Jay Coan
March 29, 2001
I remember after the First Five batters have a sick feeling in my gut and turned the TV off, I kept the Radio on and after the 5th inning I smelled COMEBACK! Too Bad We had Rogers in there, btw who else was in the Bull Pen?

Eric
April 3, 2001
Dotel was the other pitcher in the bullpen. I can't remember the exact phrase but the announcer said something like "They can bring in Rogers" and about a minute later "Now Dotel's warming up, so it'll be Rogers, a flutterbll pitcher or Dotel who throws heaters." I can't really say I blame Kenny. I blame Leiter, Franco, Benitez, and Valentine all before him.

leiterfluid22
October 29, 2001
Despite being perhaps the second most ugly postseason Met loss I have ever seen (I am only 16), this is one of the most exciting playoff games in history. I remember watching Al, my favorite Met, and that sparkling Met defense give up those five early runs. But when they eventually got to the 7th and trailed 7 to 3, I just said to myself (in bed and listening to the radio), "Mojo risin'." Then what became what I call today as three weddings and a funeral happened for the Mets.

First I saw them just club good ol' Smoltzy for 4 runs including that classic Piazza shot deep the other way. Next came the improbable base hit by Melly Mora to give them a 1-run lead. After that was blown, I watched big Benny beat Andruw Jones' throw home in the 10th, only to have the not immortal Armando give it right back.

Then came the funeral. Once Gerald Williams led off with the double I knew it was almost over, but I still had hope. What I still don't understand though, is if they started Leiter on three days to skip Rogers' turn, why bring Rogers into a tied extra-inning game on the road when there is zero margin for error? All in all, from opening day in Florida, all the way to ball four to Andruw Jones, this still remains as the greatest season in Mets history. Even better than 1986, and 2000.

SKAdoo420
November 7, 2001
This is one of my most hated game in Mets playoff history. I still have nightmares about Kenny Rogers and his pitch selection to Andruw Jones. When the bases were juiced and u needed to throw a strike why throw anything else but a fastball. As any met fan saw he was looking for the walk so make hi take a strike. Worse thing that could of happened is that he crushes it or a sac fly type ball. LET HIM HIT IT. He might grounded into the doubleplay if u let him take a swing. As a met fan im glad Kenny is gone as well as this game and I pray it never happens again.

Mets2Moon
January 25, 2002
The game 6 few thought would happen started, for me, not in front of a TV, but in a meeting featuring me screaming at people because I wanted to get the hell out of there and back to my house to watch the game. And when I got back, it was 5- 0! A fine How do you do indeed. Then, it happened. 3 in the 6th, but the Braves countered with 2. Then the Mets started whipping some long hits off of Smoltz in the 7th, capped by Piazza, looking as if he'd just been hit by a truck, blasted one out of the ballpark, and I damn near jumped through the ceiling. The Mets would take subsequent leads in this game, and each time the Braves tied it. And finally they prevailed on Kenny #$%#$^ Rogers' fluttering curve. Just before the pitch, I turned to my roommate and said, "Well, if it ends here, it's been one hell of a run, and nothing to be ashamed of...But wouldn't it be sweet if they got out of it?" The pitch is thrown..."Oh dear." Not to be, and all I was left with was this haunting chant over NBC's feed of "Mets suck!" A postscript: The next night, I actually put on NBC at 8, expecting to see Game 7, and instead getting Friends. And thanks to the $@$&*^%# braves, I refused to watch any of the World Series.

Eddie
December 14, 2003
I remember having to work that night. I popped a tape in the VCR, planning to watch the game when I got home. When I got home, I rewound the tape, watched all the pre-game stuff, then the game started. Bam!!!! 5-zip, Braves, my stomach felt queezy. I figured that I would just fast forward to the end of the game and watch the coffin being nailed shut. But a strange thing happened, as I was fast forwarding the tape (FF play), all of the sudden I saw the Mets running around the bases. I slowed the tape, oh my god! They were scoring some runs! Then when Bobby Boo Boo came off the bench and got a hit I thought for sure The Almighty was a Met fan. Then, top of the 8th, Piazza comes up (his hands were so messed up by this time, he could barely hold the bat), and jacks one in to the right field seats off of Smoltz to give the Mets the lead, I came out of my chair hollering. I probably woke my upstairs neighbor (remember, I had to work, so it was probably about 1:30 AM by this time). I can remember the camera panning the Braves dougout, they looked like a collective deer in the headlights, they were in shock! I'll say this till the day I die, and no one will convince me any different. If the Mets had held on and won that game, they would have won Game 7 too. And finally, I can remember watching ESPN the next day. They interviewed a few of the Yankees, they were disappointed, they really wanted to play the Mets.

Lee
July 13, 2004
The heartbreaker of a century. If the Mets won this, they would become the first team in playoff history to come back from a 3-0 series deficit to force a 7th game. But the Braves got 5 runs. But the Mets come back and then Piazza tied it in the 8th (and he wasn't just playing injured he was playing dead) with a home run and I was jumping up and down and the Mets, throughout the game, would score runs only to have it tied by the Braves and then, in the bottom of the 10th, the Mets had a one run lead and then they tied and, with the bases loaded, Andruw Jones stepped up against Kenny Rogers, and, the infamous pitch, where Kenny Rogers floats a horrible curve with brings Gerald Williams home from third to send the Braves to the World Series and send the Mets home. It totally killed me.

Even Stephen
October 4, 2004
Never Say Die. I have always said that when Bobby Valnetine managed the Mets his teams never gave up. Most teams would have mailed it in after the first. But the Mets battled back, refusing to die. They may have lost the game but that team gained a lot of respect.

Joe
April 19, 2006
When thinking about this game one thing comes to mind. Mike Piazza! The home run he hit off of Smoltz in the 7th was one of the most remarkable home runs I've seen. you could see the faces of the Braves players just dropped. I try not to think about the bases loaded walk so I sit back and think of that homer.

Kevin from Flushing
March 20, 2007
Everything that needs to be said about this game has been said. I'll just add the 3 things that stick out the most in my memory.

Beginning of the game: 4-0 Braves before the Mets could record an out. When it hit 5-0 moments later, my good friend Jim--who had watched every playoff game with me in our respective seats--got up to leave. I yelled to him, "sit the f*** down! We're gonna come back and win this game!"

Middle of the game: Piazza bomb makes it 7-7. Good thing Jim didn't leave.

End of the game: Bases loaded. Me and Jim are so dazed and confused from the entire series that we were perfectly content with the situation, knowing we were about to record an inning-ending double play. Then Rogers throws ball one--and we both knew. Jim and I look at each other immediately and Jim says, "you're thinking what I'm thinking aren't you?" I just nodded silently, solemnly. We kept repeating, PLEADING, "over the plate, over the plate, over the plate..."

Ball four.

Jim wasted no time. He got up, shook my hand, said "it's been a great season," and stormed out. I just stared at the screen, catatonic.

Joe Lanzisera
February 23, 2009
Not much to add on this one except that it may have been the hardest loss in Mets history for me to accept. I still think the 99 Mets were supposed to be the first team to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a seven-game series. We all know what the Red Sox did five years later, but this was hard to take. Piazza's blast is still an all-time highlight - right up there with Ventura's GS single the game before and all the big homers in '86.

Jeff
June 23, 2016
As it was said earlier in this section, the blame for this loss should ride heavily on the 2 "closers" this team had and how each one failed to hold the lead. A starter coming in relief is tough especially when some starters needs to get some pitches in to get loose.

Bob
April 25, 2024
And thus ends perhaps one of the most beloved and unique Mets season of all time. Had they made the comeback against Atlanta, and then beaten the Yankees, this team would have won the heart of Mets fans probably over 1969 and 1986

I always found it fascinating how the vast majority to this day blame Kenny Rogers for this loss. Most of the blame should go to Franco and Benitez for not holding onto the lead late in the game in the bottom of the 8th and then again in the bottom of the 10th, that would have forced the game 7

I don’t blame Leiter that much, since Leiter was great in that game 163, and in game 4 against Arizona, and even in game 3 against Atlanta. And Leiter was pitching on 3-days-rest this game 6.

I really wanted the Mets to face the Yankees in 1999 since both teams were just so elite; I actually did not want to face the Yankees in 2000 since both teams just weren't as strong in 2000 like they were in 1999. I really wanted the Mets to face the Mariners in the World Series in 2000

Dave VW
August 9, 2024
For me, this is the most memorable, if also the most infamous, Met game of the 1990s. I remember watching this in my college dorm room, super excited and riding high after wins in Games 4 and 5. Leiter on the mound, momentum on our side, feeling good.

But my god did it fall apart fast. Leiter hits the first batter. Walks the next. Then double steal and Piazza throwing error, 1-0. Then another hit by pitch. Then RBI single, 2-0. Then a grounder back to him but he can't get anyone out. Then 2-run single by series nemesis Eddie Perez, 4-0. WTF. Leiter gets yanked and I turn off the TV, not able to bear watching the Mets get blown out in the most important game of the decade.

I go off and do something else for a couple hours, then decide to turn on the game again just to see how bad they're losing. To my absolute shock, it's the top of the 7th inning, and the game is tied at 7-7. Again, WTF. Of course, at this point I'm sucked right back in, only to see Franco and Benitez both blow leads, and then Rogers unable to find the plate against Andruw Jones to end the season. What a kick in the balls.

It was a fitting way to end a rollercoaster season with a rollercoaster of a game. And we're left wondering what could have been if only a few small things went our way. What if Alfonzo or Ventura had hit home runs instead of both flying out to the warning track in the 7th? What if Piazza holds on to the ball and doesn't commit the throwing error in the 8th that puts Otis Nixon on 3rd with 1 out? What if Valentine had brought in Benitez right then and there instead of sticking with Franco? What if instead of intentionally walking Brian Jordan in the 11th they had instead pitched to him, either with Rogers or Dotel, so as not to give the Braves a chance to win with a walk?

After Rogers threw ball four, the cameras caught Valentine slamming his fists against the dugout railing and shouting, "No! No!," joining the thousands of fans who probably did the exact same thing while watching at home. Rogers and Bonilla both made their final appearances with the Mets in this game, and neither would be missed, but the same couldn't be said for Olerud, Cedeno and Hershiser, who were also headed elsewhere in 2000.

Another gut punch then came a week later when the Yankees completed their sweep of the Braves to win their second straight World Series. Now we had to hear them gloat while still recovering from our own heartbreaking defeat. It was a rough time for us Met fans, but our team had earned a ton of respect for the way they fought until the bitter end. And I think we all knew we were only going to come back more determined than ever the following season.