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1999 Project

1999 Project: Games 9 and 10

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April 14, 1999: Mets 4, Marlins 1

Orel Hershiser reminisced fondly about his heroics in the 1988 NLCS before making quick work of a young Marlins lineup. He used only 10 pitches to work through the first two innings, and didn’t allow a hit until the fourth. The Mets gave him a lead on RBI doubles by Todd Pratt and Edgardo Alfonzo, a bases-loaded walk, and a homer by Robin Ventura.

All of this allowed John Franco to notch his 400th career save. It was an atypical Franco save–that is to say, nigh-drama free, except for a two-out double. After the game, the Brooklyn native felt like celebrating his milestone:

The Mets gave Franco three bottles of Dom Perignon and he poured it into plastic flutes as his teammates clapped. Franco held up the Champagne and said, ”This is the first of many celebrations, boys.”

Thumbnail image for 99_franco_400_save.pngWith reliever Greg McMichaels ailing, Steve Phillips was rumored to be interested in the Braves’ Mark Wohlers. I found it amazing that such a trade could even be contemplated back then. But then I remembered that there was really no Mets-Braves rivalry to speak of until this season.

April 15, 1999: Marlins 11, Mets 4

The Mets’ five-game winning streak ended in embarassing fashion. Starter Masato Yoshii was cuffed for eight hits and four runs in five innings, then the formerly spotless bullpen was torched for seven runs of their own. (Granted, most of those relievers were mopper-uppers like Rigo Beltran and Jose Manzanillo.) Future Met Luis Castillo reached base six times. The most humiliating run was the Marlins’ 11th and final one, as it was driven in by reliever Brian Edmonson.

Backup-backup catcher Mike Kinkade symbolized the Mets’ futility when he tried to toss the ball around the infield after a strikeout, but only succeeded in sailing a throw into the outfield. The gaffe drew mocking applause from the crowd, the only kind heard at Shea that day.

The day’s only good news came from a pregame batting session with Mike Piazza, who took 50 swings in the cage and proclaimed he “felt good”.

1999 Project

1999 Project: Home Opener

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99_opening_day_1.pngApril 12, 1999: Mets 8, Marlins 1

Al Leiter and John Franco, both of whom grew up as Mets fans, reminisced to the Daily News about skipping school and watching Mets home openers from years past.

“I know I saw Seaver pitch on Opening Day, I had to, all the times my brother Jimmy and me skipped,” Franco was saying yesterday. “I just can’t remember which one.”

You can forgive Franco’s imprecise memory when you consider that Tom Seaver took the ball on Opening Day for the Mets 11 times.

In Mike Piazza’s absence, Bobby Bonilla batted cleanup for the Mets’ 1999 home opener. He was roundly booed at first by fans who remembered his participation in The Worst Team Money Could Buy, but slightly less so after he went 3-for-3.

99_opening_day_2.pngMarlin starter Livan Hernandez was knocked out by a four-run fifth inning that included a solo homer by his counterpart, Mets pitcher Bobby Jones, not normally known for his bat (or much of anything else at this point in his career, other than a seemingly anomalous trip to the All Star Game in 1997). Robin Ventura drove in two runs of his own but said, “It’s the first time in my career I’ve been shown up by a pitcher.”

The joy of Opening Day was dampened–literally–by a flood in the Mets’ clubhouse that ruined both a $200,000 renovation job and a box of Bobby Valentine’s baseball memorabilia. The postgame press conference was held in the much drier old Jets locker room.

Meanwhile, the crowd of 52K+ was annoyed to find out that scorebook prices had jumped by a whole dollar–and no longer included a complimentary golf-sized pencil.

1999 Project

1999 Project: Second Series

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

April 8, 1999: Expos 5, Mets 1

pitchermasks.jpgOrel Hershiser killed the Mets in the 1988 NLCS, shutting them down in three games and closing out the Dodger victory in the series-turning Game Four on 0 days’ rest. (Mike Scioscia and Kirk Gibson contributed to the slaughter.) The Mets, clearly a forgiving franchise, acquired Hershiser prior to the 1999 season. He wasn’t the record-breaking Bulldog of old, but still a eater of quality innings, the kind that any contender needs at the back end of its rotation.

This appeared to be a wise decision when Hershiser showed flashes of his old form in spring training, giving up no runs in 12 innings of work. It looked less so during his Mets debut in Montreal, when he gave up five runs and was gone after four innings. Gold Glovers Robin Ventura and Rey Ordonez both committed crucial errors, as did reacquired outfielder/professional clubhouse cancer Bobby Bonilla.

Hershisher didn’t help his own cause by getting picked off of second in the top of the third, effectively squashing a Mets rally. The sole NY offense came from a solo homer by Edgardo Alfonzo, his first of the year.

Hershiser would do some yeomanlike work for the Mets in 1999 (including three innings of vital relief work in The Grand Slam Single Game). But it’s probably games like this that Steve Phillips thinks of when he busts Hershiser’s chops during ESPN telecasts. Never mind the fact that Phillips was the GM who brought him to the team (it’s not like he was foisted on the Mets by a previous regime). And the fact that Hershiser did more in baseball than Steve Phillips could ever do in three lifetimes.

Amid rumors that the Expos might be sold and moved to the US, the Opening Day Montreal crowd was unusually large and vocal. Expos fans cheered a solid start by pitcher Miguel Batista, and the robust attendance announcement of 43,918.

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