centerfield maz

Friday September 18th 2015: The first place New York Mets (83-63) hosted their cross town rivals, the A.L. New York club (80-66) in front of one of the largest crowds ever at Citi Field. The Mets began the night eight games up on the Washington Nats with a magic number of 9. The young Steven Matz, straight out of Long Island took the mound for the Mets tonight against Masahiro Tanaka. Mantz did not have his best stuff tonight, but he fought hard and after a shaky 1st inning where he allowed a run, he settled in to shut out the A.L. New Yorkers for the next five innings. In the bottom of the 2nd, Lucas Duda connected for his 22nd HR of the year to tie up the game at one. It ended a long HR drought for Duda whom the Mets hope they could get going for the post season. In the 6th Daniel Murphy hit a long HR to right center field, putting the Mets up  2-1. It was Murph's 12th HR of the year. In the 7th inning, with Tanka gone on the losing end as pitcher of record. With

In a moving speech that touched on baseball, Family, friends, 911, being a New Yorker, being an Italian/American, being a Catholic, being Patriotic & thanking Mets fans for supporting him in playing baseball in New York, especially Queens, Mike Piazza was inducted to the Hall of Fame. It was an incredible speech that was touching, moving & very inspirational. Yes Mike Piazza made us all proud of him, his Mets legacy & for being New York Mets fans. Truly one of the best players of that era & one of two Mets greats to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. In a true condition of being great, better & above the rest of your peers, Piazza & Seaver deserve those honors. The Mets may not retire many numbers or have a bunch of Hall of Famers, but the players that do have that honor, surely get it because of their greatness. Not for being something or having watered down credentials in order to make headlines. Thank you Mike Piazza for making us Mets fans & Ital

Edward Raymond Stanky was born in Philadelphia, Pa. on September 3, 1916. The five foot eight inch second baseman, originally came up with the Chicago Cubs in 1943. He made 27 errors (second most in the league) as well as posting the third most assists & put outs. He batted .245 but walked 92 times (4th best in the NL) posting a .363 on base % while scoring 92 runs (5th in the league). Stanky never hit for high batting averages but always drew a lot of walks, which gave him good on base percentages. It was these qualities along with a  never ending determination to win, that made him such a tough valuable team player. He would do whatever it took to get on base, hit, walk or take one for the team. He then would find some way to annoy the pitcher, as well as other position players, advance a base, & score a run. At his position on second base, he would distract batters by jumping up & down as the pitch was delivered. He would also do anything he could to get base