The Mets Police

ESPN New York had a nice piece on Friday about the Fireworks Game.

Gorman, now 53, was the winning pitcher on Opening Day in 1985 when Gary Carter hit a walk-off home run in his first Mets game.

He was the winning pitcher in an 18-inning game against the Pirates a couple of weeks later.

He was the losing pitcher in a 26-7, loss to the Phillies on June 11.

And he was the winning pitcher, essentially by default, in that marathon game against the Braves.

A very enjoyable piece about one of the most memorable games in Mets history.

Paul’s Random Stuff is one of those neato blogs I dig because he does his own thing. He writes a lot about the Newark Bears (go Ducks!) and baseball cards.

Paul has discovered an interesting quirk in the Topps series, and as part of my Honor Among Bloggers code you will have to visit his site to find out who Topps keeps leaving out of their sets.

The Hardball Times calls the Fireworks Game the greatest MLB game ever.

What’s so amazing about a game where Gooden only went two and a third?  I think every now-40 year old in NYC was watching Channel 9 that night….there were several ridiculous rain delays and…

In the 17th inning, home plate umpire Terry Tata ejected Met star Darryl Strawberry and manager Davey Johnson for arguing a called third strike. When asked about it after the game, Tata responded with the words later engraved at the Tomb of the Unknown Umpire: “At three o’clock in the morning, there are no bad calls.”

Next inning, a light appeared at the end of the tunnel. The Mets capitalized on Brave reliever Rick Camp’s throwing a would-be double play ball into the outfield, and scored the go-ahead run for an 11-10 lead.

Atlanta had the bottom of their order due up. The hitters looked as weary as they must have felt. In a handful of pitches, the first two batters each feebly grounded out. At 3:30 a.m, the Braves were down to their last man; not only was it the pitcher’s slot in the order, but they had no more position players left to pinch hit.

Thus Rick Camp strode to the plate, representing Atlanta’s last and least hope….

It didn’t end there kids.  (Hey SNY will you PLEASE steal my “How I Met the Mets” pitch already!  Howie’s voiceover of this would be amazing.)

More here if you want to know what happened.

More here too.

And a boxscore

Could this really be 25 years ago?  Feels like two summers ago.   Man, I’m getting old.