Mr. Sparkle
August 23, 2000
I was at this marathon game on a Sunday afternoon. Strawberry hit a grandslam in the first inning and the Pirates chipped away tying it at 4 after nine innings. There were several blown opportunities on bothe sides during the next nine inning but nothing happened. Thank God they were still serving beer. This was the game where Rusty Staub, and I think it was Danny Heep traded places in left and right field depending on what side of the plate the batter hit form. One of the Pirates hit a high fly in shallow right field that Rusty seemed to have run a mile on before he finally pulled it in. It was unbelieveable. The Mets finally pulled it out in the 18th and sent us home happy.

flushing flash
September 27, 2000
That "one of the Pirates" who hit the ball Rusty caught was none other than Rick Rhoden, who was pinch hitting.

Jim McCoy
August 23, 2001
That fly ball that Rusty caught took him across the foul line, and his momentum carried him to the wall, where a fan in the right field stands reached out and hugged him. It was great.

The other cool thing that happened in this game is that Clint Hurdle, who mostly caught at this point, got pressed into service in the outfield and threw out a runner at home who would've scored the winning run.

flushing flash
February 7, 2002
Some more memories of this game. My high school softball team got beat in a game out in Jersey that day and we had the game on the radio on the bus all the way home and some of us considered jumping off the bus when it passed Shea but we thought better of it. Even though it was a Sunday afternoon the game wasn't on Channel 9 so I had to "see it on the radio" when I got home.

The Mets were no-hit that day. Say what? Darryl Strawberry hit a grand slam in the first inning for the Mets second hit of the ball game. Check out the box score: they didn't get another hit for over ten innings!

I also recall Doug Sisk's performance in the top of the ninth. In what was to become a recurring nightmare for us fans, he walked the bases loaded with no one out. Jesse O came in and struck out the first batter, then got the next to pop up on the infield. Then he threw a pitch all the way to the backstop. Gary Carter scrambled for the ball and fired it to Orosco as Doug Frobel slid into home and he was "out at the plate! out at the plate!"

That was about the most excited I had ever heard Bob Murphy sound on the radio, until the eighteenth inning of course, when Rusty made the last putout of his major league career, and Murph screamed "way to go Rusty!"

Joe Lanzisera
June 30, 2003
For some reason watching this game on a Sunday afternoon is one of my most vivid childhood memories. For some reason I always had a thing for back-up catchers and when Hurdle threw the runner out at the plate, I went wild. The Rusty left-right back and forth thing was awesome, kind of like the Orosco/McDowell pitcher swap the next season in Cincinnati.

For some reason I thought that Gooden had driven in runs in this game, but I must be confused. They don't play them like this anymore.

Mike Mayerhoffer
May 4, 2007
A little known fact about the game... Daryl Strawberry's 1st inning grand slam hit a child in the face that was sitting in the bleachers. The child was picked up and hustled away by 2 men. I wonder what happened to that poor kid?

Witz
September 6, 2008
Listened to this game on the radio with my roommate in college; I loved Murph's call of Rusty's catch, " Rusty, trying to get there, TRYING TO GET THERE...he makes the catch!"

Little known fact--McDowell was the starter! As I recall the Mets were hoping to get 5 innings out of him; I didn't remeber 'til I saw the box score here, that they were not very good innings (four runs)!

Mr. Roboto
November 25, 2010
I can't believe that of all the comments for this game, nobody has mentioned the most important thing about it. Clint Hurdle drove in the winning run for the Mets when he reached on Jason Thompson's error in the 18th inning. Mookie Wilson scored, pinch-running for Gary Carter.

JFK
July 6, 2012
Some oddities about this game: it was the last game Staub played in the field, McDowell was the starting pitcher and Tom Gorman pitched 7 scoreless innings in relief.

Ralph Enger
September 26, 2013
I remember that my buddies dared me to drink a beer every half inning. These were the days before they shut the vending stands after the 7th. I was never so drunk in my life and I gave up drinking that day and have not had a drink since. Thanks for a great day Rusty!!