Tom Seaver Fan Club

The Mets run at Shea Stadium is coming to a close and with the stadiums final season upon us, we have a great new DVD set that gives you some great coverage of six of the greatest games played in the New York Mets Essential Games of Shea Stadium.  Here’s the low down on what you get:

1)  1969 World Series Game 4 – This is the gem of the set.  First, The Catch by Ron Swoboda was awesome to see in the context of watching the entire game.  That saved the game while Tom Seaver threw ten strong innings to put the Mets one game away from their first World Series ever.
2)  1986 NLCS Game 3 – Lenny Dykstra provides the heroics in this one with a walk off homer that gave the Mets their first lead of the series.
3)  1986 World Series Game 6 – Again, this one isn’t the clincher, but we all remember the ball going through Bill Buckner’s leagues.
4)  1999 NLCS Game 5 – The Mets didn’t win this series, but this game gave them at least a breath of life as they took care of the Braves in a fifteen inning marathon.  Robin Ventura belted a grand slam but only got credited with a single because he was tackled before he was able to get to second base.
5)  September 21, 2001 – The Mets come home for their first game at Shea after 9/11.  Mike Piazza provided the big hit with an eighth inning two run blast.
6)  May 19, 2006 – Something a little more recent, David Wright belted an RBI in the ninth to win it after the Yankees jumped out to a four run first inning lead.

All good stuff, but the price of this set is worth it just to see that 1969 World Series game.  This is a great set and it makes a great addition for any Mets fan.

Diamondbacks ace pitcher Brandon Webb continued his joy ride this season by picking up his seventh win and continue to stay undefeated. Webb didn’t have his most impressive victory, giving up a season high four runs, but through the six innings he pitched, he let the Diamondbacks batters get the job done. Webb’s 7-0 start was the fastest start by a Diamondbacks pitcher since Randy Johnson in 2000. The Mets didn’t have much going for them- they totaled six hits and the pitching staff gave up 15. It was a rough game, coming over a nice victory the night before. Final score was Diamondbacks 10 Mets 4.

The surprising star of this years team is right fielder Ryan Church. He once again put up a two-hit game to increase his batting average to .330, but he was the only player who got multiple hits on the team. Carlos Delgado gave Arizona a little scare when he hit a three run homer in the fifth to make it 4-5, but after that nothing else went right and they didn’t score any runs. Jose Reyes got on base once from earning a walk and stole his eighth base of the season.

Starting pitcher Mike Pelfrey lost his second game in a row with basically identical stats in both games: Pitching five innings-to a little above five the first game, giving up nine hits, five runs, one walk and striking out one. After that the pitching went fairly well to say the best, but when reliever Duaner Sanchez came in the eighth inning, he didn’t fare very well. He quickly gave up four hits and five earned runs and was taken out after giving up singles to the first three hitters he faced, then threw a wild pitch to get a run in, and the gave up another single and then a walk. Not his best game.

None of the Mets played like they did the night before. Although they slowed down the best pitcher in the league, they couldn’t capitalize. Star Johan Santana will try to earn his fourth win as a Met when they play the Diamondbacks the next day.

The Mets quickly and consistently beat the Arizona Diamondbacks feeding off all-star shortstop Jose Reyes who was a home run short of the cycle. Starting off from the first inning, Reyes hit a triple and never looked back. At the end of the day he went four for five and had two triples; his last one, which took place in the eighth inning, he tried to go home and complete the cycle but was thrown out at the plate on a perfect throw. The Mets constantly got hits from most of the starters and the pitching went smoothing as well and they beat the Diamondbacks 7-2.

Besides the highlight reel provided by Reyes, the rest of the team got eight hits that totaled 12 all together. Ryan Church went 2-4 with a double and home run to give him three RBI’s for the night, and David Wright went 3-5 with a double and two RBIs. Moises Alou played his first game of the season, off the DL and had a RBI single. Reyes and slumping Carlos Beltran each stole a base.

John Maine was the starting pitcher for the Mets and got his third win of the season pitching six innings and giving up six hits and two runs, while striking out six. The bullpen, who consisted of Joe Smith, Pedro Feliciano, and Duaner Sanchez, handled the rest of the game only giving up one hit and zero runs. The pitching was very good in this game holding one of the hottest teams with some of the hottest hitters, to only seven hits.

This was a great game for the Mets, beating one of the best teams in the league and roughing up Diamondbacks starter Micah Owings, who was undefeated until this game. For such a complete player, Beltran has not been holding his own for the Mets only batting .204, which is unlike him as he is known as one of the best in the game. The Mets are now 15-12 and look to take the Diamondbacks again on Saturday.