Pitcher Perfect

Who needs a Bullpen?

With the starting pitching that was flying around this past weekend, certainly not the Mets.

After the dust settled (although it really hasn't settled yet) from Johan Santana's No Hitter on Friday night, the Mets followed up with a pair of more conventional great pitching performances, the typical solid effort from R.A. Dickey on Saturday, and from Jonathon Niese on Sunday Night, as the Mets proved themselves not only a worthy foil for the Cardinals, but worthy of inclusion on ESPN's The Biggest Game In The Galaxy.

Saturday, Dickey took to the mound and did basically what he's done all season: Get people out and get them out with regularity. That's all he seems to do. Whatever he's been doing, he's just had that knuckleball mojo working just about every start, and now it's time to start noticing the success. At 8-1, with an ERA under 3, he's become more than worthy of All Star consideration; I think he's worthy of inclusion. But although his performances have been great, he hadn't been able to finish one off to this point in the season. That changed on Saturday, when he wiped out a Cardinals team that may have still been reeling from being No-Hit the night before. With an early lead, Dickey just cruised the rest of the way, scattering, scattering 7 hits—7 more hits than the Cardinals had the night before—in a masterful complete game shutout effort that rendered the bullpen irrelevant for the second day in a row.

Sunday brought Jonathon Niese to the mound in a game moved to ESPN because, hey, the Mets are performing well and ESPN loves to kiss the Cardinals' asses even if LaRussa and Pujols are gone. So the Mets earned their first inclusion on the often-reviled Biggest Game In The Galaxy, and had he not been felled by a rapid heartbeat after 6 innings of a game that the Mets had a comfortable lead, Niese might have finished things off himself. But, no, out he came, and in came a bullpen that certainly must have been well-rested. The only issue left to chance for the Mets then became could they shut out that vaunted Cardinals offense 3 games in a row. The answer was no, only because they managed to scrape a run across against a kid making his big league debut. But that seemed to be all the Cardinals have been able to muster at this point.

Today, the finale of  the series, with Jeremy Hefner going to the mound for the Mets to follow up his memorable effort last week against the Phillies. If Hefner's on the mound, the weather must be bad out, and...yes...it looks like rain today. Well, we'll see how this turns out for him. If it's anything like the rest of the Mets starting pitching the past few days, the weather may not matter much.

50 Years in Cards: 1973

Part 12 of our 50-year quest for a No Hitter...

What is it: 1973 Topps #223, Bud Harrelson

What makes it interesting: The '73s are another of Topps' seminal efforts. The design is nice and simple, and the silhouetted position players are a nice touch, even with different silhouettes for lefty and righty pitchers. '73 was also the last year that Topps released their cards in separate small series over the course of the Baseball season. By '74, they would go to one single series, occasionally releasing a "Traded" series following the season. By the '80s, the "Traded" set would become commonplace. But it would not be until 1993 that Topps would go back to releasing their base set in more than one series (and even then, it was only in two series, not six or seven as it used to be).

Though he was never much of a hitter, Bud Harrelson came to be a Mets icon in his own right over his playing career in the '60s and '70s. His fielding was unparalleled at the time, and he was a key player on both the 1969 World Series Champions, and the 1973 National League Champions. He won a Gold Glove in 1971, and was twice elected to the NL All Star Team in 1970 and '71. He was also a coach for the 1986 World Series Champions, making him the only man to be in a Mets uniform both times they won the World Series. His stint as Mets Manager in 1990 and '91 was alternately good and rather bad, and may have left a bad taste in the mouth of some fans, but he's still welcomed with mostly open arms. Mostly, though, he's remembered for taking on Pete Rose in the infamous Game 3 brawl in the NLCS in '73.

This card also holds some significance for me personally. The first Baseball card I ever got was a Gary Carter, from the 1987 Topps Set. That's all fine and good. But that was 1987. I had to start somewhere if I was going to work backwards to get every Mets card going back to 1962, and this was where I began. The first card I got, going backwards, was this Bud Harrelson from 1973. Apparently, this created a monster. Before too long, I had got around to completing the Mets team set from '73, and then filled everything else out from there. Now, this collection is two cards short from being complete. It's only taken me 25 years.

Card back:

Curtain Call

Baseball is a funny game, isn't it.

For 50 seasons and 8,019 regular season games, the Mets never had a pitcher who threw a No-Hit game, fact that seemed to take on a life of its own. It was part of the Mets culture. I'm sure many of us thought it might never happen. But it has. Baseball  is a game of averages, and by the law of averages, everything has to happen at some point. Just like until 2004, no team had ever come back from 0-3 down to win a Playoff series, and we saw the Red Sox do that. Someone, someday, would take the mound for the Mets, the stars would align, and someone would throw that elusive No Hitter.

And last night, June 1, 2012, that day finally came, that pitcher finally took the mound, and that No Hitter was had.

4 years ago, I'd anointed Johan Santana as worth every penny the Mets would be paying him over the course of his contract. He's done nothing, ever, to make me doubt that, even when he missed all of 2011 with a shoulder injury that put the remainder of his career in jeopardy. Nonetheless, Santana never complained, he never got down on himself or his teammates when they couldn't back him up, he persevered and came back from his injury looking just as good as before he left, and now, he's been rewarded by being the man on the mound the night the stars aligned and a Mets pitcher finally threw a No Hitter.

I wasn't at last night's game, although I wish I was. Frugality deterred me from picking an innocuous blue-colored Friday Night game on the schedule (instead, I'm stuck with tickets for Monday Afternoon which I probably should just sell), and, in fact, I missed the first 6 innings of the game altogether while out to dinner. By time I returned, I was pleased with what I was seeing. I hadn't yet gotten the word that Santana was pitching a gem, but a 5-0 lead against the Cardinals is always a good thing.

So the 6th ends, and I see that the Cardinals have no hits. I notify a friend, although after 6 innings, I'm still not properly conditioned to take this seriously. I once saw Rick Reed take a Perfect Game into the 7th inning...twice. One time, he lost the game completely. I once saw Mark Clark take a No Hitter into the 8th inning. I saw R.A. Dickey hold the Phils into the 7th inning last September. It's too early to get too nervous. But Santana continued to mow the Cardinals down. Yadier Molina made a strong bid to break things up—certainly would have been fitting for him to screw us over again—but Mike Baxter saved the day at the cost of his shoulder. Those are the kind of plays you need. At that point, you could start to feel the stars aligning. I hadn't yet heard about Beltran's foul ball in the 5th, but sometimes, you just get those breaks.

By the 8th, I started getting nervous. Something just felt different this time. Maybe it was simply just the presence of Santana himself, and all he'd been through the last couple of seasons just to get to this point. He wasn't supposed to be doing THIS, was he? He wasn't supposed to be blowing through his pitch count with reckless abandon. And yet, he couldn't come out. After a 2-out walk, Terry Collins came running to the mound. There was no way he could take Santana out. Santana would have thrown him back into the dugout if he'd tried. Beltran was next, and now, I was flinching every time a Cardinal made contact. But the contact was never solid enough to scoot past the infield, or to whiz over the head of an outfielder. Beltran's swing produced a meek floater that was caught by Daniel Murphy. And all of a sudden, Santana was now in Tom Seaver territory.

I'd like to say that the 9th inning was just a mere formality. I suppose one might say that if they didn't have a pulse. I'd seen 9th innings of No Hitters before, and I wondered what it would be like if it ever happened to the Mets. Well, now I know. It's about 5-7 minutes of torturous hell. I was afraid to move or do much of anything other than stare blankly at the TV. Watching Santana deliver pitch after pitch, and hoping this wouldn't be the one that would find its way through, and wreck our shot at History once again. But it wasn't going to happen on June 1, 2012. First Holliday and then Allen Craig flew out. David Freese was the last man standing. David Freese has never done anything particularly bad to the Mets, but he certainly made a name for himself last October. And so, on a night where demons from the past were well abound, with Adam Wainwright starting—and losing— for the Cardinals, where Yadier Molina was robbed by a Mets leftfielder, David Freese completed the circle, waving at one final, signature changeup from Johan Santana, and, in the words of Gary Cohen, "IT HAS HAPPENED!!!"

 

It was somewhat surreal. I really couldn't believe I'd actually seen a Mets pitcher throw a No Hitter. But, there it was. We have to believe it, because we all saw it. We have to believe it, because, Johan Santana himself told his teammates to "BELIEVE IT!" after the game. Whatever Santana does the rest of his time here doesn't matter. I think I said that before. He's already cemented himself as one of the Best the Mets have ever had. He's accomplished something we never thought we'd see. And for the guy in the Promenade who always screams "THE STREAK CONTINUES!" every time the opponent gets their first hit of the game, well, this one's for you, because I never have to hear you say that again! 

The Streak Does Not Continue

It happened. We all just saw it.

Johan Santana just threw the first No-Hitter in Mets History.

Re-Return

There hasn't been much fanfare surrounding Carlos Beltran's return to Citi Field tonight, or at least not nearly as much as there was when Jose Reyes came back in April. I haven't heard anything about video tributes or whatever the Mets feel like doing for him. But I suppose it makes sense.

Looking back on what was an outstanding Met career, I can't help but feel like Carlos Beltran was really some kind of outside mercenary. He never felt like he was truly "our guy," sort of like the way a Wright or Reyes or Piazza was. We rooted for him. I always pulled for him hard, because for the majority of his tenure with the Mets, he was probably the best guy they put out there on a day-to-day basis. When he was good, which was often, he was great. He could carry the team for stretches if he needed to. There were stretches where it felt like he was the only player on the team who decided to show up for the game. He had great, shining moments. He also had some failures that came in rather glaring moments. He had his share of controversy, whether he deserved it or not. Such is the life of a star player in New York.

It's unfortunate, I think, that Beltran is remembered for the things he's remembered for, particularly his lousy season in '05, his sniping with management over his knee injury in '09, and, of course, that one perfect curveball that he didn't swing at. Many Mets fans I've spoken with also seem to have the sentiment that Beltran never really wanted to be a Met,  he wanted to be a Yankee, but the Yankees never made him an offer. This may be true, but he could have said "no" to the Mets in '05. It was an important signing for the Mets to be able to make, and although it never resulted in a Pennant or a World Series Championship, without Beltran on the team, the teams in '06, '07 and '08 probably don't get as far as they did. People got on Beltran for looking like he didn't care or wasn't trying very hard, or because he didn't say very much to the press, and I can't believe that to be true. Beltran just played the game with such a natural fluidity that maybe one might make that mistake. I can't look at any moment he had in his 6 and a half years with the Mets and think of an instance where it appeared he wasn't trying. I don't think there are too many players on the team over that time that you can say that about.

Unlike Reyes, there wasn't the big "will he stay or won't he stay" question. His departure last July was more or less a foregone conclusion, since it was clear the Mets weren't going to re-sign him, and so they were wise to get what they could for him (and Zack Wheeler looks rather good to this point). So, then, Mets fans shouldn't feel quite as jilted as they do about Jose Reyes. The Mets probably felt he was on the downside of his career, and it appeared most other teams did too, since it took a while for him to get any kind of contract offer. But with the Cardinals, of all teams, Beltran seems to have had a bit of a renaissance this season. He's returning to New York in the midst of one of those classic Beltran hot streaks that we saw so often. I really don't know how the fans will react to his return tonight. Hopefully, he'll get some appreciative cheers, which is what I would do if I were in attendance. More than likely, though, I feel like he'll get booed. He deserves better treatment. Unfortunately, he couldn't ever live the negative stuff down with most Mets fans. Hopefully, people will wise up, prove me wrong, and give the man his due for a standout 6+ years with the Mets.