National League Standings, September 30, 1971
METS FANS SHARE THEIR MEMORIES OF THE SEPTEMBER 30, 1971 GAME:
Matt
July 3, 2001
Last game for Ken Singleton. He hit 2 HRs and Seaver struck out 13 for his 20th. Last game Nolan Ryan was with the team as well.
DJ Johnny M.
May 16, 2002
I was sitting in the loge area with my Dad along the 3rd base line. Tom Seaver looked awesome in the final game of the season at a chilly Shea Stadium. It was fan appreciation night. I think they were giving away Mets ski-caps. I still have mine. I remember Tom struck out Joe Torre, who I think was the NL batting champ that year, for the final out of the game. The crowd roared. He got a two minute standing-O. Tom came out of the dugout and tipped his hat to the adoring crowd. What a way to end a season!
Bob P
July 4, 2004
Tom Seaver won his 20th in the last game of the season, beating a Cardinal lineup thaty looked like a triple-A team. Lou Brock was the about the only regular who played; Joe Torre (who won the NL batting title that year), Ted Simmons, Jose Cruz, and Ted Sizemore did not play.
Seaver scattered seven hits (three of them by Ted Kubiak, he of the lifetime .231 batting average). Ken Singleton homered leading off the fifth and then hit a three-run homer with two outs in the sixth. He added an eighth inning single in what would be his final at bat as a Met. This was also Julian Javier's final game as a Cardinal after twelve seasons in St. Louis. Javier was a mainstay of the Cardinal teams of the 1960s that played in three seven-game World Series, winning two of them.
Shickhaus Franks
January 23, 2012
Go on YouTube and look up: "NY Mets 1971 Final Game and Season TV Audio Recap". You will be amazed; plus this would be the last game that Gil Hodges would ever manage as he would pass away on that sad Easter Sunday of 1972.
Ed K
February 13, 2013
I believe this was also the first time the Mets won the last game of a regular season.
Larry’s Mets Memories
October 5, 2021
A night to remember: A tale of 2 Hall-of-Famers - but not Tom Seaver, Joe Torre or Lou Brock-(or Gil Hodges, who should be.) Instead, 2 enigmatic young pitchers who would be traded, essentially giveaways. It got me thinking : Could the Mets have offered Ryan to the Cards - not for Joe, which almost happened 3 years earlier, but for Steve Carlton even-up? Ironically, the Mets would’ve rejected the notion, for Steve was every bit the headcase as Nolie. But it was Tom Terrific’s night, clinching a consecutive NL ERA title and setting a new record for Ks by a NL RH pitcher, in addition to 20W and 21CG -all near guarantees for his next CY Award, proving there are no guarantees. (Instead it was another HoFer Fergie Jenkins.)
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