centerfield maz

Sunday September 1st, 1974: Yogi Berra's fifth place Mets (60-71) were nine games back at the start of September, but unlike last year in 1973, there was no NL Pennant run in store this September.  The Mets were still the reigning NL Champs but were to lose their title in the next month.  Tonight, the Mets hosted Clyde Kings third place Atlanta Braves (73-61) in front of 33,879 fans at Shea Stadium. The Braves former Rookie of the Year, Carl Morton (14-7) went up against The Mets Tug McGraw (5-7). In his Mets career, Tug McGraw made 36 starts for the club, most of them in the earlier part of his career. In the upsetting Mets 1974 season, the team needed help in the starting rotation at times & McGraw filled in making four starts. This game would be the only shut out he pitched in his fine career, where he made 39 starts in 824 appearances. In the 1st inning, that year's NL Batting champ Ralph Garr "the Roadrunner" led off with a base hit. Marty Perez then...

William Landis  McKinney was born August 23rd, 1994, in Dallas Texas. The left hand hitting, six-foot one outfielder also plays at first base. McKinney was signed by the Oakland A's, out of Plano West Senior High School, in the first round of the 2013 draft, the 24th pick overall.  After receiving a 1.8 million signing bonus, and spending one year in Athletics minor leagues, McKinney was traded along with Addison Russell & Dan Straily to the Chicago Cubs for Jason Hammel & Jeff Samardzija. In the Cubs organization, he went up to the AA level before suffering a hair line fracture in his knee, shutting him down for 2016. Next, he was traded along with Gleyber Torres & Adam Warren to the AL New York team for Aroldis Chapman. MLB Career: He made his big-league debut, on March 30th, 2018, getting a hit in his first MLB at bat. The next day he got injured & was placed on the DL.  After two games with the AL New York team, he was traded along wit...

Bertram Ray Burris was born August 22, 1950 in Idabel, Oklahoma. He grew up on a farm of in a poor family of sharecroppers. He suffered through segregation of that time but worked hard in all areas of life & excelled in sports. The tall six foot five, right hander went to Southwestern Oklahoma State University getting drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 17th round of the 1972 draft. MLB Career-Cubs Burris was brought up to the big leagues the next season by a Cub staff in desperate need of a pitcher. On April 18th, in his second career game, he got a start at Shea Stadium against the New York Mets. Burris pitched five innings allowed just four hits & no runs, earning his first career victory. It would be his only start & win of the season. He went 1-1 in 31 games posting a 2.92 ERA. After two seasons as a reliever, he was put into the Cub rotation in 1975. He would be a regular on the Cubs staff for the next four seasons, winning 15 games twice (1975 & 1976) l...

  Tuesday August 20th, 1985: The excitement of Dwight Gooden- "Dr. K" was really amazing in his 1985 Cy Young Season.  At this point in time Gooden had won 12 straight games, he came into the game at 18-3 with 1.82 ERA & 192 strike outs.  He was the best pitcher in the game & having one of the best seasons any pitcher had ever had. Gooden had already had seven games with ten or more strike outs & his season high was 14 Ks up to that point. Coming into the game, Davey Johnson's Mets were in first place (71-45) with a half game lead over the pesky St. Louis Cardinals. Tonight, the Mets hosted the last place San Francisco Giants (45-72) led by Jim Davenport. 31,758 fans came out to Shea Stadium, including a young teenage centerfieldmaz, to see Dwight Gooden pitch another one of his great games of that magical season. Gooden's 1st inning was a bit shaky. After getting the first out Brad Wellman & Chili Davis both singled. Chili Davis was caught...

Christopher Mathewson was born on August 12, 1880 in Factoryville, Pennsylvania. He was nicknamed "Big Six", & "Matty". Matty was arguably the greatest right-handed pitcher in Baseball history. He attended Bucknell University served as the class president, sang in the glee club & belonged to a literary society. He was a star player on the school's baseball & football teams. In 1899 he signed to play pro baseball in the New England League, then the Virginia-North Carolina League going 20-2. In July of that year, the New York Giants purchased his contract for $1,500. In 1900 he arrived with the Giants that July appearing in six games going 0-3. The Giants were not impressed with him & returned him to Norfolk demanding their money back. Later that month, the Cincinnati Reds drafted him but traded him back to the Giants in exchange for Amos Rusie in December. As soon as John McGraw took over as the Giants manager, he immediately took Ma...

Saturday August 7th, 2010: The New York Mets were just under .500 (54-55) & they would finish a dismal fourth in a forgetful year under Jerry Manuel. On this day they were in Philadelphia playing Charlie Manuel's second place Phillies (61-49).  The Phillies would end up winning the NL East but losing to the Champion San Francisco Giants in the NLCS.  The Mets & Phillies would split the season series with the Phillies this year, shutting them out five times. In today's game Johan Santana (9-6) would go against Cole Hamels (7-7). Or as Met fans called him Hole Camels in front of 45,194 at Citizens Bank Park. Santana had a bit of control issues when he walked two batters in the 2nd inning but got Carlos Ruiz to ground into a double play to end the inning. He would not give up his first hit until the 6th inning, when Placido Polanco singled. In the top of the 7th, short time Met Jeff Francoeur left off with a HR to left center for the only run of the game. It was his...

Monday August 5th, 2019: Mickey Callaway's Mets (55-56) were on a hot streak. The team had won nine of their last ten games up to this point, after an exciting end to July.  At the trade deadline they surprised everyone, when they decided to became buyers instead of sellers, acquiring pitcher Marcus Stroman from Toronto.  After that decision they went on to compete, they hit & they pitched well, getting back into the wild card hunt. The bullpen once ranked 28th, was now in the top four in the league, since the All-Star break.  A good crowd of 29,645 arrived at Citi Field by the second game of this double header, to see the Mets host Don Mattingly's Miami Marlins (42-67). In the 1st inning, Jeff McNeil led off with a rare leadoff walk. Amed Rosario singled & stole second base. Michael Conforto continued the energy from the first game win, with a two-run single to left field.  The Mets were up again 2-0 after scoring runs i...