Metsography: Terry Pendleton Causes A Seat Malfunction

1987 was the first season that I was involved in a Mets ticket plan. Obviously, 1986 had something to do with that...but it was more. It was the guy in my orchestra class who was parading around his two World Series tickets while swearing up and down that he had two more that he would sell me. But as the day of the game came, he told me that he "lost" the tickets.

I never went to the 1986 World Series.

And the game that this kid had tickets for? Yes, it was Game 6.

I decided that I would never let that happen again...so I bought a Mets ticket plan...and on a February day in 1987, I took a tour to see where I would be sitting on Tuesday and Friday nights. There was snow on the field...snow covering the spot where Billy Bucks did his imitation of the St Louis Arch during the game I never went to. Got to sit in the old Jets lockerroom as well that day...but what I remembered most was the snow. Can you imagine snow on a major league baseball field?

Now after 1986, most scribes warned of inactivity during the offseason..."look what happened to the 1985 Royals" they said...they stood pat and look what happened. So the Mets were proactive that season and traded for Kevin McReynolds...the perfect big bat to compliment Straw, Keith, and the Kid. Now there was no doubt in my mind that 1987 was going to be bigger and better than 1986...and that I would be there for the repeat.

For a while, all of us were severely disappointed as the Mets stumbled out of the gate...thanks in part to Dwight Gooden's stint at the Betty Ford Clinic for overindulgence of all sorts...and the Mets were behind the division leading Cardinals by a good 6 or 7 games at the first of August.

But with August came the Mets...as a 22-12 run thrust them to a game and a half back of the Cards, and a big series coming up at Shea starting on a Friday night. This game, was the very reason I bought season tickets. And the atmosphere was well worth the price for the entire season. Every regular was there, the crowd was jumpin' off the hop...like a playoff game. You can't tell me that there was still a 1986 hangover in the crowd that night.

The start was not indicative of how this one would finish. After a Keith Hernandez RBI double, Darryl Strawberry homered in the first inning to give the Mets a quick 3-0 lead. Ron Darling started, and had a no-hitter through six innings even though he gave up a run in the second (typical Cardinals...scoring a run without a hit). Darling was cruising. Mookie Wilson made it a 4-1 game with a homer in the second.

Then came the seventh inning. Now unwritten rules say you don't bunt to break up a no-hitter...but these were the damn Cardinals...that's all they knew how to do was bunt. So in a bit of cruel foreshadowing, Vince Coleman (future hall of hated member) drag bunted his way on base as Darling made a valiant dive to try to keep Coleman off the bases. This accomplished two things...it ended the no-no, and it helped knock Darling out of the game because he sprained his finger on the dive. Coleman, however, was picked off second and didn't score.

It was still 4-1 in the ninth as Roger McDowell entered his second inning of work...an era when closers were closers, men were men, and sheep were scared. He walked Ozzie Smith to lead off the inning, but got two quick outs after that. And at this point, Shea Stadium was going absolutely insane. Insane! The Mets were one out away from moving to within a half game of the Cardinals, and being on the verge of taking what was rightfully ours. Remember, this wasn't just a rivalry, this was speed vs. power...this was little things vs. Earl Weaver baseball. This was baseball blood war.

Willie McGee singled home Ozzie in the ninth to bring up the tying run, which was Terry Pendleton. McDowell went to his bread and butter, the sinker, to get two strikes on Pendleton. You couldn't blame McDowell for sticking with the sinker...much like you can't blame Terry Pendleton for moving up in the box to get a hold of hit...and boy did Terry Pendleton get a hold of it. He got a hold of it to center field to tie the game.

After the shot heard 'round Queens, came the shot heard 'round Shea Stadium. As Pendleton rounded the bases and a Shea crowd was stunned, the guy in front of me, who I had gotten to know that season and over the next few seasons, raised his hand angrily and thrust it down with such force on the seat next to him that the seat lowered farther than it was supposed to go...the edge of the seat was touching the floor! That's how bad that Pendleton home run was...for as bad as the Mets losing game 5 of the Subway Series was, at no other time did I see a seat bite the dust as this one did.

Now all was not lost mind you. The game was only tied, and the Mets had a crack to win it in the 9th. When Bill Almon of all people got a hit with one out and was on second with two outs I thought that the gods were just angling to make the victory sweeter for us. I mean, Keith Hernandez was at bat. Now to me, Keith Hernandez, he of the more game winning RBI's than anyone in the history of the game (well, more than anyone since they kept track of that statistic), was like Larry Bird...money in the bank. Surely, Hernandez would knock home Almon with a sweet stroke to left field and bedlam would once again wash over big Shea.

Well, you know how that ended...Hernandez grounded out to first, the Cards scored two runs in the tenth and won the game 6-4.

The Mets never recovered, as Dwight Gooden started the next day and got beat in a cold, rainy Shea as St. Louis took the series and went on to the World Series.

As for the seat? Well, at least through 1988 and 1989, every single person who sat in that seat would take an unsuspecting fall to the ground somewhere around the fifth inning. Now imagine about ten people giggling uncontrollably as the guy next to the seat helped the victim du jour up to their feet, telling them that it's a shame that seat never got fixed, and that he can't imagine why that seat keeps doing that...

The same guy who broke the seat in the first place.

Now I'm not 100% sure that seat was ever fixed. I'm almost sure though. But you know legend has it that there's a strange aura surrounding that seat...perhaps that of a ghost...that haunts that very seat to this day. So if you're in section 29 and something out of the ordinary happens, and all of a sudden you find yourself sitting on the floor with the popcorn kernels and the spilt beer, and someone comes up to you and tells you they don't know how that could have happened...

Well just remember the legend of Terry Pendleton.

Next week: Why a road trip to Baltimore almost sparked Civil War II...

Whoa, Big Fella

This was going to be the season that the Jets were supposed to make some serious noise in the AFC East. Heck, with new acquisitions Ty Law and Doug Jolley, maybe even Super Bowl XL in Detroit. How about that? A Super Bowl's roman numeral is the acronym for extra large, and that's the season the Jets make their grand return to the biggest football game of the year.

There have been many seasons like this for the Jets lately, a concept thought impossible back in the days when Rich Kotite was aimlessly roaming the sidelines. Many seasons where the expectations were extrememly high during the dog days of August training camp. Unfortunately, all of them have ended with spectacular collapse. Leon Johnson's halfback option from hell. Vinny Testaverde's exploding achilles. Al Groh's collapse and escape. Chad Pennington's broken hand. Chad Pennington's rotator cuff. Doug Brien. And now, on the latest Sunday of discontent, 2005's hope ends with this quote from Dick Enberg after the Chargers sacked the Jets throwback quarterback:

Well, to Testaverde's credit, he didn't fumble the ball.

When progress is a 42 year old quarterback holding on to the football as he's being pummeled behind an offensive line seemingly drawn out of a hat, well that's when you know it's time to start preparing for the NFL Draft, because your season is toast. No Shedd's Spread, no Country Crock, no Polaner's All Fruit, just toast. Dry...burnt...toast. (Apologies to Elvis Patterson.)

I mention this because when I flash forward to Port St. Lucie in February of 2006, I sense that expectations are going to be similarly high for the New York Mets. And with the team on the field currently, and the acquisitions that Omar Minaya is sure to make, that's the way it should be. Expectations should be high. Yeah, there were 2001's expectations coming off a World Series appearance. And there was also 2002 with Robby Alomar on board. But depending on the way the free agent market shakes out, the expectations coming into 2006 might match the expectations going into a season 20 years earlier. And you know what happened then.

But you know good and well that if anything can happen in a sixteen game season, think of what can happen in an extra large season...ten times sixteen with two more thrown in. A squeeze play from the same hell as the halfback option in the red zone...a Jose Reyes exploding achilles...a Willie Randolph late season collapse, and an exodus back to the Yankees perhaps...a broken hand here, a rotator cuff there...Billy Wagner becomes Doug Brien...perhaps Rick Reed will be watching the Mets from his couch in West Virginia as five Met pitchers go down with arm injuries during the same game, and he decides to call Herm Edw...er, uh, Willie Randolph and tell him that he's available for whatever the team needs...and there's Rick Reed on the mound five days later throwing batting practice to the St. Louis Cardinals during a nationally televised game.

And before you know it Fran Healy is on the Mets network with his own lowered expectations:

Well to Reed's credit, he kept that ball in the ballpark as three runs scored instead of four.

So if I were you all, I'd keep those expectations in the shoe box until at least the preseason physicals are passed.

Hot Stove Cooks Old Leather

It's important for the mental health of all of us to not go half-cocked and ready to jump off the nearest tall building at the mere mention of every rumor, half truth, and speculation. None of us will make it to Opening Day if that is the case.

But if I read right today, it's time to scout the block for office buildings.

The first thing I read is that the Mets may pursue Kenji Jojima, a 30 year old catcher looking to make the jump from the Japanese leagues to the majors. Now I'm not going to be too concerned over this because today's read is in direct conflict with this from weeks ago, written by the same columnist.

I thought at this point that people would stop raving about scouting reports out of the Japanese league without qualifying that these are the same scouts that promised us Kaz Matsui was a sure thing. For every Ichiro, there's an Ichi-no...otherwise known as Satoru Komiyama...so please stop with the hype machine. The fact is, nobody truly knows how any player's skills translate from the Japanese league or the Korean league or any other league to the majors.

And if Omar Minaya is silly enough to be seduced by the potential of a 30 year old catcher from the Japan leagues at the expense of not only signing a player who is proven in the majors at the strongest position in terms of 2006 free agents outside of reliever, but signing a player who has expressed interest in the Mets as Ramon Hernandez and Bengie Molina have done, then I can't help him.

But the kicker today is that the Mets are mulling a pursuit of Julio Franco to platoon with Mike Jacobs, who is hitting about .240 with one homer in the Venezuelan winter leagues, at first base.

What, Minnie Minoso turned them down?

Carl Yasztremski made other arrangements?

Gerald Williams, Wil Cordero, and Roberto Hernandez need a fourth for horseshoes?

We've all just aged a few years.

More Of The Same

You can't say that the Mets aren't steeped in tradition.

Of course that tradition is giving up players with their best seasons ahead of them...and bringing them back with their best seasons behind them. Not only are the Mets thinking of pulling off the decade double with Octavio Dotel by bringing him back as a set up man...but they're thinking of doing so with a player who has had ligament replacement surgery. In medical terms, that means the ligament in his throwing elbow was replaced with a combination of rubber cement, and an old sock.

In a related story, Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson is hopeful that Chad Pennington and Jay Fielder will be ready to contribute out of the bullpen by spring training.

Conspiracy Theory

Ok kids, let's review:

Matt Cerrone of Metsblog and The Hot Stove Report breaks the story that an Americal League playoff outfielder has tested positive for steroids about a week ago.

Then yesterday, it's announced that senators Jim Bunning and John McCain say it's time to introduce leglisation to create a tougher steroid policy for all sports.

Coincidentally, just one day later, MLB announces that they have nabbed former Met Matt Lawton for steroids.

Is it a wonder that nobody trusts Bud Selig?

***

N.L. gold gloves announced today...and even though Mike Lowell won the award for third base, Tim Kurkjian says on ESPNEWS that you could have made a case for David Wright.

Correct, Tim.

But can you really win a gold glove on the strength of a barehanded catch?

Time To Turn On The Stove

Turn up to high, cook for twenty minutes, turn over halfway through, and voila! One closer.

The Mets are on the move, calling the agent for Billy Wagner to make clear their intentions to sign him to a free agent deal.

It was scary to see that the Mets were interested in guys like Trevor Hoffman (old and brittle) and Tom Gordon (old, brittle, and a former Yankee) instead of going for the gusto. But the Mets, for the second year in a row, are indeed aiming high. Wagner is the elite closer in the market, and would win an additional five games for the Mets by himself.

The article also says that the Mets are monitoring the Rafael Furcal situation very closely. I hate to say this...seeing as if Furcal is a former Brave who has killed the Mets in the past...but Furcal is just what the Mets need. A second baseman (okay, a shortstop who would be willing to switch to second base to play for the Mets...finally a player willing to switch positions to play in Queens and not in the Bronx), and he would also provide the two hole hitter that the Mets need desperately...whether it's himself, or Jose Reyes.

But don't get your hopes up fans...Rafael Furcal isn't coming to Shea Stadium.

Consider that the Cubs will offer things that the Mets can't offer...the position of shortstop, along with a boatload of money that the Cubs are going to offer to anyone and everyone, as they now face the challenge of their first season in 89 where the World Champions play mere blocks away. The Cubs are going to open the bank for everyone and everyone, and you can bet that Furcal will be number one on their hit parade. Whether that's a mistake or not is up for discussion (the 1993 Mets), but that's the situation the Chicago Cubs find themselves in.

But fear not, because the Mets are also looking at the second coming of Bill Buckner: Tony Graffanino, to be a "super utility player".

Wait, the Mets have already signed Graffanino...his name is Chris Woodward.

I guess not everything the Mets do has to make sense. What fun would that be?