The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of the Mets: Mike Piazza

The Mets lost at least 95 games in each of their first six seasons from 1962 to 1967.  But the arrival of Tom Seaver in 1967 brought the first glimmer of hope to the team.  Although the Mets suffered through a seventh straight losing season in 1968, they showed marked improvement by winning 73 ballgames.  A year later, the Miracle Mets went all the way to the World Series, defeating the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles to take home an improbable championship.

Nearly thirty years later, the Mets were coming off another six-year stretch of sub-.500 baseball before they turned the corner in 1997, going 88-74 and staying in the wild card race until the final week of the season.  Leading the way was Todd Hundley, who became the first catcher in franchise history to post multiple 30-homer campaigns.  But an elbow injury in early September limited Hundley during the final month of the season, allowing him to start behind the plate in just one of the team's final 19 games.  Hundley's balky elbow would keep him out of action into the 1998 season, causing the Mets to go with a Tim Spehr/Alberto Castillo platoon at the catcher's position while Hundley recovered.  Needless to say, the team's offense suffered, scoring three runs or fewer in 22 of the first 39 games.  Clearly, an upgrade was needed both behind and at the plate if the team wanted to prove that the previous season's improvement was not a fluke.  The Mets were able to do both, and in doing so, they eventually gave Seaver a partner in a Mets cap at Cooperstown.

From his first day as a Met, Mike Piazza always found a way to put a smile on the faces of Mets fans.  (Getty Images)

Michael Joseph Piazza was famously drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 62nd round of the 1988 June amateur draft as a favor to his father, Vince, who was friends with manager Tom Lasorda.  Four years later, Piazza made his debut with the Dodgers and played his first full season with Los Angeles in 1993, becoming the unanimous winner of the National League Rookie of the Year Award.  The 1993 campaign would also see Piazza start a five-year stretch in which he finished in the top ten in the MVP vote every year.

But with free agency and a potential $100 million contract looming, the members of the front office that bled Dodger blue felt Piazza wanted too much green.  And so, just midway through the month of May, Piazza was traded to the defending champion Florida Marlins, who were in the process of ridding themselves of the high-salaried players who helped them win it all in 1997.  Gone were All-Stars Gary Sheffield, Bobby Bonilla and Charles Johnson, who were due to earn over $24 million between them in 1998.  Also jettisoned to Los Angeles was veteran utility man Jim Eisenreich and his $1.4 million salary.  The cost-conscious Marlins had no intentions of keeping Piazza (or Todd Zeile, who also packed his bags for south Florida in the deal) and were looking for a second trade partner for the newly peripatetic Piazza.

The Chicago Cubs were a potential suitor for both Piazza and Zeile, but the North Siders did not believe they could re-sign Piazza once his contract expired at the end of the season.  They also did not want to part ways with their top catching and pitching prospects, who were expected to be included in the potential transaction, which in hindsight ended up being a terrible decision by the Cubs, as neither prospect ever played in the majors and both were out of baseball by the 2001 campaign.  While the Cubs were pondering the potential repercussions of dealing away their young players for a soon-to-be 30-year-old backstop, the Mets had no qualms offering their top prospects to the Marlins.

New York agreed to send a package of two former top ten overall draft picks to Florida on May 22, 1998, trading outfielder Preston Wilson (9th pick of the 1992 June amateur draft) and left-handed pitcher Geoff Goetz (picked No. 6 in 1997).  The Mets also included southpaw pitching prospect Ed Yarnall, who had gotten off to a blistering start at AA-Binghamton prior to the trade (7-0 in seven starts, 0.39 ERA, 0.793 WHIP).  And faster than you can say "fire sale", Piazza was a Met.

"I have gone from a player who thought he would spend his whole career with one organization to a player who's been with three organizations in a week," Piazza said after the trade was finalized.  "I just want to get in one place for more than a week and settle down.  I'll be with three teams in a week.  Isn't that bizarre?  It's like rotisserie baseball."

Todd Hundley, who had been a Met since Davey Johnson was manager of the team in 1990, but hadn't played a game with the club since the previous September, could have been bitter after the trade was consummated.  After all, it was his job Piazza was taking and he knew that the five-time Silver Slugger Award recipient wasn't going to give it up once Hundley returned from his elbow injury.  But Hundley took the high road after Piazza became his teammate.

"I don't have any problems with this," Hundley said about the trade.  "If he can help put a World Series ring on my finger, more power to him."

Another person who didn't have a problem with the trade was Mets' co-owner Fred Wilpon, who didn't hold back his excitement when discussing the acquisition of the erstwhile Dodgers and Marlins catcher.

"The town is ready and waiting for Mike," Wilpon said.  "They love him already and they'll love him even more."

There was a lot of love in the room when Fred Wilpon broke his piggy bank to sign Mike Piazza.  (Getty Images)

At first, Piazza got tough love from Mets fans, hearing some occasional boos from the Shea Stadium crowd during his first month as a Met because he wasn't driving in runs.  Although Piazza batted .354 in his first 24 games with the team, he only drove in seven runs, with just two of those RBI coming in his new home park.  Not helping matters was the team's inability to win games as spring turned to summer.  After winning nine straight games in late May (with eight of those wins coming after the trade), the Mets went 15-22 in their next 37 games and were in serious jeopardy of falling under the .500 mark in late July.  That's when Mike Piazza turned the boos into cheers and put the team on his back for the rest of the season.

Beginning on July 18, when Piazza recorded his first multi-homer game with the Mets, the catcher went on to post a .367/.441/.705 slash line over his next 60 games with 18 homers, 56 RBI and just 27 strikeouts.  In that time, the Mets went from being wild card pretenders to holding a one-game lead in the wild card race with five games left to play in the season.  Unfortunately, the Mets went on to lose their final five games to fall short in their playoff quest, even with Piazza reaching base nine times during the season-ending skein.

The way the season ended left a bad taste in the mouths of Mets fans, especially with the knowledge that their star catcher did not have a contract for the 1999 season.  But Piazza did not keep the fans waiting for very long, as he agreed to a seven-year, $91 million contract to stay with the team through the 2005 season just three days after the World Series ended.  Todd Hundley, who hoped Piazza would get him a championship ring, was instead traded to Piazza's original team in December.

After missing out on the postseason in 1998, Piazza and the Mets were determined to end the team's decade-long playoff drought in 1999.  But neither Piazza nor the team got off to a hot start, as Piazza was batting just .273 with four homers through May 16 and the Mets had a disappointing 27-28 record after losing their eighth consecutive ballgame - a 6-3 decision to the Yankees.  That was enough for general manager Steve Phillips, who decided a change was needed to create a spark for the team.  That change involved the firing of hitting coach Tom Robson, pitching coach Bob Apodaca and bullpen coach Randy Niemann.

"This was a tough evening for the organization," Phillips said.  "We are one-third of the way through the season and that is enough time to make an evaluation.  There is still enough time to get the ship righted."

After the triple firings at the 55-game mark of the season, manager Bobby Valentine declared, "In the next 55 games, if we're not better, I shouldn't be the manager," followed by a bold statement about the Mets needing to have a 40-15 record in those 55 contests.  The first of those 55 games came in the Subway Series finale against Roger Clemens, who had yet to lose a game as a member of the Yankees.  Then Mike Piazza happened.  And the Mets-Yankees rivalry was never the same.

Boo.  (Corey Sipkin/Daily News)

Clemens completed a perfect first inning, which included a whiff of the normally hard-to-strike-out John Olerud.  (Olerud fanned just 66 times in 723 plate appearances in 1999.)  Piazza then led off the second inning with a double to start a four-run rally against the hard-throwing right-hander.  An inning later, Olerud redeemed himself by leading off the frame with a single.  That brought up Piazza, who launched his first career home run off Clemens to break the game open.  By the time the third inning was over, Clemens had hit the showers and the Mets were up, 7-0.  They held on to win, 7-2, and the team and its new coaches were back at the .500 mark.  The Mets would never see .500 again for the rest of the season.

Piazza's two-hit effort against Clemens and the Yankees didn't just propel the Mets to victory.  It also extended his hitting streak to 11 games.  Thirteen games later, a home run against the Marlins pushed his streak to 24 games, which tied the franchise record set by Hubie Brooks in 1984.  Although he didn't quite break that team record, he continued to destroy opposing pitching, especially when it was a Yankee pitcher throwing the ball to him.

When the Yankees paid a visit to Shea Stadium to face their cross-town rivals, Piazza took full advantage, going 7-for-11 with two homers, one of which was against Clemens and the other a titanic 482-foot blast over the picnic area tent.  That Saturday matinee featured seven homers (six by the Yankees) and a walk-off two-run single by Matt Franco after Piazza had been intentionally walked by future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera.

Led by Piazza's offensive exploits, the Mets fulfilled Valentine's prophecy, going 40-15 to improve their record to 67-43 by early August.  A late-season seven-game losing streak almost doomed the Mets' chances to win the National League wild card berth, but a season-ending four-game winning streak propelled the Mets into the postseason for the first time since 1988, with Piazza reaching base eight times in the four games.  In those four victories, Piazza hit two more homers (Nos. 39 and 40) and collected his franchise record-setting 124th RBI of the season.

An injured left thumb limited Piazza's ability to catch and hit in the playoffs and caused him to miss two games in the Mets' Division Series victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks - a series won on a walk-off homer by Piazza's replacement, Todd Pratt, in the tenth inning of Game Four.  Although Piazza returned to action in the National League Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves, he still wasn't at full strength, going 4-for-24 in the series.  However, one of the four hits was a game-tying two-run homer off future Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz in Game Six that completed the Mets' comeback from an early five-run deficit.  Alas, Piazza was taken out of the game in a double switch in the ninth inning and the Mets were taken out of their season two innings later when Kenny Rogers walked in the pennant-winning run.

Piazza followed up his first full season with the Mets in 1999 with another brilliant campaign in 2000.  In addition to driving in at least one run in 15 consecutive games, which set a team record and was also the second-longest such streak in major league history, Piazza raised his batting average from .303 to .324 and his OPS went up from an already excellent .936 to a mind-boggling 1.012.  The catcher's .614 slugging percentage during the 2000 season remains the highest single-season mark in franchise history for a player who qualified for the batting title (min. 502 plate appearances).  The high point of his season came on June 30, when his three-run homer off Braves reliever Terry Mulholland capped a ten-run rally in the eighth inning of an 11-8 Mets victory.  His low point came against the Yankees, and once again Roger Clemens was involved.

In the second game of a two-stadium, day-night doubleheader on July 8, Piazza strolled up to the plate at Yankee Stadium in the second inning to face Clemens.  The year before, Piazza homered off Clemens in each of Clemens' starts against the Mets.  Piazza continued his personal home run derby against the apoplectic Texan in 2000, blasting a grand slam off Clemens on June 9.   This time, Clemens would be the one doing the hitting, as he plunked Piazza with a head-seeking missile.  The catcher lay dazed on the ground for several minutes after the violent beaning before being taken out of the game.  Diagnosed with a concussion, Piazza missed the next game against the Yankees and was also forced to sit out the All-Star Game.

Extreme close-up!  Maybe a little too extreme for Mike Piazza.  (Bill Kostroun/AP)

Piazza returned to the field after the All-Star break, but batted just .294 the rest of the year after maintaining a batting average at or above .350 for the majority of the season's first half.  This time, the Mets didn't need a season-ending winning streak to reach the playoffs, as they easily clinched the wild card to crash the postseason party for the second straight year.

Although Piazza didn't drive in any runs in Division Series victory over the San Francisco Giants, he did reach base seven times in the four games played.  Still, Piazza's postseason slash line as a Met through three series was a dismal .191/.264/.277, which was hardly what the team expected from the greatest hitting catcher of all-time.   However, there was reason for hope that Piazza would turn things around in the NLCS, as the Mets wouldn't be facing the perennial division champion Braves and their deadly pitching triumvirate of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz.  Instead, he'd be facing the St. Louis Cardinals' pitching staff, who combined to post a 4.38 ERA during the regular season and allowed a then-franchise record 196 home runs.  It didn't take long for Piazza to take over the series.

In the first inning of Game One, Piazza produced the first run of the series, driving in Timo Perez with a double.  The Mets never looked back, cruising to a 6-2 victory.  Piazza then homered and walked three times in the Mets' Game Two victory.  After the Mets lost Game Three, Piazza produced one of the team's record-setting five doubles in the first inning of Game Four.  He then homered in the fourth to give the Mets an 8-3 lead and drove in a crucial run in the sixth after the Cardinals had cut the Mets' lead to 8-6.  The Mets held on to win, 10-6, to move to within one victory of the World Series.

Mike Piazza had been to the playoffs twice as a member of the Dodgers and was in his second postseason with the Mets in 2000, but he had never come so close to making it to the Fall Classic.  And in Game Five against the Cardinals, he made sure he wouldn't have to wait another year.  Piazza walked and scored in the first inning.  He then doubled and scored in the fourth frame.  The rest was up to his battery mate, Mike Hampton, who was masterful in keeping St. Louis off the scoreboard.  And once Hampton induced a weak fly ball from Rick Wilkins in the ninth - the same Rick Wilkins who started four games behind the plate for the Mets in 1998 the week before New York acquired Piazza - the Mets were National League pennant winners for the first time since 1986 and Piazza was off to his first World Series to face an opponent with whom he had become quite familiar.

After batting .412 in the NLCS with an eye-popping 1.487 OPS in the five games, Piazza set his sights on the Yankees, who had dispatched the Seattle Mariners in six games to win their third consecutive American League pennant and fourth in five years.  Unfortunately, the Mets did not win the first Subway World Series since 1956, falling to the Yankees in five closely contested games.  But Piazza, who flew out to Bernie Williams in center field to end the series, continued his hitting assault against the Yankees.  Piazza produced four extra-base hits in the World Series (no other Met had more than two) and drove in four runs to lead the team.  Piazza also had a .636 slugging percentage in the series, while his teammates could only manage to slug .301.  The baseball wasn't the only thing Piazza tried to slug in the World Series.

In Game Two, Piazza faced Roger Clemens for the first time since his frightening beaning in July.  On the fourth pitch of his first at-bat, Piazza fouled the ball off, causing his bat to splinter into several pieces.  Not knowing where he had hit the pitch, Piazza jogged down the line to first base.  Piazza may not have known where the ball was, but he definitely knew where part of his bat was after Clemens inexcusably fired a shard of it in Piazza's direction.  As an obviously surprised Piazza started walking toward Clemens, Clemens could be seen saying that he thought it was the ball, which only made sense on Planet Roger because if he fielded "the ball", he should have thrown it to first base for the out instead of throwing the sharp projectile in the vicinity of Piazza's legs.  Both benches emptied, but no punches were thrown and no one was ejected.  But the memories of the incident, as well as the beaning from earlier in the year, stayed with Piazza and the Mets throughout the off-season, and would not be settled for two years.

But before the Mets and their catcher could defend themselves against Clemens and the Yankees, they had to defend their National League title in 2001.  Once again, Piazza was the team leader in a multitude of categories, batting .300 with 36 homers.  But for the first time in years, his teammates struggled at the plate, causing the Mets to spend most of the season below .500.  Even with Piazza's usual high batting average, the team as a whole batted .249, which was the second lowest mark in the league.  The club's .387 slugging percentage, however, was the worst in the N.L., six percentage points behind the Pittsburgh Pirates, who lost a league-high 100 games in 2001.  Because he didn't have the support of his teammates, Piazza failed to drive in 100 runs for the first time in a non-strike shortened season, finishing the year with 94 RBI.

Hero.  (Lou Requena/AP)

On the morning of August 18, the Mets appeared to be dead in the water with a 54-68 record.  But Piazza then put the team on his back and carried them back into contention.  Over his next 28 games, Piazza produced a .324/.417/.627 slash line with eight homers and 22 RBI, helping the Mets win 23 of those 28 contests to push them back over .500.  Perhaps his most important homer as a Met occurred during the team's resurgence on September 21, when Piazza took Atlanta's Steve Karsay deep in the eighth inning to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead.  That homer, which took place in the first game played at Shea Stadium after the 9/11 attacks, gave the city and the team a reason to have hope and allowed the legacy of Mike Piazza to grow even more than it already had.

"It was almost like a blur to me, almost like a dream, sort of surreal," Piazza said.  "I'm just so happy I gave people something to cheer.  There was a lot of emotion.  It was just a surreal sort of energy out there.  I'm just so proud to be a part of it tonight."

The Mets failed to qualify for the postseason in 2001, but their Piazza-infused finish allowed them to end the year with an 82-80 record - the team's fifth consecutive winning season.  The team's fortunes would come to a crashing halt the following year.

The 2002 season was a year that began with such high hopes for the Mets, as the team acquired a number of former All-Stars to join Piazza in the starting lineup.  With Roberto Alomar, Mo Vaughn and Jeromy Burnitz on the team, the Mets hoped their offensive woes of the 2001 campaign would be a thing of the past.  They couldn't have been more wrong.

Vaughn, whose average season from 1995 to 2000 produced a .306 batting average, 38 homers and 118 RBI, was only able to bat .259 with 26 homers and 72 RBI as a Met in 2002.  Likewise, Burnitz was a premier slugger in Milwaukee from 1997 to 2001, averaging 33 homers and 102 RBI per season, while posting an .875 OPS.  His 2002 campaign with the Mets saw significant drop-offs in each category (19 HR, 54 RBI, .677 OPS).  The biggest shocker was undoubtedly the performance of Alomar, who averaged 38 doubles, 21 homers, 103 RBI, 121 runs scored, 35 stolen bases and a .920 OPS per season from 1999 to 2001.  He had also appeared in a dozen consecutive All-Star Games and had won ten Gold Gloves prior to becoming a Met.  In New York, Alomar failed to be an All-Star or provide Gold Glove-caliber defense (career-worst -0.9 dWAR in 2002), and as a hitter, he was merely pedestrian, with 24 doubles, 11 homers, 53 RBI, 73 runs scored, 16 steals and a .708 OPS.

Once again, Piazza was forced to carry the offensive load on a less-than-average hitting team.  The slugger led the club with 33 homers and 98 RBI, which made him the first - and still only - Met with four seasons of 30 or more home runs.  But the wear and tear of the grueling season on his 34-year-old body caused Piazza to bat under .300 for the first time in his career, as the catcher could only manage to hit .280 in 2002.  Fortunately, his matchup against Roger Clemens and the Yankees was before the beginning of summer, which meant Piazza had all the energy he needed to exact a modicum of revenge against his Yankee nemesis.

On June 15, Clemens was set to pitch against the Mets at Shea Stadium for the first time since the bat-flinging incident in the 2000 World Series.  Clemens did not pitch against the Mets in 2001 because Yankee manager Joe Torre did not want to Mets to retaliate against the veteran headhunter, saying, "I don't see the need to have it happen.  I really don't."  In 2001, Torre had the luxury of altering his starting rotation to avoid having Clemens face Piazza and the Mets.  He didn't have that luxury in 2002, as Clemens was due to start the middle game of a three-game series at Shea.

Facing Clemens in the Saturday matinee was Shawn Estes, who had become another disappointing acquisition by general manager Steve Phillips.  After compiling a 61-42 record for the San Francisco Giants from 1997 to 2001, Estes began the 2002 season by winning just two of his first 12 starts.  He was not the ideal man to send to the mound in a much-anticipated matchup against Clemens, but unlike Torre, Mets manager Bobby Valentine didn't feel the need to change his starting rotation.  Estes took the ball, Piazza got behind the plate and the game got underway.

"It's about time you started Clemens against us.  We needed to blast off against the Rocket."  (Mark J. Terrill/AP)

The first two innings passed without incident and without a run crossing the plate.  They also passed without Roger Clemens coming to bat.  But with one out in the third inning, Clemens took a bat in his hands and strolled casually to the plate to stand directly in front of a crouching Piazza and the boos of a venomous Shea Stadium crowd.  Estes, who was pitching on the other side of the country when the Piazza-Clemens feud was in full swing in 1999 and 2000, was in charge of delivering the retaliatory message to Clemens in the form of a fastball to his six-foot, four-inch body.  The tension was palpable at the ballpark as Estes delivered his first pitch to Clemens.  Where would the pitch go?  What would it hit?  Would there be a bench-clearing brawl between the crosstown rivals?

The pitch went behind Clemens, missing him by about a foot.

For Estes, hitting a target - even one as large as Clemens' body - had never been an easy task.  As a member of the Giants, Estes had three seasons in which he walked 100 or more batters, leading the league in the category in 1997.  Estes never got to hit Clemens with a pitch, as both benches were warned by home plate umpire Wally Bell after the first pitch of the at-bat, but he did get to hit him in a different way later in the game, as did Piazza.

After not drawing Clemens' blood in the top of the third, the Mets drew first blood on the scoreboard in the bottom of the frame, as Rey Ordoñez took advantage of a vacated home plate to score all the way from second base on a sacrifice bunt attempt by Estes.  Two innings later, with the Mets still holding on to a 1-0 lead, Estes found a way to hit Clemens without being ejected from the game, as he smacked an unlikely two-run homer off the shell-shocked pitcher.  It was the first time Clemens had allowed a home run to an opposing pitcher in his 19-year career.  An inning later, Piazza stepped up to plate, and just like his battery mate had done in the previous inning, Piazza put a charge on the baseball, hitting it into the Yankees bullpen and effectively ending Clemens' day on the mound.

The home run by Piazza helped the Mets cruise to an 8-0 victory and also finally put an end to the four-season feud between him and Clemens.

"I don't think revenge mattered," Piazza said after the game.  "Hopefully today beating the Yankees and doing it the way we did is the key to getting some momentum.  That was really all we were trying to do."

Whatever momentum the Mets gained by the satisfying victory over the Yankees was short-lived, as the team bobbed up and down in a sea of mediocrity before drowning with a 12-game losing streak in August.  The Mets finished the year with a disappointing 75-86 final record - the first time Piazza had played for a sub-.500 Mets team and the club's first losing season since 1996.  The team's dismal performance led to the firing of Valentine and the hiring of new manager Art Howe.  The move did nothing to improve the team.

With the underachieving (and aging) Vaughn, Alomar and Burnitz still on the team, the Mets did not expect to do much in 2003.  Even with the acquisition of future Hall of Famer Tom Glavine and All-Star outfielder Cliff Floyd, the Mets were a team full of 30-somethings who could break with just the slightest touch.  Piazza, now in his mid-30s, was becoming more fragile.  He also was becoming all too accustomed to being thrown at by opposing pitchers.  In addition to the incidents with Clemens, Piazza had been hit in the back by Dodgers pitcher Guillermo Mota during a spring training game in 2002.  When the two faced each other again in a 2003 Grapefruit League game, all hell broke loose.

Mota, who had homered off Mets reliever Armando Benitez earlier in the game, threw his first pitch to Piazza a little too inside for the catcher's liking.  The next pitch once again hit Piazza in the back, causing the angered All-Star to charge the mound and the pathetic pitcher to run for his life, which didn't go unnoticed by Piazza's manager and teammates.

Let's get ready to rumble!  (MSG Network)

"The guy ran like a scared rabbit," Howe remarked.  "He wants to hit somebody, stand there and fight.  He can backpedal faster than I can run forward."

Also infuriated by the show of cowardice was Piazza's backup on the field, Vance Wilson, who offered his own opinion of Mota after the pitcher had done his version of backing up.

"He's gutless," Wilson said without mincing any words.  "If you want to hit somebody, be a man and face him.  Then he hid in the dugout and yelled a bunch of trash at Mike.  He's lucky Mike didn't get to him."

Piazza almost did get to Mota upon the conclusion of the game. Once the dust had settled on the field, both Piazza and Mota were ejected from the game.  A livid Piazza then tried to find Mota in the Dodgers clubhouse, but the pitcher had already left.  Several seasons of frustration from being targeted by Clemens and Mota had finally gotten to Piazza, causing the catcher to snap.  Piazza was suspended for five games for the incident and fined $3,000.

The disarray exhibited on the field during the Piazza-Mota brawl was a microcosm of the 2003 season for the Mets, as very few players managed to hold on to their everyday jobs.  In fact, the only Met to start more than 100 games at the same position was rookie Ty Wigginton, who somehow managed to start 153 games at third base.  Piazza was one of the many injury casualties in 2003, as a groin injury limited him to just 68 games.  As a result, he finished the season with career lows in home runs (11) and runs batted in (34).

With Piazza out for much of the season and the continued decline of Vaughn, Burnitz and Alomar (neither of whom played again for the Mets following the 2003 campaign), New York finished the year with a 66-95 record.  To this day, that dismal mark remains the only season the team has had with 95 or more losses since 1993.

The 2003 season was a year of transition in more ways than one.  Besides the departures of Vaughn, Burnitz and Alomar, general manager Steve Phillips was also relieved of his duties.  Change was imminent for Mike Piazza as well.  In the season's final game at Shea Stadium, Piazza traded in his catcher's mitt for a first baseman's glove, taking over the position for one inning.  Piazza hadn't played first base in the majors since July 26, 1993 when he was a rookie with the Dodgers, but he did play the position for a few innings during his rehab assignment following his groin injury.  And with that limited experience, manager Art Howe decided to give Piazza a starting job at the position in 2004.

When the curtain opened on the 2004 season, Mike Piazza and Jason Phillips were set to rotate between catcher and first base.  By the time the team had played 43 games, Piazza had started 27 games at catcher and 14 games at first base, while Phillips had caught eight games and been the team's starting first baseman 23 times.  But beginning on May 22, Howe gave Piazza more chances at first base in order to keep his top hitter fresh and in the lineup more often, especially with the team sitting with a 22-22 record after spending most of the first six weeks of the season under .500.

By mid-July, the Mets were in the thick of the N.L. East race, just one game behind the Braves and Phillies, who were tied for first place.  Piazza had started 33 out of 54 games at first base and was a key contributor at the plate, batting .360 from mid-May to late June with ten homers and a gaudy 1.081 OPS during the stretch.  But Piazza injured his left wrist in a collision with the speedy Juan Pierre at first base in late July and missed a week.  He then missed 21 games in August with a knee injury.  By the time he returned on August 30, the Mets were 15 games out of first and 10½ games behind the wild card leader.  A team that was 45-43 and in the thick of the playoff race on July 15 finished the season 20 games under .500.  Piazza's production also suffered because of his two injuries, as he batted just .200 with four homers and 14 RBI after the All-Star Break.

With the Mets completing their third consecutive losing season in 2004, the good feelings and optimism felt during Piazza's first three seasons in New York were long gone.  Piazza himself wasn't immune to the tumult, as he had to call a press conference to deny rumors about his sexuality in 2002 and then had to endure persistent accusations from Murray Chass and others about steroid usage in 2003 and 2004, all because they noticed some acne on his back.  Even becoming the game's all-time leader in home runs by a catcher in 2004 only served to temporarily brighten what was otherwise a dark period in Mets history.

By 2005, it had become clear that the Mets would not attempt to re-sign Piazza once his contract expired at the end of the season.  The same player who averaged 37 homers and 107 RBI per season over the first four years of his contract could only manage a total of 31 homers and 88 RBI between the 2003 and 2004 campaigns.  And so, under new manager Willie Randolph, Piazza played the 2005 season knowing it would be his last in front of the Shea faithful.  He would also play the year back at his more familiar position behind the plate.

After three straight losing seasons, the Mets played the entire 2005 campaign at or around the .500 mark.  But when the team lost to the Atlanta Braves on September 17 to drop their record to 72-76, it appeared as if Piazza's final year in New York would become the team's fourth consecutive season with more losses than wins.  The Mets won five of their next six games to improve to 77-77, then finally went above .500 for good on the next-to-last Sunday of the season, with Piazza having his final vintage performance for the team.  Piazza reached base four times and hit two home runs - his 17th multi-homer game as a Met - to guide the team to a 6-5 victory over the Washington Nationals.  The Mets never went back under .500 again and finished the year with an 83-79 record.

Legend.  (Kathy Willens/AP)

On the final day of the regular season, a near-sellout crowd of 47,718 gathered at Shea Stadium to celebrate the brilliant career of their long-time catcher.  And even though the team couldn't pull out a victory for their future Hall of Famer, losing the season finale to the Colorado Rockies, Piazza went out as a winner, receiving a long standing ovation from the fans in attendance at Shea Stadium when he was removed from the game in the eighth inning.  An emotional Piazza waved to the fans in appreciation, as both teams applauded from their respective dugouts.  The ovation was just as loud a year later when Piazza returned to Shea as a member of the San Diego Padres and hit two home runs against Mets pitcher (and fellow future Hall of Famer) Pedro Martinez, receiving a rare curtain call as a visiting player.

In 2016, the man who is widely considered to be the greatest hitting catcher of all-time finally made it to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on his fourth try.  Unfounded foreign substance rumors may have kept him out of Cooperstown for his first three years on the ballot, but once he entered the Hall, he was welcomed with open arms by the tens of thousands of Mets fans who made the trek to Upstate New York for the induction ceremony.  Piazza became the second player to wear a Mets cap on his Hall of Fame plaque, joining Tom Seaver, who received baseball's highest honor in 1992.  A week later, Piazza's number was retired by the Mets, as his No. 31 joined Seaver's No. 41 to become the only two numbers retired for players in franchise history.

Mike Piazza became a Met just as the team was turning the corner after a six-year slumber.  Considered the final piece of a team that was ready to win, Piazza nearly carried the team to a wild card berth in 1998.  He then produced two of the best offensive seasons in club annals and was part of the first Mets team to make back-to-back postseason appearances, culminating with the club's fourth pennant in 2000.  But as Piazza's body began to break down, so did the team.  Off-the-field issues fueled by the media coupled with on-the-field adversity caused by years of squatting behind the plate (as well as confrontations with wild, hard-throwing pitchers) contributed to a rapid decline in Piazza's production.  But during his final season in New York, Piazza was able to witness the team's rebirth, and when he returned as an opposing player the following season, he received the kind of love that's only reserved for the true legends of the game.

Piazza always reciprocated that love, showing genuine affection for the fans who cheered him on through the good times and the bad.  And when it came time for his number to be retired by the team after his Hall of Fame induction in Cooperstown, he made sure to let the fans know just how important they were to him.

"The unofficial theme of my (Hall of Fame) speech was that no one goes into the Hall of Fame alone.  Each and every one of you is in there with me," Piazza said, before pointing to his retired No. 31 and adding, "I want to say just a little bit of what it means to have my number retired for this great franchise and for you amazing fans.  That means I will always be with you.  So every time these guys are down and you need a little bit of inspiration, just give a little peek up there to old Mikey and know that I'm back home watching you guys on TV saying a lot of prayers, praying for the Mets."

Mike Piazza shouldn't just be remembered as a player who hit lots of home runs in key moments.  Rather, he should be remembered as a player who lived and died with the team just as all Mets fans did.  He thrilled the fans when he was victorious on the field, and the fans agonized with him when the team failed.  Piazza was truly one with all of us, and for that, he will always be a beloved Met.

Mike Piazza will forever be one of the greatest players to ever put on a Mets uniform.  (Jim McIsaac/Newsday)

Note: The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of the Mets is a thirteen-part weekly series spotlighting those Mets players and personnel who experienced the best of times and the worst of times with the team.  For previous installments, please click on the names below:

January 2, 2017: Tom Seaver

One Mo-MET In Time: Shawn Estes

The 1999 season marked the first time that both the Mets and Yankees qualified for the postseason in the same year.  Although the two teams failed to meet in the World Series in 1999, they did provide several memorable moments during their regular season matchups, including Matt Franco's game-winning hit against Mariano Rivera on July 10.

But the day before the Franco walk-off, the Mets used a late three-run homer by catcher Mike Piazza off Yankees starter Roger Clemens to break a 2-2 tie in a game the Mets eventually won, 5-2.  It was Piazza's second career homer off Clemens, with the first one coming in the Rocket's previous start against the Mets a month earlier at Yankee Stadium.

One year later, Piazza continued his torrid hitting against Clemens, launching a grand slam to straightaway center field - just the second grand slam allowed by Clemens in 17 seasons - to help the Mets cruise to a 12-2 victory.  A single in his next plate appearance gave Piazza seven hits in 12 at-bats against Clemens, including three homers and nine RBI.   The next time Clemens started a game against the Mets, he hit Piazza in the helmet with a fastball, knocking the Mets catcher out of the game.  General manager Steve Phillips shared his thoughts on the beaning after the game, saying, "I don't know if things are ever over.  Guys have long memories in baseball."

Things weren't over between Clemens and Piazza.  And apparently, the memory of Piazza's ownership of Clemens resonated more with the Rocket than it did with the Mets' All-Star catcher.

When the two teams squared off in the 2000 World Series, Piazza faced Clemens for the first time since he was the target of Clemens's head-seeking missile.  It only took four pitches for Clemens to once again have Piazza in his sights, although this time it was with a broken bat instead of a fastball.  Swinging on a 1-2 pitch, Piazza hit a foul ball that shattered his bat into several pieces, with one of the shards bouncing toward the pitcher's mound.  Instinctively, Clemens fielded the sharp piece of wood, then threw it in the direction of a dumbfounded Piazza, claiming that he thought it was the ball.  Never mind that Clemens's initial reaction was to hop around as if a spear was coming right at him (which it was) instead of a spherical, blunt object (which it wasn't).

The Yankees went on to win the game and the World Series.  Although Clemens was fined $50,000 for his unexpected javelin toss, he could easily afford to pay for it with his World Series-winning share of $294,783.41.  A year later, Clemens didn't have to worry about retaliation by the Mets because Yankees manager Joe Torre went out of his way to ensure that Clemens wouldn't have to pitch at Shea Stadium, where he'd be forced to bat.

By the 2002 season, much had changed for the crosstown rivals.  The Yankees were no longer the defending World Series champions and the Mets were no longer playoff contenders in the National League.  One thing that hadn't changed was that the Mets were still fuming over Roger Clemens and his approach to facing Mike Piazza.  Three years after Piazza took Clemens deep for the first time and two years after Clemens aimed a fastball and a fast bat in the direction of Piazza's body, the stage was set for Clemens to finally step up to the plate as a hitter at Shea Stadium.  And it was up to a new member of the Mets - one who wasn't present for each of the previous incidents - to show Clemens exactly how the Mets felt about him.

Shawn Estes may have missed Roger Clemens with a pitch, but he didn't miss a Roger Clemens pitch.  (Getty Images)

Aaron Shawn Estes was a former first round draft pick who had his share of ups and downs in the big leagues.  In 1997, Estes was an All-Star for San Francisco, going 19-5 with a 3.18 ERA to help the Giants reach the playoffs for just the fifth time in 40 seasons in the Bay Area.  But the '97 campaign was also the first of three seasons that Estes reached triple digits in walks.  Estes was never known for his control, as evidenced by his 521 walks in seven seasons as a Giant, a number that puts him in the team's top 20 in free passes - a team that has been in existence since 1883 and has used 731 pitchers through the 2014 season.

When Mets general manager Steve Phillips wanted to overhaul the team after it barely finished above .500 in 2001, he added several former All-Stars to the roster (Roberto Alomar, Mo Vaughn) and re-acquired players who used to call Flushing home (Jeromy Burnitz, Roger Cedeño).  Phillips also looked to bolster his pitching staff, sending utility infielder Desi Relaford and popular outfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo to the Giants in exchange for Estes.

Estes's first win as a Met was a complete-game, one-hit shutout on April 26, a game in which the left-hander didn't allow a base runner until the seventh inning.  Ironically, Estes's masterpiece came against Milwaukee's Glendon Rusch, the pitcher he essentially replaced in New York's starting rotation and the last hurler to start a one-hitter for the Mets.  (Rusch combined with Armando Benitez on a one-hitter in 2001.)

Following his gem against the Brewers, Estes struggled mightily.  The southpaw won just one of his next seven starts, posting a 5.84 ERA and allowing opposing hitters to bat .343 against him.  Not once in those seven starts did Estes pitch into the seventh inning and in five of the seven outings, he failed to pitch more than five innings.  Needless to say, Estes was not winning over many fans in New York, especially after a five-inning, six-run debacle against the Indians on June 9 that brought him into his first Subway Series experience in his next start.  And what a start it would be, as Estes would be facing none other than Roger Clemens in his first Shea Stadium appearance since the 1999 season.

Shawn Estes was toiling a coast away in San Francisco during the 1999 and 2000 seasons when the Clemens-Piazza feud was at its peak.  But it would fall upon Estes to protect his new battery mate by sending a message to Clemens and the Yankees that the Mets were not going to be bullied by anyone.  On an unusually cool mid-June afternoon at Shea Stadium, the tension was palpable.  Estes started the game by striking out four of the first eight Yankee batters to face him.  That brought up Roger Clemens, as Public Enemy No. 1 was also Yankee batter No. 9.

With all eyes in the Shea Stadium crowd focused on the Estes-Clemens matchup, Estes fired his first pitch to the plate.  Naturally, aiming at a particular target - even a six-foot, four inch target - wasn't a strong suit for a pitcher who had walked 100 or more batters in a season three times in his career.  Estes's first pitch went behind Clemens, missing his rear end by about a foot.  Home plate umpire Wally Bell issued warnings to both dugouts and Clemens continued his at-bat against Estes, eventually striking out on a 3-2 pitch.

To most fans at the time, Estes had failed in doing his job, just as he had done in most of his starts during the season's first two months.  Striking out Clemens wasn't what they wanted to see.  Striking him was.  And by not doing so, the two-year wait for retribution lingered on.  After Estes retired the side in order in the top of the third, it was his turn to take a bat in his hands to face Clemens.  Although Estes's sacrifice bunt did allow shortstop Rey Ordoñez to score all the way from second base - the Yankees left home plate unattended - to give the Mets an early lead, it still didn't give fans what they desired.  Two innings later, Estes made up for missing Clemens in the third.  He didn't miss this time.

Shawn Estes hits Roger Clemens in a way no one expected.  (Photo by Steve Crandall/Reuters)

With the Mets clinging to a 1-0 lead in the fifth, Roger Cedeño led off the inning with a double down the left field line.  Rey Ordoñez then swung away at the first pitch he saw, flying out to center fielder Bernie Williams, which left Cedeño at second and brought up Shawn Estes.  Had there been no outs, Estes would have been instructed to bunt the runner to third base.  But with one out, Estes was allowed to swing away - and what a swing it was!

Estes hit a high fly ball down the left field line that cleared the outfield wall for a jaw-dropping two-run homer.  Estes's first hit as a Met - he began the season by going 0-for-18 - was not the first time he had taken an opposing pitcher deep, as he had homered once in 1997 and also hit a grand slam in 2000.  But it was the first time Clemens had ever allowed a long ball to a fellow moundsman in his 19-year career.  (Clemens would allow just one more homer to an opposing pitcher, serving up a two-run shot to Montreal Expos starting pitcher Jon Rauch in 2004.  It was one of only 11 starts made by Rauch in his career and his only home run.)

Clemens would later stroke a double off Estes in the top of the sixth - just the third hit of the Rocket's career - but was left stranded on the bases.  If Clemens thought he had gotten some sort of payback off Estes by banging out an extra-base hit of his own, he was in for a rude awakening when he went back to the mound for the bottom of the sixth when his nemesis, Mike Piazza, stepped into the batter's box to lead off the inning.

Piazza, who claimed that he "never really went to the plate with any ulterior motive",  took Clemens's first offering and deposited it over the wall to give the Mets a 4-0 lead.  Clemens was never allowed to finish the sixth inning, as he was taken out of the game two batters later.  The Mets went on the win the game, 8-0, with Estes picking up his third win of the season.

Estes pitched seven shutout innings against the Yankees, allowing five hits, one walk and matching a career high with 11 strikeouts.  But despite pitching (and hitting) beautifully against the Yankees in June, Estes became a former Met less than two months later.  The southpaw would win just one more game in New York, as he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in August as part of a package that netted the team long-time middle reliever Pedro Feliciano.

Roger Clemens had been disliked by Mets fans since the 1986 World Series, when he was seen clean-shaven prior to what he thought was going to be a championship-clinching win by his team at the time, the Boston Red Sox.  (Clemens had a five-o'clock shadow during the game, but shaved off his stubble in anticipation of a celebratory post-game interview that never happened.)  More than a decade later, Clemens infuriated fans once again when he took out beloved catcher Mike Piazza with a fastball to the helmet, then tried to do the same with a broken bat in that season's Fall Classic.

The Mets waited patiently for two seasons to get their revenge on Clemens.  The opportunity almost passed them by when Shawn Estes failed to hit Clemens with a pitch on a cool June day in 2002.  But before the day was over, Estes found a different way to hit Clemens, shaming him more than a fastball to the body ever could.  Piazza also exacted a modicum of payback against Clemens by homering off him an inning after Estes took him out of the park.  It turned out to be Piazza's final hit off Clemens after spending the previous half-decade hitting rockets off the Rocket.

''I don't think revenge mattered.  Hopefully today beating the Yankees and doing it the way we did is the key to getting some momentum.  That was really all we were trying to do.''

--Mike Piazza, following the June 15, 2002 game against the Yankees 


Shawn Estes never did bolster the starting rotation as general manager Steve Phillips expected, going 4-9 with a 4.55 ERA in 23 starts.  But he did provide the team and its fans with one magical day at Shea Stadium.  Estes was pitching across the country when the bad blood between Clemens and Piazza started to boil in 1999.  But when the book on the storied feud was closed, it was Estes who provided one of the final chapters, nailing a Roger Clemens pitch just two innings after he failed to nail Clemens at the plate.

A total of 72 players in Mets history (through the 2014 season) finished their careers in New York with just one home run to their credit.  Of those six dozen players, none of them hit a blast that resonated more with Mets fans than the one hit by Shawn Estes on June 15, 2002.

The man who came to New York with a history of being wild around the plate couldn't hit Roger Clemens with a pitch (yet still managed to get fined $750 for his efforts).  However, he did hit Clemens where it hurt the most - his ego - when he did something no pitcher had ever done before against him.  And in doing so, he helped provide closure to one of ugliest pitcher-batter feuds in recent memory.

Shawn Estes couldn't have picked a better time to have his one memorable moment as a Met.


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:

January 5, 2015: Mookie Wilson 
January 12, 2015: Dave Mlicki
January 19, 2015: Steve Henderson 
January 26, 2015: Ron Swoboda
February 2, 2015: Anthony Young
February 9, 2015: Tim Harkness
February 16, 2015: Kenny Rogers, Aaron Heilman, Tom Glavine
February 23, 2015: Mike Vail
March 2, 2015: Matt Franco

Celebrating Pi Day - Studious Metsimus Style!

Happy π Day, everyone!  For those of you who do not know what that squiggly symbol is, it's the Greek letter "pi".  Math geeks such as myself know that in geometry, pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.  In numbers, the value of this constant is approximately 3.14, or 3.14159265359 if you're not into the whole brevity thing.

Since today is 3/14, that makes today Pi Day.  (Get it?  Just say you do so we can move on.)  As a lover of all things statistical and mathematical, I decided to have some fun with today's celebration of Pi Day by coming up with Mets players who have pi in their eyes - and it has nothing to do with Justin Turner sneaking up behind them.

It's always a good time for pie ... and Pi!

Three pitchers have posted a 3.14 career ERA as Mets.  Those three "pi"-tchers are:

• Sid Fernandez (1984-93): 553 earned runs in 1,584⅔ innings.
• Willie Blair (1998): 10 earned runs in 28⅔ innings.
• Mike Hampton (2000): 76 earned runs in 217⅔ innings.

No pitcher has ever had a .314 winning percentage as a Met.  But four pitchers came painfully close, as Willard Hunter (1962, 1964), Randy Jones (1981-82) and Shawn Estes (2002) finished their Met careers with a .308 winning percentage, while Ray Burris (1979-80) and Frank Tanana (1993) were slightly better at .318.

Turk Wendell once pitched in nine consecutive games for the Mets, but had he pitched 1⅓ more innings, he would have finished his Met career with exactly 314 innings pitched.  Similarly, no Met has ever pitched in exactly 314 games, but if Bobby Parnell appears in exactly 65 games in 2013, he will go into the 2013-14 offseason with 314 pitching appearances as a Met.

Speaking of the Mets' closer-in-waiting, should Parnell make those 65 appearances, while pitching exactly 57⅔ innings and striking out 79 batters, he would win the Triple Crown of Pi, as he would finish the year with 314 lifetime innings pitched and 314 strikeouts, to go with his 314 games pitched.

And what about the hitters, you ask?  Well, ask and ye shall receive.

John Olerud has the highest career batting average of any Mets player (minimum 2,000 plate appearances), collecting 524 hits in 1,662 at-bats.  But if the official scorer had changed two of his hits to errors, Olerud would have finished his career with a .314 batting average as a Met.  I'm sure no one except pi enthusiasts are complaining about his .315 average while wearing orange and blue.

Remember Larry Elliot and Bill Spiers?  No?  Well, they both finished their Met careers with a .314 on-base percentage.  Elliot achieved his relatively low OBP from 1964 to 1966, while Spiers was fortunate to have been with the Mets in 1995 and not a decade and a half later when Sandy Alderson would have chastised him for not taking more pitches.

If Bill Spiers had fought to get on base as hard as he fought this fan on the field, perhaps he would have had a higher OBP.

Rey Ordoñez (.310) and Buddy Harrelson (.287) both had notoriously low slugging percentages.  But only Billy Cowan finished his Mets career with a .314 slugging percentage.  Almost half (13) of his 28 hits as a Met went for extra bases, which usually translates to a high slugging percentage.  Of course, having a .179 overall batting average can tend to keep a slugging percentage down.  (Ordoñez and Harrelson hit like batting champions compared to Cowan.)

Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Jerry Grote have almost nothing in common.  But a quick look at their cumulative stats reveals their one commonality.  No Met hitter has ever collected exactly 314 doubles, 314 homers, 314 RBIs, 314 stolen bases, 314 walks or 314 strikeouts.  But Nieuwenhuis currently has exactly 314 plate appearances as a Met while Grote scored 314 runs for New York.  They are the only two players in Mets history to have a "314" under any of the cumulative stats.


Okay, kids.  That's it for your Pi Day lesson.  Let's recap what we learned today:

• Sid Fernandez was really good for a really long time.
• Shawn Estes couldn't win and couldn't hit Roger Clemens with a pitch.
• Bobby Parnell could be living the Life of Pi after this season.
• John Olerud didn't need Bobby Bonilla to call the official scorer to change an error to a hit.
• Larry Elliot and Bill Spiers would have made Sandy Alderson angry.
• Billy Cowan couldn't hit his weight as a Met.
• Kirk Nieuwenhuis has as many plate appearances as he has vowels in his last name.

I hope you were able to celebrate Pi Day responsibly with your friends and family.  Now if only the Mets could win 3.14 games for every game they lose this season, then we'd all have a good reason to celebrate.

Happy π Day!

A Not-So-Brief Discussion On No-Hitters And The Mets

When R.A. Dickey gave up a second-inning double to the Braves' Freddie Freeman during today's rubber match, it marked the 7,980th consecutive game that a Mets pitcher has failed to pitch a no-hitter.  How many games have the Mets played in their half century of existence?  7,980.

Barring any rainouts or (heaven forbid) an actual no-hitter in the next 20 games, the Mets' streak will reach 8,000 games on Friday, May 11 when the team plays the Miami Marlins in their new park for the first time.  These are the same Marlins who have only been in existence since 1993, but have registered four no-hitters of their own (tossed by Al Leiter, Kevin Brown, A.J. Burnett and Anibal Sanchez).

As of this writing, there have been 272 no-hitters in major league history, with 229 of them occurring in the modern era (since the forming of the American League in 1901).  The Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers have pitched the most no-hitters in history with 20, while the Mets and San Diego Padres have yet to pitch their first.

Of course, may of those 272 hitless games took place before the Mets came into existence in 1962.  Since the Mets played the first of their 7,980 games, there have been a total of 129 no-hitters pitched in the big leagues.  Let's look at that list to see what random goodies we can find.

Tom Seaver came oh-so-close to pitching a no-hitter for the Mets on several occasions.

When the Mets came into the league in 1962, they were one of two teams to join the National League.  The Houston Colt .45s (you know them as the Astros) were also National League neophytes in 1962, but they didn't take very long to join the no-hit parade.  On May 17, 1963, Houston's Don Nottebart pitched the first no-hitter in the team's short history, holding the Philadelphia Phillies hitless (but not scoreless) in a 4-1 victory.  If you just said "Don who?" when you read the last sentence, you're probably not alone.  It was one of only 36 wins in Nottebart's nine-year career, a career in which he was used mostly as a reliever (Nottebart appeared in 296 games in the majors, of which only 89 were starts).

Although the Mets have never pitched a no-hitter, they have had three occasions in which a no-hitter was taken into the ninth inning, with Tom Seaver being on the mound for all three.  Of course, the one everyone remembers is the "imperfect game".  On July 9, 1969, Seaver was two outs away from a perfect game when the Cubs' Jimmy Qualls broke up the bid with a single.  "The Franchise" retired the next two hitters and settled for a one-hit shutout.  Seaver's mound opponent that night, Ken Holtzman, clearly learned a thing or two from watching Tom Terrific's performance.  On August 19, exactly 41 days after No. 41's near-perfecto, Holtzman pitched the first of his two career no-hitters.  You just can't make that stuff up.

Tom Seaver took two other no-hitters into the ninth inning during his tenure with the Mets.  On July 4, 1972, in the first game of an Independence Day doubleheader, Seaver once again recorded 25 outs before allowing his first hit (although this time he mixed in four walks).  But the Padres' Leron Lee broke up Seaver's no-hit bid in the ninth with a one-out single to center, just one batter before Nate Colbert ended the game by grounding into a double play.  Three years later, Seaver was once again on the precipice of baseball immortality, but this time he got a little closer.

On September 24, 1975, six years after his first date with no-hit destiny, Seaver held the Cubs hitless through eight innings.  After striking out Don Kessinger and Rick Monday to start the ninth inning, Seaver became the first Met to come within one out of a no-hitter.  There was only one problem.  He wasn't winning the game at the time.  The Mets and Cubs were locked in a scoreless battle when Joe Wallis came up to the plate with two outs in the ninth.  If Seaver had retired Wallis, he'd have pitched nine hitless innings, but would technically not have pitched a no-hitter since the game would not have ended there.  Alas, Seaver did not retire Wallis, as the Cubs' rightfielder broke up the no-hit bid with a single.  The game went into extra innings, with Seaver allowing two more hits in the tenth, before Skip Lockwood lost the game in the 11th on a single and three walks.

No other pitcher has taken a no-hitter into the ninth inning for the Mets, but Tom Glavine and John Maine came the closest to doing so, both pitching 7⅔ hitless innings in their gems in 2004 and 2007, respectively.  (Dang you, Kit Pellow and Paul Hoover, for being the no-names who broke up those no-hitters!)

Despite not having a no-hitter to their credit, the Mets have pitched 35 one-hitters, with one coming in the post-season (Bobby Jones' NLDS-clinching victory over San Francisco in 2000).  However, a number of the pitchers who participated in these one-hitters went on to pitch no-hitters elsewhere.  The first pitcher who comes to mind is Nolan Ryan, who pitched a record seven no-hitters over his career, but never threw one for the Mets.  He did pitch one of the team's 35 one-hitters, allowing only a first-inning single to the Phillies' Denny Doyle on April 18, 1970.  (Ironically, Ryan's mound opponent in the game was Jim Bunning, who pitched a perfect game against the Mets in 1964.)  Other pitchers who hurled one-hitters for the Mets and then went on to pitch a no-hitter elsewhere include Tom Seaver (June 16, 1978 for the Cincinnati Reds), Dwight Gooden (May 14, 1996 for the New York Yankees) and David Cone (July 18, 1999, also for the Yankees).

Shawn Estes (left), Tom Seaver (center) and R.A. Dickey (right) have combined to throw 20% of the Mets' 35 one-hitters.  But Estes and Dickey have a long way to go to match The Franchise in wins.

Ryan, Seaver, Gooden and Cone are the only four pitchers to throw a one-hitter for the Mets before pitching a no-hitter elsewhere.  However, they are not the only four who played for the Mets but pitched a no-hitter elsewhere.  In fact, there have been a few former Mets who pitched no-hitters after leaving New York and even more who pitched their no-hitters before joining the Mets.

Mike Scott had a lackluster career for the Mets, to say the least, going 14-27 for New York from 1979 to 1982.  But once he became a Houston Astro and learned the split-finger fastball from original Met Roger Craig, his career took off.  Four years after throwing his final pitch for the Mets, Scott threw the last pitch of the first division-clinching no-hitter in league history.  Another former Met who threw a no-hitter after leaving New York was Hideo Nomo, who pitched for the Mets in 1998 and then pitched a no-hitter for the Boston Red Sox in 2001.  Nomo also threw a no-hitter before joining the Mets, victimizing the Colorado Rockies in 1996 while a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In addition to Nomo, nine other pitchers threw no-hitters before coming to the Mets.  Those lucky nine include:

• Don Cardwell: no-hitter in 1960 (Chicago Cubs); was a Met from 1967-1970
• Warren Spahn: no-hitters in 1960 and 1961 (Milwaukee Braves); was a Met in 1965
• Dean Chance: no-hitter in 1967 (Minnesota Twins); was a Met in 1970
• Dock Ellis: no-hitter in 1970 while tripping on acid (Pittsburgh Pirates); was a Met in 1979
• John Candelaria: no-hitter in 1976 (Pittsburgh Pirates); was a Met in 1987
• Bret Saberhagen: no-hitter in 1991 (Kansas City Royals); was a Met from 1992-1995
• Scott Erickson: no-hitter in 1994 (Minnesota Twins); was a Met in 2004
• Kenny Rogers: perfect game in 1994 (California Angels); was a Met in 1999
• Al Leiter: no-hitter in 1996 (Florida Marlins); was a Met from 1998 to 2004

Notice that of the ten total pitchers (including Nomo), only three (Cardwell, Saberhagen, Leiter) were with the Mets for more than one season.   If the Mets were hoping to get some of that no-hit magic from the other seven when they acquired them, they realized quickly that their best days were long behind them.

A no-no before New York.  A no-no after New York.  But no no-no for Nomo in New York.  No fair.

Finally, not every streak that involves a no-hit drought involves the Mets.  As mentioned earlier, almost every team has pitched at least one no-hitter and several teams have pitched more than a handful.  But the Mets aren't alone when it comes to no-hit futility.  In fact, the Mets' 50-year streak without a no-hitter isn't the longest a team has gone without one.  That "honor" belongs to the Philadelphia Phillies, who once went 58 years without a no-no.  After Johnny Lush kept the Brooklyn Superbas (that's what the Dodgers called themselves back then) hitless on May 1, 1906, no Phillies pitcher was able to match Lush's performance until Jim Bunning turned the trick with a perfect game on June 21, 1964 against the Mets.  Although Bunning's gem was the second of six no-hitters pitched against the Mets, it remains the only perfect game tossed against New York.

So there you have it, my friends.  You've just read my not-so-brief discussion on the Mets and their history (or lack of) with no-hitters.  By this time next month, the Mets might have played their 8,000th consecutive game without celebrating a no-no.  But the Mets have been known to surprise us in the past, and the possibility remains, however slim, that the streak will end before it reaches the magic 8,000-game mark.

Hey, if Don Nottebart could do it, than why can't a Met?  It's just one of those incredible things that makes baseball (and being a Mets fan) so amazin'.


Epilogue:  On April 21, 2012, just three days after this discussion was originally posted, former Met Philip Humber pitched a perfect game for the Chicago White Sox.  It was the 18th no-hitter in White Sox history and the third perfect game.  It was also the third no-hitter in the past six seasons for the Pale Hose.  Adding to the Mets connection, in each of the last two no-hitters (both of which were perfect games), a former Met was involved.  Mark Buehrle's perfect game in 2009 was caught by former Met Ramon Castro and Humber's perfect game saw Robin Ventura in the dugout as the White Sox manager.

So here's a tip to fans of no-hitters.  If you want to see one in person, find a major league matchup that features the most former Mets.  Your chances to be an eyewitness to history will increase dramatically if you do.