BOOM!
Some past Mets teams were hard to stomach. Lousy, boring, punchless.
If you're a since-1962 Mets fan, you know.
The 1981 Mets hit a scarce 57 HRs in 105 games.
Which was a scorching pace compare to 1980.
In 1980, the Mets cranked out a baseball-souvenir-conserving 61 HRs in 162 games, matching the Roger Maris total of 1961, and falling one short of Judge Judy (whoops, wrong Judge, my bad).
Last in the majors in scoring in 1977?
Yep, them. Averaged a mere 80 blasts from 1977 thru 1979.
Etc. Dull. Boring. Fanless. Excruciating.
I remember seeing the lowly Mets play a first place contender (Expos) back then on a beautiful, perfect-for-baseball Labor Day weekend doubleheader - along with the roughly 2,000 other fools - err, I mean fans - who showed up.
Offensively little offense in those years - my brother and I HATED those impotent seasons. We were both woke and offended.
We wanted to buy the boys some dumbbells for the offseason. (They we’re dumbbells for not working out to get stronger).
1999, though, was a far more muscular baseball era, where the median team scored 838 runs, which is roughly 5.2 runs per game!
The Mets had some dandy hitting roster that year, and scored 853 runs.
Why not even more runs?
The usual refrain... just 393 runs scored at home, but 460 runs scored on the road, nearly a run per game more than at home.
Shea was a truly stifling and lousy hitters' park, Citi has been, too.
But boy, we had some fun offensive players in 1999:
Ricky Henderson and Roger Cedeno combining for 103 steals and hitting .314? WHAT?? Exciting.
Huge offensive years out of Mikey Pizza, Edgardo Alfonso and that Robin guy? Exciting.
John Olerud? Well, he was just being Olerud. Quietly exciting.
Even Rey Ordonez hit .258! Defensively exciting.
And some fine back-up player hitting, for a pleasant change. See below.
I love it when my team has offensive stats like these 1999 specials:
|
Name |
AB |
R |
H |
HR |
RBI |
SB |
BA |
OBP |
SLG |
OPS |
|
534 |
100 |
162 |
40 |
124 |
2 |
.303 |
.361 |
.575 |
.936 |
|
|
581 |
107 |
173 |
19 |
96 |
3 |
.298 |
.427 |
.463 |
.890 |
|
|
628 |
123 |
191 |
27 |
108 |
9 |
.304 |
.385 |
.502 |
.886 |
|
|
520 |
49 |
134 |
1 |
60 |
8 |
.258 |
.319 |
.317 |
.636 |
|
|
588 |
88 |
177 |
32 |
120 |
1 |
.301 |
.379 |
.529 |
.908 |
|
|
438 |
89 |
138 |
12 |
42 |
37 |
.315 |
.423 |
.466 |
.889 |
|
|
298 |
35 |
66 |
8 |
36 |
2 |
.221 |
.320 |
.349 |
.669 |
|
|
453 |
90 |
142 |
4 |
36 |
66 |
.313 |
.396 |
.408 |
.804 |
|
|
276 |
42 |
79 |
14 |
42 |
6 |
.286 |
.363 |
.525 |
.888 |
|
|
168 |
19 |
57 |
5 |
21 |
2 |
.339 |
.410 |
.488 |
.898 |
|
|
140 |
18 |
41 |
3 |
21 |
2 |
.293 |
.369 |
.386 |
.754 |
|
|
93 |
12 |
32 |
0 |
16 |
4 |
.344 |
.354 |
.430 |
.784 |
Them dudes could really field, too, with a miniscule 68 team errors.
Starters were 66-47, despite a seemingly painful 4.57 ERA.
Except that in 1999, that ERA was actually better than average.
The bullpen was downright sexy, with a left-righty combo of John Franco and Armando Benitez pitching awfully well. The pen had (for bats-booming 1999) a stellar 3.67 ERA.
The team won 97 games, had an exciting initial playoff win over Arizona, but sadly ran into the elite Atlanta staff in the next round and lost it, 4 games to 2, struggling to score in the first 5 games, the 5th game being an elimination-avoiding 15 inning nail-biter win, and then losing the gut-wrenching final game, 10-9 in 11 innings, after going ahead 9-8 in the top of the 10th, when Kenny Rogers walked the Braves right into the World Series.
Thanks, Kenny. You're still a bum in Mets annals. Everyone considers you the coward of Queens County.
I ran right out and sold every Kenny Rogers album I never owned on Facebook Marketplace, which didn't exist at the time but that didn’t stop me.
The Mets drew 2.725 million fannies at ol' Shea, showing that when you give fans an exciting show, and they will turn out in high numbers.
(The Mets drew 2 million fewer fans in moribund 1979).
Man, I loved that 1999 team - and I loved just being only 45 back then, too, for that matter LOL.
Anyway, I'll take the same 853 runs in 2023 - I’m not greedy - how about you?
Want a Correa update? Ask him.
ReplyDeleteI talked to Fonz about that year one year in camp. He was a visitor trying to get an invite back on the team.
ReplyDeleteSaid guys like Ventura and Henderson were the straws that stirred the Mets coffee that year.
Mack, for sure.
ReplyDeleteVentura and Zeile will always be tainted in my mind for lobbying hard to not have Gary Sheffield join the team. He was lethal offensively for years after that.
That was a fun team, indeed (not too many to choose from over the years, so here's hoping the Cohen years are more fun then the Wilpon years...ugh).
ReplyDeleteI also wish the team could find a spot for Edgardo Alfonzo......he was one of my favorite players.
Atlanta has been a large pain in the arse for quite a while now, right?
Mike, so true. Far too many disappointing seasons.Last year started something big. Hopefully, $$ and OUR young prospects will put us ahead of Atlanta for a good, long while.
ReplyDelete1999. Y2K hoax era. NY Mets.
ReplyDeleteFun times for certain. I concur.
That was a team full of signed players from other teams really. But it did work well together.
Tom: 1969 or 1999?
To me, it has to be 1969 for sheer unexpected excitement. Just a kind of strange time because no one saw a Championship coming. Both were unbelievable times. Hopefully, 2023 can be added in here with these two. I see a Championship possibility with it.
1969, a lot more folks would have been a lot less surprised if Agee had not been beaned into a horrific 1968 season. That 1968 team would have won 80 games, and a jump to 90 would not have seemed far fetched. That said, 1969 was wonderful. Great pitching and motivated, if under-talented, hitting.
ReplyDeleteI've written about the many miracle games in late 1969, the most forgotten of which was the game in Pittsburgh right after they'd pulled into first place (would they stay there or slip back?), where they trailed 3-0 in the 8th, bags full, and Swoboda launched one that very easily soared past the high outfield wall at the ultra-deep 440 mark for the 4-3 margin of victory. Stunning and jaw-dropping. no doubt his longest career HR. It was right then, for me, that all doubts about the Mets winning the 1969 ennant were dispelled.
1999 was fun in different way. The sheer offense of it all. The ring year is far more remembered than the non-ring year.