The long man in the bullpen has rarely gotten the accolades usually reserved for starting pitchers and closers. In fact, pitchers who can pitch several innings per appearance out of the bullpen have historically been hurlers who weren't good enough to crack the starting rotation or come into high-pressure, late-inning situations. In addition, an appearance by the long man usually means the starting pitcher got hurt early in the game or was shelled by the opposition.
In other words, no one really wants to see the long man in the game.
But one relief pitcher who got into games early and often ended up becoming a key member of a beloved Mets playoff team. Unlike other long men before him, his presence on the mound was usually a welcome sight. In fact, he pitched so effectively in the role that he ended up setting a franchise record that still stands to this day.
Pat Mahomes helped the Mets end an 11-year playoff drought with his arm and his bat. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
Patrick Lavon Mahomes did not start off his major league career on a high note. Mahomes's poor start as a big league ballplayer wasn't limited to a few awful appearances or several miserable months. Unfortunately, Mahomes was lousy for six full seasons. After being drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the sixth round of the 1988 June amateur draft, Mahomes made his major league debut in 1992, spending time as a starter and reliever with the Twins. The right-hander was then traded to Boston in 1996 and pitched exclusively as a reliever until the Red Sox released him in June 1997.
In six years with the Twins and Red Sox, Mahomes had an embarrassing 5.88 ERA, 1.63 WHIP and 80 ERA+. Of all hurlers who pitched in each season from 1992 to 1997, Mahomes had the second-highest ERA, fifth-highest WHIP and fourth-worst ERA+. As a result, Mahomes did not pitch in the major leagues for a year and a half, having to settle for a contract with the Yokohama Bay Stars in the Japan Central League. Although a change of hemispheres failed to resuscitate Mahomes's career (he was 0-4 with a 5.98 ERA in eight starts and two relief appearances for Yokohama in 1998), the Mets took a flyer on him for the 1999 season, signing him to a minor league contract and giving him an invitation to spring training.
Mahomes was assigned to AAA-Norfolk to begin the 1999 campaign, but after an impressive start with the Tides (4-1, 3.49 ERA in 38⅔ innings), Mahomes earned a promotion to the majors in mid-May. Mahomes was used mainly as a long reliever out of the bullpen, making his first appearance for the Mets on May 15. He did not disappoint, pitching 2⅓ innings of scoreless relief and clubbing a double in his only at-bat, which allowed him to earn the win in a 9-7 slugfest against the Philadelphia Phillies. Following his victorious debut, Mahomes continued to be one of the few pitchers for the Mets who pitched with any kind of success. Because of the team's shaky starting rotation (every pitcher who made at least one start for the Mets in 1999 had an ERA north of 4.00), Mahomes was forced into pitching multiple innings of relief a dozen times in his first 26 appearances, including six outings of three innings or more. By early September, Mahomes had lowered his ERA under 3.00 and had proven himself to be one of the most valuable commodities on the team. He also continued to rack up victories in impressive fashion, coming through on the mound and at the plate. One of Mahomes's most memorable appearances came in early August at Wrigley Field. A day after the Mets lost to the Cubs by a touchdown, 17-10, the two teams with battered bullpens played a four-and-a-half hour, 13-inning marathon. Mahomes - who didn't pitch in the previous day's shootout - came into the game in the bottom of the 12th inning to face Sammy Sosa with two outs and no one on base. Rather than intentionally walking Sosa, who had hit his 39th and 40th home runs of the season in the 17-10 affair, Mahomes got Sosa to ground out to end the inning.
(Jonathan Daniel/Allsport)
In the top of the 13th, manager Bobby Valentine allowed Mahomes to hit for himself after Cubs manager Jim Riggleman had reliever Scott Sanders issue a two-out free pass to Benny Agbayani. In his previous outing two days earlier, Mahomes produced an RBI double against the Cubs that was crucial in the Mets' 10-9 victory. Just 48 hours later, Mahomes made the Cubs pay again, lacing a single that scored Roger Cedeño from second base (Cedeño had led off the inning with a double). Now armed with a one-run lead, Mahomes went back to the mound in the bottom of the 13th and kept the Cubs off the scoreboard, ending the game on a strikeout of catcher Jeff Reed. After the game, Mahomes discussed his game-winning hit, showing a confidence in his hitting abilities that was normally reserved for everyday players. "I've always been able to hit pretty well," Mahomes said. "I knew I wasn't going to strike out." Mahomes earned his fifth victory against no losses in the 5-4, 13-inning victory over the Cubs. He went on to finish the regular season with a perfect 8-0 record, earning his eighth win by pitching two scoreless innings in the opener of the Mets' season-ending series against the Pittsburgh Pirates - a series that began with the Mets two games out in the wild card race with three games to play.
In addition to his 8-0 mark - the most wins in a single season without a defeat by a pitcher in Mets history - Mahomes posted a 3.68 ERA, 1.27 WHIP and an impressive 121 ERA+, all of which were career-bests. After allowing 428 hits in 389 innings from 1992 to 1997, Mahomes gave up just 44 hits in 63⅔ innings for the Mets in 1999, holding opposing hitters to a .198 batting average. And Mahomes didn't just succeed on the mound. He was also excellent at the plate, batting .313 with three doubles and three RBI in 16 at-bats, which allowed him to post an un-pitcher-like .500 slugging percentage, despite having never come to the plate prior to his time in New York. With the help of Mahomes, the Mets advanced to the playoffs for the first time in 11 years. Mahomes pitched once in the division series against the Arizona Diamondbacks and also appeared in Game One of the National League Championship Series versus the Atlanta Braves - both losses by the Mets. With the Mets facing elimination in Game Five, Mahomes pitched a shaky, but scoreless frame, keeping the game tied in the seventh and eighth innings. Seven innings later, the Mets forced a sixth game on the strength of Robin Ventura's walk-off Grand Slam Single. Although the Mets lost a classic Game Six to the Braves, allowing Atlanta to win the National League pennant, the team battled into extra innings, extending their season as far as they could. But the game might never have gone into overtime had it not been for Pat Mahomes and his incredible work in relief of an awful Al Leiter.
Leiter faced six batters and allowed all of them to reach base. Five of them scored, giving Atlanta an early 5-0 lead. Even though Mahomes had become used to pitching early in games by doing so often during the regular season, he had never come into a game for the Mets in the first inning. But with Leiter clearly not at his best, Valentine called upon Mahomes to stop the bleeding. Mahomes turned in a yeoman-like effort, holding the Braves to one hit and one walk in four scoreless innings. The right-hander's clutch performance kept the game from becoming a blowout, and after he was removed from the contest for a pinch-hitter, the Mets began to chip away at the Braves' lead, ultimately taking the lead in the eighth inning and once again in the tenth. But Atlanta was simply better than the Mets in Game Six, and won the pennant in the 11th inning on a bases-loaded walk to Andruw Jones issued by Kenny Rogers. The Mets came up short in their quest to reach the World Series, but the 1999 season was still a campaign to be proud of, according to manager Bobby Valentine.
''I told my guys after the game that it might be a shorter winter or a
longer winter for them but I think they played like champions," said Valentine. "They
should feel like champions. It's very difficult to come back from five
runs and have a couple of leads. It's difficult to give it up, but we
gave everything we had.''
Sadly, Mahomes could not replicate his 1999 performance the following season, as his 5.46 ERA and 1.72 WHIP in 53 appearances (5 starts) for the 2000 Mets was more in line with his numbers as an American League pitcher from 1992 to 1997. After not pitching for the Mets in the playoffs during their run to the World Series in 2000, Mahomes became a free agent. The 30-year-old then embarked on a Tour de Majors, as he was signed and/or released by the Rangers, Cubs, Pirates, Expos, Marlins, Dodgers, Royals and Blue Jays. He was even property of the Mets once again in 2005, even though it was only for about 15 minutes, give or take a few days.
Thanks to baseball-reference.com for this detailed road map of the career of Pat Mahomes.
Pat Mahomes didn't have a particularly good career. In 11 seasons as a journeyman pitcher, he had a 5.47 ERA, 1.59 WHIP and an 84 ERA+. But he did have one outstanding season on a Mets team that is loved by its fans as if they had actually won the pennant.
Although he didn't get the attention (or money) usually reserved for starting pitchers or late-inning relievers, Mahomes earned every penny of his $310,000 salary in 1999. Here are just some of the lesser-known facts about Mahomes, proving that not every team MVP has to be a power hitter, defensive star, or stud pitcher.
In 23 of his 39 appearances, Mahomes came into the game with the Mets trailing the opposition. They came back to win five of those games, with Mahomes allowing just one run in 11⅔ innings in those five comeback victories. And on a team that needed a 163rd regular season game to decide the wild card winner, each of those five comeback wins with the tremendous Mahomes pitching performances contributed greatly in the Mets' successful quest to end their 11-year playoff drought.
Many relievers with high win totals are said to have "vultured" their victories, meaning they only earned a win because they either happened to be on the mound as their team took the lead or they allowed the tying run to score immediately before their team re-took the lead, making them the pitchers of record on the winning side. In 1999, Mahomes certainly did not vulture his wins, as he gave up no runs in seven of the eight games he won. In the one game he did allow a tally, he pitched 4⅔ innings and allowed just a single run. Mahomes had a phenomenal 0.45 ERA and 0.90 WHIP in games in which he was credited with a win, allowing opposing batters to hit just .138 against him in 20 innings pitched, and he had twice as many strikeouts in those eight games (18) as hits allowed (9). In other words, Mahomes earned each and every one of his wins, feasting on his opponents like - for lack of a better term - a vulture.
Mahomes was also no slouch with a bat in his hands. Whereas most relief pitchers rarely get a turn at bat, Mahomes is one of just three pitchers in franchise history who pitched exclusively in relief in a single season (no games started) and collected five or more hits in that campaign, joining Skip Lockwood (1976) and Roger McDowell (1986). Mahomes also joined McDowell as the only relief pitchers in franchise history to produce a trio of doubles in a single season. (McDowell's three-double campaign came in 1988.)
Pat Mahomes made the most out of the chance given to him by the Mets in 1999. It proved to be his only successful season in the big leagues. His perfect 8-0 season and near-perfect relief effort in Game Six of the NLCS almost propelled the Mets to the World Series. In the end, the Mets fell short of their goal, but without Mahomes coming out of the pen to give them as many solid efforts as he did throughout the 1999 campaign in relief of a suspect starting rotation, the Mets might never have qualified for the postseason.
Long relief is a thankless job. Tell that to someone other than Pat Mahomes. He knows just how important he was when he filled that role for the Mets during their unforgettable 1999 season.
(NY Daily News Archives/Getty Images)
"I worked so hard to get back, and it seems like it's all paying off. The (perfect) record and the hitting, all that's a plus."
Note: The Most With The Least is a
thirteen-part weekly series spotlighting those Mets players who
performed at a high level without receiving the accolades or playing
time their more established teammates got, due to injuries, executive
decisions or other factors.
For previous installments, please click on the players' names below: January 4, 2016: Benny Agbayani January 11, 2016: Donn Clendenon January 18, 2016: Tim Teufel January 25, 2016: Hisanori Takahashi February 1, 2016: Chris Jones February 8, 2016: Claudell Washington February 15, 2016: Moises Alou February 22, 2016: Pat Zachry February 29, 2016: Art Shamsky March 7, 2016: Mark Carreon March 14, 2016: Jose Valentin
A general manager can acquire baseball players in several ways. These ways include - but are not limited to - trading for players, signing free agents or drafting players. From 1997 to 2003, the man who traded, signed and drafted players for the Mets was general manager Steve Phillips.
Phillips helped build the Mets into a contender, adding proven talent like Mike Piazza and Robin Ventura to a squad that had ended a six-year run of futility during the first year of Phillips' tenure. He also set the Mets up for success after his departure by drafting David Wright and signing Jose Reyes.
But Phillips also had his share of duds, as anyone who remembers the 2002 season can attest. (The law office of Alomar, Vaughn, Burnitz and Cedeño lost a lot of cases for that team.) He also failed to keep quality players when he had them.
Phillips could not re-sign first baseman John Olerud, who went back home to the Pacific Northwest after Phillips made a poorly-timed comment about the World Trade Organization riots going on in Seattle, saying, "I can't understand why anybody would want to play in Seattle after seeing the chaos. I would think there'd be a mass exodus." Olerud went on to win three Gold Gloves and made an All-Star team with the Mariners (he accomplished neither in his three years as a Met). He also played in the postseason four times after leaving the Mets.
In addition to Olerud, who left via free agency, Phillips also pushed the panic button when shortstop Rey Ordoñez got hurt in 2000, trading Melvin Mora to the Orioles for short-term solution Mike Bordick. The 35-year-old Bordick, who was having a career year in Baltimore (.831 OPS), underperformed in New York (.685 OPS). Mora went on to become a two-time All-Star and Silver Slugger recipient in ten seasons with the O's, while Bordick went on to become an Oriole again in 2001, leaving the Mets as a free agent.
Needless to say, Phillips had his ups and downs as general manager of the Mets. But three players - players who are now vilified in New York - were originally viewed as key pieces to helping the team either make a push for the postseason or bringing the team back to respectability. One was acquired via a trade. Another was drafted by Phillips. The third came to New York as a free agent. For the most part, they performed well while in New York. But no one ever remembers that. The only thing anyone remembers about them was their contribution to three of the lowest moments in Mets history, essentially turning them into the Three Enemigos - enemies of Mets fans who wanted so badly to taste postseason success, only to have it taken from them through three epic meltdowns.
Kenny Rogers, Aaron Heilman and Tom Glavine - the Three Enemigos!
In 1998, the Mets failed to end a ten-year postseason drought, coughing up a one-game lead in the wild card race in the season's final five games. Although New York added future Hall of Famer Mike Piazza in May, the team only made minor moves at the trade deadline in 1998, dealing for players such as Tony Phillips, Wille Blair, Jorge Fabregas and Mike Kinkade. Not wanting to use the same approach in 1999, general manager Phillips went all-out at the trade deadline, acquiring veterans Darryl Hamilton and Shawon Dunston. He also made two separate trades with Oakland, dealing away former Generation K member Jason Isringhausen for reliever Billy Taylor and shipping off outfield prospect Terrence Long (who became the AL Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2000) for starting pitcher Kenny Rogers.
Rogers pitched well for the Mets during the season's final two months, tossing two complete games, one of which was a four-hit shutout against the San Francisco Giants on September 6. The Mets won ten of the 12 starts made by Rogers, including his critical performance in the first game of the season-ending series versus the Pittsburgh Pirates. With the Mets two games out of the wild card with three games to play, Rogers held the Bucs scoreless into the eighth inning, striking out a season-high ten batters. But Rogers allowed a run in the eighth, then watched from the bench as a walk by Turk Wendell and a single off John Franco allowed the tying run to score. The Mets eventually won the game in 11 innings to keep their postseason hopes alive and three days later, their playoff dreams came true after they defeated the Cincinnati Reds in the season's 163rd game.
In his first nine starts for the Mets following the trade, Rogers was a perfect 5-0 with a 3.23 ERA and 1.26 WHIP. The Mets won eight of those nine starts, which impressed manager Bobby Valentine.
''He surprises me with his curveball, something I didn't know he had
developed so well,'' said Valentine. ''He's a much better pitcher than I remembered. ... He's everything
that we had hoped for.''
What Valentine hadn't hoped for was Rogers falling apart in his next two starts, allowing a total of ten runs and not making it past the fifth inning in either game, both of which came against the sub-.500 Phillies. His strong performance against the Pirates in his final regular season start only served to place a bandage on a cracking dam. That crack would burst in the postseason.
The Mets lost a total of five games against the Arizona Diamondbacks and Atlanta Braves in the 1999 postseason. Three of those five losses were charged to Kenny Rogers. A home run by backup catcher Todd Pratt ended the division series in four games, temporarily making Mets fans forget that Rogers was responsible for the team's only loss in the series, a game in which he allowed four runs in 4⅓ innings. Rogers didn't fare much better a week later in his first NLCS start. After dropping the first game to Atlanta, the Mets desperately needed a series-tying win before coming back home to Shea Stadium. Although Rogers kept the Braves scoreless through the first five innings, he was constantly pitching in and out of trouble, allowing eight base runners in those five frames. But the Braves squandered several scoring opportunities, grounding into two double plays and getting picked off first base on two occasions. Rogers was more lucky than good in the first five innings. His luck ran out in the sixth, as he allowed a game-tying two-run homer to Mets killer Brian Jordan, followed by another two-run homer by light-hitting catcher Eddie Perez.
"I can't believe I just gave up a homer to Eddie Perez." (Steve Schaefer/AFP/Getty Images)
It was bad enough that Rogers had coughed up the lead in the critical Game Two loss to the Braves. But that's not what Mets fans remember him for. The moment that truly made Rogers an enemy of the Mets' state happened four games later, when two of his fellow pitchers blew late-inning leads and he was called upon to keep the game tied. Until it wasn't. As a result of the game-winning Grand Slam Single by Robin Ventura in Game Five - a game in which Kenny Rogers pitched two scoreless innings of relief, the Mets became just the second team in big league history to force a Game Six after dropping the first three games of a best-of-seven series. The series shifted back to Atlanta for the sixth game, but the Mets didn't show up for that game until after it had begun, falling behind by five runs in the first inning. The never-say-die Mets did not panic, despite the early 5-0 deficit. New York scored eight runs from the sixth through the eighth innings, taking a one-run lead into the bottom of the eighth. But John Franco allowed a one-out single to Eddie Perez (you may remember him as the aforementioned light-hitting catcher), a stolen base by pinch-runner Otis Nixon and a run-scoring single by Brian Hunter. Once again, the Mets and Braves were going to extra innings with the Braves a run away from winning the pennant. In Game Five, Todd Pratt tied the game in the 15th inning with a bases-loaded walk. Two days later, Pratt gave the Mets an extra-inning lead, hitting a sacrifice fly to score Benny Agbayani in the tenth. But once again, the Mets bullpen could not hold the lead, as Armando Benitez allowed a one-out RBI single to yet another light-hitting Brave - pinch-hitter Ozzie Guillen. The game was now tied, 9-9, as the teams moved on to the 11th inning. This time, the Mets could not push across a run to take the lead in their half of the inning, a frame that saw the Mets use Shawon Dunston as a pinch-hitter for Benitez. New York had used nine pitchers in their Game Five victory. With Benitez now out of the game, the Mets needed an eighth pitcher to start the bottom of the 11th in Game Six. Valentine rolled the dice and turned to Kenny Rogers. The decision ended up costing the Mets their magical season. Rogers allowed a leadoff double to Gerald Williams, who advanced to third on Bret Boone's sacrifice bunt. Valentine then had Rogers intentionally walk Chipper Jones and Brian Jordan to set up a force play at every base. But that also forced Rogers to pitch with pinpoint control to slugger Andruw Jones. Finally, on a 3-2 count, Rogers threw a pitch that wasn't even close to the strike zone, allowing Williams to scamper home with the pennant-winning run and the Mets to fly home with their season coming to a screeching halt. Although he pitched fairly well during the regular season following his mid-season trade to the Mets, Rogers fell apart in the postseason, going 0-3 with a 6.75 ERA. Rogers pitched 12 innings in two starts and two relief appearances, allowing 26 base runners (16 hits, nine walks, one hit batsman). The Mets eventually did win the pennant in 2000, but they did so without Rogers, who signed as a free agent with the Texas Rangers following his postseason pratfalls. For many Mets fans, he left the team four balls too late. After the Mets lost the 2000 World Series to the Yankees (without Rogers), Steve Phillips went into the 2001 June amateur draft hoping to find a talented arm who could help the team in the near future. After all, four of the club's five starting pitchers in 2001 were already in their thirties and the team had just lost starting pitcher Mike Hampton to free agency. However, as a result of Hampton's defection to the thin air and utopian school system in Denver, the Mets received two first round draft picks from the Rockies. With their supplemental pick from Colorado, the Mets chose infielder David Wright and with their compensation pick, New York selected pitcher Aaron Heilman.
At least David Wright turned out okay. (Doug Benc/Getty Images)
As a student-athlete at Notre Dame, Heilman set school records in career wins (43) and strikeouts (425). He also rarely gave up home runs, allowing just 12 homers in 393⅔ innings. That trend continued in the minor leagues, as Heilman surrendered just 15 homers in three minor league seasons before making his major league debut for the Mets in 2003. Unfortunately, Heilman took some time to adjust to major league hitters, especially ones with power. From 2003 to 2004, Heilman made 18 starts for the Mets, allowing 17 homers in 93⅓ innings. It was more of the same for Heilman in his first start of the 2005 campaign, as he allowed home runs to noted Met-killers Brian Jordan and Chipper Jones in a loss to the Braves on April 9. His next start was a revelation, as Heilman pitched a complete-game one-hit shutout against the Florida Marlins, allowing just a fourth-inning single to future Met Luis Castillo. But when Heilman faced the Marlins again in his next start, he allowed seven runs and 11 hits in just four innings of work. A month later, Heilman had lost his spot in the starting rotation. The home run ball was one of the reasons why Heilman never made it as a starting pitcher, as he served up 22 taters in his first 25 career starts. But once he moved to the bullpen, Heilman thrived. He allowed just one homer in 45 relief appearances, with that long ball coming in garbage time on August 24 during the late innings of an 18-4 Mets victory over the Diamondbacks. In 2006, Heilman once again finished strongly. From July 19 to the end of the season, Heilman made 33 relief appearances, posting four wins, 12 holds, a 2.29 ERA and a stellar 0.93 WHIP. Opposing batters hit just .190 off Heilman in those 33 games and most importantly, failed to hit any home runs off him in 35⅓ innings. Heilman went nearly three months without allowing a home run until he surrendered what appeared to be a meaningless home run to Wilson Betemit in Game Two of the division series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was the only run allowed by the Mets in a 4-1 victory. Two weeks later, Heilman allowed another home run. This time, the blast wasn't so meaningless. In a tension-filled seventh game of the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Mets and Cards were tied, 1-1, going to the eighth inning. As he had done throughout the season, manager Willie Randolph brought in Heilman to pitch the eighth inning. Heilman rewarded his manager by pitching a scoreless frame, sandwiching two strikeouts around an intentional walk to Albert Pujols. But instead of bringing in closer Billy Wagner to start the ninth, even though there was no chance for a save situation with the Mets playing at home, Randolph decided to hold Wagner in case the game went into extra innings, allowing Heilman to pitch the ninth. Heilman had pitched beautifully in 2006, but he was most effective as a one-inning pitcher. During the regular season, Heilman was asked to pitch more than one inning in 17 of his 74 relief appearances. He allowed runs in nine of those 17 outings. When asked to pitch no more than one inning, Heilman held the opposition scoreless in 45 of those 57 appearances. But Game Seven was a different animal, and Heilman was going to pitch as long as Randolph needed him to stay on the mound. Three batters into the ninth, Heilman became a part of Mets history, but not for a moment he wanted.
I wonder what's got everyone's attention in this photo. (Photo by Bill Kostroun/AP)
During the 2006 regular season, Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina batted .216 and had a .271 on-base percentage. He also was not a threat to go deep, as he had notched just 16 career homers in 1,033 plate appearances. Clearly, Molina was not a Mike Piazza-type hitting catcher. In fact, he couldn't even be compared to someone like, oh, let's say Mike Scioscia. Although Molina's power was comparable to Scioscia, who hit 35 homers in 3,295 plate appearances through 1988, at least Scioscia knew how to reach base (.263 batting average, .350 on-base percentage during the same span).
In 1988, Scioscia had 31 plate appearances against the Mets during the regular season. He produced no homers and one RBI against them. Similarly, in his short career, Molina had 32 lifetime regular season plate appearances versus the Mets entering the 2006 NLCS. Those plate appearances produced - you guessed it - no homers and one RBI for Molina. In the 1988 National League Championship Series, Scioscia pulled a two-run homer off Dwight Gooden in the ninth inning at Shea Stadium in what was considered the turning point of the series. Eighteen years later, a catcher with little power was batting in the ninth inning at Shea during a critical moment of the NLCS. Once again, the light-hitting catcher had a runner on base and was facing a homegrown, first round draft pick. And once again, the ball was pulled out of the yard. Ever since becoming a relief pitcher in 2005, Aaron Heilman had become a master of keeping the ball in the park, allowing just six homers in 119 relief appearances during the 2005 and 2006 campaigns. But once Molina beat him for a pennant-winning two-run homer in Game Seven of the 2006 NLCS, Heilman became quite susceptible to the long ball, serving up 18 homers in 159 games over the next two seasons. And it wasn't just the fact that he was giving up homers. He was also giving them up with men on base. From 2003 to 2006, Heilman allowed 28 homers. Exactly half of them (14) were solo shots. After giving up the fateful home run to Molina, Heilman yielded 18 homers in his final two years as a Met. Only four of them were hit with no one on base. Six of them came with at least two runners aboard (four three-run homers, two grand slams). Aaron Heilman was supposed to be a top prospect for the Mets who prided himself on keeping the ball in the park. As a relief pitcher in 2005 and 2006, he was one of the best at doing just that. That is, until Yadier Molina took a page out of the Mike Scioscia Guide to Hitting Devastating Home Runs. Heilman - and the entire Mets franchise, for that matter - never recovered. Speaking of being devastated, one player who signed with the Mets as a free agent during Steve Phillips' tenure as general manager was present at both the Kenny Rogers and Aaron Heilman meltdowns. As a member of the Braves in 1999, he was in a celebratory mood when Rogers walked Andruw Jones to force in the decisive run, but seven years later he was more somber as a member of the Mets who witnessed the Molina home run. One year after the Molina bomb, he put up a stinker of his own, not that he was all that devastated by it.
Tom Glavine was an enemy before and after he became an "enemigo". In 17 years with the Braves (1987-2002, 2008), Glavine made 36 regular season starts against the Mets, posting a 17-7 record and 2.82 ERA. His .708 winning percentage versus New York made him one of just three pitchers (min. 35 starts) who won at least 70% of his decisions against the Mets, joining two former Giants - Juan Marichal (26-8, .765 winning percentage) and Mike Krukow (22-7, .759). But when Phillips needed to make a splash following the Mets' first losing season in six years, he turned to the Mets' nemesis, signing Glavine to a three-year, $35 million contract with a fourth-year option. Glavine, who had 242 career wins at the time, thought he needed four productive seasons to reach 300 victories.
''I want to have the opportunity to win 300 games, and I think in order
to do that, I have to pitch four years,'' said Glavine. ''So I don't want to make a
decision and in three years have to find a team to pitch for in the
fourth year. That fourth year is an important part of it.''
Glavine needed more than four years to reach 300 wins, as he produced 48 victories in his first four seasons as a Met. But after becoming the only Mets pitcher to win multiple games during the 2006 postseason and needing just ten wins to become the first pitcher to win his 300th game while wearing a Mets uniform, the Mets almost had to bring Glavine back, which they did when they signed him to a one-year, $10.5 million contract to pitch for the team in 2007.
The Mets weren't nearly as successful in 2007 as they had been a year earlier. Neither was Glavine, for that matter. After going 15-7 with a 3.82 ERA in 2006, allowing three runs or fewer in all but seven of his 32 starts, his 2007 campaign was quite pedestrian (13-8, 4.45 ERA). Glavine also allowed six runs or more in seven of his 34 starts in 2007. One of those seven poor efforts came in Glavine's next-to-last start of the season, when he allowed six runs in five innings against Washington. The Mets scored six runs in the ninth inning to make the Nationals sweat, but fell short by a single tally, losing a 10-9 heartbreaker.
Although Glavine could have easily been remembered for that subpar performance, the Mets still had a two-game lead in the division over the Phillies with five games to play. Glavine would get one more opportunity to pitch before the end of the regular season, with the Mets hoping that the division could be clinched before then. But it wasn't. And Glavine's final start would determine if there would be October baseball at Shea Stadium. Spoiler alert: There wasn't. One day after John Maine had one of the best pitching performances in franchise history (no runs, one hit allowed, 14 strikeouts, no-hitter broken up with two outs in the eighth), Glavine had one of the worst. Four batters into the game, Glavine had already given up more hits than Maine did the previous day. Glavine faced every batter in the Marlins' lineup in the regular season finale. He retired one of them. The southpaw allowed four singles, a double, two walks and made a throwing error before hitting opposing pitcher Dontrelle Willis with the bases loaded to force in a run. When reliever Jorge Sosa allowed a two-run double to Dan Uggla - the only batter Glavine retired in his abbreviated outing - the book on Glavine was closed. In the Mets' biggest game of the season, Glavine pitched one-third of an inning, allowing seven runs - all of them earned. His ERA for the day was an unfathomable 189.00. The only thing larger than his earned run average was the enormity of the loss, as the 8-1 defeat, coupled with the Phillies' 6-1 victory, gave Philadelphia its first division crown in 14 years. The crushing loss also sent the Mets home prematurely after the team held a seven-game lead in the division with 17 games to play.
As upset as Mets fans were with the team's collapse during the final three weeks of the season, they became even more incensed after hearing how Glavine felt about his performance, especially his choice of words when asked by a reporter if he was devastated by the loss.
"I'm not devastated, but I am disappointed. Devastated is a
word used for greater things in life than a game. I was disappointed in
the way I pitched."
For Mets fans who lived and died with the team since before Glavine had thrown his first pitch in the majors, the season-ending loss in 2007 was one of the toughest to comprehend, almost as difficult to swallow as Glavine's post-game comments. Glavine's performance not only capped an historic collapse, it reinforced the notion that the Mets could not win the big game, similar to Kenny Rogers' loss in Game Six of the 1999 NLCS and Aaron Heilman's defeat in Game Seven of the 2006 NLCS.
The Mets once again lost a late-season division lead in 2008, although that one was just a three-and-a-half game lead, then followed that up with six consecutive losing seasons. If only Kenny Rogers had not suffered a postseason meltdown in 1999, or if Aaron Heilman had known that light-hitting catchers can indeed become supermen at Shea Stadium in October, or even if Tom Glavine had been a little more terrific and a little less horrific in his final start as a Met, the history of the franchise could have been quite different.
Steve Phillips helped put together a team that made the only back-to-back playoff appearances in club annals. He also helped lead the team down a dark path with some ill-fated trades, draft picks and free agent signings. Three of those acquisitions had success with the Mets for most of the time they toiled in New York. But they wilted horribly when the team needed them the most.
Kenny Rogers (traded to the Mets), Aaron Heilman (drafted by the Mets) and Tom Glavine (signed as a free agent with the Mets) could have been remembered for many things. But their legacies will always come down to three heartbreaking defeats, turning three potential heroes into villains in the eyes of long-suffering Mets fans.
Nothing the Three Enemigos did prior to their untimely performances with the Mets will ever matter. Whether they admitted it or not, those three moments in time will always be devastating.
Note: One Mo-MET In Time is a
thirteen-part weekly series spotlighting those Mets players who will
forever be known for a single moment, game or event, regardless of
whatever else they accomplished during their tenure with the Mets. For previous
installments, please click on the players' names below:
This has been a familiar scene at Turner Field over the years, especially when the Mets are in town.
The Mets are back at Citi Field on Friday after a 1-6 road trip in Pittsburgh and Atlanta. But at least they won a game in Pittsburgh. The team was swept at Turner Field, something that's become far too common since the Braves moved into their new digs in 1997.
Just how much of a house of horrors has Turner Field has been to the Mets in the 18 seasons it's been open? The numbers are alarming.
The Mets won their first series at the House That Ted Built, taking three of four from the Braves in July 1997. They were then swept in each of their next three series at the Ted before winning the first game they played in Atlanta in 1999. How did they celebrate that rare win at Turner Field? By dropping 12 of their next 13 games there, including losing all three games played in Atlanta during the 1999 National League Championship Series.
From 1991 to 1996, the Mets finished with a losing record each year. Meanwhile, the Braves won their division in each of those campaigns (not including the strike-shortened 1994 season). But despite Atlanta's dominance in the overall standings those years, the Mets held their own when they visited the Braves during the team's final six seasons at Fulton County Stadium. They played 11 series at the park known as the Launching Pad from 1991 to 1996 and were never swept in any of those series. Of course, when the Mets became a surprise contender in 1997, they were getting swept regularly in Atlanta, probably wishing the Braves had never moved out of their old park.
Speaking of sweeps, since their inaugural series victory at Turner Field, the Mets have been swept in Atlanta a whopping 14 times. (New York has only recorded three series sweeps at Turner Field, not recording their first until 2006.) And how have the Mets performed in the 49 regular season series they've played in the Braves' new park since it opened in 1997? They've only won a dozen of those series, losing 34 series and splitting the other three. That means the Mets are more likely to be swept in a series at Turner Field than they are of just winning a series there.
Overall, including the postseason, the Mets have a 52-101 record at Turner Field, for a .340 winning percentage. To put that into perspective, let's go back in time - way back - to a time when the Mets played their home games at the Polo Grounds.
In 1962 and 1963, when the Mets called Manhattan home, the team put up the worst two-year stretch of any team in the modern history of baseball, going 91-231 in their first two seasons. New York won 56 games at the Polo Grounds during their two-year residence there, losing 105 times. That's a winning percentage of .348 at home when the team was playing the worst baseball of any team in the history of the sport. It doesn't take a math major to figure out that the '62 and '63 Mets - two of the all-time worst teams in baseball - had a better chance to win at the Polo Grounds than the Mets of the last two decades had at Turner Field.
And in case you forgot (which is possible considering the Mets' misfortune in the standings since they moved to Citi Field), since the Braves moved to Turner Field in 1997, the Mets have actually had winning teams in nine of the Ted's first 17 seasons, including three postseason appearances and a berth in the 2000 World Series. But despite being successful in approximately half of the seasons since Turner Field opened for business, the Mets have played like their expansion counterparts whenever they've stepped onto the field in Atlanta since '97.
The Braves will be leaving Turner Field after completing their 20th season there in 2016. Atlanta will be moving into a new ballpark in Cobb County once the team's lease runs out at their current park. The Mets only wish their lease had run out sooner. It would have saved them a lot of heartache over the past two decades.
Some players aren't pegged to be stars by the teams that employ them, even as they're coming up through their minor league system. Edgardo Alfonzo was never expected to become the player he turned into as a member of the Mets. He's now considered to be one of the most underrated and beloved Mets of all-time, as evidenced by his selection as the greatest second baseman in the history of the franchise.
It took Alfonzo a few years to become an All-Star caliber player in the major leagues, but at least the Mets gave him a chance to become that player. The Mets gave the kid from Venezuela his first shot at the big league level four years after they drafted him in 1991. One of Alfonzo's fellow countrymen waited a bit longer to make his big league debut with the Mets after toiling in the minor leagues for the better part of a decade. He was never considered to be a top prospect at any minor league level, but gradually moved up the minor league chain until he made his debut with the Mets in 1999. One year later, he was gone.
Trying to find a short-term solution, general manager Steve Phillips created a long-term problem when he traded away Melvin Mora to the Baltimore Orioles for fill-in shortstop Mike Bordick. Although the Mets didn't know it at the time, they were letting go of a player whose offensive numbers would rival and eventually surpass those put up by fellow Venezuelan and former teammate Edgardo Alfonzo. The trade marked the unofficial beginning of the downfall of Phillips as the team's GM, which was followed soon after by the regression of the team in the NL East standings.
Melvin Mora, before he was a Met that got away.
Melvin Mora was originally drafted as a 19-year-old by the Houston Astros in 1991. Mora made his professional debut with the Gulf Coast League Astros in 1992, hitting .222 with only three extra-base hits in 144 at-bats. Mora did not have much power as a young minor leaguer, managing only 23 home runs in six seasons with various Astros' farm teams. He did, however, possess good speed, stealing 83 bases in 126 attempts from 1992 to 1995. But in 1996, Mora only stole seven bases in 19 attempts between the Double-A and Triple-A level. One year later, he once again managed only seven stolen bases, but saw his batting average drop from .284 to .257. He also saw a drop in what little power he had picked up over the years, falling from eight homers in 1996 to two homers in 1997.
After six years in the Astros' organization (and a stint in the Chinese Professional Baseball League), Mora was granted free agency. Halfway through the 1998 season, Mora contacted Edgardo Alfonzo's brother, Edgar, who was a coach with the Mets' Class A affiliate in St. Lucie. Not wanting to go back to Taiwan, Mora accepted a job as a utility player and spent the rest of the year in St. Lucie and AAA-Norfolk. In 28 games, Mora's numbers resembled the ones he put up during his first professional season in 1992, as he batted .241 with only one extra-base hit in 96 plate appearances. Once again, Mora was granted free agency, but after receiving no offers from other teams, Mora re-signed with the Mets in February 1999.
Eight years after signing his first professional contract with the Astros, Mora was invited to spring training with the Mets, hoping to make the team. He responded by putting up fantastic Grapefruit League numbers, batting nearly .400 and providing extra-base hit after extra-base hit. He also showed off the versatility he acquired at St. Lucie by playing six different defensive positions. Mora didn't make the team out of spring training, as the final roster spot was given to Mike Kinkade. Upon hearing the news, a clearly disappointed Mora was quoted as saying "I feel like I want to go to a bridge and jump off."
Mora was sent back to Norfolk, where he performed brilliantly. While Mora was flourishing at Triple-A, Kinkade was languishing in his role as one of the Mets' top utility players. Through May 20, Kinkade could only manage a .196 batting average. He also had three times as many strikeouts as walks and was downright dreadful as a sub, batting .125 in 19 games. Kinkade's failures as a Met led to his demotion to Norfolk and finally gave Mora the long-awaited break he needed to reach the majors for the first time.
On May 30, 1999, Mora played in his first game with the Mets, starting at shortstop against the Arizona Diamondbacks. However, he was given the unenviable task of facing perennial All-Star Randy Johnson, who was in the middle of a Cy Young Award-winning campaign. Naturally, Mora went 0-for-3 against Johnson, but was not one of the Big Unit's ten strikeout victims in the Mets' 10-1 loss to the Diamondbacks. The loss was the third in a row for the Mets, a skein that reached eight consecutive losses before Phillips cleaned house by firing most of the Mets' coaching staff. The Mets' bench was now full of new coaches for Mora to learn from. Mora would get plenty of opportunities to get that education as he didn't start another game for the Mets until July 17.
More spent the month of June and the first two weeks of July as a late-inning defensive replacement and pinch-hitter. Through his first 19 games in the big leagues, Mora had only collected 13 at-bats and was still looking for his first big league hit. On July 6, more than five weeks after playing in his first game with the Mets, Mora finally collected his first hit as a major leaguer. With the Mets already blowing out the Montreal Expos, Mora pinch-hit for third baseman Robin Ventura, delivering a single off future Met pitcher Miguel Batista.
Mora would continue to play sparingly for the Mets after July 6. Through August 1, Mora had played in 38 games for the Mets, but had only started three of them. The extended stays on the bench caused Mora's bat to suffer, as he was hitting an anemic .083 (2-for-24) through the first of August. Mora spent the next month of the season at AAA-Norfolk, where he once again began to pound the baseball. Combined with the numbers he put up at Norfolk prior to his first call-up to the Mets, Mora hit .303 with 17 doubles, eight home runs and 18 stolen bases for the Tides in only 82 games. He also reached base at a .393 clip and continued to play various positions while getting the regular playing time he was denied at the major league level.
When the rosters expanded on September 1, Mora was once again promoted to the parent squad to serve as a late-inning defensive replacement and pinch-hitter. Mora only had six official at-bats from September 1 to October 2, collecting two hits during that stretch. Mora had played in 64 of the team's first 161 games, collecting only four hits and scoring five runs as the forgotten man on the roster. But when he collected his fifth hit and scored his sixth run, everyone knew who Melvin Mora was.
On October 3, 1999, the Mets went into their 162nd game of the season deadlocked with the Cincinnati Reds in the National League wild card race. After finding themselves two games off the pace entering their season-ending three-game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Mets took the first two games against the Bucs while the Reds dropped their first two games against the Milwaukee Brewers. The Mets needed to win the series finale to guarantee themselves of at least one more game. After a relatively easy 7-0 win over the Pirates in the middle game of the series, the Mets found themselves in a taut, tension-filled game in Game No. 162. Future Met Kris Benson and former Met killer Orel Hershiser were locked up in a pitcher's duel at Shea Stadium, with each pitcher allowing one run. The game remained tied as the Mets came up with a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth.
Bobby Bonilla, who had been booed for much of his two stints with the Mets, was greeted with cheers when he was announced as a pinch-hitter for Shane Halter leading off the ninth. Four pitches later, those rare cheers morphed back into the more customary boos, as Bonilla grounded out to first.
That brought up Melvin Mora, who had entered the game in the seventh inning as a pinch-runner for all-time stolen base king Rickey Henderson. On a 1-0 pitch, Mora lined an opposite field single to right field off reliever Greg Hansell. Mora then advanced to third base on a single to right by Edgardo Alfonzo. After intentionally walking John Olerud to set up a force out at any base, Hansell was relieved by former Met Brad Clontz. With Mike Piazza now standing at the plate and Mora standing 90 feet away from extending the Mets season, Clontz uncorked a wild pitch that bounced up into the netting behind home plate, allowing Mora to scamper home with the winning run and whipping the Shea Stadium crowd (myself included) into a joyous frenzy.
After defeating Cincinnati in a one-game playoff the following day (Cincinnati had defeated Milwaukee in their 162nd game to force Game No. 163), the Mets advanced to the postseason for the first time in 11 years. Despite only having a .161 average in 31 big league at-bats, Mora had proven himself to be a valuable commodity to the Mets. Six months after being the final man cut by the team after spring training, Mora did not find himself on the outside looking in when the postseason rosters were set. He was joining his teammates in Arizona for their National League Division Series matchup against the Diamondbacks.
Just as he had done in his major league debut in May, Mora's first postseason at-bat came against Randy Johnson. Mora had been inserted into the lineup via a double switch in the sixth inning by manager Bobby Valentine and came up to the plate to face Johnson in a tie game in the seventh. Mora did not contribute to a potential go-ahead rally in that at-bat, grounding out to third. But he was a major contributor to a go-ahead rally the next time he faced Johnson.
The game was still tied at 4 when the Mets came up to bat against Johnson in the top of the ninth. Robin Ventura led off the inning with only the tenth hit by a left-handed batter off Johnson all year. Roger Cedeño tried to sacrifice Ventura to second but popped out to Johnson for the first out. Light-hitting shortstop Rey Ordoñez then pulled a single to left, advancing Ventura to second base.
Up stepped Melvin Mora, who had never struck out against Johnson in four previous at-bats, but had also never reached base against him. A double play could have gotten Johnson out of the inning. Instead, Mora drew a walk off the tiring southpaw, loading the bases and sending Johnson to the showers and Bobby Chouinard into the game to face Rickey Henderson. After Henderson hit into a force play, with Ventura being thrown out at home, Edgardo Alfonzo launched a grand slam down the left field line, scoring Ordoñez, Mora and Henderson to give the Mets an 8-4 lead, a lead they would hold on to for a Game 1 victory.
Mora would not collect an official at-bat for the rest of the series,
coming into Games 3 and 4 as a late-inning defensive replacement, but his walk off Randy Johnson in
Game 1 helped set up what might have been the turning point of the
series. By winning Game 1, as well as taking Games 3 and 4 at Shea Stadium, the Mets did not have to face Randy Johnson in the series again. Once Todd Pratt blasted a series-ending home run off closer Matt Mantei, the Mets advanced to face the division rival Atlanta Braves in the National League Championship Series. The Mets fell short in their quest to reach the World Series, but Melvin Mora did everything he could to get them as close as possible to the pennant.
Edgardo Alfonzo's grand slam might not have been possible without Melvin Mora's key walk against Randy Johnson.
After playing in three of the four division series games, but collecting only one official at-bat, Mora was given an increased role in the NLCS against the Braves. But he needed the removal of Rickey Henderson in Game 2 to prove that he could be productive in a role other than designated double switch player.
After Henderson ran gingerly to first base on a groundout in the second inning, he was replaced in the lineup by Mora, who promptly blasted a home run - his first in the majors - in his first at-bat following Henderson's removal. Mora's homer extended the Mets' lead to 2-0, a lead they held until Kenny Rogers allowed a game-tying two-run homer to Brian Jordan and a go-ahead two-run homer to Eddie Perez in the bottom of the sixth. Mora did his best to start a rally for the Mets in the eighth inning, reaching base on an error and scoring all the way from first on a double by Edgardo Alfonzo. Mora's 270-foot-dash cut Atlanta's lead to a single run, but the Mets failed to produce the tying run after Alfonzo's two-bagger and went down in order in the ninth. The Mets lost the game, 4-3, to fall behind the Braves in the NLCS, two games to none.
Mora got his first postseason start in Game 3 at Shea Stadium and got into the action quickly, although this time it wasn't with his bat. In the top of the first, the Braves pushed across an unearned run against Mets starter Al Leiter. After a leadoff walk to Gerald Williams, Leiter allowed Bret Boone to reach on an error. A second error, this time on a throw by catcher Mike Piazza on an attempted double steal, allowed Williams to score and Boone to move to third base. But with the Braves threatening to score more, Melvin Mora caught a fly ball by Brian Jordan and threw Boone out at the plate, keeping the score 1-0.
At the plate, Mora also contributed, collecting hits in each of his first two at-bats against Braves starter Tom Glavine. But Mora's first career multi-hit game was not enough, as Glavine devastated the Mets with seven shutout innings. The bullpen did the rest, as the lone run scored by the Braves in the first held up. Atlanta won the game, 1-0, to put the Mets one game away from elimination. But Mora would not let the Mets go down without a fight.
Rick Reed started Game 4 for the Mets and was absolutely brilliant through seven innings, facing the minimum 21 batters through seven innings. The only baserunner he allowed - Bret Boone, who singled in the fourth inning - was erased on a failed stolen base attempt. The Mets had taken a 1-0 lead on a solo homer by John Olerud and were six outs away from ending the Braves' chances of a sweep. But before you could say Chief Noc-A-Homa, Brian Jordan and Ryan Klesko blasted back-to-back home runs off Reed, quickly turning one of the greatest pitching performances by a Met into a 2-1 deficit. Melvin Mora got a good view of both home runs, as he had just been inserted into the game as a defensive replacement for Rickey Henderson. The Braves didn't score again in the inning, but were now in position to close out the series. All they needed were six outs.
Roger Cedeño led off the bottom of the eighth with a single, but was still standing on first after Rey Ordoñez popped up a bunt attempt and Benny Agbayani struck out. Up stepped Melvin Mora, who needed to get on base to continue the rally. After a stolen base by Cedeño, Mora worked out a walk to bring up John Olerud. Braves manager Bobby Cox replaced reliever Mike Remlinger with Public Enemy No. 1, John Rocker, who watched helplessly as Cedeño and Mora pulled off a daring double steal. Olerud followed the timely steals with a two-run single, plating Cedeño and Mora to give the Mets a 3-2 lead.
Roger Cedeño and Melvin Mora celebrate at the plate, allowing John Rocker to ponder what time the next 7 train arrives.
The Mets held on to the lead in the ninth and avoided the sweep, needing to win one more game to send the series back to Atlanta. They would get that win in Game 5, and once again, Melvin Mora was an unlikely contributor.
Game 5 of the 1999 National League Championship Series was an all-time classic. Both teams scored early, with Olerud providing a two-run homer off Greg Maddux to give the Mets a first inning lead, only to have Masato Yoshii give it back in the fourth on an RBI double by Chipper Jones and a run-scoring single by Brian Jordan. The game was still tied, 2-2, when the Braves came up to bat in the top of the thirteenth inning.
After using eight pitchers through the first twelve innings, the Mets were down to their final relief pitcher to start the 13th. Rookie Octavio Dotel was the only non-starter left for the Mets and was sent to the mound to face the Braves. Dotel had made only one appearance for the Mets in the postseason and fared miserably in Game 2 of the NLDS, allowing a double, two walks and a hit batsman in one-third of an inning against Arizona. Now he was being called upon to save the Mets season after not having pitched in 11 days. He might not have been able to do so without the help of Melvin Mora.
Dotel retired the first two batters he faced in the 13th inning, striking out pinch-hitter Jorge Fabregas and retiring Gerald Williams on a grounder to short. If he could retire Keith Lockhart, he would avoid facing eventual league MVP Chipper Jones with the go-ahead run on base. But Dotel couldn't retire the side in order, allowing Lockhart to reach him for a single. Up stepped the man who was constantly reminded of his given first name by Mets fans at Shea Stadium. But this time, the name on everyone's mind would be Melvin Mora. Jones laced a double down the right field line, which was picked up by a hustling Mora near the right field corner. Mora threw the ball to cut-off man Edgardo Alfonzo, who fired a quick throw to catcher Mike Piazza, nailing Lockhart at the plate by about 20 feet. Mora's defensive effort took Dotel off the hook and sent the game on into the rain-soaked night.
The Mets did not score in their half of the 13th and neither team scored in the 14th inning. Dotel was still on the hill in the 15th, facing the light-hitting part of the Braves' lineup. But Walt Weiss led off the inning with a single and then surprised everyone by stealing second. (Weiss stole only seven bases during the regular season and was never a big base-stealer during his 14-year major league career.) Weiss was still on second base when Dotel retired Gerald Williams on a fly ball to left. But Keith Lockhart, who was denied the opportunity to score the go-ahead run two innings earlier, delivered an RBI triple, scoring Weiss to give the Braves a 4-3 lead.
In the bottom of the 15th, the Mets refused to give in to exhaustion. They rallied against Kevin McGlinchy, tying the game on a single and stolen base by Shawon Dunston, a walk to Matt Franco, a sacrifice by Edgardo Alfonzo, an intentional walk to John Olerud and an unintentional walk to Todd Pratt. With Melvin Mora waiting on deck and pinch-runner Roger Cedeño standing 90 feet away from a hard-fought Mets victory, Robin Ventura delivered the now-famous Grand Slam Single, giving the Mets their second consecutive victory in their final turn at bat.
Although Mora went 1-for-6 in the 15-inning thriller, his defensive play in the 13th inning kept the season alive for the Mets and allowed Ventura to come through with his titanic blast two innings later. The series moved on to Atlanta for Game 6. Mora did not start the game, but provided a spark off the bench, and it almost led to another thrilling Mets victory.
The Mets fell behind early to the Braves as Al Leiter allowed five runs in the first inning without retiring a single batter. Despite the quick punch to the gut, the Mets did not stop fighting. First, they cut the Braves' lead to 5-3. Then, after the Braves added two insurance runs in the sixth, the Mets tied the game at 7-7 in the seventh, using a home run by Mike Piazza to knot the score. One inning later, Benny Agbayani led off with a single off reliever Mike Remlinger. After Agbayani advanced to second on a sacrfice bunt by Rey Ordoñez, Melvin Mora was called upon to pinch-hit for pitcher Orel Hershiser. Just three games earlier, Mora drew a crucial walk off Remlinger in the eighth inning to set up the go-ahead run. This time, Mora took it upon himself to supply the go-ahead run in the eighth off Remlinger, delivering an RBI single to give the Mets an 8-7 lead. Unfortunately, that lead was short-lived, as John Franco allowed the Braves to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth. The game went on to extra innings, where once again Mora was in the middle of a run-scoring rally.
With John Rocker entering his second inning of work after a 1-2-3 ninth, the Mets pounced on the reliever. Benny Agbayani drew a leadoff walk to get things started in the tenth. Two batters later, Rocker attempted to pick off Agbayani and would have been successful had it not been for a miscue by first baseman Brian Hunter. (Ironically, it was Hunter who had tied the game two innings earlier with an RBI single off John Franco.) With the Mets getting unexpected help on Hunter's error, Mora came up and delivered a single that moved Agbayani to third. Agbayani came around to score on Todd Pratt's sacrifice fly to give the Mets a 9-8 lead. Mora then stole third, but was stranded there when Edgardo Alfonzo went down on a rare strikeout. Mora's insurance run would have been the difference had he scored, especially after the Braves tied the game on an RBI single by Ozzie Guillen in the bottom of the tenth. Unfortunately, Mora never got a chance to play postseason hero again, as the Mets walked off a loser when Kenny Rogers threw ball four to Andruw Jones in the 11th.
Although the Mets lost the NLCS to the Braves in six games, Melvin Mora did everything he could to extend the series. After collecting just five hits in 66 regular season games, Mora picked up six hits in the NLCS, batting .429 with a home run, two runs batted in, three runs scored and two stolen bases. He reached base in half of his 16 plate appearances and also began two plays in the outfield that resulted in runners being thrown out at the plate. Despite the sad ending to the 1999 campaign, the future looked bright for Mora and the Mets. But little did Mora know how short that Mets future would be.
Melvin Mora glided his way into Mets fans hearts in 1999, but he was skating on thin ice in the summer of 2000.
For the first time since signing his first professional contract in 1991, Melvin Mora began a season on a major league roster, accompanying the Mets on their season-opening trip to Tokyo to face the Chicago Cubs. Mora still didn't have a regular defensive position, but was getting more at-bats than he did in 1999. Mora played in 31 of the team's first 37 games, starting ten of them. But he was only batting .245 with four extra-base hits in those 31 games, although one of those extra-base hits was a walk-off home run off Milwaukee's Curt Leskanic on April 20 - the first regular season home run of Mora's career. After a 1-for-3 performance against the Marlins on May 12, Mora was sent back to AAA-Norfolk to get some regular at-bats. Less than three weeks later, he would be getting regular at-bats at the major league level, but at the expense of a key member of the team.
On May 29, three-time Gold Glove winner Rey Ordoñez fractured his left forearm while attempting to tag the Dodgers' F.P. Santangelo. Ordoñez would be lost for the season. The Mets immediately recalled Mora from Norfolk and inserted him into the lineup the next day. Mora reached base four times against the Dodgers on May 30, scoring three times and driving in a run. Over the next month, Mora was unstoppable at the plate, batting .338 with seven doubles, three homers, 12 RBIs, 20 runs scored and five stolen bases.
By late June, Mora had taken over the everyday job at shortstop, even though general manager Steve Phillips was still looking for a veteran with better defensive skills to play the position. Phillips was considering Rich Aurilia and Mike Bordick in a potential trade, as well as perennial All-Star and former NL MVP Barry Larkin. But with Mora hitting and the Mets winning, it appeared as if Mora would be able to keep the job in Ordoñez's absence. But everything changed once the Mets stopped winning.
After defeating the Braves on July 1, the Mets were tied with the Braves in the loss column. But the Mets then lost 12 of their next 19 games, and after dropping two out of three in Atlanta from July 21-23, found themselves six games out of first. Part of the problem was Melvin Mora, who hit .194 over the 19-game stretch and reached base at a .243 clip. Mora would go on to play two more games with the Mets before Phillips had seen enough. The slump in the win column, as well as Mora's slump at the plate, caused Phillips to pull the trigger on a deal with the Orioles, sending Mora to Baltimore for All-Star shortstop Mike Bordick. (The Mets also sent Pat Gorman, Leslie Brea and Mike Kinkade to Baltimore in the deal - the same Mike Kinkade who almost caused Mora to jump off a bridge in 1999 after he made the team out of spring training and Mora didn't.)
Things were looking up for the Mets after the Mike Bordick trade. No, wait. That was just Mike Bordick looking up. My bad.
At the time of the trade, Bordick was three weeks removed from playing in his first All-Star Game. He had also already established a career high with 16 HR and was on his way to a career high in RBIs. Mora, on the other hand, was hitting .260 with six HR and 30 RBI in 215 at-bats with the Mets. On paper, it appeared to be a good deal. After one at-bat, it looked even better, as Bordick hit a home run to endear himself to the fans for all of one game. Bordick went 2-for-3 in his Mets debut and continued to do fairly well over the next three weeks, batting .311 with four homers. But over his final 37 games, Bordick turned into Rey Ordoñez but without the flashy defense. From August 18 till season's end, Bordick hit .229 with no homers and 12 RBIs. The Mets would have loved to receive that production in the playoffs.
Bordick hit .167 (2-for-12) in the four-game NLDS against the Giants, then hit .077 (1-for-13) in the NLCS against the Cardinals, a series in which five of the other seven regulars hit over .300. Bordick continued his cold hitting in the World Series against the Yankees, batting .125 (2-for-16) over the first four games before being benched so that Kurt Abbott could start at shortstop in Game 5. In 14 postseason games, Bordick combined to hit .121 (4-for-33) with no extra-base hits and eight strikeouts. For his efforts, or lack of them, Bordick was not offered a contract to play for the Mets in 2001, instead choosing to return to Baltimore as a free agent.
As fate would have it, Bordick would only play 58 games for the Orioles in 2001, suffering a season-ending injury against the Mets on June 13. He played one more year in Baltimore in 2002, before finishing his career as a member of the Blue Jays in 2003. While Bordick's career was coming to a close, Mora's career was just taking off.
Mora's first full season in Baltimore had plenty of ups and downs. Mora finished the season with a .250 average, 28 doubles, 7 HR, 48 RBI, 11 SB and 5 NB (newborn babies), as his wife, Gisel, gave birth to quintuplets on July 28, 2001. He celebrated in 2002 by starting more games than he ever had in the past (145), albeit at five different positions. Mora started 63 games in left field, 36 games at shortstop, 31 games in center field, nine games at second base and three games in right field. He also started three games as Baltimore's designated hitter. Mora only hit .233 in 2002, but set career highs in hits (130), doubles (30), home runs (19), RBI (64), runs scored (86) and stolen bases (16).
Although Mora was limited to 96 games in 2003, he showed great improvement at the plate and was rewarded for his efforts by being selected to his first All-Star team. In his third full season as an Oriole, Mora hit .317 and reached base at a .418 clip, a figure that would have ranked third in the AL had he compiled enough at-bats. Compiling the necessary number of at-bats was not a problem for Mora in 2004.
Photo by Brad Mangin
In 2004, Mora took his game to a level no one could ever have expected. Mora finally had a position he could call his own, taking over as the Orioles' full-time third baseman after Tony Batista - an All-Star at the position for Baltimore in 2002 - left the Orioles to sign a free agent contract with the Montreal Expos. In 140 games as the team's new third baseman, Mora batted .340, finishing second to Ichiro Suzuki in the batting race (Ichiro set a major league record with 262 base hits in 2004). Mora did lead the league with his .419 on-base percentage and finished among the league leaders in hits (187), doubles (41), home runs (27), runs scored (111), RBI (104) and slugging percentage (.562). Mora's spectacular season earned him his first Silver Slugger Award and MVP consideration.
To put Mora's 2004 campaign into perspective, consider this. The Orioles franchise has been around since 1901, when they were playing as the Milwaukee Brewers. After one season in Milwaukee, they moved to St. Louis to become the Browns, where they played for 52 seasons. Since 1954, they have called Baltimore home. In over a century of existence, no player had ever had a season for the Orioles in which he hit at least .320, with 40 doubles, 25 HR, 100 RBI and 100 runs scored. Not Frank Robinson. Not Eddie Murray. Not even Cal Ripken. The only player to accomplish all of those numbers in the same season is Melvin Mora, the same man Steve Phillips traded away because he wanted to rent Mike Bordick for half a season. You're welcome, Baltimore.
Mora followed up his record-breaking season with another fine year in 2005, batting .283 with 30 doubles, 27 HR and 88 RBI. Although the numbers were a slight dropoff from his 2004 form, he still managed to secure his second All-Star selection in 2005, after being snubbed for the team during his historic 2004 campaign. Mora had two similar seasons in 2006 (.274, 25 doubles, 16 HR, 83 RBI, 96 runs scored, 11 SB) and 2007 (.274, 23 doubles, 14 HR, 58 RBI, 67 runs, 9 SB) before rebounding to give the Orioles one more great season in 2008 (.285, 29 doubles, 23 HR, 104 RBI, 77 runs scored) despite missing 27 games.
For the first time in nearly a decade with the Orioles, Mora had a subpar season in 2009, batting .260 with only eight home runs and 48 RBI in 125 games. Mora was granted free agency following the 2009 season, finishing out his career in 2010 with the Colorado Rockies and 2011 with the Arizona Diamondbacks. But before saying his final goodbyes to the big leagues, he gave the Mets one final reminder of what might have been on August 11, 2010, hitting a grand slam off Manny Acosta at Citi Field to turn a one-run Mets lead into a three-run deficit in the eighth inning.
"Oh, snap! Did I just give up a grand slam to Melvin Mora?"
Although no one would ever confuse Melvin Mora with the great hitters in Orioles history, Mora compares favorably with those greats on the team's all-time leaderboard. Since the team moved to Baltimore in 1954, Mora ranks in the team's top ten in games played (1,256; 10th in Orioles history), runs scored (709; 9th), hits (1,323; 10th), doubles (252; 8th), home runs (158; 9th), RBIs (662; 8th), walks (465; 10th) and total bases (2,073; 8th). Had Mora compiled those numbers as a Met, he'd be fourth in games played, third in runs scored, third in hits, second in doubles, fifth in home runs, third in RBIs, seventh in walks and second in total bases. In other words, he'd be one of the best Mets hitters of all-time.
In 1971, the Mets needed help in the infield and traded a player that was incomplete in their minds, along with three other players, for an All-Star shortstop. That incomplete player was Nolan Ryan and the All-Star shortstop was Jim Fregosi. Ryan went on to become a Hall of Famer and Fregosi went on to become the answer to a trivia question that Mets fans would rather not answer. Almost three decades later, the Mets once again needed help in the infield and traded away a player that had not performed well, along with three other players, for an All-Star shortstop. This time, it was Melvin Mora who became an All-Star on his new team, while the player the Mets got in return (Mike Bordick) did almost nothing before going back to his old team the following season.
Melvin Mora has no business being mentioned in the same sentence as Nolan Ryan. But like Ryan three decades before him, Mora is one of those Mets who never should have gotten away, but did. The Mets thought they were helping their team by trading away these raw, but talented players. They were wrong both times. And the record books for several other teams serve as a constant reminder of what the Mets could have had.
Note: The Mets That Got Away is a
thirteen-part weekly series that spotlights those Mets players who established themselves as major leaguers in New York, only to become stars after leaving town. For previous
installments, please click on the players' names below:
