Back in the early 70’s Topps baseball cards included a team
picture card. That was cool, but the back
of the card was even cooler. For on the
back, they included the Mets Team single season records.
On one neat little card you could see that a Mets player named Frank Thomas hit 34 homers in 1962.
How Don Clendenon came the closest to 100 RBI’s with 97 in 1970. Tom Seaver’s 1969 dominant 25 wins and Roger
Craig’s and Jack Fisher’s futility with 24 losses in 1962 and 1965
respectively.
With that in mind, and in celebration of Pete Alonso shattering
the most recent Mets Home Run record of 41 with 53 homers in 2019, I have put
together my own Mets Team Record Card (click on card for easier reading).
When
I look at this, lots of interesting things jump out.
First,
not only did Pete set the Mets single season record with 53 home runs, he also
set the record with 183 strike outs. That's 22 more than the previous
record, David Wright with 161 strikeouts in 2010. Pete will have to try to
cut this number down in the years to come.
Pete came very close to breaking two other Mets single season records:
the RBI mark of 124 as he collected 120 RBIs and Brandon Nimmo’s HBP mark as
Pete and Jeff McNeil were each hit 21 times last year.
Second, what
an amazing year Lance Johnson had in 1996.
He set Mets' records for hits, singles, and triples, as he became the
first Met to have over 200 base hits.
Third,
they were a great offensive team in 1996 as Bernard Gilkey also set the Mets
record in Doubles, and Todd Hundley set the team record in home runs with 41
that Pete Alonso just broke last year.
Fourth,
no Met is breaking Tom Seaver’s record of 21 complete games in 1971, and
the way wins are a lot shorter in supply these days, his 25 wins in 1969 looks
pretty safe too.
Fifth,
add to the list of not likely to be broken, Doc Gooden’s 1985 record 8
shutouts.
Finally,
with the new rules regarding relief pitchers needing to face three batters each
appearance (unless it is the final out of the inning), Pedro Feliciano’s 92 games
pitched in 2010 looks pretty safe as well.
We
saw two single season records fall in 2019 and we almost saw more. Do you think we are likely to see any fall
next year?
2 comments:
Pete should go for 55 homers and 130 RBIs in 2020. Heck, no one expected 53 and 120 last year and it happened.
I was thrilled he crushed the old HR record of 41.
I was also thrilled when Felix Millan's awful team hit record of 191 was CRUSHED by Lance Johnson's 227.
Jake should get some sort of record for winning fewer games (23) in TWO Cy Young years that Seaver did in 1969 (25) and Gooden did in 1985 (24).
Someone could break the Ks by a bullpen arm in 2020, too.
Interesting piece, John.
The Johnson/Gilkey duo was quite effective......I had forgotten until you mentioned them in your post.
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