30 Years Ago Today: Mets Score Club Record 23 Runs in a Game

The late Harry Caray probably wishes he hadn't been taken out to the ballgame on August 16, 1987.

The New York Mets are currently playing the crosstown rival Yankees in a four-game home-and-home series.  Thirty years ago today, the Mets were playing another of baseball's storied franchises, taking on the Chicago Cubs on a lazy Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field.  One year after winning the 1986 World Series, the Mets were battling the St. Louis Cardinals for the division title and needed to win the finale of their four-game set against the Cubs after dropping the first three games.  They were in the throes of a poor stretch that saw them lose six out of eight games after they had cut the Cardinals’ lead in the division from 10½ to 3½ games.  In that eight-game stretch, they had scored only 20 runs.  They needed to bust out of their slump quickly if they were going to continue to stay in the race with St. Louis.  Fortunately, the wind was blowing out at Wrigley Field on August 16, 1987 and the Mets’ bats were ready to take advantage.

The starting pitchers were Ron Darling for the Mets and a kid for the Cubs who had just been recalled from the minors after being sent down two weeks earlier due to a poor 6-10 start for the big club.  You may have heard of him.  He was a scrawny 21-year-old kid named Greg Maddux.

The Mets jumped out of the box quickly, scoring three runs in the first inning to take an early lead.  The lead had extended to 7-0 by the time the Cubs came up to bat in the bottom of the fourth inning.  However, Darling struggled in the fourth, giving up a grand slam to catcher Jody Davis.  That was followed up by a home run from the next batter, a rookie who was pinch-hitting for Cubs reliever (and former Met) Ed Lynch.  That neophyte was Rafael Palmeiro, who hit the tenth of his 569 career home runs to cut the Mets lead to 7-5.

Fortunately for Darling, manager Davey Johnson did not remove him from the game despite the poor inning.  He was allowed to put out the fire he started and pitch the minimum five innings required to qualify for the victory.  Because of that, Darling was able to stick around to reap the benefits of the additional fireworks displayed by his teammates as they continued to ride the jet stream out of Wrigley Field.

The Mets immediately responded to the Cubs’ five-run fourth by scoring three runs in the fifth inning and seven additional runs in the sixth.  They now had a commanding 17-5 lead, but the Cubbie carnage continued.  Not satisfied with a lead of a dozen runs, they scored three additional runs in both the seventh and eighth innings.  Jesse Orosco relieved Darling in the seventh and gave up four runs in his inning of work, but by then, the Mets had already put the game away.  A run by Chicago in the ninth inning off Jeff Innis produced the final tally in the Mets’ 23-10 shellacking of the Cubs.

The offense was powered by Lenny Dykstra and Darryl Strawberry.  Eights were wild for the two Met outfielders, as they combined for eight hits, eight runs scored and eight runs batted in.  Strawberry in particular smoked the Cubs’ pitchers, as all four of his hits went for extra bases (two doubles, a triple and a home run).

Dykstra and Strawberry - two smiling California kids who put lots of frowns on Cubs fans' faces on August 16, 1987.

In doing so, Strawberry became just the third Met to produce four extra-base hits in one game, joining Joe Christopher, who accomplished the feat in 1964, and Tim Teufel, who turned the trick just six weeks prior to Strawberry.  Strawberry added a stolen base in the second inning, making him the first Met to collect four extra-base hits and a stolen base in the same game.  The Straw Man was the only Met to accomplish this feat until Yoenis Céspedes matched him with four extra-base hits (three homers, one double) and a steal against the Colorado Rockies on August 21, 2015.

Strawberry also became just the third Met to score five runs in a game, after Lenny Randle in 1978 and Lee Mazzilli in 1979.  In addition, the Straw Man drove in five runs, making him the first Mets player to have a five-run, five-RBI game in franchise history.  The only other Mets to accomplish that rare feat since August 16, 1987 are Edgardo Alfonzo, who produced six runs and five RBI against the Houston Astros on August 30, 1999, and Céspedes in the aforementioned 2015 affair.  He had seven RBI to go with his five runs scored.

Dykstra also made Mets history in the game, becoming the first Met to collect seven at-bats in a nine-inning game.  The only Met to match Dykstra since then is Luis Hernandez, who went 3-for-7 in an 18-5 thrashing of the Cubs in 2010, which, just like Dykstra's record-setting effort 23 years earlier, took place on a lazy Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field.

Strawberry and Dykstra victimized several Cubs pitchers that day, including starting pitcher Greg Maddux.  Maddux collected almost 10% of his 355 career wins against the Mets.  His 35 victories (against 19 losses) are the most by any pitcher against New York.  However, one of his worst pitching performances against the Mets (or any other club) took place on that Sunday afternoon in the North Side of Chicago.

Throughout his major league career, which resulted in a much-deserved call to the Baseball Hall of Fame this year, Maddux was always known as a control pitcher, as he walked fewer than 1,000 batters in over 5,000 innings.  But on August 16, 1987 against the Mets, Maddux pitched 3⅔ innings and was charged with seven earned runs allowed.  He gave up six hits and a very un-Maddux-like five bases on balls.  Let's dissect Maddux's effort to see just how much of an anomaly this game was for him.

Greg Maddux would have preferred starting at Shea Stadium on August 16, 1987.

Greg Maddux made 740 starts in his big league career.  He issued five bases on balls or more in just 20 of those starts.  But in 14 of those 20 starts, he lasted at least six innings, giving him more time to issue those free passes.  Maddux wouldn't have another game in which he lasted fewer than four innings and allowed five or more walks until 2004, a year in which he produced his first ERA above 4.00 since - you guessed it - 1987.

Maddux also allowed seven earned runs in the game, which was the first time he had ever allowed that many runs in one of his starts.  Maddux would go on to allow seven or more earned runs in a start a total of 27 times in his career, including three more times against the Mets, but he never walked more than three batters in any of his other seven-run efforts.  The game on August 16, 1987 was the only time in his 23-year career that Maddux allowed seven or more runs and walked more than three batters.  And that was from a future Hall of Famer who beat the Mets more than any other pitcher in the 56-year history of the club.

Going into their series finale against the Cubs on August 16, 1987, the Mets were in a hitting slump and got out of it in a major way at Wrigley Field.  They scored more runs in that one game than they did in their previous eight contests combined.  By doing so, the Mets established a new franchise record with their 23-run outburst in Chicago and were able to use that game as a stepping stone that carried them all the way until the last week of the season, when they were eliminated from playoff contention by the Cardinals.  And it all happened exactly 30 years ago today.



 

August 16, 1987: Mets Score Club-Record 23 Runs

The late Harry Caray probably wishes he hadn't been taken out to the ballgame on August 16, 1987.

Note:  I originally published this piece five years ago on Mets Merized Online, but this Mets game from 1987 has always fascinated me, and I have since uncovered some more oddities about this game.  Therefore, I felt compelled to make some quick edits and share this piece once again with you.  Enjoy!


The New York Mets are currently playing a three-game set against the Chicago Cubs at Citi Field.  Twenty-seven years ago today, the Mets were also playing the Cubs, although the venue on that lazy Sunday afternoon was Wrigley Field in Chicago.  One year after winning the 1986 World Series, the Mets were battling the St. Louis Cardinals for the division title and needed to win the finale of their four-game series against the Cubs after dropping the first three games.  They were in the throes of a poor stretch that saw them lose six out of eight games after they had cut the Cardinals’ lead in the division from 10½ to 3½ games.  In that eight-game stretch, they had scored only 20 runs.  They needed to bust out of their slump quickly if they were going to continue to stay in the race with St. Louis.  Fortunately, the wind was blowing out at Wrigley Field on August 16 and the Mets’ bats were ready to take advantage.

The starting pitchers were Ron Darling for the Mets and a kid for the Cubs who had just been recalled from the minors after being sent down two weeks earlier due to a poor 6-10 start for the big club.  You may have heard of him.  He was a scrawny 21-year-old kid named Greg Maddux.

The Mets jumped out of the box quickly, scoring three runs in the first inning to take an early lead.  The lead had extended to 7-0 by the time the Cubs came up to bat in the bottom of the fourth inning.  However, Ron Darling struggled in the fourth, giving up a grand slam to catcher Jody Davis.  That was followed up by a home run from the next batter, a rookie who was pinch-hitting for Cubs reliever (and former Met) Ed Lynch.  That rookie was Rafael Palmeiro, who hit the tenth of his 569 career home runs to cut the Mets lead to 7-5.

Fortunately for Darling, manager Davey Johnson did not remove him from the game despite the poor inning.  He was allowed to put out the fire he started and pitch the minimum five innings required to qualify for the victory.  Because of that, Darling was able to stick around to reap the benefits of the additional fireworks displayed by his teammates as they continued to ride the jet stream out of Wrigley Field.

The Mets immediately responded to the Cubs’ five-run fourth by scoring three runs in the fifth inning and seven additional runs in the sixth.  They now had a commanding 17-5 lead, but the Cubbie carnage continued.  Not satisfied with a lead of a dozen runs, they scored three additional runs in both the seventh and eighth innings.  Jesse Orosco relieved Darling in the seventh and gave up four runs in his inning of work, but by then, the Mets had already put the game away.  A run by Chicago in the ninth inning off Jeff Innis produced the final tally in the Mets’ 23-10 shellacking of the Cubs.

The offense was powered by Lenny Dykstra and Darryl Strawberry.  Eights were wild for the two Met outfielders, as they combined for eight hits, eight runs scored and eight runs batted in.  Strawberry in particular smoked the Cubs’ pitchers, as all four of his hits went for extra bases (two doubles, a triple and a home run).

Dykstra and Strawberry - two smiling California kids who put lots of frowns on Cubs fans' faces on August 16, 1987.

In doing so, Strawberry became just the third Met to produce four extra-base hits in one game, joining Joe Christopher, who accomplished the feat in 1964, and Tim Teufel, who turned the trick just six weeks prior to Strawberry.  Strawberry added a stolen base in the second inning, making him the first and only Met to collect four extra-base hits and a stolen base in the same game.

Strawberry also became just the third Met to score five runs in a game, after Lenny Randle in 1978 and Lee Mazzilli in 1979.  In addition, the Straw Man drove in five runs, making him the first Mets player to have a five-run, five-RBI game in franchise history.  The only other Met to accomplish that rare feat since August 16, 1987 is Edgardo Alfonzo, who produced six runs and five RBI against the Houston Astros on August 30, 1999.

Dykstra also made Mets history in the game, becoming the first Met to collect seven at-bats in a nine-inning game.  The only Met to match Dykstra since then is Luis Hernandez, who went 3-for-7 in an 18-5 thrashing of the Cubs in 2010, which, just like Dykstra's record-setting effort 23 years earlier, took place on a lazy Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field.

Strawberry and Dykstra victimized several Cubs pitchers that day, including starting pitcher Greg Maddux.  Maddux collected almost 10% of his 355 career wins against the Mets.  His 35 victories (against 19 losses) are the most by any pitcher against New York.  However, one of his worst pitching performances against the Mets (or any other club) took place on that Sunday afternoon in the North Side of Chicago.

Throughout his major league career, which resulted in a much-deserved call to the Baseball Hall of Fame this year, Maddux was always known as a control pitcher, as he walked fewer than 1,000 batters in over 5,000 innings.  But on August 16, 1987 against the Mets, Maddux pitched 3⅔ innings and was charged with seven earned runs allowed.  He gave up six hits and a very un-Maddux-like five bases on balls.  Let's dissect Maddux's effort to see just how much of an anomaly this game was for him.

Greg Maddux would have preferred starting at Shea Stadium on August 16, 1987.

Greg Maddux made 740 starts in his big league career.  He issued five bases on balls or more in just 20 of those starts.  But in 14 of those 20 starts, he lasted at least six innings, giving him more time to issue those free passes.  Maddux wouldn't have another game in which he lasted fewer than four innings and allowed five or more walks until 2004, a year in which he produced his first ERA above 4.00 since - you guessed it - 1987.

Maddux also allowed seven earned runs in the game, which was the first time he had ever allowed that many runs in one of his starts.  Maddux would go on to allow seven or more earned runs in a start a total of 27 times in his career, including three more times against the Mets, but he never walked more than three batters in any of his other seven-run efforts.  The game on August 16, 1987 was the only time in his 23-year career that Maddux allowed seven or more runs and walked more than three batters.  And that was from a future Hall of Famer who beat the Mets more than any other pitcher in the 53-year history of the club.

Going into their series finale against the Cubs on August 16, 1987, the Mets were in a hitting slump and got out of it in a major way at Wrigley Field.  They scored more runs in that one game than they did in their previous eight contests.  By doing so, the Mets established a new franchise record with their 23-run outburst in Chicago and were able to use that game as a stepping stone that carried them all the way until the last week of the season, when they were eliminated from playoff contention by the Cardinals.  And it all happened 27 years ago today.
 

Tom Glavine and the Hall of Overrated

Tom Glavine went as high as his teammates would take him.  (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images)

Today, Tom Glavine joins his long-time teammate Greg Maddux, as well as Frank Thomas, Bobby Cox, Joe Torre and Tony La Russa into the Hall of Fame.  Glavine's 305 wins and .600 winning percentage are certainly nothing to scoff at, but those numbers may have been more due to the teams he was on rather than his own talent.

As my Gal For All Seasons so eloquently detailed in her recent post called "The Pity Vote", the former Brave (and I guess you have to call him a former Met as well) wasn't as good as his numbers say he was.

Let's take a look at some of the points she brought up in "The Pity Vote" and add a few of my own.

• Almost half of Glavine's wins (149 out of 305) came when his teams scored six or more runs.  On 226 occasions, Glavine received that type of run support, or slightly over ten times per season.

• In 22 seasons in the big leagues, Glavine was pinned with a no-decision or loss a whopping 77 times when his teams scored at least half a dozen runs.  That's three-and-a-half times a season in which he couldn't get a win with excellent run support.

• Glavine's teams scored two runs or less in 176 of his 682 starts.  The southpaw won just 26 of those games.  By comparison, Curt Schilling won 24 games when he received two runs of support or fewer.  That's just two wins shy of Glavine's total.  However, Schilling did this despite making 246 fewer starts than Glavine.  For the record, Schilling has been eligible for the Hall of Fame for the past two seasons and has yet to receive more than 38.8% of the votes.

• Speaking of Schilling, the 20-year veteran was one of the best postseason pitchers of all time, going 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA and 0.968 WHIP in 19 career starts.  Glavine, on the other hand, went 14-16 with a 3.30 ERA and 1.273 WHIP.  It should also be noted that Glavine's 16 postseason losses are the most by any pitcher in the history of the game.

• Glavine had five 20-win seasons, going 103-40 in those campaigns.  That means he went 202-163 in his other 17 seasons, which averages to a 12-10 record over those 17 years in which he didn't win 20 games.  That's not exactly what I would call Hall of Fame-caliber for the majority of his career.

• In the year he set a career high in victories (1993), Glavine posted a 1.365 WHIP.  Glavine and fellow lefty Andy Pettitte are the only pitchers since 1980 to post a WHIP higher than 1.35 in a year they won 20+ games.  In addition, Glavine is the only pitcher since 1950 to win 22 or more games in a single season and have a 1.35 WHIP in the same year.  That's over six decades of baseball, kids.

• Finally, while we're on the topic of base runners, there are only 14 pitchers in history (since 1900) to allow 6,000 base runners over their careers.  Tom Glavine is one of them, but he pitched the fewest innings of those 14 hurlers, tossing 4413.1 frames.  In fact, the only pitcher on this list within 150 innings of Glavine is Jim Kaat, who, by the way, IS NOT IN THE HALL OF FAME!

"It's okay, Greg.  We were the best pitchers on the Braves.  Tommy just rode our coattails."  (Photo by John Bazemore/AP)

Tom Glavine's high win total was a product of the teams he was on.  They scored lots of runs when he was on the mound, making it so easy to win that even his brother, Mike, could have earned victories in those games.  In the five seasons Glavine won 20 or more games, the Braves' offense ranked in the top four in runs scored every year.  Meanwhile, when he was a Met from 2003 to 2007, the Mets' offense ranked in the top four in runs scored just twice (2006, 2007).  Not surprisingly, Glavine went 28-15 in those two seasons.  Without a good offense behind him in his first three seasons as a Met, his record was just 33-41.

Pitchers who earn enshrinement in the Hall of Fame should be the dominant pitchers of their era.  No one who allows as many base runners as Glavine did in as few innings as he pitched should get his ticket punched to Cooperstown.  Jim Kaat and his 1.259 career WHIP is still waiting for his plaque.  So is Tommy John, who allowed 6,479 base runners in 4710.1 innings for a 1.283 WHIP.  But Tom Glavine, with his 1.314 lifetime WHIP, has his Hall of Fame plaque ready to be put on display.

Likewise, Hall of Fame pitchers should have been clutch performers in the postseason.  It's true that Glavine was the winning pitcher in Atlanta's only World Series-clinching victory in 1995.  However, it's also true that no pitcher in postseason history has been saddled with an "L" more than Glavine has.  But don't tell that to the people ogling at Glavine's newly installed plaque, one of whom might be Curt Schilling, who was a far better pitcher when the games mattered the most but still needs to buy his own ticket to get into Cooperstown.

Tom Glavine was never the best pitcher on the Braves (Maddux and Smoltz outperformed him in the '90s) and quite possibly wasn't the best pitcher on the Mets when he toiled in Flushing (Steve Trachsel was 44-35 as Glavine's teammate from 2003 to 2006, while Glavine was just 48-48 during those seasons).  But none of that mattered to the baseball writers who voted him into the hallowed halls of Cooperstown.

For 22 seasons, Tom Glavine was a very good pitcher.  Now, he will forever be known as a Hall of Fame pitcher.  It's just too bad there isn't a Hall of Overrated in baseball.  Glavine would have been a first-ballot inductee there as well.
 

If Studious Metsimus Had A 2014 Hall of Fame Vote...

On Wednesday, January 8, the National Baseball Hall of Fame will release the names of its newest inductees.  There are many worthy candidates to consider this year, including some whose careers may or may not have included a PED or two.

In addition to returnees like Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Mike Piazza, there are plenty of first-time nominees that should receive considerable consideration.  Those players include Greg Maddux, Frank Thomas and Mike Mussina.  Other first-timers on the ballot include former Mets Jeff Kent, Tom Glavine, Armando Benitez, Moises Alou, Paul Lo Duca, Hideo Nomo and Kenny Rogers.  And of course, making his 15th and final appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot is three-time World Series champion Jack Morris.

This is the fourth consecutive year that Studious Metsimus was not allowed to formally cast a vote for players we considered to be worthy of Hall of Fame enshrinement, but we're not bitter.  In fact, if it pleases the baseball writers who vote for the Hall of Fame, we'd like to send them a gift to let them know that there are no hard feelings because of our omission from their swanky club.  Please let us know when you receive the Jose Lima album we're sending you.  Unfortunately, it's on 8-track, but still, it's JOSE FRICKIN' LIMA!  Lima Time is hard to find!

Now, on to our votes!

Greg Maddux

As Mets fans, we know that Greg Maddux beat our team more than any other pitcher in history.  The Mad Dog finished his career with a 35-19 record against the boys in orange and blue.  But those 35 victories don't even represent 10% of his career win total.  Maddux won 355 games as a member of the Cubs, Braves, Dodgers and Padres.  That's the eighth-highest total in history and the most wins by any pitcher since Warren Spahn won 363 games in a career that ended nearly 50 years ago.

Maddux was also a superior defensive player.  His 18 Gold Glove awards are the most for a player at any position.  What else did Maddux do that very few others accomplished on the mound?

His 740 starts are the fourth-highest total in major league history.  In an era where relief specialists have put starting pitchers on the bench after six or seven innings, Maddux completed 109 of his starts.  Only three other pitchers whose careers started after 1980 (Fernando Valenzuela, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson) finished with 100 or more complete games.  Maddux is also one of four pitchers, along with Ferguson Jenkins, Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling, to strike out 3,000 batters while walking fewer than 1,000.  And Maddux's career total of 3,371 strikeouts are the most of any of those pitchers.

Finally, in an era where very few pitchers reach 200 innings in a season, Maddux pitched 194 innings or more in 21 consecutive seasons.  Maddux is one of only 13 pitchers to throw more than 5,000 innings.  The other twelve are already in the Hall of Fame.

We don't even need to mention his unprecedented streak of 17 consecutive seasons with 15 or more victories, his four Cy Young Awards or his eight All-Star Game appearances.  He's a Hall of Famer, period.  The only thing that needs to be seen is whether or not Maddux breaks Tom Seaver's record for highest percentage of the votes cast.

Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images

And that's it for the first-timers.  I don't think anyone else gets in of those players who are on the ballot for the first time.

Frank Thomas, though never accused of taking steroids, falls in the same category as Jeff Bagwell (and both were born on the same day).  Thomas' numbers are good enough for the Hall, but it will take him a year or two to get in, especially with a crowded ballot like there is this year.

Jeff Kent was the best power-hitting second baseman of all time.  That being said, he put up most of his numbers with alleged steroid user Barry Bonds* protecting him in the lineup.  He also never had a 200-hit season, only scored 100 or more runs three times and reached 100 RBI twice without Bonds'* protection.  He played 11 of his 17 seasons without Bonds* as his teammate.  In those 11 seasons, Kent averaged 28 doubles, 18 homers, 75 RBI and 68 runs scored, to go with a .284/.347/.476 slash line.  For the record, Will Clark's career slash line was .303/.384/.497 and Bernie Williams' line was .297/.381/.477.  Both players are already off the Hall of Fame ballot.  In addition, both Clark and Williams played Gold Glove-caliber defense.  Kent did not.  And Kent wasn't a big fan of the media - the same media members who cast votes for the Hall of Fame.  He's not getting in this year.

Tom Glavine will get in eventually.  Just not this year.  Yes, he won over 300 games in his career, which pretty much guarantees a plaque in Cooperstown.  But his other numbers were not nearly as impressive as the ones put up by Maddux, his long-time teammate in Atlanta.  Glavine's career ERA of 3.54 is higher than almost every other pitcher already in the Hall.  The only reason it's that low is because of an eight-year stretch from 1991 to 1998 in which he posted a 2.96 ERA.  In half of his other 14 seasons, his ERA was above 4.00, including five seasons where it was 4.45 or greater.  Glavine is also one of a dozen pitchers to walk 1,500 batters in his career.  But Glavine is the only one of the 12 to never have a 200-strikeout season or lead the league in strikeouts.  He got the wins, but not much else.

Mike Mussina - unlike Glavine - was an excellent control pitcher, walking only 785 batters in 536 starts.  He also struck out 2,813 batters in 18 seasons, including four seasons of 200 or more strikeouts.  Mussina won 11 or more games in each of his last 17 seasons in the majors and lost more than 11 games only once.  So why isn't he getting into the Hall of Fame on his first attempt?  Well, his 3.68 ERA is even higher than Glavine, he only won 20 games once, and he was just so-so in the postseason (7-8, 3.42 ERA).  Like all the other first-timers mentioned above, Mussina will get in, but he'll have to wait a few years.

There are some returnees on the ballot as well.  The ones I would vote into the Hall are Mike Piazza, Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell and Larry Walker.  (You can read my takes on them by clicking here.)  But there is one other returnee who I didn't vote for last year, but would vote for this year, and it's not Jack Morris.  It's Curt Schilling.

Photo by Jay Drowns/Getty Images

One of the reasons I said Greg Maddux would make the Hall of Fame was because he was one of four players with 3,000 or more strikeouts and fewer than 1,000 walks.  But Curt Schilling's 4.38 strikeout-to-walk ratio is the greatest of all-time (since 1900).  That means no strikeout pitcher in the history of the game had better control than Schilling.  Schilling also led his league multiple times in various categories.  He led the league in wins twice, starts three times, innings pitched twice, strikeouts twice, WHIP twice, and K/BB ratio five times.  Schilling never won a Cy Young Award (neither did Hall of Famers Nolan Ryan or Bert Blyleven), but was the runner-up for the prize three times and finished fourth in another season.  He was also a six-time All-Star, representing three different teams in the Midsummer Classic.

As good as Schilling was in the regular season (216 wins, 3.42 ERA), he was even better in the postseason.  In 19 postseason starts, Schilling went 11-2 with a 2.23 ERA and 0.97 WHIP, striking out 120 batters while walking only 25.  He also shared the World Series MVP Award with Randy Johnson after leading the Arizona Diamondbacks to the crown in 2001.  Like Jack Morris, Schilling helped three teams reach the World Series.  Schilling's teams in Philadelphia, Arizona and Boston won three times in four World Series appearances.

Morris was also known as a top postseason pitcher, but his October numbers (7-4, 3.80 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 64 strikeouts, 32 walks) weren't even close to the numbers puts up by Schilling.  In the regular season, Morris also had a higher ERA (3.90 to Schilling's 3.46) and lower winning percentage (.577 to Schilling's .597), while having 25% fewer strikeouts and almost twice as many walks as Schilling.  It's true that Morris' 162 wins in the 1980s were more than any pitcher in baseball, but he also had the third-most losses in that time period.  Meanwhile, in Schilling's best ten-year stretch (1997-2006), he won 155 games, a number that was only surpassed by Randy Johnson (176), Greg Maddux (168), Pedro Martinez (158).  But 18 pitchers had more losses in those ten years than Schilling did.  Plus, the only pitchers with more strikeouts than Schilling in that ten-year period were Johnson and Martinez, and only Martinez posted a lower OBP against him than Schilling.

It all boils down to this.  Schilling was far more dominant than Morris ever was, and he was superior to Morris (and just about everyone else) when it came to postseason pitching.  Schilling should get in before Morris.  Case closed.

And that also closes this year's Studious Metsimus Hall of Fame vote.  To recap, my vote would include Greg Maddux, Curt Schilling, Mike Piazza, Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell and Larry Walker.  It's quite possible most of those players won't get in this year.  It's also possible some might never get in.  But this is just my opinion.  If you don't like it, I'm sure I can find another 8-track featuring the late Jose Lima for you.  That way, we all win!

Is R.A. Dickey Getting (Shudder To Think) Greedy?

R.A. Dickey had a tremendous season for the Mets in 2012, winning 20 games and the Cy Young Award.  As a result, the Mets picked up his $5 million option for 2013, a team-friendly deal that's far below what most reigning Cy Young winners earn.

Now Dickey is looking for a two-year extension that would keep him in New York through the 2015 campaign.  What would it take to keep him in Flushing for the two seasons after his option year?  Approximately $26 million, give or take a few Susan B. Anthonys.  What are the Mets offering their knuckleballer?  $20 million for two years.  The $3 million per year difference might be enough to write an unwanted final chapter in Dickey's storybook career in New York.

For as much as I appreciate everything R.A. Dickey has done for the Mets, I advise him to take the money if he's smart (which he is) and doesn't want to tarnish his legacy (which he could).  Here's why.

In 2000, the Detroit Tigers offered free agent outfielder Juan Gonzalez what would have been a record eight-year, $140 million contract.  To put that into perspective, the Mets just signed David Wright to a team-record eight-year, $138 million contract.  Gonzalez was being offered his amount when David Wright was still popping pimples in high school.

Gonzalez certainly had earned that sizable contract, winning two American League Most Valuable Player Awards and averaging 43 HR and 140 RBI from 1996 to 1999 while leading the Texas Rangers to three division titles.  What did he do with the lucrative offer?

He turned the Tigers down.

At the time, Gonzalez was 30 years old.  He wasn't exactly a spry youth, but he certainly wasn't at the end of the line.  Or so he thought.

The slugger played six more seasons in the major leagues, with only one of them being All-Star caliber (2001, when he finished the year with 35 HR and 140 RBI as a member of the Cleveland Indians).  After the 2001 campaign, Gonzalez's production took a hard tumble, as he averaged nine home runs and 30 RBIs per season in each of his last four years in the big leagues.  He played one game in his second go-round with the Cleveland Indians in 2005, never playing again in the big leagues.  Had he signed the deal with the Tigers back in 2000, he still would have been paid through 2007.  Instead, he was out of baseball, carrying a much lighter wallet with him.

That brings us back to R.A. Dickey.

As stated before, Dickey is a smart man.  But that highly evolved brain of his is still 38 years old, as is his pitching arm.  If he were to sign the two year, $20 million extension that the Mets are offering him, he'd be earning $10 million in 2015, a season that would end approximately one month before his 41st birthday.  How many other pitchers who have already blown out 40 candles can say they make that type of money?  Not many.

Greg Maddux was a 40-year-old pitcher in 2006, winning 15 games for the Cubs and Dodgers.  His salary that year was $9 million.  The future Hall of Famer earned $10 million as a 41-year-old in 2007 and $10 million more as a 42-year-old in 2008.  His combined record during those final two seasons in which he earned $10 million per year was an un-Maddux-like 22-24. 

Greg Maddux was one of the best pitchers of all-time.  R.A. Dickey had a 41-50 won-loss record prior to his Cy Young-winning campaign.  It's like comparing apples and oranges.

Dickey had a great season in 2012.  He has earned the right to demand a higher salary.  But asking for a two-year, $26 million extension at his age is just plain silly, especially when Greg Maddux, a future Hall of Fame pitcher with a far more attractive résumé, was only making $10 million just four years ago at a similar age. 

In 2003, Juan Gonzalez would have been in the fourth year of his eight-year, $140 million contract.  Instead, he was missing 80 games for the Texas Rangers as a teammate of R.A. Dickey, earning a fraction of what he would have earned as a member of the Detroit Tigers.  Considering that Dickey saw firsthand what a mistake Gonzalez made when they were teammates, don't you think he wouldn't be as adamant with his contract demands, especially given his age and mediocre record prior to 2012?

Take the money, R.A.  There's no reason to roll the dice when you saw how easy it is for snake eyes to appear.

R.A. Dickey, 20-Game Winners And Losing Teams

Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images North America

On Saturday, R.A. Dickey pitched seven strong innings to defeat the Houston Astros by the final score of 3-1.  In doing so, Dickey improved his record to 16-4.  Despite the win, the Mets are still 11 games under .500 with a 58-69 mark.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece on R.A. Dickey accomplishing two things that had never been done by a Mets pitcher in their 50-year history.  He could become the first starting pitcher for the Mets over a 162-game season to finish at least 10 games over .500 on a team with a losing record.  (Bret Saberhagen was 14-4 for the 1994 Mets, who finished three games under .500, but that was in a strike-shortened 113-game season.)  Dickey could also set a team record by winning the highest percentage of his team's games.  In 1975, Tom Seaver went 22-9 for a Mets team that finished 82-80.  Seaver was credited with a franchise-best 26.8% of his team's wins that year.  As of today, Dickey has 16 of the Mets' 58 victories, or 27.6% of the team's wins.

But now I'm looking at the bigger picture.  Barring a "ya gotta believe" 1973-style miracle, the Mets will finish the 2012 campaign with a losing record.  However, with approximately seven starts remaining on the season, Dickey still has a fair chance to win 20 games.  How rare has it been for a player to win 20 games on a team with a losing record?  It looks like it's time to put on my research shoes and tap out some stats for you.

Recently, there have been several pitchers who won 20 games for teams that were mediocre.  For example, last year Clayton Kershaw won 21 games for the 82-79 Dodgers.  In 2008, each league's leading winner played for so-so teams.  National League leader Brandon Webb won 22 games for the 82-80 Diamondbacks and American League leader Cliff Lee won 22 games for the 81-81 Indians.  But as mediocre as those teams were, none of them finished with a sub-.500 record.

You have to go back to 1997 to find the last pitcher who won 20 games or more for a team that finished with a losing record.  Two pitchers accomplished that rare feat a decade and a half ago.

Fifteen years ago, Roger Clemens went 21-7 for the Toronto Blue Jays.  Although the 1997 Blue Jays also had 15-game winner Pat Hentgen, who, like Clemens, was a former Cy Young Award winner (Hentgen won in 1996, Clemens won his fourth in 1997), Toronto didn't have other good horses to trot out to the mound on days when Clemens and Hentgen weren't pitching.  Despite Clemens' best efforts, the Blue Jays finished the 1997 season in last place in the AL East with a 76-86 record.

Even more outstanding than Clemens' mark was what Brad Radke did for the Minnesota Twins that same year.

In only his third season in the major leagues, Radke went 20-10 for the Twins in 1997.  But no other pitcher on the team won more than eight games that year.  As a result, the Twins finished the season with an abysmal 68-94 record, or 48-84 when Radke didn't get a decision.  Although it would mark the only time Radke won more than 15 games in a season, the lifelong Twin finished his career with 148 wins in 12 seasons with Minnesota, good for fourth place on the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins' all-time list (the Senators moved to the Twin Cities in 1961), behind Hall of Famers Walter Johnson and Bert Blyleven, as well as 283-game winner Jim Kaat.  Radke is in great company on the Twins' all-time wins list, but when it came to his company on the 1997 Twins staff, there was none to be found.

Both Clemens and Radke won 20 or more games for American League teams with losing records in 1997, but to find the last National League pitcher to do it, you have to go back a little further, before each league split up into three divisions.

In 1992, Greg Maddux finished his final season in Chicago with a 20-11 record.  Like fellow 350-game winner Roger Clemens did five years later, Maddux also had a fine sidekick on the staff in Mike Morgan, who went 16-8 for the Cubs.  The rest of the team didn't fare so well, going 42-65 in games that the M & M boys didn't earn a decision.  The 1992 Cubs finished the season with a 78-84 record, then let Maddux walk away to sign a lucrative free agent contract with the Atlanta Braves, allowing Greg Hibbard to become the team's ace in 1993.  Of course, the Cubs somehow improved in 1993, finishing six games over .500, led by Hibbard's 15 wins (Hibbard only won one game in the major leagues after 1993, which is probably why you don't remember him).  Maddux also improved, winning the Cy Young Award in each of his first three seasons in Atlanta, en route to what will likely be a one-way ticket to Cooperstown when he becomes eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2014.

Out of curiosity, since two pitchers won 20 games for losing teams in the American League in 1997, I decided to go back and see who was the last National League pitcher before Greg Maddux to win 20 games for a sub-.500 team.  That honor went to a pitcher who was far more popular than Maddux ever was (the "Chicks Dig The Longball" ad notwithstanding"), although his lengthy career failed to produce half of Maddux's career win total.

In 1986, Fernando Valenzuela had arguably his most complete season in the major leagues.  Although he was thrust into the national spotlight in 1981, winning both the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards (not to mention the Silver Slugger Award) for a team that won the World Series, he only won 20 games once in his nearly two-decade major league career.  Valenzuela went 21-11 for the Dodgers in 1986, leading the league in complete games (20).  He also flashed the leather at his position, winning the Gold Glove Award for the only time in his career.  Despite a Mets pitching staff that featured four pitchers with a .700 winning percentage (Bob Ojeda, Dwight Gooden, Sid Fernandez and Ron Darling finished 1-2-3-4, respectively, in winning percentage in 1986), it was Fernando Valenzuela who led the National League in victories, doing so for a Dodgers team that finished with a 73-89 record.

Valenzuela's 1986 season was also special in one other regard.  It was the last time a pitcher in either league completed 20 of his starts.  Since Valenzuela's 20-win, 20-complete-game season in 1986, no National League pitcher has finished a season with more than 15 complete games (Orel Hershiser and Danny Jackson each had 15 complete games in 1988, as did Curt Schilling in 1998).  The most complete games by an American League pitcher since 1986 is 18, which was accomplished by Roger Clemens one year after Valenzuela's 20-complete-game season.  Only one pitcher (Jack McDowell in 1991) has reached the 15-complete-game plateau in the American League since Clemens did it in 1987.  By comparison, R.A. Dickey is currently the National League leader in complete games with four.

I am Dickey, hear me roar!

(AP Photo/Paul J. Bereswill)

With that mention of R.A Dickey, we have now come full circle.  Dickey already has a good chance of becoming the first Mets pitcher over a full 162-game season to finish at least 10 games over .500 while his team finishes with a losing record, as well as recording the highest percentage of his team's victories over a single season.  But it's not just Mets history he might make this year.

Dickey is also in line to become the first 20-game winner to pitch for a sub-.500 team since Roger Clemens and Brad Radke did so for their teams in 1997, and the first National League pitcher to accomplish the feat in two decades.  Dickey would join Greg Maddux as the only pitchers in the last quarter century to win 20 games for a losing team in the National League.

R.A. Dickey has already become one of the best pitchers in the National League.  Now he has a chance to do something that hasn't been accomplished in the major leagues since the 20th century by pitchers who are among baseball's all-time greats (Maddux, Clemens) as well as pitchers who were all-time greats on their respective teams (Valenzuela, Radke).

The Mets team might not be winning as much as its players and their fans would like, but R.A. Dickey has shown that it's possible for a losing team to have a winner on it.

M.U.M.'s The Word (Most Underrated Mets): John Olerud

Greetings, Earthlings! Welcome to the first installment of M.U.M.'s The Word, a feature that will focus on the most underrated Mets players over the years. In this inaugural episode, we will turn the spotlight on a man who was only a Met for three seasons, but was instrumental in the team's return to respectability in the late '90s. Ladies and Gentle-Mets, today's Most Underrated Met is John Olerud.

Underrated first baseman John Olerud

In 1996, the Mets had a triumvirate of stars in centerfielder Lance Johnson (.333 batting average, 50 stolen bases and a franchise record 227 hits and 21 triples), leftfielder Bernard Gilkey (.317, 30 HR, 117 RBI, 108 runs scored and a franchise record 44 doubles) and catcher Todd Hundley (41 HR, which at the time set the major league record for home runs by a catcher as well as the Mets single season home run record). Despite the trio's phenomenal success at the plate, the Mets struggled in the win column, finishing fourth in the NL East with a 71-91 record, leading to the dismissal of Dallas Green as Mets manager in August and the beginning of the Bobby Valentine era.

The Mets began the 1996 season with fan-favorite Rico Brogna at first base, but injuries limited him to 55 games. Butch Huskey took over for Brogna on an interim basis and performed well (.278, 15 HR, 60 RBI), but Huskey was a third baseman/outfielder. Entering the 1997 season, the Mets wanted a dependable sure-handed first baseman who was not susceptible to injuries like Rico Brogna. Enter John Olerud.

On November 27, 1996, the Mets traded Rico Brogna to the Philadelphia Phillies. They were now on the lookout for his permanent replacement. When the Toronto Blue Jays dangled John Olerud in front of the Mets and all they asked for in return was Robert Person, a starting pitcher who won a total of five games for the Mets in 1995 and 1996, the Mets jumped at the opportunity.

Olerud had won two World Series rings as a member of the Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993. His 1993 season saw him flirt with a .400 batting average for most of the season, before a late-season slump caused him to "settle" for a .363 mark, which was still good enough to win the American League batting title.

His next three seasons were a bit of a disappointment, as Olerud could not regain the batting stroke that made him one of the top hitters in the American League during his magical '93 season.

In 1993, Olerud led the league with 54 doubles and also set career highs with 24 HR and 107 RBI. However, from 1994-1996, despite having a respectable .287 average, Olerud's extra-base hit and RBI figures dropped dramatically. He averaged 29 doubles, 13 HR and 61 RBI per season over the three-year span, numbers which were not only well below his breakout 1993 figures, but were also far below the numbers expected from a corner infielder.

At the same time, Carlos Delgado was starting to break out in Toronto. Delgado had just come off his first full season as a Blue Jay in 1996. His 25 HR, 92 RBI season dwarfed Olerud's pedestrian numbers, making John expendable.

Once the Mets showed interest and offered Robert Person to the Blue Jays, the former AL batting champion switched leagues hoping the change in scenery would revitalize his career. Not only did the deal bring Olerud's production back from the dead, it did the same for the Mets in the NL East standings.

The 1997 Mets were not expected to do much in the NL East. Finishing at .500 would have sufficed for a team that had suffered through six consecutive seasons with a losing record. But then things started clicking in Bobby Valentine's first full season at the helm with John Olerud at the center of the Mets' rebirth.

After three consecutive subpar seasons in Toronto, Olerud found his batting stroke in Flushing. He produced the second 100+ RBI season of his career by driving in 102 runs. Also, his 34 doubles and 22 homers were the most he had produced since, you guessed it, 1993. In addition, his keen batting eye led to a .400 on-base percentage. Combine that with steady defense at first base, and you can see how his presence in the lineup and on the field led to the Mets' resurgence in the standings. The Mets finished the 1997 season with an 88-74 record, remaining in contention for the wild card until the last week of the season before eventually falling short by four games to the Florida Marlins, who went on to win the World Series.

Now that the Mets had established themselves as contenders in the National League, it was up to Olerud to continue his renaissance into 1998. What happened in his second season as a Met was far more than anyone could have expected.

In 1998, the Mets acquired Mike Piazza in a trade with the Florida Marlins (who had traded for the All-Star catcher a week earlier). The acquisition of one of the game's premier sluggers to serve as protection for John Olerud in the lineup elevated the first baseman's game to another level.

Prior to Piazza's first game as a Met on May 23, 1998, the Mets had played 44 games. In those 44 games, Olerud was hitting a lofty .345, but had only banged out 12 extra-base hits (seven doubles, five home runs), scored 19 runs and picked up 23 RBI. Those were all good numbers, but once Piazza was inserted behind Olerud in the batting order, John's numbers became otherworldly.

In his first seven games after the trade for Piazza, Olerud hit .500 and reached base in 18 of his 32 plate appearances (.563 OBP). He scored eight runs, drove in six and roped five doubles. The Olerud from 1993 was back and the Mets were more than happy to see him.

With Mike Piazza firmly entrenched in the middle of the Mets lineup, the hits just kept on coming for Olerud. John nearly registered the first 200 hit, 100 walk season in Mets history, falling just short with 197 hits and 96 walks. Still, the 197 hits were the second most hits in franchise history and the 96 walks were one short of the team record held by Keith Hernandez and Darryl Strawberry. At the end of the season, Olerud had racked up 36 doubles, 22 HR and 93 RBI. Of course, those numbers were nothing compared to these two numbers: .354 and .447.

The first number represented Olerud's batting average, which became (and still is) the Mets' all-time single season record. Olerud would have led the league in hitting if not for Larry Walker's .363 average for the Colorado Rockies. The second number was Olerud's on-base percentage for the year, also a still-standing Mets record and second in the league to Mark McGwire's .470 OBP. Of course, McGwire drew a ton of walks in 1998 to pad that on-base percentage. Seventy steroid-assisted home runs will tend to do that to a person's OBP.

Unfortunately, the 1998 season ended in disappointment for the Mets, as they lost a one-game lead in the wild card race by dropping their final five games of the season. Of course, Olerud was one of the few bright spots on the Mets during this season-ending slump, reaching base in 12 of his 22 plate appearances over those five games.

The Mets had something to prove in 1999. With the help of John Olerud, the Mets returned to contention in 1997. They failed to improve in 1998, falling short of the postseason on the final day of the regular season, despite a record-setting season by Olerud. The Mets' first baseman had already been quite successful in his first two years on the team. From an individual standpoint, Olerud had nothing left to prove. All that was left was for him to lead the team into the postseason.

The names might have been missing from the backs of the Mets' jerseys in 1999, but the mojo was risin' at Shea Stadium that year. Robin Ventura was added to the team and Edgardo Alfonzo was coming into his own. Both players had career years in 1999. Mike Piazza was his usual self, but this time he had a full season (and a new seven year, $91 million contract) in which to be that usual self. New acquisitions Rickey Henderson (signed as a free agent) and Roger Cedeño (acquired in the Todd Hundley trade) gave the Mets a speed combo at the top of the order they hadn't had since the days of Mookie, Lenny and Wally.

With the addition of these players, it was easy to overlook John Olerud. Then again, he never wanted the spotlight to be on him. Olerud just wanted to come in, do his job and help the Mets win as many games as he could. He saved his most clutch performances for his final season in New York.

On September 29, 1999, with the Mets in the midst of a seven-game losing streak that dropped them out of the wild card lead, John Olerud put on his cape and became Captain Clutch. The Mets were facing the NL East Champion Braves at Shea Stadium and their nemesis, Greg Maddux.

Is Greg Maddux about to throw a pitch or is he looking over his shoulder as he's running away from John Olerud?

The all-time leader in victories against the Mets (Maddux retired with a 35-19 record against New York in his career), Greg Maddux took the mound on that fateful night with the Mets trying desperately to stay alive in the wild card race. The Mets had already fallen behind 2-1 as they entered the fourth inning. But in that fourth inning, the Mets scored two runs on six hits to take a 3-2 lead on their arch-rivals. They had the bases loaded, nobody out and their first baseman coming up to bat. Captain Clutch had entered the building and no one, not even the nefarious Mr. Maddux, could stand a chance. With one swing of the bat, the Mets had an unscheduled Fireworks Night, capped by a John Olerud cherry bomb. The grand slam by Olerud gave the Mets a 7-2 lead, knocked Maddux out of the game under a sea of sarcastic tomahawk chops, and propelled the Mets back onto the wild card track.

The Mets started to win again after the Olerud grand slam, but they still needed to pull out a win against the Pittsburgh Pirates on the last day of the regular season to guarantee that Game No. 162 would not be the last game of the season for the Mets as it had been during the final week collapse of the previous year.

As he did in the previous two seasons, John Olerud always found a way to get on base. He delivered his share of hits but also knew how to draw a walk. In 1999, he became the first (and to this date, the only) Met in franchise history to draw 100 walks. He shattered the previous record of 97 by drawing 125 bases on balls. His biggest walk came in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game No. 162.

After Melvin Mora and Edgardo Alfonzo delivered one-out singles, the stage was set for Olerud to deliver the game-winning hit. Unfortunately, the Pirates had other ideas. They walked the slow-footed Olerud intentionally to load up the bases for Mike Piazza. Despite the fact that a ground ball by Olerud would have surely led to an inning-ending double play, the Pirates decided they had a better chance to get Mike Piazza to do the same. This was not the end-of-his-career, let's-move-him-to-first-base Mike Piazza. This was the in-his-prime Mike Piazza, who was finishing up a season in which he hit .303, with 40 HR and 124 RBI. John Olerud was intentionally walked to get to an offensive behemoth. As Aretha Franklin would say, that's what I call R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

You know what happened after that. Brad Clontz was called in to face Piazza, threw one pitch, gave a souvenir to a fan sitting in the loge level and Mora joyously scampered home with the winning run to set up the winner-take-all Game No. 163 against the Cincinnati Reds the following night, which the Mets won to earn them their first trip to the playoffs since 1988.

Upon reaching the big stage of the playoffs for the first time as a Met, Olerud continued to be a marquee player under the bright lights. The Mets played a total of ten games in the NLDS and the NLCS that year. Over those ten games, Olerud was an absolute beast. He hit .349 (15-for-43) over those ten games and reached base an astounding 20 times (15 hits, five walks).

Most people remember Edgardo Alfonzo as being the star of the first game of the NLDS. After all, he hit two homers in that game, including the go-ahead ninth inning grand slam off Bobby Chouinard. However, John Olerud played a big role in that game as well. His third inning two-run homer against Randy Johnson (a rare lefty vs. lefty shot against the Big Unit) gave the Mets a 3-0 lead. He also added two other hits in that game to help the Mets to the 8-4 series-opening victory.

After the Diamondbacks tied the series with a Game 2 victory, Olerud came up in big again in Game 3. His two-run single in the sixth inning was part of a six-run rally by the Mets, blowing the game wide open in the eventual 9-2 victory. It was his second run-scoring hit of the game, as his RBI single in the third inning had given the Mets a 2-0 lead.

It was then on to Game 4, with the Mets trying to close out the series at home. But the Diamondbacks were not going to go away easily. Arizona took a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the eighth inning, six outs away from forcing a fifth and deciding game to be played in their ballpark. The Mets did not want to have to fly to Arizona for Game 5, especially knowing that they would be facing Randy Johnson again.

The eighth inning began with a walk to Edgardo Alfonzo. Up stepped John Olerud to the plate. He delivered a long fly ball to right, which rightfielder Tony Womack (who had just been moved from second base prior to the start of the eighth inning) dropped for a two-base error. The Mets tied the game on a Roger Cedeño sacrifice fly and the game went into extra innings.

After Arizona failed to score in the top of the tenth inning, Todd Pratt (filling in for the injured Mike Piazza) became a household name with his walk-off home run over Steve "I'm no Endy Chavez" Finley's outstretched glove. It was on to the NLCS against the hated Braves for John Olerud and the Mets.

The photo may be small, but the moment was certainly big.

The Mets started out slowly against the Braves, losing three tight games to Atlanta. The team could have rolled over and played dead, but Olerud wasn't about to let them fade away. He took his game up a notch over the next three games, trying desperately to lead the Mets to an historic NLCS comeback. In those three games, Olerud reached base seven times (six hits, one walk). He banged out two home runs, drove in six runs and scored four more.

In Game 4, after Brian Jordan and Ryan Klesko had hit back-to-back home runs to give the Braves a 2-1 lead, it was John Olerud who played the hero by lashing a two-out, two-run single to center off fellow lefty and Public Enemy #1 John Rocker, scoring Roger Cedeño with the tying run and Melvin Mora with the go-ahead run. Olerud was responsible for all three runs the Mets scored in the game, as in his previous at-bat, he had homered off John Smoltz to break the scoreless tie.

Following his Game 4 heroics, John Olerud started off with a bang in Game 5. His two-run homer off Greg Maddux in the first inning (the same Maddux responsible for giving up Olerud's season-changing grand slam on September 29) gave the Mets an early 2-0 lead. Those were the only runs the Mets would score until the 15th rain-soaked inning.

Chicks may dig the longball, but apparently so did John Olerud.

With the Braves up 3-2, the Mets were trying to save their season in the bottom of the 15th. After Shawon Dunston led off the inning with an epic 12-pitch at-bat that ended when he singled up the middle, Matt Franco walked (Dunston had already stolen second base before the walk to Franco). Edgardo Alfonzo laid down a sacrifice bunt to move both runners into scoring position for John Olerud. Braves manager Bobby Cox ordered pitcher Kevin McGlinchy to intentionally walk Olerud to load up the bases in an attempt to set up a potential inning-ending double play.

However, this also left the Braves with no room for error. They had no place to put Todd Pratt, who was the next batter up, and were hoping for a strikeout or a double play. They got neither, as McGlinchy walked Pratt to bring home the tying run, then gave up the Grand Slam Single to Robin Ventura that would have scored Olerud had Todd Pratt heeded Ventura's wish to keep running.

Todd Pratt's heave-ho of Robin Ventura after his Grand Slam Single denied John Olerud (bottom of photo) an opportunity to score yet another run in the 1999 NLCS.

The hard-fought series shifted to Atlanta for Game 6. However, the Mets did not fill up their tanks for the trip, running out of gas in the 11th inning when Kenny Rogers gambled on a 3-2 pitch to Andruw Jones and ended up walking in the pennant-winning run.

Of course, Olerud did his part to help the Mets get to extra innings after the team was down by five runs at one point. His sixth inning single and subsequent run scored was a key part of the Mets' three-run sixth inning. With the Mets down 7-4 in the seventh inning, Olerud laced an RBI single, scoring Rickey Henderson and bringing up Mike Piazza as the potential tying run. Naturally, Piazza homered to temporarily tie the game at 7, but the bullpen could not continue the momentum the hitters generated for them.

After the 1999 season ended, Olerud became a free agent. Instead of returning to the Mets, he opted to sign a three-year, $20 million deal with his hometown Seattle Mariners. From 2000-2002, Olerud continued to be the star player he was on the Mets. He hit for a high average (.296), was among the league leaders in on-base percentage (.399), drove in a ton of runs (300 RBI over the three years, an average of 100 per season) and continued to be among the league leaders in doubles (116 two-base hits from 2000-2002).

He also brought along the glove that helped him become the anchor of the best infield ever, according to Sports Illustrated. As a member of the Mariners, Olerud won three Gold Glove awards for defensive excellence.

In the 11 seasons that have passed since Olerud's departure to the Pacific Northwest, the Mets have used 46 men at first base, hoping that current first baseman Ike Davis will finally bring stability to the position.

Wherever John Olerud played, postseason success was sure to follow. He was a member of two World Series-winning teams (1992, 1993 Blue Jays) and made the playoffs eight times with five different teams (1991-93 Blue Jays, 1999 Mets, 2000-01 Mariners, 2004 Yankees, 2005 Red Sox).

John Olerud also has a rare distinction in the major leagues. As slow as he was, Olerud always seemed to have his share of "leg hits", most of them doubles. However, he is one of only two players in major league history (the other being Bob Watson) to have hit for the cycle in both leagues. He picked up a single, double, triple and home run for the Mets in 1997, then repeated the feat in 2001 for Seattle. What's odd about this accomplishment? Olerud only hit 13 triples over his 17-year career, but two of them came in games where he hit for the cycle.

The Toronto Blue Jays thought John Olerud was washed up when they traded him to the Mets prior to the 1997 season. Olerud had not performed at the level Toronto expected of him after he set the bar so high during his memorable 1993 season. Then something changed once the first baseman came to New York. Just as he helped bring the Mets back from the depths of the National League, he did the same thing to his career, revitalizing it to the point where he is now on the Hall of Fame ballot.

Olerud finished his career with a .295 career batting average and a .398 career on-base percentage. He also racked up 2,239 base hits, including a whopping 500 doubles (one of only 50 players ever to achieve that figure).

Despite the fact that Olerud never hit more than 24 home runs in a single season, he still managed to hit 255 career longballs. Over his 17-year career, which included two All-Star Game selections, Olerud scored 1,139 runs and drove in 1,230 more. As mentioned before, Olerud was not only a threat at the plate, but was also a stalwart defensive player, as evidenced by his three Gold Gloves.

Those numbers, although good, might not be enough to earn Olerud his way into Cooperstown. They might not even be enough to get him the necessary 5% of the votes needed to remain on the Hall of Fame ballot. But his three years as a member of the New York Mets will always be Hall of Fame-worthy in the eyes of Mets fans.

John Olerud's sweet swing at sweet Shea.

Olerud's .315 career batting average and .425 career on-base percentage as a Met are the highest marks in franchise history. In fact, before Olerud, no Met had ever compiled a .425 OBP in a single season. Olerud averaged that over three years! Perhaps even more surprising is that John Olerud has the franchise record for highest career OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) with his .926 mark. He is directly ahead of three genuine power hitters (Mike Piazza, David Wright, Darryl Strawberry) despite the fact that Olerud wasn't considered a power hitter himself.

In the eyes of Mets fans, John Olerud might have been the best first baseman (and perhaps the most clutch player) since Keith Hernandez. His stay in New York may have been abbreviated, but the memories of the first baseman who always wore a batting helmet on the field will always remain strong. John Olerud was never the star of the team and he was never in your face. However, he was the rock for some very good late '90s teams, and always seemed to come up with a big performance when the team needed it the most. John Olerud was truly an underrated Met and his time with the team will always be remembered as one of the most successful periods in franchise history.

Tom Glavine Officially Retires; Mets Fans Aren't Devastated

According to Mark Bowman at mlb.com, Tom Glavine has retired from baseball after 22 years in the major leagues. He will reportedly return to the Braves as a special assistant to team president John Schuerholz and will participate in Braves' radio and television broadcasts.

To baseball fans, Glavine was one of the best pitchers of his generation. He won 305 games over his career, including five 20-win seasons. He finished in the top three in Cy Young Award balloting six times, winning the award twice (1991, 1998).

Mets fans might remember him for something different. Some will remember Glavine for picking up his 300th career victory in 2007 as a member of the Mets. Others will remember his outstanding 2006 campaign; a year in which he finished with a 15-7 record in the regular season and followed that up with two more victories in the postseason, which included a sparkling 1.59 ERA.

Some of us (myself included) will only remember Glavine for his final appearance in a Mets uniform. On September 30, 2007, just one day after John Maine pitched his near no-hitter against the Marlins to help the Mets tie the Phillies in the standings going into the regular season finale, Glavine was only able to record one out against Florida. Sandwiched around that out were seven runs by the Marlins. Coupled with the Phillies' victory over the Washington Nationals, the Mets failed to repeat as division champions in 2007.

If his poor performance against the Marlins wasn't enough to enrage Mets fans, his post-game comments surely managed to do the trick. After the season-ending loss, Glavine offered this tidbit to reporters.

“I’m not devastated. I’m disappointed, but devastation is for much greater things in life. I’m disappointed, obviously, in the way I wanted to pitch. I can’t say there is much more I would have done differently.”

As a baseball fan, I appreciate what Tom Glavine did on the baseball field. He will be a first ballot Hall of Famer (and since he threw his last pitch in the majors in 2008, he is eligible to be enshrined with former Braves teammate Greg Maddux in 2014). He was a quality postseason pitcher. He was not a cancer in the clubhouse. He also taught us (with the help of the aforementioned Maddux) that "chicks dig the longball".

Chicks might dig the long ball, but Mets fans dig season-ending victories.

However, as a Mets fan, every time I think of the final 17 games of the 2007 season, instead of the frequent losses to the Nationals and Marlins, I think of Tom Glavine. Mets fans suffered a great deal as they watched their team lose the division title to the Phillies. We could not fathom that the Mets were part of an historic collapse. So when Tom Glavine did not echo the sentiments of Mets fans by saying he wasn't devastated by his performance and the outcome of the game, it came as no surprise that Mets fans had had enough of Glavine.

Congratulations on your retirement, Mr. Glavine. I'm happy that you had a successful and lengthy career in the major leagues. Based on your career achievements, you deserve to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. I'm just not devastated to see you go.