centerfield maz

Peter Alan Schourek was born on May 10th, 1969, in Austin Texas. The tall six-foot five left hander grew up in Virginia on the outskirts of the Nation’s Capital.  In 1987 he was signed out of high school by the New York Mets in the second round of the amateur draft.  The next year he missed the entire season due to an arm injury.  By 1990 he won 16 games (16-5) through all three levels of the minor leagues, highlighted by going 11-4 with a 3.04 ERA at AA Jackson. There he was tutored under pitching coach Bob Apodaca. Mets Career: In 1991 he impressed at Spring Training, making the Mets staff as a reliever.  Schourek made his MLB debut in the second game of the '91 season at Shea Stadium pitching a scoreless 1.1 innings in a 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. After finishing up a pair or Mets losses, he recorded a save on April 21st in win at Montreal. Three days later earned his first career win pitching three scoreless innings at Philadelphia...

Friday Night, May 6th, 1983: Shea Stadium filled just 15,916 seats, as two Mets stars from different generations careers crossed over. Tonight, was the much-anticipated debut of the young, talented, Mets rookie outfielder, Darryl Strawberry. Strawberry, the former number one draft pick was ushering in a new era in Mets history, while on the mound, "The Franchise" Tom Seaver represented the past, Glory Days of a Mets Championship. Tom Seaver now in his second coming to the New York Mets, late in his career,  got tonight's start for George Bamberger's fifth place Mets (7-15).  S eaver went up against Mario Soto & his former Cincinnati Reds team (13-14) in third place under Russ Nixon. Seaver pitched eight innings, allowing three runs on four hits, striking out seven. The game was scoreless when Gary Redus hit a solo HR in the 6th inning. The Reds scored two more runs in the 7th, as Seaver walked two & Alex Trevino &...

Armando Martin (Gutierrez) Reynoso was born on May 1st, 1966, in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The six-foot right hander began pitching in the Mexican League. MLB Career: In 1991 he came over to MLB getting signed by the Atlanta Braves. After two brief seasons appearing in nine games with Atlanta he was drafted by the Colorado Rockies as the 58th pick of the 1992 expansion draft. In 1993 Reynoso was the Rockies ace winning 12 games (12-11) being the only pitcher on the Colorado staff to win in double figures. Injures limited him to just nine games the next year & in 1995 he was used mostly as a reliever. In 1996 he was 8-9 with a 4.96 ERA being used again in a starting role. In November of 1996 he was traded to the New York Mets for Jerry Dipoto. Mets Career:  In 1997 Reynoso had a great Spring Training, starting out by throwing seven shutout innings over two starts before having elbow troubles. On April 13th, he made his Mets regular season debut, pitching fiv...

Carlton Francis Willey was born June 6th, 1931 in Cherryfield, Maine. The six foot right-handed pitcher was originally signed by the Boston Braves as an amateur free agent in 1951. After serving two years in the United States Army he was back in baseball by 1955. In 1957 at AA Wichita he led the American Association with 21 wins (21-6) winning the MVP award there. The Sporting News voted him the Top Prospect entering the 1958 season. MLB Career: Willey debuted against the Chicago Cubs on April 30th 1958 in a one inning relief appearance. He made three relief appearances, and then in his first start, threw a 7-0 six hit shutout against the newly relocated San Francisco Giants.  Willey was 2-3 in mid July & then went on a seven game win streak where he threw four complete games in the stretch. During the rest of the season he also shut out the Giants again, the Philadelphia Phillies on a six hitter & the Pittsburgh Pirates on a seven hitter. He had the best season...

Tuesday May 3rd, 2022: Buck Showalter's Mets (18-8) were atop the NL East leading the Miami Marlins by 4.5 games on the young season. Tonight, they hosted Brian Snitker's reigning Champion Atlanta Braves (11-15).  The Braves were struggling early on, already seven & half games behind the Mets. Tonight's starters were Kyle Wright (3-0) for the Braves vs the Mets Carlos Carrasco (1-1) In the top of the 1st Ronald Acuna Jr. led off with a double, but Carlos Carrasco got out of the inning retiring Matt Olson, striking out Austin Riley & getting Marcell Ozuna to hit a comebacker to the mound. The Mets struck right away as Brandon Nimmo led off with a base hit. After Francisco Lindor was retired Jeff McNeil singled as well. Pete Alonso moved the runners over on a ground ball then Dom Smith doubled bringing in both runners to make it 2-0. Later in the 6th inning, Pete Alonso led off with his 5th HR of the season giving the Mets their third run. In the top of the 2nd, the ...

 Jonathan Rafael Villar was born on May 2nd, 1991, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He was originally signed by the Philadelphia Phillies, at age 17. He was traded to the Houston Astros in July 2010 in the Roy Oswalt deal. He made his debut with Astros in 2013 & would spend parts of three seasons there as a reserve player. For 2016 he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for Cory Sneed. He was an everyday player there, playing in 156 games, leading the NL in stolen bases (62) as well as caught stealing (18) while batting .285 with 19 HRs & 63 RBIs.  A high strike out hitter, he fanned 174 times & would strike out over 130 times three straight seasons. The next season, 2017, he stole just 23 bases playing in 34 less games, with 11 HRs as his average fell to .241. At the 2018 trade dead line he was sent to the Baltimore Orioles for Jonathan Schoop. In 2019, for the Orioles, he was one of four MLB players to play in all 162 games, collecting career highs in HRs (...

Thursday, May 2nd, 1968: On this evening Gil Hodges Mets (8-10) hosted Gene Mauch's Philadelphia Phillies (9-9) in front of 9,795 fans at Shea Stadium.  The starting pitchers were two youngsters who would both go on to have long careers, Nolan Ryan started for the Mets & Woodie Fryman for the Phillies. Fryman would pitch 18 years in the majors going 141-155 with a 3.77 ERA. He pitched for the Phillies (1966-1972) Tigers (1972-1975) Reds (1977) Cubs (1978) & two stints with the Expos (1975-1976 & 1978-1983). Tonight, the Shea fans would witness a strange series of events in the 8th inning. In the top of the 1st inning, it was a typical young Nolan Ryan inning. He walked two batters & struck out three Phillies. In the bottom of the 2nd, Greg Gossen doubled & Jerry Grote reached on a Tony Taylor error at third base. Fryman then struck out the next three Mets to end the inning. In the home 4th, Fryman walked Ron Swoboda to start the i...