centerfield maz

Friday night June 1st, 2012: At first it seemed like any other New York night. Terry Collins' New York Mets were playing well & surprising everyone with a 29-23 record, just one game out of first place. 27,069 fans came to Citi Field to see the Mets go up against the reigning World Champion, St Louis Cardinals (27-25). The Mets sent Johan Santana to the mound, 2-2 with a 2.75 ERA. Santana had missed all of 2011 due to injury, he had an impressive Opening Day win, pitching five scoreless innings then struggled. In his last start he threw a complete game four hit shutout at Citi Field, beating the San Diego Padres. On this night he was even better, he went out & made Mets history. After a quiet 1st inning, Johan started out the 2nd getting Allen Craig to fly out. He then walked two batters but struck out Matt Adams & Tyler Green to end the inning.  In the 3rd he got an easy ground ball out, a weak pop up & soft liner to short, as the Cards went down 1-2-3. Sa...

Rickey Allen Baldwin was born June 1, 1953, in Fresno, California, the hometown of Mets Hall of Famer Tom Seaver.  In his own words he was" raised in the church" to a religious family. In Modesto High School he played basketball & baseball.  The tall six foot three, side armed right-handed throwing Baldwin, was drafted by the New York Mets in ninth round of the 1971 draft. In 1972 he was second on the Mets A ball Visalia staff, to Cecil Reynolds going 12-8 leading the team with 90 strike outs. Baldwin won nine games at AA Memphis (1973) & AA Victoria (1974) while posting winning records in each of the next two seasons. In his time there the Mets began using him more as a reliever. In Spring Training 1975, the Mets had an opening in the bullpen after trading away Tug McGraw. Baldwin impressed the team and made it North with a lot of promise for his future. The team even gave him McGraw’s old uniform number 45.  Quotes: Baldwin marve...

Dyar Miller was born on May 29, 1946, in Batesville, Indiana. The Indiana farmer attended Utah State University and got signed by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1968. The tall right hander was soon released & then signed on with the Baltimore Orioles. He was 12-10 with a 3.23 ERA at AA Dallas / Fort Worth in 1970 but remained at that level until 1973 due to the talented Orioles pitching depth at AAA. At AAA Rochester in 1974 he won another 12 games & then was 5-0 in 1975 posting a 2.20 ERA.  MLB Career: He finally got a call up to the Orioles staff at age 29 that season. Orioles Career: As an Orioles reliever out of Earl Weaver’s bullpen, Miller was 6-3 with eight saves and a 2.72 ERA.  In 1976 Miller was second to O's reliever Tippy Martinez in saves with seven. Martinez saved eight. Miller made 49 appearances & finished off  29 games, going 2-4 while posting a 2.94 ERA. He returned in 1977 posting a 5.64 ERA up to  the trade deadline when...

Sunday May 31st 1964: Today Casey Stengle's Mets (14-31) hosted the second place San Francisco Giants (25-17) who were just one game out of first place.  It had been seven years since the Giants had left New York & the Polo Grounds for the west coast of San Francisco. Every time they returned to New York to play the Mets, the Giants  had always attracted big crowds, as their old fans came out to root them on. This Sundays double header drew 57,037 fans.  It was a day to go down in the history books, as this was to be the longest double header in baseball history. The double header lasted a total of nine hours fifty two minutes.  A Long 24 Hours For Ed Kranepool:  Kranepool was an original 1962 Met, the team's first bonus baby, home grown out of the Soundview section of the Bronx.  He had debuted for three games with the 1962 Mets at age 17 & played 86 games for them in 1963. He began 1964 with the Mets big league team but wa...

Friday May 30th, 1986: Tonight, Davey Johnson's first place Mets (31-11) hosted Roger Craig's fourth place San Francisco Giants (24-23).  A crowd of 38,243 came out to see Bruce Berenyi (2-0) take on Mike Lacoss (5-1). Berenyi would start the year at 2-0 for the Mets. He would fall to 2-2 & be sent back down to AAA in early July. He appeared in 14 games making seven starts for New York. Trivia: Mike LaCoss would start the year at 9-3 then lose ten of his last eleven games to finish at 10-13. In the bottom of the 1st, the Mets Lenny Dykstra led off with a single, then Wally Backman walked. Keith Hernandez followed with an RBI single. After Gary Carter struck out, Darryl Strawberry walked. Although George Foster grounded out, Backman scored the Mets second run. Ray Knight followed with a single to centerfield to make it 3-0. In the 2nd, the Giants got a run, Chili Davis walked & Luis Quinones singled. A jose Uribe base hit scored Davis for the Giants first run. In the Gi...

Tuesday May 29th, 1990: Things were starting to boil early on in the Mets 1990 season, especially as they kept losing.  This was a team who was favored to win the National League & the World Series almost every year from 1985 to 1990.  The Mets did win it all in 1986, but in a time without wild cards, they won just one more NL East title  (1988) making just two post seasons in the mid to late eighties. They were second place bridesmaids, in 1984, 1985, 1987 & 1989.  After the Championship, the 1987 Mets had won 92 games but finished three games behind St. Louis. The 1988 squad won the NL East but were upset by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. The surprising Dodgers went on to win the World Series as well.  In 1989 the Mets won 87 games, their lowest total of wins since 1983. They finished second behind the Chicago Cubs, as they did in 1984. At this point in 1990 the Mets were 22-20 & fallen to fourth place. Davey Johnson was be...

Zachary Harrison Wheeler was born May 30th, 1990, in Smyrna, Georgia.  The six-foot four left hander attended East Paulding High School in Georgia. In his senior year he was 9-0, getting voted the Georgia Player of the Year by Baseball America. In 2009-Wheeler was the San Francisco Giants number one pick, the sixth pick overall in that year's draft. After a year in the South Atlantic League, he pitched at A Ball San Jose going 7-5 with a 3.99 ERA posting 98 strike outs in 88 innings, getting named to the All-Star team. That July he was traded to the New York Mets in exchange for Carlos Beltran. Wheeler came to the Mets as a highly touted prospect with lots of hope for the future. He is a power pitcher with a five-pitch repertoire. His fastball is the 95-100 mph range & his curve ball is considered one of the best in the organization.  Wheeler closed out 2011 at A Ball St. Lucie where he went 2-2 with a 2.00 ERA. In 2012 he pitched at AA Binghamton (19 game...