- Faith and Fear in Flushing - https://www.faithandfearinflushing.com -

Chasing Our Tails

I don't know why the 43,000-odd who accompanied Greg and me to Shea tonight were booing Chase Utley like he was A-Rod; I really don't. I have nothing against Chase Utley — hell, I wish he were one of ours. (Granted, approximately since Alfonzo left town I've had a habit of coveting other teams' second basemen — I'd love to see Utley or Marcus Giles in our unis.) This isn't to say I was rooting for Utley, but I certainly wasn't rooting against him. What was with the venom? As was discussed often earlier this year, the Mets and Phillies have approximately zero history considering their proximity in the division and on the eastern seaboard. Nor do Shea fans have a habit of booing visitors chasing records — hell, I found it infuriating the way moronic looky-loos and supposed Met fans cheered Mark McGwire as he juiced his way toward Roger Maris in '98, when every McGwire blow at Shea was a blow to our playoff hopes. (But we're not here to talk about the past.)

Other than the outcome, that was a tidy, intriguing game: lots of action, lead changes, some anger, something you've never seen before (OK, I probably have seen two balks in an inning, but I sure don't remember it), a laugh-out-loud moment (El Duque! A triple!) and plenty of tension. It did lack one thing, though — the right outcome [1].

But, hey, we stopped Chase Utley!

Sigh.

As Greg and I remarked while wedged into a Calcuttaesque 7 train, we'd have traded Utley a cycle for a W.

Addendum: El Duque's triple reminded us that we were in the park once before for a triple by a pitcher, none other than Al Leiter — an occasion that let us hear the sound of 30,000 people laughing. And it got us wondering — surely Met pitchers haven't tripled all that often.

Nope, they haven't — that was the 29th triple by a Met pitcher ever. In fact, El Duque's three-bagger moves him into a tie for sixth place in the Met Pitcher Triples ranks, with 1.

The full list (best I could determine it from Baseball Reference [2]. Math/searching done by me, so it's probably wrong):

2006 — Orlando Hernandez

2005 — Victor Zambrano

2002 — Al Leiter

2001 — Al Leiter

2000 — Eric Cammack

1993 — Dwight Gooden (2), Frank Tanana

1992 — Dwight Gooden

1990 — Dwight Gooden

1988 — Ron Darling (2)

1987 — Sid Fernandez

1986 — Dwight Gooden

1985 — Sid Fernandez

1983 — Tom Seaver (2)

1981 — Neil Allen

1980 — Roy Lee Jackson

1974 — Jerry Koosman

1973 — Tom Seaver

1972 — Tom Seaver

1971 — Nolan Ryan

1970 — Tom Seaver

1966 — Dick Selma

1965 — Darrell Sutherland

1964 — Al Jackson

1963 — Larry Bearnarth

1962 — Bob L. Miller

(I'll save you the calculations: Gooden and Seaver are the leaders with 5; Darling, Leiter and El Sid [!] each managed 2. Now go forth and amaze your friends!)