Remembering Mets History (1974): Rusty Staub's Two Walk Off Hits

-
Wednesday August 14th 1974: The reigning NL Champion Mets were certainly struggling in 1974.

 At this point in time the Mets were 51-63 but eight 1/2 games out of first place, a feat they overcame later in the season last year. There was still some hope although not too much.

On this day the Mets hosted, who were to be this years NL Champions; the Los Angeles Dodgers. Walt Alston's club was riding high at 75-43. The Dodgers' Doug Rau took on a struggling reigning Cy Young winner; Tom Seaver.


Starting Lineups



 In the 3rd, Seaver surrendered a HR to Willie Crawford. The Mets answered in the home 3rd. Seaver led off with a walk, Bud Harrelson then singled. Rusty Staub also singled moving Seaver to third base. Cleon Jones then hit a sac fly bringing in Seaver to tie the game.

 In the 4th, the Dodgers went ahead as Von Joshua singled & stole second. With two outs, pitcher Doug Rau singled bringing in the go ahead run. Rau held the Mets down until the 6th, when Cy Young Award winning reliever Mike Marshall came in. Marshall would appear in 106 games for the 1974 NL Champion Dodgers, saving a league leading 21 games. 
Marshall held the Mets down until the 9th inning. Ken Boswell walked & was sacrificed to second base. Ron Hodges reached on an error & Felix Millan singled loading the bases, setting the stage for  "Le Grande Orange".

 Staub came through & singled bringing home the winning run in a much needed Mets win.


Sunday August 26th 1974: By this point the Mets were ten games out (55-70) fighting the Chicago Cubs to stay out of the NL basement. Yogi Berra's Mets hosted Preston Gomez's Houston Astros (66-61). 

The Mets Jerry Koosman, went up against J.R. Richard in front of 15,104 fans at Shea.

Starting Lineups



 In the bottom of the 2nd, Ron Hodges hit a solo HR off Richard, making it 1-0. In the top of the 3rd, Koosman allowed a double to Roger Metzger & am RBI hit to Lee May.

 In the bottom of the 3rd, Felix Millan & Rusty Staub singled. Ed Kranepool then walked with two outs to load the bases. A Wayne Garrett base hit made it 2-1 Mets.
Koosman surrendered two more runs, in the top of the 4th as the pitcher; Richard & Greg Gross brought in runs on a bunt & groundout. Cesar Cedeno added an RBI single in the 7th putting the Astros up 4-2.

 In the bottom of a crazy 9th, Mike Cosgrove came on to pitch. The Mets sent three pinch hitters up, after George Theodore flew out. Duffy Dyer then collected a pinch hit single.

Teddy Martinez also collected a pinch hit, connecting for a double, bringing in Dyer. A throwing error on Cedeno allowed Martinez to get to third base. 
Bud Harrelson then walked. Felix Millan then reached on a bunt base hit, Martinez scampered home to tie the game. Rusty Staub walked up again, being the hero of the day as he singled to left, scoring Millan with the walk off game winner.

Koosman went the distance, allowing four runs on eleven hits with four walks & four strikeouts.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering Bobby Ojeda's Tragic Boating Accident (1993)

-
Image
Steve Olin, Tim Crews & Bob Ojeda March 22 nd 1993: was an off day from Spring Training, for three Cleveland Indians pitchers; Former Mets 1986 World Champion pitcher; Bobby Ojeda, Tim Crews & Steve Olin. The three friends, took out an 18-foot open-air bass boat & went out fishing & gator hunting in the darkness of the evening on Lake Nellie in Clermont, Florida. Tragedy struck, when the boat rammed into a private dock that jutted out some 250 feet into the still waters. Two other Cleveland Indians personnel had arrived to meet the fishing party just as the horror took place. They heard Bob Ojeda saying they needed help. The two men jumped into the water and called out for someone to call 911. 27 year old pitcher; Steve Olin was killed instantly. 31 year old pitcher; Tim Crews was alive but was struggling to breathe suffering from massive head wounds. Bobby Ojeda was in & out of shock, he was suffering from head lace...
Read more

The History of Yogi Berra & the Yoo-Hoo Chocolate Drink

-
Image
Yogi Berra & Yoo-Hoo's  history go back to the 1950's. Yogi had met the Oliveri Family, the owners of the Yoo-Hoo company at a Country Club function near his home in New Jersey. Natale Olivieri started bottling the chocolate drink in 1928 in Garfield, w Jersey. By the late 1950's he Yoo-Hoo product wasn't selling all that well. Mr. Olivieri asked for Yogi's opinion at the new Jersey function. Berra said he actually liked the soft drink & started promoting it along with his teammates. Soon Yogi put Yoo-Hoo on the map, appearing in commercials, advertisements and supermarkets promotions.  Berra would show up at the factory in Carlstadt, New Jersey & became a hero to the factory workers. He soon became a Vice President of the company owning a large amount of Yoo-Hoo stock. In his auto biography Yogi wrote "One time I was in the office and the phone rang, I always answer a ringing phone, the woman on the other end asked if Yoo-Hoo was hyphenate...
Read more

Remembering Mets History (1979) SNL's Chico Escuela Visits Mets Spring Training & Attempts a Career Comeback

-
Image
Bill Murray interviews (Garrett Morris) Chico Escuela In March 1979, original Saturday Night Live cast member; Garrett Morris joined the Mets at Miller Huggins Field for Spring Training. At the time the Mets were still holding Spring Training in St. Petersburg Florida.  Garrett Morris was posing as  the fictional Mets player, Chico Escuela who wore uniform #5 (cinque).  Escuela was doing his famous spoof of the Latin players of the time, posing as a popular infielder from the Dominican Republic that didn't speak much English. His legendary catch phrase was "baseball been berry- berry good to me". "baseball been berry-berry good... to me" The Chico Escuela character appeared nine times during on SNL's fourth & fifth seasons. He debuted on December 9th, 1978, in a Knight of Columbus sketch as a guest speaker. He then became the Weekend Update Sports reporter, where after being introduced by Jane Curtain, he would reply "tank you Hane". Chico woul...
Read more

Remembering Vixen Founder / Guitarist; Jan Kuehnemund (1961-2013)

-
Image
centerfieldmaz was shocked to learn of the sudden passing of Jan Kuehnemund, the founding member of the all female metal band Vixen. Jan was a fantastic guitarist, song writer & women pioneer in Heavy Metal. I am a huge fan of hard rock all girl bands & Vixen were one my long time favorites. Janice Lynn Kuehnemund was born November 18th, 1961 in St. Paul Minnesota. The female guitarist formed one of the first all female Metal bands in Minnesota with singer Janet Gardner while in high school in 1980. By 1985 they moved the band to Los Angles California, to be part of the Heavy Metal scene. In 1987 the classic Vixen line up of Jan Kuehnemund (lead guitar) Janet Gardner (vocals/ guitar) Share Pederson (bass) & Roxy Petrucci (drums) formed & released their debut album the following year. Vixen 1988 In a world of all male Heavy Metal bands during its heyday, Vixen were groundbreaking in being an all female metal band. The Runaways, with Joan Jett & Lita Ford...
Read more

Remembering Batgirl: Yvonne Craig (1937-2015)

-
Image
centerfieldmaz interrupts baseball with a sad note on one of his favorite actresses. Being a huge Batman (TV series) fan Yvonne Craig has been someone I adored since I was a child.  As a boy I always hoped the Batgirl cycle would wiz by on the opening credits, meaning it would be a Batgirl episode. I didn't realize why until I got older & liked girls. For myself & millions of young boys of the 60's / 70's Batgirl was one of our first crushes. But her character also she added so much more than that to the final season of Batman. She was special in so many ways ... rest in peace Batgirl! Yvonne Joyce Craig was born May 16th 1937 in Taylorville, Illinois. As a young girl she was a talented ballet dancer, getting accepted to the prestigious Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She eventually moved to Los Angeles & began an acting career. She landed a part in Gidget (1959) as one of Gidget's beach...
Read more