Grant Hartwig: Mets Relief Pitcher (2023)

-

Grant Alexander Hartwig was born December 18th, 1997, in Detroit Michigan.

The six foot-five right-handed reliever attended Miami University where he majored in premed & micro-biology. 

While pitching at Miami he tore his Ulnar Collateral Ligament & underwent Tommy John surgery. Upon his return Covid struck & the season was cancelled. The next year he went undrafted at first until the Mets called him a few days later as he was taking exams, offering him $20,000 to sign. 

Quotes- Grant Hartwig: "I was thinking I was done with baseball. It seemed less & less possible that anything was going to happen."

Hartwig began his career at A ball St Lucie. In 2022 he began with the Brooklyn Cyclones & was promoted to AA Binghamton that May. By September he was at AAA with the Syracuse Mets. 

2023: Hartwig was invited to Spring Training & impressed by throwing four shutout innings. He
began 2023 there striking out 35 batters in 25.3 innings of work posting a 4.25 ERA.

Mets Career: On June 19th he made his MLB debut relieving Max Scherzer & finishing off an 11-1 win at Houston. On June 28th, in the 7th inning of a tied game with Milwaukee, he gave up a two hits & a run in the Mets eventual 5-2 loss, earning him his first career loss.

On July 2nd, Hartwig threw two scoreless innings in middle relief, while striking out three Giants in an 8-4 Met win at Citi Field, giving him his first career win. Two more scoreless outings had his ERA at 0.79 until he gave up three runs to the Dodgers n a 5-1 Mets loss.

Starting on July 18th, he went on a personal three game win streak with victories over the White Sox & Red Sox in Boston in back-to-back outings. The third win came on August 9th at home against the Chicago Cubs to get him to 4-1. 

On August 18th, he was optioned to Syracuse then recalled in early-September. On September 28th he added his fifth & final win of the season, with a scoreless 8th inning in a 1-0 win over the Marlins. The game was suspended in the 9th inning with the final result coming days later.

On the season he was 5-2 with a 4.44 ERA & two holds to his credit. He struck out 30 & walked 15 in 35.1 innings over 28 appearances.

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 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

Remembering Mets History (1969) The Black Cat Game

-
Image
Tuesday September 9th, 1969: The night after Jerry Koosman's fine pitching performance, the Amazing Mets were hosting the Chicago Cubs for the final matchup of the two teams for the season.  The Mets had gone 10-8 head-to-head with the Cubs in some of the biggest games of the year.  The Mets were red hot, they had won three straight & were now just 1.5 games out of first place behind Leo Durocher's Cubs (84-57). Tonight, 51,448 paid fans came to Shea Stadium, but an estimated 58,000 plus, actually got into the ballpark to see the Amazing's. This was the hottest ticket in town. And one creature got in free & became the star of the night, going down in history, not even knowing it. On the mound, two future Hall of Fame pitchers went at it. The best pitcher in the game, Tom Seaver (20-7) for the Mets went up against the Cubs, Fergie Jenkins (19-12) looking for his twentieth win. This famous game has gone down in Mets history as "The Black Cat Game". Wh
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

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