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1999 Project

1999 Project: Games 141-147 (West Coast Swing #3)

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

johnrocker.jpgAs the Mets began the last of three lengthy cross-country road trips, they were 3.5 games behind the Braves. It was no small feat to be so close to Atlanta so late in the season. The Braves hadn’t had a serious rival for a division title since 1993, when they edged out San Francisco to take the NL West crown on the last day of the season. Ever since their transfer to the NL East, they strolled into the postseason every year; their closest shave came in 1996, when Montreal finished a mere eight games behind.

If there was any year to catch the Braves, 1999 should have been it. Andres Galarraga, Odalis Perez, Javy Lopez, and closer Kerry Ligtenberg were all lost for the year with injuries. John Smoltz spent time on the DL, and Tom Glavine pitched surprisingly mediocre. Rumblings began early that their dynasty was over.

And yet, between July 25 (when Lopez was sidelined indefinitely) and September 11, the Braves had a mind-boggling 30-11 record. For the season, they had an astounding 27 come-from-behind victories. Chipper Jones said, “No matter what happens this year, it’s going to be my most satisfying season. This is a team that really has overachieved.”

The Braves even said they welcomed the Mets nipping at their heels. Quoth Chipper again:

In years past, September was a month when we kind of took it easy and took some days off here and there to get ourselves prepared for the postseason. That may have an impact on what happens in the postseason, in that guys have trouble just flipping the switch on and off. I don’t foresee us having any problems flipping the switch this year.

As the Mets would soon find out.

Although the Mets had more than Atlanta to contend with. They began this trip 3.5 games ahead of Cincinnati for the wild card berth. The Reds were not picked by many baseball minds to seriously contend in 1999, but manager Jack McKeon had gotten the most out of them (as he would for a young Marlins club a few years later).

Plus, they would have the advantage of a softer schedule than the Mets down the stretch. While New York had six games left with the Braves, The Reds had only one series left against a team with a winning record (Houston), and would only play two games against them. During the series in LA, Darryl Hamilton admitted, “I think [now is] the first time I’ve actually looked to see what the Reds were doing. We’re not looking back, but we’d like to know who’s trying to get up on us.”

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1999 Project

1999 Project: Games 135-140

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

99_ordonez.jpgSeptember 3, 1999: Rockies 5, Mets 2 (10)

The Mets began their homestand with an ugly incident reminiscent of their early season struggles. Rey Ordonez and backup shortstop Luis Lopez got into a fistfight while on the team bus to Shea, following their flight back from Houston. The fisticuffs were bad enough to give Ordonez a six-stitch gash over his eye.

The cause of the fight was unclear, although it was rumored that Ordonez tried to defend Jorge Toca (a fellow Cuban defector) against some rookie hazing. Both players kept the party line repeated by GM Steve Phillips, that they’d patched things up between them and there were no hard feelings. A few days later, after the dust settled, teammates would say they were surprised it took so long for someone to deck the abrasive Ordonez.

However, there were definitely hard feelings involved with a disappointing extra-inning loss to the Rockies. The Mets managed a mere two runs two runs against Colorado starter Jamey Wright, wasting two separate scoring opportunities with a man on third and only one out. Orel Hershiser pitched well enough to keep them in the game, and Pat Mahomes, Dennis Cook, and Armando Benitez combined to throw three scoreless innings.

Turk Wendell came on for the tenth and did not fare well, giving up a one-out walk to Todd Walker and a single to Dante Bichette. The righty had suffered a bit of a rough patch recently; ironically, it came after Bobby Valentine tried to give him a few days’ rest in the hopes of keeping his arm fresh down the stretch. (“The more I pitch, the better I get,” Wendell told reporters later. “Those six days off killed me”)

Valentine called on ex-Rockie Chuck McElroy to clean up Wendell’s mess. He struck out Todd Helton, but walked Vinny Castilla (who’d been 0 for 7 against McElroy previously) to load the bases. That brought up Met-for-a-minute Jeff Barry, who made his first, brief major league appearance for the team in 1995, then languished in the minors for the next four seasons.

“I felt real good for some reason before the game,” Barry said afterward. “I had a real good feeling about today.” He had reason to, since he went 3-for-3. His third hit was a bases-clearing double off of McElroy that put Colorado on top to stay. The loss dropped the Mets 4.5 games out of first in the NL East, their largest deficit since July, though a loss by the Reds maintained their four-game lead in the wild card standings.

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1999 Project

1999 Project: Games 32-34

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

dinger.JPGMay 10, 1999: Rockies 10, Mets 3

On a frigid night in Colorado, Al Leiter was left in just a tad too long yet again. He scattered four runs over his first six innings, a small victory in the offense-happy confines of Coors Field. Then, after a leadoff triple to Dante Bichette in the seventh, Leiter began to unravel, eventually giving a three-run homer to rookie Henry Blanco. Mike Piazza came into the game hitting .449 at Coors Field, but was limited to one single by former battery mate Pedro Estacio.

In the colorful words of the Daily News, “the Mets’ starting rotation continued to possess the hue and smell of sewer water.”

May 11, 1999: Rockies 8, Mets 5

Before this game, Mets starter Bobby J. Jones said simply, “I don’t like pitching here.” That became abundantly clear very quickly. He gave up two homers to Rockies slugger Todd Helton, and eight runs total in 5 1/3 innings. His counterpart, Colorado starter/future Met Bobby M. Jones, held the Mets to two runs in his five innings of work. In a bit of meaningless trivia, this marked the first time in 100 years that two pitchers with identical first and last names had faced each other.

At the end of the day, the Mets starters were 11-14 on the season with an unsightly ERA of 5.30. Pitching coach Bob Apodaca recalled his days coaching in triple-A Norfolk, when his staff allowed 108 runs in only 10 games. “It’s a contagious disease that no one can be immune to. We’re just waiting for one starter to stop it.”

May 12, 1999: Mets 10, Rockies 5

After an early exit in his previous start, Rick Reed took the ball on two days rest, preventing the combustible Orel Hershiser from taking the mound at Coors Field. He went five innings and gave up four runs–not bad for short rest, particularly in the thin Denver air. Thanks to an offensive outburst, this was enough to snap the Mets’ three-game losing streak. Scoring early runs hadn’t been a problem for them; tacking on had been. But the Mets led 6-0 after two innings in this one and never looked back.

The Mets held their breath when Reed was nailed in the posterior by a line drive off the bat of Angel Echevarria. But Reed stayed in the game, and wouldn’t blame the blow for a homer he gave up to Dante Bichette in the fifth inning. “My ass didn’t throw that pitch; my arm did.”