With 34 days until the Mets walk into Citi Field, here’s my tribute to those who walked off the field at Shea Stadium with a blast.

Trivia

Let’s start with some facts to get you in the mood. After hours of research, and I mean hours, here’s 10 facts any Mets fan should enjoy.

9) July 2001 – The Philadelphia Phillies must have hated the New York Mets by the time they left Queens in July of 2001.
First, 3B Robin Ventura took Turk Wendell’s 2nd pitch of the 9th inning to right-centre field to give the Mets the walk-off win and then Mike Piazza dispatched Rheal Cormier to left-centre field to win the game the following day.
On the Saturday, Wendell had retired the Mets in order in the home half of the 8th, but he was unable to get the better of Ventura who connected for his 18th home run of the year.
Things didn’t get any better for the Phils the very next day. They had tied the next game at 5-5 when Armando Benitez blew the save, but Piazza connected for his 26th home run of the campaign in the bottom of the 9th.

8) October 9, 1999 – Bobby Valentine’s Mets clinched the NLDS against the Arizona Diamondbacks with Todd Pratt’s extra-innings walk-off home run.
Pratt’s 10th inning blast to centre field narrowly cleared a leaping Steve Finley’s glove to give the Mets a 4-3 win and a 3-1 series victory.
Pratt was in the lineup because of an injury to Mike Piazza and he made the most of his chance in the limelight.
Matt Mantei was the villian for the D’Backs, giving up the 2-run shot and ending their chances of post-season glory.

7) July 1996 – See entry 9? Well, the Pittsburgh Pirates can tell the Phillies just how that feels after suffering a near identical fate almost exactly five years earlier.
Here’s the scene. Picture it. The Mets rally from 4-3 behind in the bottom of the 8th inning to win the first game in a day-night doubleheader 5-4 thanks to back-to-back pinch-hit RBIs from Andy Tomberlin and Carlos Baerga.
In the nightcap, Alvaro Espinoza – pinch-hitting for Rey Ordonez – ties the game 4-4 in the bottom of the 9th inning and Todd Hundley – who pinch-hit for pitcher Dough Henry in the 9th inning and remained in the game as the Mets’ catcher – won it with a solo walk-off home run in the bottom of the 12th against Jon Lieber.
Think it couldn’t get worse, right? Wrong.
Left fielder Bernard Gilkey snatches victory away from the Pirates in the following day’s game  at Shea with a home run to lead off the bottom of the 9th inning. Then, after Jason Kendall had given the Pirates a 2-1 lead with a 2-out RBI in the 10th, Chris Jones hit a walk-off 2-run bomb off of Dan Plesac to win the game after the tying run had reached on an error.
Proof that the Pirates have had bad luck for more than a decade.

6) June 17, 1976 – The first of two pitching duels makes the list at number 6 as the Mets toppled the Dodgers in 14.
Dave Kingman went yard at the expense of Charlie Hough to hand the Mets a narrow 1-0 victory, but the game should be remembered just as much for the pitching.
The Dodgers’ Don Sutton – a 1998 inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame and pitcher who had 58 career shutouts – threw 9 innings of shutout ball, only to be bettered by the Mets’ rightie Craig Swan who struck out eight batters and surrendered just three hits in 10 innings of work.

4) April 9, 1985 – The 1985 season got off to a bang when Gary Carter drilled an Opening Day extra-inning walk-off home run to see off the Cardinals.
Carter had been hit by two pitches and doubled already in this game, but the most excitement was still to come when he took Neil Allen deep with 1-out in the bottom of the 10th.
What started so promisingly would see the Mets to a 97-64 record, the second best in the National League, behind only the aforementioned cardinals who were the only team to top the 100-win season.

3) August 19, 1969 – The second one for the purists right here – and another mammoth pitching duel.
The Mets won their fifth consecutive game and moved to within eight games of the National League East-leading Chicago Cubs in a memorable game against the San Francisco Giants at Shea.
Leadoff batter Tommie Agee, the Mets starting CF, hit a 1-out walk-off home run against Juan Marichal in the bottom of the 14th inning to win the game 1-0.
Marichal picked up the complete game loss despite only giving up seven baserunners (six singles and a walk) and striking out 13 Mets in 13 1/3 innings of work.
Gary Gentry, incidently, pitched equally as beautifully for the Mets, throwing 10 shutout innings of four-hit ball against a lineup that included Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Bobby Bonds.

2) October 11, 1986 – Remember Mookie ‘s dribbler that famously got through Bill Buckner’s legs to give the Mets the World Series? Of course you do. It’s enshrined in baseballing folklore.
But oh how things could have been different, in many ways than one.
With the Mets and Astros tied in the NLCS series at one game each, the Mets were staring defeat in the face in game three, down 5-4 with a man away in the 9th.
But Lenny Dykstra makes history by becoming the first man in postseason history to hit a walk-off home run for a team which is trailing.
He took Houston reliever Dave Smith’s 0-1 pitch for a 2-run bomb to right field to give the Mets a 6-5 victory and 2-1 NLCS lead.
The Mets would win the series 4-2, but history could easily have been rewritten. The Astros would win game four 3-1 and would have been just one win away from the World Series against the Red Sox had it not been for Lenny. This could be the biggest home run ever hit by a Met. But it is still only enough to make number 2 on my list.