NY Sports Dog: Jerry Grote

Monday, April 5, 2010

Mets Look to Win Fifth Consecutive Opening Day Game

by Dave Singer

Good morning Mets fans, the long awaited day is finally here.

As I wrote last week, the Mets have an amazing opening day record. It's an astounding record actually.

The team is currently on a 4 game opening day win streak, and today they go for number 5 with Johan on the hill for the third consecutive opening day.

2009. Mon, Apr 6 at CIN W (2-1) Santana
2008. Mon, Mar 31 at FLA W (7-2) Santana
2007. Sun, Apr 1 at STL W (6-1) Glavine
2006. Mon, Apr 3 vs WSN W (3-2) Glavine

Two other other opening day Met records courtesy of The Happy Recap.

The Longest Mets Opening Day Hit Streak:
Seven games. This record belongs to future Hall of Famer Mike Piazza, who had at least one hit in every Met opener from 1999 through 2005. David Wright has had at least one hit in every Met opener from 2005 through 2009, so he has a currently live streak of five.

Most Opening Day games Played as a Met:
Tom Seaver and Bud Harrelson 11
Jerry Grote, Cleon Jones and Ed Kranepool 10
Howard Johnson 9

After losing their first 8 opening day games in a row (the Mets were shut out in the 60s), the Mets are 31-9 on opening day since 1970. They’ve also hold the longest current opening day winning streak (four in a row).

Finally, I just checked, then double checked--Tim Foli will not be in today's lineup.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Interesting Facts: All-Time Mets Records

by Dave Singer

I'm getting a bit tired of the countdown to spring training writeups, and the various "who did well and poorly over the winter" rants bashing the Mets, so I've been going through the Mets all-time stats courtesy of the Ultimate Mets Database (Ultimatemets) and found some interesting facts.

Here are a few:

David Wright will break the Doubles record the first month of the season:

1.	Ed Kranepool	225
2.	David Wright	222
3.	Howard Johnson	214
4.	Edgardo Alfonzo	212
5.	Mike Piazza	193
6.	Darryl Strawberry	187
7.	Cleon Jones	182
8.	Mookie Wilson	170
9.	Carlos Beltran	167
10.	José Reyes	162

Feared slugger Rey Ordonez is 6th all-time in Mets Intentional Walks:

1.	Darryl Strawberry	108
2.	Howard Johnson	101
3.	Ed Kranepool	89
4.	Mike Piazza	82
5.	Jerry Grote	70
6.	Rey Ordóñez	64
7.	Keith Hernandez	59
8.	Rusty Staub	56
9.	Todd Hundley	51
10.	Cleon Jones	42

Lance Johnson has the highest Batting Average of any player with at least 500 Met at-bats:

	Name	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	TB	Avg.	Slg.	OBP
1.	Lance Johnson	947	160	309	41	27	10	434	.326	.458	.369
2.	John Olerud	1662	288	524	109	5	63	832	.315	.501	.425
3.	David Wright	3185	552	983	222	13	140	1651	.309	.518	.389
4.	Tommy Davis	577	72	174	32	0	16	254	.302	.440	.342
5.	Rickey Henderson	534	106	159	31	0	12	226	.298	.423	.416
6.	Keith Hernandez	3164	455	939	159	10	80	1358	.297	.429	.387
7.	Paul Lo Duca	957	126	284	57	2	14	387	.297	.404	.334
8.	Mike Piazza	3478	532	1028	193	2	220	1885	.296	.542	.373
9.	Edgardo Alfonzo	3897	614	1136	212	14	120	1736	.292	.445	.367
10.	Dave Magadan	2088	275	610	110	11	21	805	.292	.386	.391

Pedro Feliciano will move into second place all-time this year in Pitching Appearances:

1.	John Franco	695
2.	Tom Seaver	401
3.	Jerry Koosman	376
4.	Jesse Orosco	372
5.	Pedro Feliciano	367
6.	Tug McGraw	361
7.	Armando Benitez	333
8.	Dwight Gooden	305
9.	Aaron Heilman	305
10.	Jeff Innis	288

Among pitchers with 50 decisions as a Met, Doc Gooden stands alone at the top of an impressive list of hurlers:

Name	W	L	Pct.
	1.	Dwight Gooden	157	85	.649
	2.	Rick Reed	59	36	.621
	3.	Tom Seaver	198	124	.615
	4.	David Cone	81	51	.614
	5.	Ron Darling	99	70	.586
	6.	Al Leiter	95	67	.586
	7.	Pedro Martinez	32	23	.582
	8.	Bret Saberhagen	29	21	.580
	9.	Rick Aguilera	37	27	.578
	10.	Bobby Jones	74	56	.569