6/7 Game Recap: Special Rain Out Retro Edition

The Mets home series against the Miami Fish will have to wait until Tropical Storm Andrea runs her course through the metropolitan area first.  Tomorrow’s game may be in jeopardy as well.  After a rather pedestrian showing in Miami by Harvey’s own standards, the Mets young hurler is no doubt seeking a measure of revenge on his turf.  It’s just that at the moment, his turf is a quagmire.  The Mets as a whole have much to prove against the Miami Marlins.  With a 16-44 record entering the series, the Fish own MLB’s worst record.  Six of their sixteen wins however, have come against the Mets.  As a Mets fan, that makes us want to stick hooks through our cheeks.

In the spirit of an old fashioned rain out, I thought I’d hit the highlight reel.  Enjoy.

Fifty Years Ago: June 7, 1963 – Polo Grounds

Casey Stengel‘s Mets pulled out a 3-2 ninth inning victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at the Polo Grounds.  Al Jackson climbed the hill for the Mets and went the distance.  In nine innings pitched, he surrendered two earned runs on eight hits.  He walked six batters and struck out seven to even his season record at a 5-5 mark.  The Cardinals scored single runs in the first and the fourth innings off Jackson, and rode their two run lead into the ninth, as Ron Taylor white washed the Mets over his first eight innings pitched.  In the home ninth, big Frank Thomas came up as a pinch hitter for Choo-Choo Coleman, and singled.  Second baseman Ron Hunt then stepped in and drew a walk off Ron Taylor, which ended the St. Louis starter’s evening.  Manager Johnny Keane summoned Diomedes Olivo from the bullpen.  With one out and two on, the Duke of Flatbush, Duke Snider dug in against the Cardinals reliever, and connected on his tenth home run of the season, a three run shot to win the game in dramatic comeback fashion.   BOXSCORE

Jun 6, 2013; Washington, DC, USA; Fans wait during a rain delay prior to the game between the New York Mets and the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports

Forty Years Ago: June 7, 1973

The Mets were off this day.  Two days prior, the Amazin’s dropped a heart breaker to the Big Red Machine.  Rising Apple highlighted the game as part of our continuing 40th anniversary celebration of the 1973 National League Championship season.  Johnny Bench clubbed a home run in the tenth inning to beat the Mets by a 6-5 score.  Yesterday, June 6th, also marked the 40th anniversary since the Mets selected a high school player from Brooklyn named Lee Mazzilli with the fourteenth overall pick of 1973 amateur draft.  On behalf of the writing staff, thank you all for reading along so far, and please stick with Rising Apple as we continue replaying the 1973 season in real time, while also providing weekly player retrospectives for twenty-five of those Amazin’ Mets.  Would you care to share your recollections of the 1973 season?  Drop us an email.

Thirty Years Ago: June 7, 1983

They called him “Hondo” – Frank Howard found himself managing Bambi’s Bandits after outgoing skipper George Bamberger decided he had enough.  On this day, the Mets lost 6-1 to the Cubs in Wrigley.  Ryne Sandberg‘s RBI gave the Cubs a 1-0 lead in the first.  The game stayed that way until the Mets finally tied it in the seventh inning on Rusty Staub‘s single which scored Dave Kingman.  Chicago jumped all over Jesse  Orosco for three runs in the seventh, and a pair of runs in the eighth.  Only two of the five runs were earned however.  Tom Seaver, in his return season with the Mets, made his twelfth start of the year.  He allowed just one earned run in five innings, on six hits.  He walked no batter and struck out three in taking a no decision.  Seaver lowered his ERA to 2.71 after a total of ninety-three innings pitched.   BOXSCORE

Twenty Years Ago: June 7, 1993

A crowd just shy of twenty thousand showed up at Shea Stadium to watch Dwight Gooden improve his record to a 7-4 mark.  The Mets gave Doc a substantial lead with six runs in the second inning, with seven hits – all singles.  For the game, every Mets starter, to include Gooden, recorded a base hit.  Dwight went the distance, recording nine innings pitched, while allowing two earned runs on seven hits.  He walked one batter and struck out eight.  The Mets scored one more time in the seventh, treating the crowd to 7-2 final score.  Manager Dallas Green had his hands full with this bunch, to say the least.  The victory only improved the club’s record to a 19-35 mark – good for last in the N.L. East.  If you think the last three years at Citi Field have been rough, they are nothing compared to twenty years ago.  For so many reason, all bad no doubt, the 1993 regular season was arguably the worst, if not most disastrous PR wise, in the club’s history.   BOXSCORE

Ten Years Ago: June 7, 2003

The Mets were off this day.  Their record at the time stood at 27-32, good for fifth place, 15.5 games out of first.  This was no ordinary year of transition, instead being something more of a seismic shift.  In December of 2002, Nelson Doubleday cashed out as half owner.  To put it plainly, Doubleday couldn’t deal with Fred Wilpon anymore.  The two fought over many issues, but perhaps none more famously than over the dilemma to lock-up Mike Piazza long term, where Doubleday was in favor, but Wilpon was opposed, and secondly over the Mets home field, where Doubleday wanted to renovate Shea Stadium, while Wilpon wanted a brand new facility.  On the heels of Bobby Valentine‘s firing, Steve Phillips met his end as GM after engineering the National League’s most expensive last place club.  Such was the first regular season under sole ownership of the Wilpons.  Before making his final exit, Nelson Doubleday took one last parting shot at Jeff and Fred Wilpon – saying they would run the team into the ground.

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