Greg Prince (@greg_prince) sent me a tweet saying he had Mazzilli content so I of course investigated and started to link.
However, the story is so good that I don’t see anyway I can sell you on it and just link a sentence or two. So, knowing I will buy him a Rhinegold as a thank you, here’s a lengthy steal from Faith & Fear, and you guys now must go observe Honor Among Bloggers and go give F&F some page views.
First attempt: Mets lead 5-0 in the ninth. There are two outs. Pete Falcone flies Jeffrey Leonard to center to end it. But this seemingly innocuous result is invalidated when it is realized shortstop Frank Taveras had called time to allow right fielder Dan Norman to pick up a stray ball in foul territory and third base ump Doug Harvey had granted it.
Falcone would have to pitch again.
Second attempt: Leonard uses his new life to single to left to keep Houston’s faint hopes alive. Except the Mets didn’t have nine men in the field. First baseman Ed Kranepool, having taken Lee Mazzilli’s putout from just after Taveras called time as gospel, made like a banana and split for the Mets’ clubhouse on the presumed third out. The Mets were thus playing without a first baseman. Manager Joe Torre contended Leonard’s hit shouldn’t count because the Mets weren’t fully represented between the lines. The umps agree and tell Leonard to get back to the plate and Falcone to throw again…once Krane rushes to his position from wherever it is Ed couldn’t wait to get to a minute before. Leonard flies to Joel Youngblood in left to again seal the 5-0 win for Falcone.
Not so fast there, Mets.
The Astros filed a protest, insisting it wasn’t their fault the Mets hadn’t heard about having nine men on the field at one time, therefore the swing that produced Leonard’s hit — the one he got between flying out twice — is the swing that should take precedence. N.L. President Chub Feeney agreed and declared the game was still in progress. Only hitch was by the time he ruled, everybody had pulled a Kranepool, so to speak, and had left the field. This was an hour after the game seemed to be over, so Feeney told the Mets and Astros their contest had been suspended at 5-0, top of the ninth, two outs, Leonard on first. They could pick it up Wednesday afternoon prior to the regularly scheduled series finale.
And so they did. The third attempt to end the unendable ninth was left to Wednesday starter Kevin Kobel (so much for Falcone’s complete game shutout), who grounded out the next Astro batter, Jose Cruz. Nobody called time. Nobody left the field prematurely. Despite Torre filing his own protest — “It’s a shame that the sacred rules of baseball apply to everyone but a last-place club like us” —nobody kvetched too strenuously once resolution was reached. Doug Flynn tossed to Kranepool, Cruz was called out and the Mets finally won Tuesday night’s game on Wednesday afternoon, 5-0, before succumbing, 3-1, in the actual Wednesday matinee.
via The Happiest Recap: 121-123 « Faith and Fear in Flushing.
As long as my theft is, it’s only a small part of a really terrific article about Mets games with nicknames. Do yourself the favor and go read. My nonsense will be here when you get back.
