FIVE WORTH A SECOND LOOK
A handful of Mets classics to fill the baseball void
While the coronavirus pandemic has bound fans to their couches, there’s no better time to find solace in classic Mets games. Baseball has a tendency to ease the pains of life and create a distraction. Even though professional sports have been put on hold indefinitely, a variety of baseball games can be found on YouTube (and maybe even in your home video cabinet) to help you get through this bizarre time.
Without further ado, here’s a rundown of five rewatchable Mets games since 2000.
2015 NLDS GAME 5: OCT. 15, 2015
After watching this postseason thriller for the first time in a while, I’m certain Game 5 ages like fine wine. It feels like the fastest baseball game you’ve ever watched, despite actually being 3 hours and 13 minutes long. It has everything baseball devotees love about the sport: an upperechelon pitching duel between Jacob deGrom and Zack Greinke, a closer vs. closer matchup with Kenley Jansen pitching to Jeurys Familia, starter Noah Syndergaard making his first relief appearance and — finally – proof that the original intentional walk rule was hairraising and should’ve remained the way it was.
But the highlight of Game 5 is undeniably deGrom’s gutsy performance that helped lead the Mets to their first NLCS appearance in almost a decade. deGrom had no command of his fastball, pitched almost entirely from the stretch and still managed to hold the Dodgers to two earned runs over six innings by relying on his secondary pitches.
Come for the fearless playoff performances facing elimination, stay for Terry Collins’ reaction after the final out.
2006 NLCS GAME 7: OCT. 19, 2006
The final minutes of this nailbiter may be intolerable to Mets fans, but the rest of it is well worth your time. Game 7 grabs you from the top of the first inning — when Carlos Delgado drops a routine popup — to the bottom of the ninth, when Adam Wainwright unforgettably catches Carlos Beltran looking to send the Cardinals to the World Series.
Endy Chavez’s home-run robbing, snow-cone catch in left field led to bedlam at Shea Stadium. He made sure they game stayed tied and pegged the runner at first base for an inningending double play. It’s one of those plays you can spend some time admiring (just remember to pick your jaw up off the floor). Afterward, while sitting in the dugout, Chavez went out for not one, but two curtain calls for a spectacular moment in Mets history that would be remembered in New York — for years to come —– as “The Catch.”
JOHAN SANTANA’S NO HITTER: JUNE 1, 2012
Some covered their eyes. Others glued their faces to the TV screen. The anticipation and anxiety was cranked up to the limit as Santana threw 134 pitches seeking the first nohitter in Mets franchise history. And then, the unthinkable happened.
Santana became the first Mets pitcher since Tom Seaver to take a no-hitter into the ninth inning. And, perhaps fittingly, nothing about his feat was graceful or pretty. Behind him, catches were hesitantly made after Mike Baxter collided into the left-field wall and sustained an injury to keep the no-hitter intact. The umpire aided Santana with a missed call. The pitch count trickled into the danger zone as Terry Collins watched, unnerved, from the dugout in fear of Santana reaggravating his shoulder injury.
It all paid off when the Mets stormed the mound (and if you pay attention, security guards body slammed an errant fan who ran onto the field during the celebration) and Santana reveled in a comeback journey for the ages.
PETE ALONSO HITS HOME RUN NO. 53: SEPT. 28, 2019
Alonso looked up, mouth agape, as the ball sailed away
from him and into the centerfield seats. He crushed his 53rd homer of the season and took his time trotting around the bases — taking in the occasion as the crowd howled for the moment it was waiting for. History had been made.
On September 28, 2019, Alonso surpassed the record set by Yankees slugger Aaron
Judge in 2017 and set a new standard. At 24 years old, Alonso became the only rookie in Major League history to hit 53 home runs.
Alonso unsuccessfully attempted to hold back his tears as he took first base in the top of the fourth inning. It was his day, and he earned every remarkable moment of it.
MIKE PIAZZA’S HOME RUN AFTER 9/11: SEPT. 21, 2001
This game, this moment, defined how baseball can help a city heal. In their first game back at Shea Stadium — 10 days after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center — the Mets hosted the division-rival Braves at a time when people were uncertain about the return of baseball in New York City.
On Sept. 21, 2001, Piazza momentarily lifted the grief of the terror attacks with a two-run homer off right-hander Steve Kersay that gave the Mets a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the eighth inning. Piazza was at the height of his career and he carried the city on his shoulders.
“Sept. 11, 2001 is a day that forever changed our lives,” Piazza would say at his Hall of Fame induction. “To witness the darkest evil of the human heart and how it tore many loved ones from their families will forever be burned in my soul. But from tragedy and sorrow came bravery, love, compassion, character and, eventually, healing.”
Nearly 20 years later, Piazza’s words can be reapplied to our current climate. Let baseball heal.