Amazin' Date 6/11/1969: Giants Bring Soaring Mets to Screeching Halt

From the desk of:  HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

AMAZIN'

THE MIRACLE METS

50th ANNIVERSARY

Game #53: Wednesday, June 11, 1969 - BR
New York Mets @ San Francisco Giants
Candlestick Park

Mets Bow to Giants 7-2 at Candlestick Park; Win Streak Halted at Eleven.

The Mets enter game two at Candlestick Park undefeated (4-0) against the Giants this season, and in the midst of a season altering eleven game winning streak.  By close of business Wednesday, starter Gaylord Perry and Willie Mays had put an end to all of it.

The Giants line-up waste little time getting after Mets rookie starter Gary Gentry.  With one out in the bottom of the first, former Mets all-star second baseman Ron Hunt triples into the left/center gap.  Willie Mays delivers Hunt with a single, and soon after would come around to score giving San Francisco an early 2-0 lead.  Mays is at it again in the fourth, doubling home two more runs and knocking Gentry out of the box.  With Tug McGraw pitching in relief of Ron Taylor in the sixth, Willie McCovey knocks in his 48th run of the season with a double as the Giants score three more times for a 7-0 lead.

Ed Kranepool finally put the Mets on the board with a lead-off home run in the seventh.  Cleon Jones makes it a 2-7 deficit with an RBI in the eighth.

Gaylord Perry completes the game, allowing the two runs on just four hits and four walks, with four strikeouts.  He improves to 9-5 on the season.  Gentry lasts 3.1 innings while yielding four runs (three earned) on six hits and three walks with two strikeouts.  His record evens out at 5-5 for the season with a 3.79 ERA.

Willie Mays goes 3 for 5 with a double and two RBI and a run scored.  Ron Hunt is 3 for 5 with two runs scored against his former team.  Ed Kranepool's home run was his sixth of the season.

• Mets Record:  29-24 (.547)
• N.L. East:  2nd; 7 GB

NYC Subway Series: First Stop, 161st Street and River Avenue

From the desk of:  HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

GAME ONE

NEW YORK METS

vs.

NEW YORK YANKEES

FROM

THE HOUSE THAT GEORGE BUILT

With A Parking Lot That Cost A Fortune To Build,

But Is Too Expensive To Park In, And Thus Remains Mostly Empty.

161st Street and River Avenue

BRONX

Entering the opener of this year's Subway Series, the Yankees own a 19-17 record, and the Mets own a 17-19 record.  Not much separates them, right?

One team spent $500 million dollars during the off season to refortify their roster, while the other team in town remains upwards of $850+ million dollars in debt.

One team will be retiring the number of a former manager, and adding three more plaques to Monument Park.  However, the other team in town severed ties with the first all-star the organization ever produced, for still unexplained reasons, nor have they made a motion, or entertained the thought of retiring the number of a HOF catcher, who recently passed away as perhaps the classiest member of the Mets last championship team.

Yes, it Subwayy Series time again, only one team might be showing up to Yankee Stadium this evening in Pedi-Cabs.

As a Mets fan, yes indeed, this was all pretty deliberate.  I'm in that kind of mood today.  But, it is an expression nonetheless, of my frustration with the disparity between New York City's American and National League clubs, that for all intent and purpose, should not exist.

Am I am a disgruntled Mets fan?  No, I am not.  Rather, I am a pissed off Mets fan.

*          *          *          *

Like everything else this season, this will be Derek Jeter's last Subway Series.  I've stated many times in this blog, that I do not want to see Derek Jeter ruin his career .300 batting average. He is presently batting .250, with 29 hits in 116 at-bats.  Derek started the season with a .314 lifetime mark, but has dropped 2 points, and presently owns a career .312 average.

*          *          *          *

My greatest Subway Series moment/game?

Carlos Delgado's Nine RBI @ Yankee Stadium

June 27, 2008

Mike.BTB