centerfield maz

Friday August 17th, 1973:   Yogi Berra's New York Mets were in last place (53-66) but only seven games back in a tight NL East race.  The previous game saw Tom Seaver throw a two hit shut out over the Padres 7-0 in San Diego snapping a four game losing streak. The win was Seaver's 15th with a league best 1.78 ERA on his way to his second Cy Young Award. The Mets were about to make their run as they would win 30 of their next 43 games to capture the NL Eastern title on the last day of the season. On this night, no one knew it but it would be an NLCS preview as Sparky Anderson's Big Red Machine (75-48) were in town opening up a weekend series at Shea Stadium.  36,803 fans came to see the Mets George Stone (7-3) take on the Reds Don Gullet (14-8).  Since being put in the starting rotation at the start of June, George Stone had gone 6-1 since with a 3.38 ERA in his last ten starts. After a 2nd inning single from Andy Kosco, the Mets George Stone would retire the nex...

Saturday August 17th, 2024 : Carlos Mendoza's Mets (63-59) had been the most winningest team in baseball since June & were in the heat of a tight wild card race trailing the Braves by one game for the last wild-card spot. In this late afternoon game at Citi Field, as the Mets donned their grey City-connect uniforms, they hosted the Miami Marlins (45-77) in front of 34,744. Luis Severino (7-6) got the start against the Marlins Max Meyer (3-2). Severino had come off three straight poor performances giving up 15 runs in his last three games over 13 innings. In the bottom of the 1st inning, Francisco Lindor led off the game with is 24th HR of the season giving the Mets a 1-0 lead. Lindor extended his hit streak to eleven games & he had reached base safely in his last 16 games.  In the bottom of the 2nd, Pete Alonso led off the inning with his team leading 27th HR of the season for a 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the 3rd, Brandon Nimmo hit his third triple of the season. Nimmo was ...

Tuesday August 19th, 1969: The Summer pennant race was starting to heat up in New York, as Gil Hodges Mets (67-51) were riding a four-game win streak that spanned two double header sweeps over the Woodstock weekend.   On this night 48,968 paid came to Shea Stadium, as the former New York Giants (64-56) now the San Francisco Giants came to town. The Giants, led by Clyde King, were 2.5 games behind the first place Dodgers & Reds. They were in a three-way tie with the Houston Astros & Atlanta Braves in second place in a tight NL West. The Giants would finish three games behind the Braves at the end of the season. The Mets sent young Gary Gentry to the mound tonight. Gentry had not had credit for a win in over a month with his last win being om July 15th. In that time, he was 0-3 with three no decisions. For the Giants it was longtime Mets nemesis & future Hall of Famer, Juan Marichal. Mets Killer: From April 1962-July 4th 1967 the high leg  kicking Mar...

Saturday August 16th 1969: On this weekend back in the Summer of '69, the Woodstock concerts were going on in Upstate New York. Back in Queens Gil Hodges' second place Mets (62-51) were ten games back behind the Chicago Cubs, a much improvement from any other year in their seven year history. A few weeks after Neil Armstrong & the American NASA Astronauts walked on the moon, the Mets them selves were about to take some "giant steps" forward. At this point some people felt the Amazing's had run out of gas, as they had just lost seven of eleven games on a road trip thru Cincinnati, Atlanta & Houston where they were swept by the Astros. With forty nine more games to go, the Mets were eyeing Gil Hodges first goal & that was to win 85 games. After a rain out on Friday, the Mets hosted Preston Gomez' last place San Diego Padres (35-82) at Shea Stadium in front of 19,940 fans for a weekend of what would now be back to back double headers. The Padr...