3.35 ERA).  Schwellenbach was 3-0 in his last three starts, allowing four runs in 19 inns, beating the Mets just five days ago, allowing one run in seven innings of work. Mets Trivia: It was 51 years ago today; the 1973 Mets clinched a playoff spot in a scheduled double header at r...

Sunday September 30th, 1979: On this the last day of the regular season Joe Torre's Mets were in last place once again (66-91). The last game of the 1970's would also be the last game for original Met, Ed Kranepool. Ed Kranepool played 18 seasons for the Mets & is the all-time team leader with 1853 career Mets games played. In 1962 Kranepool was signed out of James Monroe high school in the Soundview section of the Bronx at just 18 years old.  In 1962 Kid Kranepool debuted for three games in the Mets inaugural season. He stayed with the Mets through the losing years of the early sixties as part of Casey Stengle Youth of America movement. He was there as Gil Hodges turned the team around into 1969 Amazing World Champion Mets.  Krane was there when Hodges untimely fatal heart attack shocked the organization.  He was there as Yogi Berra took over & the team regrouped to win the 1973 pennant. He was then the last original Mets player & suffered the losing years of...

In 2015 the Mets won the NL pennant getting to their fifth World Series. That season Met first baseman Lucas Duda tied a Mets team record with seven multi-HR games. Here's the happy recap of Duda's season: May 21st, 2015: Terry Collins' second place Mets took on Mike Matheny's first place St. Louis Cardinals at Citi Field. Lucas Duda had the first of his seven multi-HR games on the year. Duda first homered against Jaime Garcia in the 6th inning, a solo shot. In the 9th he blasted a three-run shot off Randy Choate, icing the Jacob deGrom (eight inning) Jeurys Familia (one inning) 5-0 shut out.  Less than a week later, Duda had his second multi-HR game of the year. This came during a stretch from May 21st to May 30th where he hit six HRs while driving in ten runs. May 27th, 2015:  Tonight, the Mets (27-21) hosted Ryne Sandberg's lowly Philadelphia Phillies (19-29), already ten games out of first place.  In the 1st inning, Luc...