Category Archives: 1999 Project

1999 Project

1999 Project: Games 26-28

Click here for an intro/manifesto on The 1999 Project.

May 3, 1999: Mets 5, Astros 3

This was another highly anticipated series. For one thing, the Astros had playoff aspirations, which was reasonable, given they won 102 games the year before. For another, the two teams had some unresolved issues from the previous season.

In 1998, the Mets won three out of four at the Astrodome in a thrilling late September series, the last victory aided by a dramatic homer by Mike Piazza off of Houston closer/future Met Billy Wagner with two out in the ninth inning. The wins catapulted the Mets into the wild card lead (briefly, as it turned out), and also planted the seeds for some serious hostility.

In the only game the Astros won, (another future Met) Derek Bell admired a home run just a bit too long, drawing the ire of reliever Turk Wendell. This led to a few beanballs and chin music the rest of the series and carried over into the teams’ spring training meetings in 1999. Despite all of this, Wendell insisted all was well between the two teams (he and Wagner were real close, or so he said). Craig Biggio was not so sure.

I don’t want to comment on it…There’s been some stuff that’s happened here. Baseball usually takes care of itself. We just play.

In the 1999 series opener, Roger Cedeno subbed for Rickey Henderson in left and had a Henderson-esque day, swiping two bags, scoring two runs, and turning a single into a double. The Mets struck for four runs in the first inning against Chris Holt–although right fielder Mike Kinkade drove in a run by being struck with the ball with the bases loaded–and never looked back.

The Astros pulled close on a two-run homer by (yet another future Met) Richard Hidalgo, but Cedeno’s double and subsqeuent scoring plated a much needed insurance run. In his first start since coming off the disabled list, Rick Reed threw six solid innings, despite having nothing but his fastball to work with. John Franco set down Houston 1-2-3 in the ninth for his tenth save in as many chances.

May 4, 1999: Astros 6, Mets 1

hampton.jpgAl Leiter threw six good innings, limiting the Astros to just one run. Unfortunately, he continued to pitch after that.

In the seventh, after getting two quick outs, the lefty gave up a triple to opposing pitcher/still yet another future Met/school system critic Mike Hampton, who was not yet known as a good-hitting pitcher (at the time, his lifetime batting average was .192). This was followed immediately by an RBI double to Biggio and a two-run homer to Bell.

Despite a 4-1 deficit, Leiter had a reasonable pitch count and came out to start the eighth. But he gave up hits to the first three batters he faced and was promptly lifted.

This was the second time in a month that Leiter was left in to absorb more damage after a big inning, but the pitcher didn’t blame Bobby Valentine. “If anything, I’m more pissed off at myself,” Leiter said after the game.

May 5, 1999: Astros 5, Mets 4

This game wasn’t Armando Benitez’s first failure as a Met, but it was probably the one that began the Benitez Rumblings. The ones that lingered from his days in Baltimore, where it was said he was incapable of getting The Big Outs. (You know, those rumblings that turned out to be totally true.)

The Mets took a 4-3 lead into the eighth. Bobby Jones threw five decent innings and the bullpen held the Astros at bay until the eighth. Benitez came on and promptly walked thoroughly anemic batter Chris Spiers. He retired Biggio and Bell with little incident, but then gave up a two-run homer to Jeff Bagwell, thus giving the Astros the 5-4 lead they would never relinquish.

The Mets put threatened briefly in their half of the eighth, after a walk and a hit batter with two out. But then Wagner was called on for a four-out save, and the closer promptly struck out all four men he faced. It was a disappointing loss, as the Daily News pointed out:

there’s a big difference between a 7-2 home stand and 6-3 when you lose the last one. Or more specifically when you lose a game you figured you had won.

1999 Project

1999 Project: Games 23-25

Click here for an intro/manifesto on The 1999 Project.

dusty2.jpgApril 30, 1999: Mets 7, Giants 2

Despite the early date, this series against the Giants was seen as important, as San Francisco was deemed a potential wild-card rival. The year before, the Giants had done the virtual opposite of what the Mets did: win four of their last five and force a wild card playoff game with the Cubs (which they lost).

For such grit and determination, Giants skipper Dusty Baker was lauded as a “players’ manager” by Mike Piazza, and someone who will “find a way to get [his players] to overachieve” by an Arizona assistant GM. “Similar comments are not heard about Bobby Valentine”, the Times noted tartly, while also insisting, “it’s important, for their confidence at least, for the Mets to make a strong showing against the Giants this weekend.”

In the first game, they didn’t make a strong showing so much as stand around while the Giants made a very weak one. New York capitalized on a disastrous first inning by future Met/Clemens scapegoat Shawn Estes, who ceded four runs in the frame–two of them scoring on a balk and a wild pitch. Both Baker and the always even tempered Jeff Kent screamed encouraging words at Estes during his rough inning, to no effect.

Allen Watson–recent inductee into Christ the King High School’s Sports Hall of Fame–pitched five solid innings, and the bullpen held the healthy lead it was given. Robin Ventura finished a triple short of the cycle.

May 1, 1999: Mets 9, Giants 4

Orel Hershiser played with danger throughout the game. He loaded the bases twice in six innings, walked four, hit a batter, and allowed a runner to advance on an errant pickoff move. But the offense came to his defense, particularly a grand slam by Brian McRae in the bottom of the sixth that put the game away for the Mets.

It took some craft for Hershiser to come away with a win. He loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth by walking the opposing pitcher, but struck out Marvin Benard and got a groundout from Armando Rios to escape by the skin of his teeth. In the top of the sixth, he decided to pitch from the stretch with no one on base, and recorded his only 1-2-3 inning of the night.

Hershiser believed his W was as much a product of luck as guile. “I could easily be giving losing interviews, telling you why I was so bad,” he told the Daily News.

May 2, 1999: Mets 2, Giants 0

Masato Yoshii and Kirk Reuter matched up in an unlikely pitchers’ duel. Yoshii pitched six scoreless innings, and Reuter countered with seven of his own. There were only two extra base hits all game–both for the Giants, both stranded.

Yoshii was in desperate need of a solid start. Or a decent start. Or just a not-completely-horrible start. But with a move back to his original pitching motion, he regained his control and his confidence. The performance quieted (at least for one day) the calls for him to be replaced in the rotation by Allen Watson, or Octavio Dotel, or Jason Isringhausen, or an as-yet-acquired pitcher, or Anybody But Yoshii.

Yoshii delivered, but would not get a decision. The W went to Dennis Cook, who turned in two scoreless innings and earned his fifth relief win of the young season. Although the win probably should have been awarded to the winds that swirled around Shea.

Giants reliever John Johnstone easily retired the first two batters he faced in the bottom of the eighth. Then, Matt Franco knocked a pinch-hit single to bring Rickey Henderson to the plate. Henderson had a rough game, hitting into two double plays and committing an error that turned a single into a double.

But the baseball fates reversed themselves when Henderson hit a high fly ball that was jostled by the winds above the no-man’s land between the shortstop and the centerfielder (“When the ball gets above the stadium, it doesn’t end up where it started off”, Franco noted). Despite playing in a notoriously windy stadium of their own, the Giants seemed unprepared for this. The ball clanked off of shortstop Ramon Martinez’s glove, and the hustling Franco scored all the way from first. After a walk to Edgardo Alfonzo, John Olerud singled Henderson home to put the Mets up by two.

John Franco came on to save the game and put on a typical heart-stopping Franco-esque performance. He loaded the bases with one out on two singles and a walk, but induced a double play from Charlie Hayes to end the game and complete the sweep.

1999 Project

1999 Project: Games 20-22

Click here for an intro/manifesto on The 1999 Project.

April 27, 1999: Padres 6, Mets 2

With the Mets back at Shea after a six-game road trip, Masato Yoshii turned in yet another poor outing, giving up four runs and five walks in only 4 2/3 innings. Bobby Valentine said Yoshii’s rotation spot was not in jeopardy, and blamed himself for the pitcher’s woes. The skipper suggested Yoshii move from the third base side of the rubber to the first base side, and thought this suggestion was responsible for the pitcher’s troubles.

Yoshii wasn’t the only goat of the day. Recently activated Mike Piazza left seven men on base all by himself against Andy Ashby, San Diego’s less-than-intimidating starter.

April 28, 1999: Mets 4, Padres 3

This was Al Leiter’s best outing to date, as the lefty went seven innings, struck out six, and gave up only one run. The Mets took a 2-1 lead into the eighth and handed the ball to Armando Benitez, who had been nigh-perfect up to that point in the season. The righty proceeded to cough up the lead on a walk and back-to-back doubles by Tony Gwynn and Phil Nevin.

At that point, things looked pretty grim. The Mets had left a small army of men on base–as they’d been doing all season–and it seemed this would failure haunt them once more. Especially since the Padres had won the last 181 games they’d led in the eighth inning or later, thanks mostly to the work of future all-time saves leader Trevor Hoffman.

99_piazza_padres.pngBut Hoffman failed to retire a batter this evening. After John Olerud led off the bottom of the ninth with an infield single, Piazza crushed the first pitch he saw into the right field bullpen, thus earning the Mets their first walk-off win of the year.

After the game, Benitez tipped his cap to Gwynn. That’s either a gracious bit of sportsmanship, or a way of deflecting blame for crappy pitch locaiton, depending on one’s point of view.

April 29, 1999: Mets 8, Padres 5

On a cold, blustery day, Bobby Jones couldn’t get a feel for his curveball. That translated into a rough outing, and a 5-2 deficit after five innings. But the Mets’ bullpen held the Padres at bay over the last four frames; Dennis Cook, Turk Wendell, Benitez, and John Franco limited San Diego to two hits and one walk, allowing New York to rally for an 8-5 victory.

They were assisted, in large part, by the Padres’ wildness. San Diego pitching allowed nine free passes, and five of those men scored. After the game, Valentine said, “It’s a long season. You have to be able to win a lot of ways.”