Remembering Mets History (1989) Frank Viola Outduels Orel Hershiser 1-0 in Historical Matchup

-
Monday August 28th, 1989: For the first time in MLB history, the two reigning Cy Young Award winners faced off against each other in a regular season matchup

The New York Mets sent Frank Viola to the mound to face the reigning World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers & their ace, Orel Hershiser.

Frank Viola had been the A.L. Cy Young winner while pitching with the Twins in 1988. One year after earning the World Series MVP for 1987 World Champion Minnesota Twins. 

Viola came to New York in 1989 on the July 31st trade deadline. It was a huge addition to the Mets team, as the Long Island born Viola returned home. 

He went 8-12 that year in Minnesota & was 1-3 entering this game on a personal three game losing streak with an overall 9-15 season record. 

Orel Hershiser had a similar season the previous
year. He was the NL Cy Young Award winner & the World Series MVP as the Dodgers surprised everyone to beat the Mets in the NLCS & then the Oakland A's in the Fall Classic.
At this time Davey Johnson's Mets were in third place (70-60) three & 1/2 games back of the Chicago Cubs. Tommy Lasorda's Dodgers had fallen to fifth place at 62-69. A crowd of 38,820 came to Dodger Stadium to witness this classic pitching matchup that was all it was billed to be.

The Mets got two hits in the 1st inning, singles by Juan Samuel & Howard Johnson amounted to nothing, as Darryl Strawberry popped out & Kevin McReynolds grounded out to end the inning. 

In the top of the 3rd, Greg Jefferies singled through the third base hole. He advanced to second on Juan Samuel's ground out. Then Howard Johnson singled to center, scoring Jefferies in what turned out to be the only run of the game.

The Mets did scatter eight hits off Hershiser but no more runs in his eight innings of work. In the 7th, McReynolds led off with a base hit but was caught stealing. Keith Hernandez drew a walk in that at bat, but Hershiser got Barry Lyons & Kevin Elster to pop up. 

In the 8th, Frank Viola & Gregg Jefferies led off with base hits. Hershiser picked off Viola leaning off first base. Jefferies did steal second, but the inning ended when Hershiser struck out Howard Johnson. On the night, Orel walked one & struck out four.

Viola had his best outing of that season for the Mets. He pitched the complete game shutout, allowing just three hits while striking out five & walking no one.

In the 2nd inning he gave up a single but struck out Eddie Murray, Mike Marshall & Dave Anderson. Viola would retire the last 15 batters in a row to end the game.

Trivia: Viola would go 5-5 for the Mets that year with a 3.38 ERA. The next season he would win twenty games (20-12) leading the NL in starts (35) & innings pitched (249).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ON NOVEMBER 13th................. The Odd Couple Lives

-
Image
"On November 13, Felix Unger was asked to remove himself from his place of residence. That request came from his wife. Deep down, he knew she was right, but he also knew that someday, he would return to her. With nowhere else to go, he appeared at the home of his childhood friend, Oscar Madison. Several years earlier, Madison's wife had thrown him out, requesting that he never return. Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving each other crazy?" This was the opening dialogue of centerfieldmaz's favorite TV show: "the Odd Couple". This dialogue was used for the first two seasons. It is also featured on the third season of the DVD releases as well. The narration was done by actor Bill Woodson. The famous Odd Couple theme was written by non other than Neil Hefti, originally for the 1968 Odd Couple movie. Niel Hefti also did the classic Batman 1960's TV series theme song & music for that, another centerfieldmaz favorite TV sh
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 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 lacerations but was coherent. The
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

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 hyphenated. I
Read more