'67 and '79 split

Lafayette High School in Brooklyn has become famous for producing star lefties like Sandy Koufax and John Franco. Unfortunately for the 1979 Mets Pete Falcone wasn't one of them. The only 2 things he had in common with the other two gentleman was the fact that they were all southpaws and all attended the school next to the El Train. Besides fighting lack of talent Falcone had the bad luck to be matched against Tom Seaver, who gave up only 3 earned runs in almost 7 innings of work. Falcone gave up 9 in 6 innings and his successor Andy Hassler (2 runs in 3 IP) didn't fare much better. Rocky Swoboda had 4 hits including a homer off of Falcone in the 2nd. Bobby Heise and Ken Boyer each had 3 hits, as did Joel Youngblood in a losing effort.
Craig Swan rebounded from a shakey start (3 runs in the 1st) pitch 8 innings of 4 (earned) run ball. Swanny couldn't find his control in the first and walked the first two batters (Harrelson/Johnson), who scored on a Tommy Davis double. Davis later scored as "the Glider" Ed Charles singled him home. The '79 boys scored 3 of their own off of '67's starter Cal Koonce in the 4th. Maz led off with a double and Youngblood singled him home. Grave digger Hebner doubled Youngblood home and Montanez scored Hebner on a sac fly. '79 took the lead in the 5th as Maz doubled home Frank Taveras who had a lead off single and stolen base. In the top of the 8th the '67 team took the lead as Johnson singled and Tommy Davis doubled him over to third. Steady Eddie Kranepool singled them both home off of a tiring Swan to take the lead at 5-4. Dick Selma came on board for the '67 team and promptly surrendered a run in the 8th as pinch hitter Elliot Maddox singled home Hebner. As good ole Bob Murphy would have said, "sit back and fasten your seat belts for exciting Mets baseball", the bottom of the 9th provided all the excitement one could want. Maz led off with a single. Youngblood layed down a perfect bunt and moved Maz over to second. Hebner, who had been killing the '67 team all series wasn't allow a chance to hit and was given a free pass to 1st. with runners on 1st and 2nd and 1 out the "dude" John Stearns lifted a weak fly to center. With 2 outs Willie Montanez fought off an inside fastball and sliced one down the left field line to score Maz with a walk off single. Neil Allen, who pitched 1 scoreless inning in relief got the win and Ron Taylor who came on with 1 out in the 9th took the loss.
The 3rd and 4th games of the series were complete blow outs. Don Cardwell got rocked in game 3 and Kevin Kobel was equally ineffective in game 4 as the teams split the series. Interesting side note. After torching the '67 team in the first 3 games Rich Hebner got drilled and had to leave for a pinch runner. Hebner's sore ribs forced him to miss game 4, although there was a good chance he was not going to start since '67 had lefty Bob Hendley on the hill and Hebner has had trouble against southpaw's.

67 vs 68...1 year and a whole bunch of the same guys.

Game 1 featured a match up between Tom Seaver, 67 version against 68. And 67 prevailed, throwing a 3 hit shutout against his future self. Rookie manager Kim "Milo" Miller, saw his team jump out for a run in the first inning. Jerry Buchek salted this one away with a two run homer in the 6th. 4-0

Game 2 featured a matchup of lefthanders Bob Hendley and Jerry Koosman. This time the 68 squad scored a run in the first. Kossman made it stand up until Cleon Jones hit a solo homer in the top of the 6th. However, he got the lead back when Cleon Jones was hit by a pitch and singles by Jerry Grote, Ken Boswell and Greg Goosen produced two runs. He never relinquished the lead thereafter. 3-1

Game 3 had Nolan Ryan on the mound for the 68 team opposing Jack Fischer. Ryan only struck out three during his complete game, but also only walked one and gave up only three hits, one going for the distance off the bat of 68's manager's namesake Tommy Davis. Ryan was backed by homers from Ed Kranepool and Ed Charles as he won by the smae score of Game 2, 3-1 After the game, 68 Mets manager was heard to say about the former Dodger batting champion. "I know he plays for the other team, but its hard not to root for a guy with such a marvelous name."

Game 4 was the only game that was not close. Aging former stars Don Cardwell (for the 68 team) and Bob Shaw (for the 67 Mets) opposed each other. Shaw was not up to the task however and gave up 6 runs in only 5 innings of work. Cardwell looked like his early 60s self, surrendering just one run in 7 innings before tiring and giving way to Cal Koonce. 68 manager Tom Davis said of Cardwell, "At his age, I don't expect him to go all the way, but he gives us leadership and experience and with all the young arms on this team (referring to Seaver, Koosman and Ryan) we need that. I was just glad we could find some relief help to giet him the win." Art Shamsky was the hitting star for the 68 team going 3-5 with two rbis. 7-1

--contributed by Tom Davis--

'93 and '04 split series...1st three games had 2-1 scores

Series 1: 1993 Mets (Jim Halpin) vs 2004 Mets (Mike Kenney)

Game 1: 04 Mets 2 93 Mets 1
A Mike Cameron 2 run single in the third inning stood up as the 04 Mets hold on to win 2-1. 93's lone run came in the 4th on a Jeromy Burnitz single. Ricky Bottalico struck out Jeff Kent in the 8th with the tying run on 2nd base.
Tom Glavine goes 7.2 innings giving up 5 hits for the win. Vince Coleman goes 3-3 in a losing effort.

Game 2: 93 Mets 2 04 Mets 1
Single runs in the 1st and 2nd hold up as the 93 Mets hold on to a second consecutive 2-1 game.
Jeromy Burnitz hits a Home run in the second that proves to be the game winner. 04 Mets lone run came from a Richard Hidalgo SF. Tanana and Anthony Young shut down potential rallies in the 6th and 8th innings when both times the 04 Mets had runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out.
Frank Tanana goes 6 Inns scattering 4 hits for the win. Jeromy Burnitz and Jeff Kent had 3 hits each.

Game 3: 04 Mets 2 93 Mets 1
In a third consecutive 2-1 game the 04 Mets prevail. The 93 Mets scored in the first on a Jeff Kent double, but Al Lieter gets out of trouble getting Jeremy Burnitz to ground out with runners on 2nd and 3rd. 04 Mets get on the board in the 6th on a Wilson Delgado HR, he hit only 2 all year in 04. The 04 Mets untied it in the 9th when Cliff Floyd singles, stole 2nd and scored on a Mike Cameron double. Things got tight in the bottom of the 9th, Tim Boger doubled to lead off the inning, was sacrificed to 3rd by PH Jeff McKnight. Ricky Bottalico then got Dave Gallagher to ground back to the pitcher to hold the runner on 3rd, then Joe Orsulak struck out to end the game. Mike Cameron goes 3-4 and an RBI, his second game winning RBI. Also Wilson Delgado goes 2-4 with a HR.

Game 4: 93 Mets 8 04 Mets 4
Finally showing some offense, 93 Mets beat the 04 Mets 8-4. The 93 Mets score single runs in the 1st and 2nd before exploding for 5 runs in the third off starter Jae Weong Seo. Jeff Kent hit a HR in the 2nd and a 3 run hommer in the 3rd. Bobby Bonilla hit a solo homer in the 5th. Eric Hillman was cruising giving up only 2 hits over 8 innings. 93 Mets manager tried to give Hillman a CG shutout, but an Eddie Murray error opened the flood gate leading to 4 runs in the 9th.
Jeff Kent went 2-4 with 2 HR and 4 RBI. Eric Hillman goes 8.1 giving up 5 hits and 1 ER.
Vance Wilson hit a PH 2-run double in the 9th.

--submitted by Jim Halpin--

11/14/2008: 1979 Mets take 3 of 4 from 1974

The season opener saw 1974's Jon Matlack cruise for 8 innings then hit the wall and almost blow the game. Tug McGraw came on to get the final out of the game as the '79 team scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th to put a scare into '74. Joel Youngblood's 2 run shot off of Matlack in the 9th closed the gap and made this game very interesting. '74 had what seemed like comfortable 4 run lead after scoring 2 runs in both the 4th and 5th innings. Don Hahn had the GWRBI & Cleon Jones, who went deep off of Pete Falcone ('79 starter) was the game MVP.

In 1974 Tom Seaver finished the season 11-11. It was his first and only season without a winning record in his first tour in Flushing. Seaver was injured most of the year and gamefully fought through it. He was not able to fight hard enough in this game as the '79 team scored 7 run off of him in 8 innings of work to win 7-3. Seaver yielded 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th as '79 was clinging to a 1 run lead at the time. Lee Mazzilli led off the inning with a single, which was followed by a walk to Joel Youngblood. Seaver then had to reach down deep into his greatness and struck out lefties Richie "gravedigger" Hebner and Willie "hot dog" Montanez. Unfortunately he could not get John "dude" Stearns or pinch hitter Elliott "the convert" Maddox out, which led to '79's 3 run outburst. Young Neil Allen came on in the 9th in relief of starter Craig Swan for the save.

Game #3 was a classic 5-4 twelve inning affair that the '79 bunch wound up winning. By his own estimations '74's manager Paul Johnson felt that he "gave away the game" with some suspect strategies and decisions in the 8th that led to '79's scoring the tying run that forced extra innings. '74's starter Jerry Koosman was in a good grove, but stayed a bit too long and gave up the tying run. Both Koosman and his opponent Dock Ellis yielded 4. Ellis was constantly in trouble and the '79 team was ecstatic to have gotten 7 innings out of him. Neil Young, pitching his second game in a row in relief tossed 3.1 scoreless innings before yielding to eventual winner Skip Lockwood. In the top of the 12th Gold Glove, but lead bat second baseman Doug "thank god i'm a country boy" Flynn led off with a single. Lockwood was sent up to bunt and he properly advanced Flynn to second as he forced '74 third baseman Wayne Garrett to field the ball. Frank Taveras promptly singled in the go ahead run off of loser Bob Apodaca. Lockwood tossed a scoreless bottom of the 12th to notch the win.

The finale turned out to be an offensive shootout. This surprised no one since both starters (Kevin Kobel / Harry Parker) were not exactly dominant hurlers. Parker didn't make it out of the 3rd inning as he yielded 10 runs. Every position player in the '79 lineup had at least 1 hit. To their credit, Paul Johnson's '74 group did not quit. They have the heart of a champion, which they were the previous season in 1973. Rallying from a 8 run deficit they scored 1 in the 4th and 3 in the sixth to make the score 10-6 and chase Kobel from the hill. The '79 team answered back with 2 runs in the 7th off of reliever Ray Sadecki. Wayne Twitchell came on for the final 4 outs and yielded 1 unearned run to preserve Kobel's much undeserved win. Lefties Rich Hebner and Willie Montanez had 4 and 3 RBI's respectively. Montanez had 3 hits. The first 5 batter in the '79 lineup had 2 hits each. Bud Harrelson and Teddy Martinez drove in 2 each for the '74 team, but could not budge them from the losing side of the ledger.