Gateway to the W...?
Max Scherzer finds a deGrom in his hometown instead of a fourth straight win, has to wait another year to join Jay Hook, Nolan Ryan, and Steve Trachsel in Mets lore
Trivia question: Pete Alonso, as if you could not love him enough, and as if he was not already iconic, now has a quote for one of the sides of his eventual statue: “If I wanted to put someone in the hospital, I easily could, but I was just out there trying to protect my guys.” This is because after Nolan Arenado tried to put Tomás Nido on an NFL draft highlight reel, the coward Stubby Clapp hauled Alonso to the ground. Make of all that what you will, there’s something that Stubby Clapp did in his major league career that Pete Alonso could never do: strike out in his only career at-bat at Shea Stadium. Which Mets pitcher punched out Stubby Clapp on a rainy Flushing night in 2001?
Home is where the W is
By Jesse Spector
In our last newsletter on Monday, I wrote more about The deGrom, the baseball statistic that’s becoming a worldwide craze, as everyone shouts “at least five scoreless innings and a no-decision!” At least, it was a craze later that night, when both Max Scherzer and Miles Mikolas recorded their own deGroms in what was eventually the Mets’ dramatic 5-2 win over the Cardinals.
Remember that? It was just a few days ago, but it’s been a long week, and it was so much fun, you deserve to watch it again.
The whole thing, from Nolan Arenado’s error to Brandon Nimmo’s homer that SNY almost missed, overshadowed what had been a brilliant performance by Scherzer in his hometown, where he’s pretty much always been brilliant. But, hey, as far as things go for the Mets and one of their starters turning in a deGrom, “the bullpen blowing it” isn’t novel, but “five-run rally with two outs in the ninth inning” sure is. Fair enough.
Because the Mets couldn’t hit while Scherzer was in that game, the win went rather hilariously to Trevor May, who had allowed the Cardinals’ two runs in the eighth inning. And that means that the only Missouri-born Mets pitcher to win a game in St. Louis remains David Cone, who’s from Kansas City.
Cone won at Busch Stadium in 1988, 1989, and 1990, and that’s it. In 60 years, the Mets have never had another Missourian record a win in St. Louis, although they do have wins there from downstate Illinois products Mark Clark and Jeff Innis. Just never a St. Louisan or anyone really from the St. Louis area – both Clark and Innis were from more than 100 miles away, although still closer to the Gateway to the West than to Chicago.
Scherzer will have to wait until next year to get back to St. Louis, and in the meantime, here are the last Mets pitchers to record a win in their hometowns. I editorialized a bit on this, because the easiest way to sort this out on Stathead is to search for, say, the last Mets pitchers born in Ohio to win against the Reds. Jon Niese did it in 2013, but he’s from Lima, which is northwest of Columbus. Mike Pelfrey was born at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, and that’s very much the Cincinnati area. Is Lima really the Cleveland area? Ehhhhh… but Niese is also the only Ohio-born Mets pitcher to win in Cleveland, so he’s on the list here.
Last “Hometown” Wins For Mets Pitchers
New York: Adam Ottavino (New York), April 19, 2022 (vs. Giants)
Miami: Jacob deGrom (DeLand), July 14, 2019*
Atlanta: Zack Wheeler (Smyrna), April 12, 2019
Cincinnati: Mike Pelfrey (Wright Patterson AFB), July 27, 2011
Texas: Dillon Gee (Cleburne), June 26, 2011
Philadelphia: Taylor Buchholz (Lower Merion), May 1, 2011
Cleveland: Jon Niese (Lima), June 16, 2010
Washington: John Maine (Fredericksburg, Va.), August 13, 2008
Los Angeles: Steve Trachsel (Oxnard), August 23, 2003
Anaheim: Steve Trachsel (Oxnard), June 15, 2003+
San Diego: Shawn Estes (San Bernardino), May 18, 2002**
Yankees: John Franco (Brooklyn), July 7, 2001
San Francisco: Bobby Jones (Fresno), August 20, 1996***
Houston: Nolan Ryan (Refugio), April 14, 1968 — seriously? c’mon.
Pittsburgh: Don Shaw (Pittsburgh), June 6, 1967
Chicago (NL): Jay Hook (Waukegan), June 8, 1962****
*The only other Florida-born Mets to win in Miami are Mike Hampton and Dwight Gooden, both from the Tampa Bay area. DeLand is north of Orlando.
**Several Mets from California have won in San Diego, none from the actual San Diego area. Estes being from San Bernardino is actually as close as it gets.
***Steve Trachsel, Brian Stokes, and Scott Rice are more recent California-born Mets winning pitchers in San Francisco, but all are from southern California. Fresno is central California, to be sure, but also surely Giants country and Tom Seaver was born there too, and if not for Bobby Jones, it would be a no-brainer to put Seaver here, so here we are. Tug McGraw, who was actually from the Bay Area – Martinez, to be precise – got a win at Candlestick Park on August 30, 1969, with two scoreless relief innings.
****Jeff Innis is the only other Illinois-born Mets pitcher to win a game at Wrigley Field, in a September 14, 1992, relief appearance. Innis was born in Decatur, in Central Illinois.
+The Trachsel game in Anaheim was a one-hitter. He took a no-hit bid into the sixth inning, when David Eckstein (speaking of annoying Cardinals) singled. Jeromy Burnitz hit two home runs and that’s easier to spotlight than the fact that the big play in the game was when a domestic abuser hit a grand slam off a guy who was never charged with sexual assault, but regardless of what happened, she was 16.
…uh, after Tsuyoshi Shinjo walked to load the bases in the second inning. And somehow, with Trachsel pitching (and he issued four walks), the game took only 2:38.
No Mets pitcher from Arizona, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago (the South Side, or anywhere else in Illinois, as far as the White Sox are concerned), Colorado, Detroit, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Oakland, Seattle, or Tampa Bay has won a game in his hometown stadium. The Mets have never gotten a win from a Canadian in Toronto or Montreal.
On the Mets’ current roster, there are limited opportunities to add to this list, which really makes that 2011 sequence of Taylor Buchholz/Dillon Gee/Mike Pelfrey winning games in their home areas remarkable.
Obviously, Adam Ottavino already has a home win, and would love to double it up with Yankee Stadium and join John Franco as the only New Yorkers to win for the Mets in the Bronx. Scherzer is from St. Louis, of course, but how about the Mets’ other hurlers?
Tylor Megill in Huntington Beach, Calif., and Trevor Williams comes from San Diego. And as far as National League markets goes, that’s it – keep it in mind for the June road trip to L.A., San Diego, and Anaheim. May (Longview, Wash.), Chris Bassitt (Toledo) and Drew Smith (Crowley, Tex., outside Dallas) are from American League areas the Mets do not visit this season. Seth Lugo (Shreveport, La.) and Sean Reid-Foley (Guam) are the only other Americans on the staff, and while we can dream of the Mets playing in Venezuela so Carlos Carrasco can get a chance to win a game there, it’s not happening this year for sure.
Trivia answer: Kevin Appier struck out Stubby Clapp on August 10, 2001, when Stubby Clapp pinch-hit for Woody Williams… Stubby Clapp pinch-hit for Woody Williams… STUBBY CLAPP PINCH-HIT FOR WOODY WILLIAMS…
…and then the Cardinals got a sac fly from Fernando Viña and a single by Placido Polanco to score two runs in the inning, and then the Mets fell behind a little later, but Mike Piazza got an RBI double to tie it off (eventual Taiwan Series MVP and teammate of Chen “The Tall Guy” Lien-hong with the Uni-President Lions) Luther Hackman in the seventh, and fuckin’ Rick White gave it up in the 10th and the Cardinals won, just like they did on Wednesday.
Anyway, a better question would’ve been “Who was the biggest asshole the Mets ever fought?” and the answer would be Pete Rose, but technically that question is subjective, and objectively it’s too easy, but here’s video of it anyway from the Mets’ 25th anniversary video because Bud Harrelson is every bit as deadass about the whole thing as Pete Alonso, despite being at the opposite end of the size spectrum.
And, as a bonus, another clip of Harrelson talking about the Rose fight (with better footage of the fight), from the 1986 NLCS, featuring Keith Jackson and Tim McCarver and the visage of doesn’t-yet-know-he’ll-strike-out-to-end-the-series Kevin Bass. Unfortunately, neither of these short clips has Harrelson saying, “I keep telling everybody I made him famous.”
Have a great weekend, and if you want an RSS feed for our podcast while we’re sorting out how to get that RSS feed to the various apps (you won’t find us just yet on a search on Apple or Spotify), well, here ya go!
Best wishes to our dear Colleen Sullivan and her family. If you’ve got a dog, go give them some skritches.