Yesterday we saw a match-up of the Pizza vs. Piazza. While the voting is heavily in favor of Piazza’s post 9-11 moment, there is still time to vote as voting will remain open through the first round.
Day 3 of our tribute to the NCAA tournament: Mets Greatest Regular Season Moments of All Time provides us with what I think is a chance for an upset. Our 3 vs 6 match-up forces us to chose between sentimental moments that could be influenced by more recent events. Today we chose between Nohan and Gary Carter’s opening day home-run.
To see the bracket, please return here.
No one wearing Mets’ blue and orange had done it, not Tom Seaver, not Dwight Gooden, not Nolan Ryan. Met pitchers have thrown 36 one-hitters, but their missing no-no was one of the most glaring omissions in baseball history.
Santana’s teammates mobbed him at the mound. Fans went crazy. The scoreboard read, simply, “No-Han” and the Mets, in their 51st season — they are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their inaugural season all year — have a signature pitching performance for the ages. A few minutes later, in the dugout, several Mets doused Santana with champagne and then they gave him a standing ovation when he arrived in the clubhouse.
Santana spoke for a moment and said, “Thank you” to his teammates. “I thanked them because we, as a team, made history,” he said.
“I knew that the Mets have never had a no-hitter. I never had one,” added the lefthander, who joked that he didn’t think he’d ever thrown one while playing video games, either. “To be able to accomplish this, it’s an honor. I know how much it means to New York and the New York Mets. I’m very proud of it and very happy to be a part of it. “– Daily News
VS.
“Acquired from Montreal, the Mets paid Carter handsomely to be their backstop, and his regular-season debut in that role came on April 9, 1985 against the Cardinals. He immediately endeared himself to his new team and their fan base with a 10th-inning home run that landed in the Cardinals’ bullpen for a 6-5 win. Nowadays, they would call that a walk-off. Back then it was just a win.”
”I feel wonderful, enthusiastic, excited, every kind of adjective you could think of, ” Carter said. ”If I were to have a fantasy, it couldn’t have been written any better than this. To have a curtain call on the first day is really exciting. I didn’t have many curtain calls in Montreal. I guess it was because they expected those things.”— St. Louis Post Dispatch
Pinch yourselves, folks. You're not dreaming.
VS
Cast your votes below!
59 comments
Stick
3/20/2013-11:26am at 11:26 am (UTC -4)
this one has to be a no brainer.
darknova306
3/20/2013-11:26am at 11:26 am (UTC -4)
A home run that symbolized the future or yet another Mets 1-hitter? Hmm…
Blame Beltran
Stick
3/20/2013-12:13pm at 12:13 pm (UTC -4)
a ball is whatever the umpire called it. So suck it up Debbie.
darknova306
3/20/2013-12:18pm at 12:18 pm (UTC -4)
Yeah yeah. Just having fun being a contrarian.
srt
3/20/2013-11:52am at 11:52 am (UTC -4)
I think I’m safe in predicting this will be a landslide.
We waited too long for that first no hitter.
TRS86
3/20/2013-11:59am at 11:59 am (UTC -4)
I am not so sure on this one. I think it will be one of the closest opening round match-ups. I already said I voted for No-han because of the special moment I shared with my daughter but Dark has a point, that HR signified the beginning of what we might consider the golden age of Mets baseball.
TRS86
3/20/2013-11:59am at 11:59 am (UTC -4)
Or, so far I could be wrong. LOL.
srt
3/20/2013-12:26pm at 12:26 pm (UTC -4)
I mean it was getting downright embarrassing being only 1 of 2 teams with no no hitter in history. Thank the baseball gods for the Padres…..lol.
darknova306
3/20/2013-1:17pm at 1:17 pm (UTC -4)
It was really becoming a sad joke. For a franchise with so much pitching talent in its history… man oh man.
darknova306
3/20/2013-12:12pm at 12:12 pm (UTC -4)
In full disclosure, I voted for Johan’s no-hitter. I’m kind of tired of attaching grandiose narratives to individual baseball moments. Game winning homers happen, and are awesome. No-hitters are even more awesome, because I’m all about pitching and defense.
I watched the no-hitter while I was still living in Cooperstown. Watching that moment in baseball’s Mecca, then heading down to the bar to celebrate with a bartender who’s a diehard Mets fan and a few Mets fan tourists who were in town… that made the whole thing truly special for me.
I wasn’t even 3 years old when Carter hit that HR. Nothing in that entire Golden Age of Mets Baseball holds any direct emotional connection for me.
Stick
3/20/2013-12:15pm at 12:15 pm (UTC -4)
until this bracket stuff came up, I honestly did not even remember the Carter HR. And there is a very good chance I was at that game!
srt
3/20/2013-12:27pm at 12:27 pm (UTC -4)
Wow, probably no better place to have watched that no hitter, if one wasn’t at Citi Field that night.
Stick
3/20/2013-12:38pm at 12:38 pm (UTC -4)
in the dugout was fine for me. Of course, I was watching on a 15.6″ laptop screen.
darknova306
3/20/2013-1:15pm at 1:15 pm (UTC -4)
Yup. It was incredible. And 15 minutes after the game ended, I was doing shots around the corner from the Hall of Fame
I was lucky, though. I refused to pay Time Warner for cable, so I was watching it through MLB.tv by bouncing my connection through a proxy server in Germany. It usually didn’t work all that great, but it worked perfectly for that entire game. *whew*
srt
3/20/2013-10:18pm at 10:18 pm (UTC -4)
Speaking of the Dugout…hope some of you will be back this season.
srt
3/20/2013-10:19pm at 10:19 pm (UTC -4)
Lucky indeed. Imagine if it was giving you fits that night and you decided to just give up, not realizing it was going to be a game for the ages?
I’m waiting for SNY to add that game to their line-up of Mets classics so I can see it again.
Stick
3/20/2013-10:42pm at 10:42 pm (UTC -4)
I’ll be there. May just be the 2 of us and phantom Ceetar (though maybe not him, since he seems to have officially been traded to AA) again, but I don’t give up that easily.
Hey, maybe we can get invited to be members in that new private chat room I heard is getting set up for game threads? Might be fun!
TX
3/20/2013-12:50pm at 12:50 pm (UTC -4)
Now i feel old. Granted, i was 9, but whatever…
On a side note, I think I’m going to try a Stone Ruination IPA clone. See how that comes out.
Also did a Cascade with AU Topaz at the 5 min and flame out. Smells funky, in a good way.
Stick
3/20/2013-12:56pm at 12:56 pm (UTC -4)
over on AA last night, some guy in Seattle was trying to put together a party when the BJs visited the Mariners in April, when Dickey was pitching. Even offered to buy the first round!
TX
3/20/2013-1:06pm at 1:06 pm (UTC -4)
I saw that. Just responded. I may have to get tickets for that series.
darknova306
3/20/2013-1:11pm at 1:11 pm (UTC -4)
Mmm, Ruination. So good.
The homebrew shop in Ithaca has a ton of those crazy Australian and New Zealand hops. Need to start some experiments.
Prismo
3/20/2013-12:08pm at 12:08 pm (UTC -4)
Something tells me there will be 1 vote for Carter thanks to Kingman.
TRS86
3/20/2013-1:04pm at 1:04 pm (UTC -4)
Yeah, I wondered how many would vote against Johan because of his injury and uhhh issues this spring and for Carter because of his untimely death.
kingman 26
3/20/2013-1:50pm at 1:50 pm (UTC -4)
The death of Carter has zero to do with it. Carter’s Met years will be amazing memories forever and that moment is a great snapshot of them.
Johan’s inexcusable selfishness and unreal sense of entitlement–along with Beltran’s double–has a lot to do with it. Johan’s last Met years–aside from the one undeniably glorious game–have been total bust disappointments for an astronomical amount of millions of dollars.
kingman 26
3/20/2013-1:31pm at 1:31 pm (UTC -4)
Prismo, you’re a smart kid.
kingman 26
3/20/2013-1:48pm at 1:48 pm (UTC -4)
Well, I watched OneHan’s no/one-hitter…I was home that night, and saw the last six innings or so. I was thrilled. I was on the edge of my seat. It was an incredible, amazing night. I texted with my brother who does not have cable and could not get away. I watched the postgame forever. It was one of the most enjoyable Met games ever, and surely one of the very top regular season games–not involving a pennant race–they ever played.
I also vividly remember when the Mets acquired Carter. I was a freshman at the U of Vermont, it was before 24/7 everything and a high school friend called on the dorm hall phone to tell me and at that moment it seemed like we knew the Mets would soon win a title. Opening day 1985–after the amazing 1984 season–was glorious, and as many Met fans did, I disliked Carter until the moment we obtained him. That HR was incredible as was that game. And today it brings back nothing but a flood of great memories from the very best years to be a Met fan since 1969–1973.
Was it as historic as Johan’s (clearly tainted) no-hitter? Absolutely not.
In retrospect, which leaves me with better feelings?
A tainted no-hitter from a pitcher who has been paid $45M for 21 starts in 2 years and clearly came to camp this year utterly out of pitching shape when he will collect another $31M this year?
Or a walkoff opening day HR by a Met great who began the 1985 season with such hope; hope which turned out as a 98-win season and 2nd place pre-WC and the next year resulted in the greatest team in Met history, and the best moments for ALL Met fans too young for 1969 but old enough for 1986? And one also must take into consideration when debating history that Carter was–to just about everyone–the “final piece” of that team; he symbolizes a lot–all of it great.
Sorry, but Johan’s Met tenure has gone from disappointment to historic financial disaster and his no-hitter should not have been one, just as Armando Galarraga should have a perfect game on his resume. Proper use of instant replay is good enough for football and basketball and hockey but not baseball. What does Johan symbolize? The worst contract by far from an era in Met history that will always–despite it clearly not being mostly his fault–be remembered for overpaid players, endless DL stints, the chokes of 2007 and 2008, and four terrible 4th place years in a row.
Had this vote been last summer I would have definitely voted for OneHan.
But with the perspective of time–and while I understand most sincerely that most will disagree–I feel that Carter’s moment leaves me with nothing but blissful and wonderful baseball memories. RIP Kid.
In ten years how will Johan be thought of by the fan base?
In ten years how will Carter be thought of by the fan base?
Johan’s moment ultimately leaves me with a feeling of disgust for the burden he has become for this team, which, for me, overpowers the wonder of the no-hitter. When added to the fact that it was not a no-hitter any more than Galarraga’s game was a one-hitter, I must vote for Carter.
Stick
3/20/2013-1:54pm at 1:54 pm (UTC -4)
If you want to become a team legend/icon, die early. It always helps. Probably the same with some entertainers (musicians/actors) that flame out early.
kingman 26
3/20/2013-3:03pm at 3:03 pm (UTC -4)
Yeah, but that has nothing to do with the 1986 title really. That was unmatched in every way long before Carter passed away.
Folks from Morrison to Joplin to Hendrix to my beloved Cobain, yeah, they are frozen in time—but it is a hell of a lot different when you die in your 20s in your prime.
Prismo
3/20/2013-2:04pm at 2:04 pm (UTC -4)
“The death of Carter has zero to do with it.”
“Had this vote been last summer I would have definitely voted for OneHan. But with the perspective of time–and while I understand most sincerely that most will disagree–I feel that Carter’s moment leaves me with nothing but blissful and wonderful baseball memories. RIP Kid.”
?????
kingman 26
3/20/2013-3:08pm at 3:08 pm (UTC -4)
Not sure what the confusion is here…Carter’s moment leaves me with nothing but bliss about 1985 and its culmination in the 1986 team.
Which, of course, has not changed a whit since Carter died.
Writing RIP out of respect does not change what have been amazing memories since I guess from right around when you were born. For my Dad’s generation the 1969 team is almost holy. Yeah, maybe Hodges’ death a couple years later lifted him into immortality too, but Carter’s passing over two and a half decades after 1986 does not change the nature of what that era means to my generation. Hopefully the coming pitchers can lead a team which can win 100 and be as memorable as 1969 and 1986.
Johan leaves me basically ill at this point. I cannot wait until he is gone. Go NFL on him and put him on injured reserve.
Prismo
3/20/2013-3:21pm at 3:21 pm (UTC -4)
Johan doesn’t leave me ill, only his contract. I can’t wait to have his contract gone.
kingman 26
3/20/2013-3:36pm at 3:36 pm (UTC -4)
Well my friend, while I agreed with this prior to 2013, his behavior and attitude this spring leave me nauseated, disgusted, disappointed, and, frankly, pretty shocked that he would come to camp out of shape, openly admit it, and be defiant about it.
Again, he will receive $76M for 2011-2013 and he was too “burned out” to work hard all offseason.
Uncool.
darknova306
3/20/2013-4:53pm at 4:53 pm (UTC -4)
Well said, Kong. Johan has given the Mets a handful of exciting moments, lots of disappointment, and now a bunch of arrogant and disgusting nonsense. He has no justification for being indignant for getting called out for his offseason chump-itude.
Sylow59
3/20/2013-2:08pm at 2:08 pm (UTC -4)
no/one hitter = 0/1 hitter = 0 hitter
I watched the game at a Hooters in St Louis. My friend kept trying to change what he was drinking and I wouldn’t let it happen. I guess it is stupid only if it doesn’t work.
I’d rather it was vlean. I’d rather it was someone else. But after 50 years: any port in a storm.
kingman 26
3/20/2013-3:02pm at 3:02 pm (UTC -4)
“I’d rather it was clean. I’d rather it was someone else. But after 50 years: any port in a storm.”
Agreed 100%.
Clearly I have conflicting thoughts on this, and I have always been a team guy over an individual accomplishments guy.
gategem
3/20/2013-5:21pm at 5:21 pm (UTC -4)
“I guess it is stupid only if it doesn’t work.”
It is stupid and it doesn’t work. An example of this type of logic is that an approaching storm veered out to sea. Someone with indigestion was constantly passing gas. Therefore his farts blew the storm out to sea. I don’t think so.
srt
3/20/2013-10:24pm at 10:24 pm (UTC -4)
Truthfully, I would have preferred that first no hitter had been Dickey’s.
Dickey as the first to pitch a Mets no hitter would be Met lore long after I’m gone from this world.
Prismo
3/20/2013-2:15pm at 2:15 pm (UTC -4)
This vote is not even close. Easy easy choice. No-han!
SaltyGary
3/20/2013-3:25pm at 3:25 pm (UTC -4)
Jay Horwitz made a very stupid tweet today and Dickey caught him:
Jay Horwitz @Jay_HorwitzPR 8h
His nickname is “Sweet Music.” He starred at St.John’s and is the last Mets pitcher to win 20 games (20-12,1990). He is Frank Viola.
R.A. Dickey @RADickey43 50m
@Jay_HorwitzPR how quickly we forget
Prismo
3/20/2013-3:32pm at 3:32 pm (UTC -4)
Don’t make me rant at you Gary.
SaltyGary
3/20/2013-3:40pm at 3:40 pm (UTC -4)
?
Mike Bee
3/20/2013-3:36pm at 3:36 pm (UTC -4)
Viola. Talk about a pitcher I wish “was someone else.”
TX
3/20/2013-3:40pm at 3:40 pm (UTC -4)
He had a couple really good years, but I didn’t like that trade. Between Him, McReynolds and others coming in (I’m looking at you, Samuel!) and Ags, Kevin MItchell, Dykstra leaving… I just knew that the walls would come crumbling down.
TX
3/20/2013-3:37pm at 3:37 pm (UTC -4)
what’s the 50M mean?
And yes, that was a stupid tweet.
darknova306
3/20/2013-3:56pm at 3:56 pm (UTC -4)
That’s how long ago the tweet was posted. 50M = 50 minutes.
TX
3/20/2013-3:59pm at 3:59 pm (UTC -4)
As you can tell, i’m not hip to this twitter jive. holmes don’t want the help, holmes dont get the help.
darknova306
3/20/2013-4:46pm at 4:46 pm (UTC -4)
I dig
srt
3/20/2013-10:28pm at 10:28 pm (UTC -4)
I saw that tweet when it first came out this morning.
Couldn’t imagine what Jay was thinking.
Not only was Dickey the last Met pitcher to win 20 games – and seriously it was only a few months ago – he also won the NL CY.
How in the world could Jay have forgotten that already???
He said while apologizing something about being up early after very little sleep. I suggest he refrains from tweeting then first thing in the AM.
I don’t have a Twitter account but I often read the twitter role both here at TRDM and MMO. Jay’s tweets since he’s joined twitter are pretty funny.
TX
3/20/2013-3:42pm at 3:42 pm (UTC -4)
Astros are open to listening in on trade talks for just about anyone. Too bad their OF may actually be worse off than the Mets.
darknova306
3/20/2013-3:58pm at 3:58 pm (UTC -4)
The Astros are likely the only team in baseball willing to talk about trades involving Astros players…
Erin
3/20/2013-4:13pm at 4:13 pm (UTC -4)
I wonder what they`d have to have for F-Mart?
TX
3/20/2013-4:20pm at 4:20 pm (UTC -4)
someone with 2 good knees?
Sad to say, but hindsight on just letting Fmart go kind of hurts a little. He’d be a starter for sure.
darknova306
3/20/2013-4:49pm at 4:49 pm (UTC -4)
He wasn’t gonna be worth anything in a trade, and he hadn’t really shown much to give us even decent expectations. He’s replacement level, which sadly is better than what the Mets have in the outfield right now.
Stick
3/20/2013-5:42pm at 5:42 pm (UTC -4)
I honestly did not understand that move at the time, and still don’t. Not that I think he is still going to become a star, but there was such a lack of options, to give him away to keep DJ boggles the mind.
and is it possible that right now, the (former) teenage hit machine is the best player on the Astros? Is to me, but that is because I can’t recall any other player on their team now.
TX
3/20/2013-5:48pm at 5:48 pm (UTC -4)
They have 2 decent pitchers and some guy Singleton who’s supposed to be very good coming up soon. Altuve is decent too, but not great at all.
Trs86
3/20/2013-9:50pm at 9:50 pm (UTC -4)
I think it’s pretty clear the Mets weren’t happy with Fmart for whatever reason.
darknova306
3/20/2013-9:53pm at 9:53 pm (UTC -4)
Probably because FMart never hustled and never showed anything close to actual talent at the major league level. Letting him go was never a hard decision to me.
srt
3/20/2013-10:30pm at 10:30 pm (UTC -4)
Singleton…wasn’t he one of the Phillies better prospects a couple of years ago?
Also, didn’t I read a couple of months ago that FMart’s named was linked to that Miami clinic as well?
Maybe the Mets knew something we didn’t…..
Stick
3/20/2013-10:39pm at 10:39 pm (UTC -4)
yeah, singleton went to the astros in one of the deals, either lidge or Pence.