The Mets Police

The folks over at Centerfield Maz are kind enough to let us post their cool content.  Give them some hits for this piece.

Centerfield Maz is a cool site you should check out.  I use it when I’m too lazy to type about old Mets myself.

Other cool sites (for lazy bloggers like me) are Mets By The Numbers which is a great resource if you’re looking to see how many people the Mets have given #17 to.   I also enjoy Mets Walkoffs who help me out when I have dumb questions like “who got the most his as a Met in the 1990s” and I’m too lazy to look it up myself.

Today In Mets History: 1970- “The Franchise” Tom Seaver Strikes Out 19 Padres

On April 22, 1970 Tom Seaver received his 1969 Cy young Award in a pre game ceremony at Shea Stadium. It was Toms 1st Cy Young of the three he would earn in his career.

He took the mound against the San Diego Padres that afternoon day to Shea crowd of just under 15,000. Many were school kids on class trips, it was also the 1st Earth Day to be recognized.

Seaver would be historic on this outing as he would tie the single game strikeout record by fanning 19 Padres. On top of that he set a record that still stands today, by striking out 10 consecutive batters who were also the last 10 batters of the game. Four of them struck out looking, just to show you how good Seaver’s stuff was that day.

In addition to the last 10 batters striking out, he had retired the last 16 batters of the game as well. Seaver threw 136 pitches in the game, 81 fastballs, 34 sliders, 19 curve balls, & only 2 change ups. The win was his 13th regualr season win in a row, dating back through the 1969 season, he was 3-0 at that point for 1970. Interestingly, Seaver’s 19 strikeout performance broke Nolan Ryan’s record of 15 which he had been set five days earlier against the Phillie’s at Shea Stadium.

Tom Terrific only gave up two Padre hits that game, one was a HR by Al Ferrara. In the ninth with two outs, Ferrara was up again and Seaver was on the brink of history. Seaver threw two sliders and two fastballs past him to tie Steve Carlton’s record.

Quotes: TOM SEAVER: “I was still worried I’d make a mistake and Ferrara might hit it out,” Seaver said. “But when I got two strikes on him, I thought I might never get this close again so I might as well go for it.”

“Everybody congratulated me when I got No. 16 in the eighth inning,” Seaver said. “I just told them, ‘Let’s get some more runs.’ All I could think of was that Carlton had struck out 19 of us and still lost.”

The Mets won the game 2-1, in the 1st inning Bud Harrelson singled then scored on a Ken Boswell double. In the 3rd inning Tommie Agee singled and Bud Harrelson tripled to right field scoring Agee. It was already Harrelsons third triple & 5th RBI in the young season.

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So not for nothing but this team is 2 games under .500

That’s a bad start.  Never mind September chokes, this franchise likes to start slow.

We have one and a half pitchers we believe in.   Livan had one and a half good starts.  Everything else is a crap shoot.  Anyone out there have confidence in Maine?   Do you trust Ollie in a must-win?   What’s going to happen the week Santana gives up four runs?

This team doesn’t seem to hit.  

I don’t have any solutions for anyone.  I think Jerry starts the right guys.  I could observe that Joe Torre’s left fielder is hitting .340 and not causing trouble, but Dan Murphy was hitting .320 at some point tonight, so it’s not that either.

I guess at the end of the day the real question, win or lose is…

WHY ARE THEY WEARING BLACK UNIFORMS AGAIN?

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As I sit here wondering
a) why are they wearing black – did they enjoy losing in them yesterday?
b) will SNY ever run a commercial for this blog
c) should I just go to bed because they ain’t winning tonight
d) how did “Livan Day” become one of the good days

I share with you this email.

Topic:  “Obstructed View From Mets Citi Field Section 525 R…“: 

Yesterday, (4/19), I took my son to the game. We sat in Sec. 502, Row 3, Seats 3 & 4 and couldn’t see rightfield. The view of the pitcher’s mound and the batter’s box was marred by plexiglass. The game was unwatchable. And unlistenable too, as a speaker was right behind us. “Everybody clap your hands…” 


(Is that back?  Oh nooo…I thought it was gone).

We decided to leave our seats and explore the place. It seems as if everything is more important than the game itself. Food, plazas, walkways, a bridge beyond centerfield, all beautiful, but can we just enjoy THE GAME, please? 


Many seats on many decks should be classified as obstructed view. Depending on where you sit, you can’t see large chunks of the field. How could they do this? They say they’ve created an intimate ballpark. They say they’ve brought the fan closer to the action. But at what cost if you can’t watch an outfielder field a carom? And, by the way, I don’t buy the quirky outfield wall. Most old ballparks, Fenway, Wrigley, have these quirks because of zoning laws, or there’s a school playground, or a highway, the quirks at Citi Field are TOTALLY ARBITRARY! In other words, bullcrap. 


The overhanging seats that bring the moneyed fan closer, kills the view for the rest of us who can’t afford to pay hundreds of dollars to see a ballgame. Again, the true baseball fan who loves the game has been compromised. We managed to find seats where only a small part of leftfield was obstructed. Of course, the view was obstructed by expensive field level seats. By the way, security doesn’t seem to care about the Promenade Level. Many fans were confused and there was no one to help. Whereas, when we were down on the lower levels, there must have been one or two guards at every section.

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I want my blog to be cool and since this will be the trendy blog story tomorrow, I’ll be cool now…
Google tells me…

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