Ultimate Mets Database: Game of July 31, 1966

Flitgun Frankie
December 3, 2020
An oddball game this one. As already pointed out, Adolfo Phillips was a big star in this game—for the Mets! First play in the game, we get to hear (on the surviving radio broadcast) Phillips ground into an unusual 7-4-3 out at first base. He hit what Lindsey Nelson described as a routine fly ball, which Larry Elliott proceeded to drop. I'm guessing that Phillips ended up on second base, though this wasn't made clear in the broadcast. Elliot then threw the ball to Chuck Hiller at second base and Hiller relayed it to Ed Kranepool. Kranepool stepped on first on the appeal play and Phillips was called out for missing first. Later on in the game, Kranepool hit a long fly that Phillips lost in the sun, ducked out of the way to avoid getting hit by the ball, and Kranepool ended up with a triple, scored on a Cleon Jones base hit for the game winning run, LOL.

With Phillips and Byron Browne in the line up, the Cubs were featuring two of the all-time strikeout artists in the same game. That would be good if they were pitchers, but they weren't. I only saw them later in their careers when Phillips was with the Expos and Browne was with the Phillies.

A couple of interesting tidbits from the announcers in this game. This July was the first winning month in Mets' history, as Bob Murphy mentioned several times. Ralph Kiner did add that the Mets had one previous month where they had a .500 record, pointing out that in 1963 they won two games and lost two games in October. Maybe that was better left unsaid. Also, in giving the out-of-town scores, they mentioned that Dick Stuart hit a home run for the Dodgers. So I guess his Mets career was already over. That didn't last long. Last, I think it was Bob Murphy that pointed out that the Mets, in ninth place, were closer to first place than last place. They were 14 games out of first place, but 14.5 games ahead of the 10th place Cubs. How bad were the Cubs that year! And how mediocre was the entire National League. Phew!

Please note:
We're looking for your comments about this specific game. We've had people use this space to share their thoughts on how the current season is going, or on ways that the Mets can improve the team. Such comments, unless in the context of this particular game, will be considered off-topic and will be removed.

Example One
The Mets suck! They need to trade Smith and get somebody like Jones.
This comment is off-topic and will be removed. It has nothing to do with any specific game. But here's an acceptable alternative:

Example Two
The Mets suck! Smith made three errors in this game, and hit into a double play, and the Mets blew a 5-0 lead. They need to get rid of Smith and get somebody like Jones.
See the difference? Here you're getting the same point across, but it's in the proper context. We wouldn't consider this message to be off-topic, and we would let it remain.

We do appreciate anybody who takes the time to share their thoughts on our site, and we hate to remove anybody's postings. But if we didn't take steps to ensure that only on-topic messages were retained, The Ultimate Mets Database would become a confusing jumble of unrelated comments, and would thus be less enjoyable to visitors like you.

Thank you!

Your name:
E-Mail address: OPTIONAL
Comments about the game: