Opening day on the West Coast, listened to this game on the radio. Pete Harnisch threw a couple of mistakes. All right, he ran out of gas in inning number six. The guys we signed to clean up this bullpen (Yorkis Perez, and Toby Borland) are going to fix this.

Sorry, this is the 1997 Met Bullpen we are talking about and two of the main culprits (both of these guys above are gone before July) of a bullpen that needed massive restructuring during the season made this game memorable for all the wrong reasons, helping turn a 4-3 lead after Pete Harnisch went to get a shower into a 12-4 nightmare. Wretched, this was a road trip that would have ruined April and possibly a season from the start. Impressed this team survived this start (see other games on this trip) to finish above .500 and within striking distance of a wild-card bid.

The Mets first win of the season,and the start of a career year for Bobby Jones. Also, the last time that the Mets would open the season on the west coast.

Joe Crawford's MLB debut and the lefty lost the game for the Mets in the 15th inning!

A raw overcast day as the Mets and Giants played 2 making up the prior day's rainout. My father and I went to the game, and the place was largely empty. We sat in the field level boxes and as it was so empty figured we'd move up a few seats -- but nothing close to front row. At any rate, the Mets ran a 'moving on up' contest that day in which they awarded field level seats to a family seated in the upper deck. As chance would have it the family won the seats we had moved to. When my dad and I realized this we moved fast -- thinking what are the chances of that. Luckily plenty of other seats. Only other memory was of Olerud's first games at Shea as a Met. He got 4 hits that afternoon with his ultra-smooth left-handed swing.

This is the "Opening Day" that wasn't. The prior day was supposed to be the opener but it got washed out.

I got excited to be there and purchased loge box seats down the left field line expecting opening day ceremonies. Much to my chagrin there were no ceremonies. Joe McIllvaine was quoted as saying, "we just teed it up and played."

I count this as an "Opening Day" but in reality in 1997 there was no "Opening Day."

The home opener after a day of rain. Howard Johnson threw out the first pitch, after starting out Spring Training in 1997 with the Mets, trying to make the roster. He didn't and retired, so the fans gave him a nice ovation for his recent decision to hang it up.

As for the game, a weird moment as Jeff Kent seems to get very seriously hurt as he attempted to slide into 3rd. His neck and shoulder both got the bad end of it, players all gathered around him and the stretcher was even brought onto the field for him. From the looks of it, it was a season ending injury....yet Kent was literally back in the lineup the very next night. Very weird all around.

The Mets 4th straight loss, dropping them to 3-9 on the season. Greg McMichael blew an 8th inning lead and after the game, fans on the radio were calling for Bobby Valentine to be fired in his first full season. Little did everyone know that the team would go on to play pretty fantastic baseball from this point on, ending up with one of the most unexpected, satisfying years in Mets history. (At least counting years that didn't result in a playoff berth.)

What a great night at Shea! Took my Mom (who grew up a Brooklyn Dodgers fan) to her first game at Shea in over 20 years for Jackie Robinson Night. President Clinton was there. I said "hi" to Spike Lee in the corridor. Mom chatted with comedienne Elaine Boozler. Jerry was the only one missing! And the Mets played well, Reynoso pitched well, and it was a solid shut-out victory.

One of my all-time favorite nights at Shea. Honoring Jackie Robinson's 50th Anniversary of breaking the race barrier in the presence of his wife, Commissioner Selig, President Clinton was a highlight of my life. It was amazing to observe the multigenerational families: the grandparents who remembered Jackie and came to the game with their children and grandchildren who only know the legend. I, too, was there with my mother as well as my two young sons. That the Mets won the game was only a sidelight.

This was a great shutout win for the Mets in which Lance Johnson had a pair of two-run singles. It was during this game that Jackie Robinson was honored on the fiftieth anniversary of his debut. Bud Selig announced that MLB was retiring No. 42, but the ceremony was ill-timed. Instead of holding it before the game like he should have, the non-traditional commissioner had the thing after the fifth inning.

One special feature about baseball as opposed to other sports is that it does not have halftime or any other kind of intermission. Mr. Selig created one here, which was one of many screw-ups h he had during his time in office. I wonder if Jackie himself would have approved of the ceremony interrupting a game in progress instead of it being conducted ahead of time.

I don't know if it was coincidence or planned, but having the Dodgers play in New York on this evening was apropos, considering Jackie Robinson played his entire career with the Dodgers in Brooklyn. I didn't realize that it was actually a secret that Robinson's #42 was being retired across baseball. Looking back, that revelation must have been quite the bombshell. It was also noteworthy that other games in action on this night also paused play while the ceremony was shown on the respective stadium's big screen. ESPN had all the bases covered on the broadcast, too, bringing in Pee Wee Reese over satellite, interviewing Larry Doby and President Clinton, and showing numerous candid interviews featuring Robinson over the years prior to his death.

As for the game itself, Reynoso made his Mets debut pitching 5 shutout innings, Toby Borland went the final 4 to collect his only save as a Met, and Lance Johnson plated 4 of the 5 runs as the Mets won their first home game of 1997.

In the first game of this doubleheader, the Mets gave the Cubs their 14th loss in a row to start the season, a National League record. Carl Everett hit 2 homers and Olerud added another in his first season as a Met.

The Cubs would finally break the streak in the nightcap.

Rick Reed's coming out party. I ventured out to Shea on a bright April afternoon (I think I got sunburned) not expecting much. Got a field box from a scalper for $5 under face value. Reed was magnificent the whole way, despite some morons chanting "SCAB!" throughout the early innings. Boy, did he ever shut them up. Alfonzo blasted a 3-run triple in the 5th and that was all he needed, Reeder's first complete game and W as a Met. And when he batted in the 8th, he got a huge ovation, even from the idiots who had jeered him earlier. Great game.

One of Hundley's best games as a Met, hitting 2 homers with 5 RBI on a very overcast afternoon at Shea as the Mets were in the process of rebounding from their poor early season start.

I think there literally might have been only 2,500 people in the park for this game...it rained all morning and I guess people thought the game would be canceled. I remember they gave out some promotion honoring Hundley, Franco, Gilkey, and Lance Johnson.

With the Mets down 4-3 in the top of the ninth, pinch-hitter Carl Everett hits a two-run homer off Dennis Eckersley, and Butch Huskey follows with another pinch-homer as the Mets pull one out in St. Louis.

This come-from-behind Mets victory was a special Mothers Day treat for Met fans. After the Mets had gotten off the season with a horrible 3-9 start, they had been playing good baseball in Bobby Valentine's first full season as their manager, and this victory finally put them over .500 with a 19-18 record. There was a sense that they had finally turned things around after years in the wilderness and were contending (at least for the wild card) for the first time since 1990.

1997 will be remembered as the season where the Mets, after years of misery and embarassment in the 1990s, finally turned it around and against all odds became contenders again.

I will always remember this game as the one where I finally believed that this team was going to do something.

The Mets had come home after a relatively successful road trip, and were hovering about .500, not great but perhaps getting better. In were the Astros, also a team on the rise.

Coming into the stadium this evening, I noticed, despite a relatively empty stadium on a cool, damp evening, there were two banners, one hanging in the left field corner, the other in the right field corner. The banners read simply:

NOW IT BEGINS!

I wondered what it meant.

Armando Reynoso started this game, pitched fairly well, and even hit a HR. He folded in the 7th, however, giving up a game-tying HR to Sean Berry, who was hitting a mighty .188 at the time.

In the bottom of the 7th, I saw one of the most gratifying Met HRs of my life.

(And I was at the Todd Pratt game, and the Mike Piazza game right after 9/11)

Butch Huskey, enjoying his finest season period, launched one of the longest and highest HRs I have ever seen, way off into the night, over the LF bullpen, giving the Mets a 4-3 lead, which they would hold on to, despite Franco pitching into a jam in the 9th.

The Mets would go on to win games like this one all season long, eventually driving into their first pennant race in nearly 10 seasons.

If one game was going to symbolize the Mets resurgence in 97 to greatness in the late 90s, it would have to be this one. NOW IT BEGINS held as a very apropos phrase for that evening and the 97 season.

A tip of the helmet! John Olerud hit the walk-off 2-run HR to win this one. First of many great moments with the Mets for Johnny.

A rare monday afternoon game, on the backend of a 4 game weekend series. Armando Reynoso was working on a no-hitter for the first 6 and 2/3 innings of this game, until a Jeff Reed homer in the 7th. From then, the Mets almost let this one get away, until John Olerud hit a 2 run, come from behind homer in the 9th to win. A fun one to watch,as the 97 team was in the middle of a strong month of May in what would be an unexpected, comeback season of 88 wins.

One of the most unsung trades of the 1990s was when the Mets stole Olerud from Toronto for Robert Person prior to the 1997 season. Though Dave Magadan, Eddie Murray and Rico Brogna had their moments, Olerud was the team's first difference-maker at 1B since Keith Hernandez, and was exactly the type of even-keeled, blue-collar player the Mets needed at the time. Every time he came to bat in a big spot, I always felt like he was going to come through, with this game perhaps being the first true example during his tenure in New York.

As Michael mentioned, Reynoso was fantastic but somehow found himself on the hook for the loss after Greg McMichael allowed Andres Galarraga to hit a 2-out, 2-run single in the top of the 8th, which put the Rockies up 3-2. Before that AB, Galarraga was 1-for-11 with 6 strikeouts vs. McMichael. Colorado turned to journeyman Jeff McCurry to get the save, but after Carl Everett flew out to CF, Edgardo Alfonzo hit a double and Olerud followed by taking McCurry's first pitch over the RF wall.

This was Reynoso's 100th career start, and first time facing his former team after being traded to the Mets for Jerry DiPoto (who also pitched in this game, fittingly giving up a pair of runs) during the offseason. Meanwhile, Colorado native John Burke made his first big-league start for the Rockies and went 5 shutout innings.

For Olerud, it was his only walk-off homer as a Met. It was also the Mets' first of 3 walk-off dingers in 1997, with Everett and Bernard Gilkey collecting the other two. The win put the Mets 3 games over .500 for the first time since May 14, 1994!

A great game I remember going to. Bobby Jones duels Pedro Martinez. 7 shut out innings each and Matt Franco helps Jones get the win with a pinch hit HR. I emember seeing Pedro slamming his glove on his way to the clubhouse after giving up those 2 runs in 8th. Seeing that game gave some of us a feeling that this team could really be getting somewhere finally.

I remember two things distinctly about this game.

First, Baerga, in his usual habit of getting red-hot in May and June, then folding his tent, hit a huge RBI double in the last of the 8th, driving home the winning run, and then Hundley tried to score a third run, but got gunned down at home, despite the fact that he basically body-slammed Expos Catcher Darrin Fletcher at the plate. The OF who gunned him down, from RF, on the fly? Vladimir Guerrero.

The second thing I remember is the great Pedro Martinez, in his usual fashion, sitting by himself in the Expos dugout no less than half an hour after the game, alone, in the dark, arms folded and pouting.

Pedro, Pedro, Pedro...What are we gonna do with ye?

A great game. Pedro v. Bobby Jones in a classical pitchers duel. Vladimir throws out Hundley at the plate from the warning track in right. The best throw I have ever seen. Matt Franco homers to the right field bullpen to win it over an awesome Pedro.

Another early classic from the Bobby V era! All the previous commenters touched on the major points: the fantastic pitchers' duel, the heroic Matt Franco home run (his first of 5 career PH HRs), the clutch go-ahead RBI double by Baerga, the throw by Vladdy to nail Hundley at the plate, and Pedro sitting alone in the dugout and leaving only when they literally turned the lights off inside the dugout. He really took the loss personally, completely beside himself that he choked up the lead. I admire the passion, but Pedro my dude, it's not like you lost Game 7 of the World Series. It'll be ok.

If you can believe it, Franco's blast was actually the last pinch-hit home run Pedro allowed FOR THE REMAINDER OF HIS CAREER. He also retired 14 in a row between the 2nd and 7th innings, and recorded 9 outs in a row via strikeout between the 5th and 8th innings. His 12 strikeouts were also the most he'd ever record in a game vs. the Mets out of 20 career appearances. If he did have one weakness, for some reason it was facing Baerga, as the second baseman improved his career matchup log vs. Pedro to 7-for-10 with his 3-for-4 performance in this game.

Not to be forgotten, Bobby Jones has come out of nowhere to be one of the league's top pitchers. His 8 innings of 1-run ball helped give him his 7th win in a row and made him the NL's first 10-game winner of 1997. He also dropped his season ERA to 2.22.

This was Bobby Bonilla's first time back at Shea Stadium since being traded to Baltimore in 1995. Naturally, he was booed in each of his at-bats, but he wound up getting the last laugh as he scored the go-ahead run in the 6th inning. He finished 1-for-3 with a single, walk, and two strikeouts looking.

After a torrid month of May that saw the Mets go 18-9, the team suddenly looks on the brink of falling into a slump, as they lost to Montreal 2 days earlier 10-0, then won 2-1, barely beating Pedro Martinez with an 8th-inning rally, and now only score twice against Pat Rapp (who lost 16 games the previous year). The offense only managed 5 hits, all singles, and were held hitless for 17 consecutive batters from the 2nd to 7th innings. This very well could have been Bobby V's first true test as Mets manager, making sure this mini-slide doesn't become a season-breaking swoon.

This was Bobby Jones 8th consecutive winning start, tying a Mets record with Seaver (1969) and Cone (1988) for such a streak in a single year.

The Mets and Reds played in front of a very small crowd due to the rain on the previous day. Bobby Jones continued his fantastic start to the year with another win as the Mets continued to be one of the biggest surprises in baseball in 1997.

Mo Vaughn hit a rocket HR in this, the first inter-league game in Mets history. The ball sailed over my head in the left field nosebleeds, and a man in a striped shirt reached up and made a sensational barehanded grab, the ball popping loudly (painfully) in his hand. A few celebratory 'I am the Man' arm pumps to those sitting around him, and, in a wonderfully fluid motion, he whipped Mo's home run ball back onto the field where it belonged. One of the greatest catches I have ever seen at Shea. I was so impressed that I took a disposable camera shot of the guy, but the blurry, out of focus picture that remains pales in comparison to my vivid memory.

Indeed, this was the first interleague game in Mets history, and it looked like they were headed to an easy win after Carl Everett hit Jeff Suppan's first pitch over the CF wall and Rick Reed was perfect over the first 4.1 innings. But things fell apart from there, as Scott Hatteberg broke up the perfect game with a single, and then John Valentin and Troy O'Leary followed with back-to-back home runs, and the Red Sox never looked back. In all, there were 7 home runs in the game, and they announced during the broadcast on Sportschannel that some company was donating $50k towards prostate cancer research for every HR hit between the two teams. That came out to a $350k grand total!

Though Larry is right that Mo Vaughn hit an absolute tape measure home run during the 9th inning, some of his details are a bit off. Mo's homer actually hit off the scoreboard, so there was no way someone in his section could have caught it. I think what he's remembering is a foul ball Vaughn hit earlier in the game (perhaps even earlier in his HR at-bat) that he yanked into the Loge section. That was probably the ball the fan caught and threw back. There were also an obnoxious amount of paper airplanes thrown onto the field during the game -- enough so that even the Mets PA announcer had to remind the crowd that, if they're caught throwing objects onto the field, they'd be subject to ejection and prosecution.

The Mets threatened to pull off a 1986 World Series-type comeback in the 9th. Entering the inning trailing 8-3, Alex Ochoa led off with his first home run of the year, and then the Mets loaded the bases with 2 outs for Todd Hundley, who had also homered earlier in the night. The Sox brought in their third pitcher of the inning to face Todd and, first-pitch swinging, Hundley grounded out to second to end the game.

I remember Mark Clark pitching a no hitter into the eigth inning for the Mets and ironically, Boston scored a run before they recorded a hit. This was the last game I ever attended with my father before he passed away. I love you dad :(

I remember Carl Everett bowling Boston C Bill Hasselmen head over heels. Carl was out on the play, but strutted back to the dugout like he'd just KO'd Tyson. Typical.

Mark Clark's home run was even more shocking than his almost no hitter. This was my daughter's first Mets game, which made her a life-long fan. Ironically, her second favorite team is the Red Sox, since she goes to Boston University, and was right down the road from Fenway when they broke the curse. But that's besides the point. This was the first interleague game I ever went to, and will remember it forever, mainly because of my daughter.

With the Subway Series on the horizon, the Mets look destined for a midseason collapse, suffering one of their worst losses to this point in the season. After an RBI groundout by Matt Franco put the Mets up 1-0 in the 2nd, the Red Sox proceeded to bat around in the 3rd, as 8 straight batters reach base en route to taking a 5-1 lead. They'd go on to double their tally from there to take the first interleague series in Mets history.

Bobby Jones, who had won his last 8 starts, simply didn't have it and only lasted 4 innings. On the flipside, scrub extraordinaire Vaughn Eshelman had one of the best starts of his career, giving up just 1 run over 7 innings, at one point retiring 13 batters in a row. He also legged out a bunt single in his first career at-bat. History shows Eshelman only made 7 more Major League appearances after this game and held a 10.34 ERA over that span. He didn't pitch professionally again until the year 2000, and actually wrapped up his career with the Mets Triple-A affiliate in Norfolk in 2001. I also just learned he died in 2018 after complications from a liver transplant. RIP.

Meanwhile, this marked Barry Manuel's last appearance as a Met, and also was Bernard Gilkey's first time batting first in the lineup as a Met. He responded by going 2-for-4 but was still hitting a dreadful .203 for the season.

Now 6-7 in June, missing countless players due to injury (Alfonzo, Huskey, Ordonez, Lance Johnson, Manny Alexander, Isringhausen, Paul Wilson and Pete Harnisch, to name a few), and now starting to see key players regress back to mediocrity after hot starts, this was shaping up to be the absolute worst time to go into the Bronx and take on the reigning champion Yankees with the eyes of the city and MLB upon them. If I were keeping track of things in 1997, I would not be liking the Mets' chances going into the first ever Subway Series.

The inaugural regular-season Mets-Yankees game, in which mediocre Dave Mlicki pitched the game of his life. Sitting in the tier boxes above/behind 3B, I screamed myself hoarse by the fourth inning, and my voice didn't fully recover for 3 days!

I was in the upper-deck for this one. Mlicki was ridiculous. Whiffed Jeter to end the game.

The one time in my life that I could claim superiority over those scumbag Yankee friends of mine...I still have the Bergen Record sports page from the day after, with Bob Klapsisch suggesting that Yankee fans hope for a sweep by the Mets in the interest of watching Steinbrenner explode and rip up the club. Sigh.

One of the most thrilling games I ever saw. I still remember my wife and I sitting on the edge of the couch with every pitch Dave threw like he was our kid at little league or something. It was magical and nerve wracking at the same time. It was a microcosm of what being a Met fan is. Something a Yankee fan cannot ever fathom. It was Wile E. Coyote opening the tiny umbrella waiting for the boulder to fall on him, and the exquisite relief of the boulder not falling - for once. A great, great Met moment.

My fondest memory is of Yankees fans fleeing their own building (like rats deserting a sinking ship) so that by the 8th inning we Mets fans had the entiore park to ourselves.

I still get goosebumps thinking about the Mets unloading on the Yanks in the top of the first. It was LITERALLY unbelieveable. I kept saying to myself, "this is actually happening?! The Mets are really doing this?!" Just to be playing the Yankees in a game that counted was surreal enough, but to be spraying the balls all over the field from the get-go?! STUNNING.

That first inning layed on me a very specific type of unbridled joy that I had never felt before, and probably never will again. That's why this game holds a very special place in my heart.

And Dave Mlicki, wherever you are, next beer's on me.

I remember watching this game like it was yesterday at my friend's house (he was a Yankees fan) in Florida. Went to his house after work and had a bunch of friends there that were either Mets fans or Yankees fans. Wanted to see that historic first Mets-Yankees regular season game. The game was being televised on FX, so we were able to watch it at home. Otherwise we would have gone to a sports bar to watch it. Great way for the Mets to make a regular season inter-league debut in the historic house and Mlicki pitched a shut out. Always will remember this one.

Saw it from the right field bleachers with my friend Gordon. Being at the 1st Mets-Yanks game that counted was electric. Late in the game when it was obvious that the Mets were going to win, a Yankee fan sitting behind me said, "This is the worst day of my life." Hearing that made my night. Thanks, Dave Mlicki!

I just recently watched this game back. I vividly remember watching it the first time at my friend Steve's house in New Jersey. We were 16 at the time, he was a frontrunner Yankee fan who only knew like 3 or 4 players, and I was the diehard Met fan who knew the team inside and out. I was going to keep the scorecard for the game but I couldn't even make it out of the 1st inning because I got too jacked up after the Mets took their 3-0 lead. Good times.

What a 1st inning it was, too. Four straight reach base against Andy Pettitte, who George Steinbrennar demanded open the series for his team as he thought the left-hander gave the Yankees the best chance to win. Then, after Butch Huskey reached on an RBI single, he gets picked off 1st base, but on the ensuing rundown Todd Hundley, who was on third, broke for the plate and beat the throw with a tremendous hook slide. In the record books, it went down as a steal of home!

The Mets didn't do much of anything after that until the 7th, when regular backups Matt Franco and Luis Lopez, only starting because Edgardo Alfonzo and Rey Ordonez were hurt, hit back-to-back 1-out singles. Lance Johnson, in his first game off the DL since May 1, grounded out to move the runners up, bringing up Bernard Gilkey. I was surprised to learn that, early in his career, Pettitte was actually way better vs. righties than lefties. In fact, in 1997 righties hit .239 vs. Pettitte, and lefties hit .324. Despite that, with 1st base open, it looked as though Pettitte completely pitched around Gilkey to get to the lefty John Olerud. And the splits didn't lie, as Olerud drove in a pair with a single that really put the screws to the Yanks.

No doubt, Mlicki was excellent and had the game of his life. But he was far from perfect, as he gave up 9 hits and had to strand 10 runners on base. He really started laboring over the final 2 innings, giving up multiple hits in the 8th and 9th but found a way to get key outs. It also helped that Charlie Hayes got thrown out by Gilkey trying to stretch a single into a double to lead off the 9th. And I thought it was a perfect cherry on top that it was Derek Jeter, the Yankee poster child for the next 20 years, who struck out looking to end the game. It was Mlicki's first shutout as a pro, dating back to his first season in 1990.

Looking back, this was probably the best I'd ever felt as a Met fan (I was only 5 when they won it all in 1986 so I had no real memories of that team), and the best I'd feel until Todd Pratt would hit one over the wall against Arizona two years later.

I am a Yankee fan and my team won 6-3 but I don’t think it mattered as much to me as the atmosphere. It was awesome. Tailgating 3+ hours before first pitch on the roof of the parking deck participating in Yankee Fan vs Met Fan wiffleball was an all-time great time.

Cool story, Lou. Watching these first two Subway Series games back, I'm a little surprised at how well behaved the fans were. No mention of any fights in the stands or uncouth behavior. Doesn't mean there wasn't any, but at least it wasn't the main headline.

However, that didn't stop the Yankees from beating up Armando Reynoso. Reynoso had perhaps his worst start as a Met, falling behind every hitter and getting knocked around in the 2nd inning, quite literally. With 3 runs already in, Luis Sojo lined one right off Reynoso's kneecap for an RBI double, as the ball ricocheted all the way into the Mets dugout. Reynoso went down in a heap and had to be carted off the field, but luckily for him he only suffered a bruise and wound up missing just one start.

The 4 runs were all David Wells would need. Though the Mets battled right back with a 3-spot in the third, thanks to a Wells error and a 2-run bomb by the suddenly red-hot Bernard Gilkey, Boomer settled in to retire 15 in a row, broken up finally when Luis Lopez doubled with 2 outs in the 8th. Cory Lidle was equally as effective in relief for the Mets, not allowing an earned run over 4.1 innings. But some shoddy defense gave the Yanks some insurance runs in the 7th, as Matt Franco let a bad hop get by him, and Carl Everett booted a Wade Boggs single that helped let Paul O'Neill score. Those errors negated an excellent play by Lopez in the inning, when he channeled his inner Rey Ordonez to make a fantastic back-hand catch off a Tino Martinez popup in shallow LF.

The video I watched was from the Yankees' WPIX crew of Bobby Murcer and Ken Singleton, and I actually quite enjoyed their commentary. Way better than the nasally Michael Kay, or the obnoxious blind bat John Sterling. I can't believe that dude is 85 and still calling games.

The Yankees won the rubber game of the first "Subway Series" thanks to a tenth inning RBI single by Tino Martinez off John Franco.

Solo homers by Chad Curtis and Cecil Fielder had given the David Cone and the Yanks an early 2-0 lead. The Mets had no hits until John Olerud's seventh inning leadoff double.

Coney wound up with a no decision after pitching eight innings and allowing two runs and two hits. He walked two and struck out eleven.

No doubt, for Mets fans the best game of the first Subway Series was Dave Mlicki's shutout. But, objectively speaking, this was the best game of the bunch.

Cone, in his first career start against the Mets, was as dominant as ever. He struck out 4 of the first 5 batters he faced, struck out the side in the 5th, and, like Bob said, didn't allow a hit until Olerud's leadoff double in the 6th. Olerud would score after he moved to third on a wild pitch and came home on an RBI groundout by Carlos Baerga. In the 8th, Matt Franco led off with another double and was pinch-run for with Steve Bieser. Bieser would move to third on Luis Lopez's groundout to second, and, dancing off third base in what would be his defining moment as a Met, distracted Cone just enough to cause him to balk him home and tie the game. Joe Torre argued but it was for naught, and Cone's reaction immediately after balking revealed he knew he was guilty.

Rick Reed was solid and Juan Acevedo, making his first appearance as a Met, held the Yankees scoreless through 2.1 innings. In the 10th, the Mets staged a 2-out rally after a walk, a single, and a Chad Curtis error put runners on 2nd and 3rd. But Lopez couldn't get the big hit, grounding out to end the threat. In the bottom half of the inning, Greg McMichael issued a walk and a single to put runners on the corners with 1 out. Bobby V brought in John Franco to face Tino but Martinez singled to left to plate O'Neill and claim victory for the Yankees. It was Tino's first hit in 13 at-bats during the series.

Curtis and Fielder's homers just barely left the yard: Curtis' over Bernard Gilkey's glove to left and Fielder's barely over the wall in right that actually was missed by a fan and fell back onto the field. For Curtis, it was his first HR as a Yankee. Joe Girardi also thought he had homered in the 5th inning, but after circling the bases and a vehement protest by the Mets outfielders and Bobby V, the umps got together and ruled the ball landed foul just beyond the RF pole. Replays were inconclusive on whether they made the right call, and I have to wonder -- if the Mets had won the game -- if this overturn would have been a bigger deal in retrospect. Rick Cerone, who was calling the game along with Bobby Murcer on WPIX, spent the next 15 minutes whining and moaning about how the umpires shouldn't be allowed to overturn home runs and how it took all the momentum away from the Yankees and the replays clearly showed the umps got it wrong. I liked Cerone in his one season with the Mets in 1991 and enjoyed his commentary when he was on NBC, but he was a big-time Yankees homer by 1997 and it drove me nuts listening to him bellyache when the Yankees were the beneficiary of perhaps the most-botched HR call in baseball history just the previous postseason when Jeffrey Maier reached over the wall to catch Jeter's flyball. What a crybaby!

I remember attending this game and not having any idea who any of the guys in the Pirates lineup were. Of course, now, players like Tony Womack, Jason Kendall, Jon Lieber, Joe Randa and Jose Guillen have established themselves. But the '97 Pirates were trying to build a team around them and not really succeeding.

The Mets jumped on Lieber early and led 6-3 going into the 9th. Then Franco, as he was apt to do, made us all sick by getting runners on base, getting 2 outs, and then allowing a 3-run HR to Dale Sveum (now the much-beleagured third base coach for the Red Sox) to tie the game. Jeez, it was the PIRATES!

Franco got booed off the mound, but the Mets came back to win the game in the last of the 9th on a Jason Hardtke single. This would be the lone memorable moment with the Mets for Jason Hardtke, who pretty much disappeared back into the annals of time after this game.

One of the truly memorable wins in the 1997 season. Edgardo Alfonzo hit a 2-run homer to give the Mets a 3-2 lead in the 8th. Then in the 9th, a perfectly executed relay from Huskey to Ordonez to Hundley nails the tying run at the plate to help secure the win.

It was a great game to go to for my 14th Birthday. There was a short rain delay and Corey Lidle made an emergency start in this game. I remember Franco blowing the save, but Carl Everett hit the game running homer in the 10th, and I got to run the bases after the game.

It was just ridiculously hot that day - well over 90 degrees and the sun was blazing. The rain delay came late in the game and was like a gift from God. Everett had three or four game-winning home runs that season.

This was my first Mets game, a month before my sixth birthday. I don't remember much, but I do remember standing on my seat and going crazy when Carl Everett hit that home run! I believe I sat in the Loge behind home plate...excellent precursor to all the great times I would proceed to have at Shea.

This was the first Mets game I ever went to, I was only 6 years old. Brutal heat and then a violent rain delay highlighted an unbelievable first game for me. I remember the Hundley home run and Everett walk off vividly. I've been a huge Met fan ever since. Ordonez and Hundley were my favorite players in the beginning.

This game was a lot of fun. The Mets for the first time in years looked as if they might have a say in the division race, and rallied to beat the Braves in their final at-bat on a single by Carlos Baerga. It was their second straight win over the Braves and fans showing early symptoms of pennant fever left Shea chanting "sweep! sweep!" I was on a first-date with a Braves fan and was slightly embarrassed to be rubbing it in her face, but I did anyway. Too bad we got killed the next night.

Sat in the field level in left-field, saw Baerga's game-tying homer sail past me... then he had the game-winning single! His best game as a Met. I remember being elated, I had gone to the game the night before as well. My dreams of a sweep were dashed the next day when Bobby Jones was rocked. Luckily I wasn't there for that one.

What a nightmare! Not only was it 95 degrees that day with a heat index of 105 degrees, but Chipper Jones ripped a grand slam and the Mets lost by a touchdown to the Braves. For this we risked heat stroke???

ESPN.com's Jayson Stark reports that Chipper Jones hit two home runs off Bobby Jones in this game. That marked just the second time since 1916 that a player hit more than one homer in a game off a pitcher with the same last name!

Chipper had a solo shot with two outs in the fourth inning to make it 6-3 Atlanta, then hit a grand slam with two outs in the fifth. He finished the day 3-for-3 with two walks, five RBIs, and four runs scored. The Mets scored four in the bottom of the ninth to make the game look closer than it really was.

This game was the first Met game I ever took my nephew to see. He was about 4 years old at the time and I just remember it being the hottest game I ever attended.

I remember there was a buzz in the air because the Mets had just won a bunch of games and they were on the verge of sweeping the Braves for the first time in years. Unfortunately, Chipper Jones had a monster game and the Mets never caught the Braves.

The Mets scored nine runs over the last three innings to come from behind and beat the Pirates, 10-8. The Mets hit five homers over the last three innings. Down 6-1 with two outs and nobody on in the seventh, Butch Huskey homered and then after Luis Lopez kept the inning alive with a single, Matt Franco hit a pinch-homer to make it 6-4.

The Pirates got one back in the bottom of the seventh when Kevin Young homered off Ricardo Jordan, who would eventually be the winning pitcher, his first and only win with the Mets.

In the eighth, John Olerud and Todd Hundley hit back-to-back homers off LHP Chris Peters and the Mets took an 8-7 lead. Olerud homered again in the top of the ninth, a two-run shot off Rich Loiselle, and even though the Pirates got a run in the bottom of the ninth off John Franco, the Mets held on for the win. Franco picked up the 342nd save of his career, putting him in fourth place all time.

This game was the most lopsided shutout loss in Mets history to this point.

The Tigers had more home runs (6) than the Mets had hits (5). Detroit's Bobby Higginson had three home runs...two two-run homers and a three-run homer...plus two walks in five plate appearances. It was the first time Mets pitchers had allowed six home runs in a game since April, 1978. Mark Clark gave up three, Joe Crawford two (both by Higginson), and Takashi Kashiwada allowed one.

Though Bobby Jones had his best season of his career in 1997, earning his only trip to the All-Star Game, he was still prone to getting beat up quite often. After getting annihilated by the Braves his previous start, now Jones gets rocked by the Tigers, surrendering a career-high-tying 4 home runs while allowing 7 runs over 4 innings. It's his 3rd loss in his last 4 starts. This came on the heels of a 14-0 loss to Detroit, as the Tigers blasted 11 home runs over the first 2 games of the series. They said during the Tigers' broadcast that Bobby Higginson had homered in 4 straight at-bats with his 1st inning longball, but that wasn't exactly true, as he had also walked twice in between home runs the previous day. I know walks don't officially count as at-bats, but it wasn't truly 4 straight plate appearances.

It was a laugher up until the 8th inning when the Mets decided they'd finally show up. After looking like chumps over the last 16 innings, they then scored 4 in the 8th and 2 in the 9th, actually bringing the go-ahead run up twice with 2 outs. Carl Everett walked to load the bases, but Bernard Gilkey flew out to RF to end the game. The Mets stranded 10 runners on base, the Tigers just 1. The Tigers also scored all of their runs on homers, making old-time Tiger Stadium look like a little league park.

I keep waiting for this team to look as good as their 45-36 record indicated, but I've yet to really see it.

The Mets ended their only ever trip to the old Tiger Stadium by getting swept. The pitching had their worst series of the season, giving up 31 runs in the 3 games along with 14 homers....as the Mets hit zero. A pretty incredible feat, looking back. A real low point and one of the most forgettable series in Mets history for a team that played really well for the most part that season.

Fireworks night, also the day that NASA landed the rover on Mars. It was also an important night for the wild-card hopeful Mets, who defeated Al Leiter and the Marlins. A birthday present for myself and my friends, we sat in the field level down the first base line. Lousy seats, but we were treated to the debut of a little-known catcher by the name of Todd Pratt (I can remember my friends and I groaning at the absence of Todd Hundley from the lineup, then Pratt comes up and homers to give the Mets the lead). Crisp victory for the Mets, fireworks were great, and my friends and I made a sticky mess of cracker jack, Pepsi and peanut shells on the floor that had hardened by the eighth inning.

What a way to spend the 4th of July, by being at Shea and watching the Mets vs the Marlins. Me and my friend Kathy had traded our opening day rainout tickets for Fireworks Night! Rick Reed was great that night and Bernard Gilkey hits a home run. At the time, who would of thought that the Marlins would be World Series Champions three months later? And Bobby "Earplugs/I'll Show You The Bronx" Bonilla K'd three times!

If anyone remembers, this is the game where Todd Pratt lost his bat into the stands 3 different times, once injuring someone. By the 3rd time, in the 8th inning, Atlanta fans were booing Todd very loudly and security had to almost get involved by the Mets dugout and put a stop to a potentially bad situation.

This was Huskey v. Neagle game I referred to. Butch hit 2 homers as the Mets erased a 6-0 deficit. In the 10th, Ochoa pinch-hit a home run so far the outfielders didn't bother looking back. That turned out to be the game-winner and probably, Alex Ochoa's greatest accomplishment as a Met.

This was a great win for a young scrappy team. 97 Mets were a fun bunch. remember this game vividly. Bobby jJones battled his butt off after the 6-run first.

The Mets were certainly earning a reputation for being comeback kids in 1997. After going down 6-0 in the first inning, and with this being the getaway game of a 4-game series, the Mets easily could have packed it in. But Jones went on to throw 6 shutout innings after the 1st, and Ochoa's blast in the 10th gave them their 5th come-from-behind win over the Braves already during the season, and the third of this series alone.

This was a great game to watch and had something of a playoff feel. Granted, the Braves were down several key players due to injury (Javy Lopez, Kenny Lofton, Jeff Blauser) but they still strung 6 hits in a row off Jones in the 1st, including opposing pitcher Denny Neagle's only double of the season that drove in two. But the Mets battled right back. In the 2nd inning, Bernard Gilkey was robbed of a 2-run homer by Andruw Jones, but Huskey followed a batter later by hitting a 2-run shot down the LF line. In the 4th, Huskey went deep again, this time a 3-run dinger that was an absolute moonshot. The Mets tied it an inning later when a John Olerud grounder ate up 2B Mark Lemke, allowing Manny Alexander (making his only start as a Met at 3B) to score from second. That was the last batter Neagle would face, as he wound up with his shortest outing of the season.

Chad Fox and Mike Cather were the next Atlanta pitchers, both making their ML debuts. They combined for 4 shutout innings. Closer Mark Wohlers entered in the 9th and, with 1 out, got Carl Everett to ground one to 1B but Fred McGriff let it get by him, and then Michael Tucker threw the ball back in to nobody, allowing Everett to go all the way to third base. Matt Franco pinch hit for Alexander needing just a sac fly to put the Mets ahead, but he instead hit another grounder to McGriff, who this time fielded cleanly and threw home to get Everett trying to score. Olerud struck out for the third time in the game (his only game with 3 Ks in all of 1997) to end the inning.

Greg McMichael was awesome out of the bullpen for New York, striking out 4 while pitching a scoreless 8th and 9th, setting the stage for Ochoa's heroics. His pinch-hit homer was also a bomb like Huskey's and was his second to last as a member of the Mets. John Franco then danced around a leadoff single by Ryan Klesko, a wild pitch and a walk to get the save. The win gave the Mets their first series victory in Atlanta since 1992, and their first in a 4-game series since 1990.

Credit goes to Bobby Jones for sticking this one out, but I'm sure he was sick of seeing Atlanta in 1997, as he held a 12.34 ERA in 3 starts against them. The unsung hero in this game could be Rey Ordonez, who made three fantastic defensive plays that saved several runs from scoring. In the 4th, with a runner on 2nd, he dove on a Chipper Jones grounder headed for CF and threw him out to end the inning. In the 7th, with runners on 1st and 2nd and 2 down, he leapt and caught an Andruw Jones liner that would have given the Braves the lead. He also made the final out of the game, snaring Tony Graffanino's grounder to his right and wisely throwing out the lead runner at 3B. It all makes up for his 0-for-5 at the plate, and another boneheaded head-first slide into first trying to beat out a groundball.

The comeback kids do it again, rallying back after the Cubs struck for 2 runs in the 1st inning off Mark Clark to win it, with Butch Huskey playing the hero. He capped a 4-for-5 day with a walk-off RBI single in the 10th inning, helping the Mets snap a 3-game losing skid.

The Mets went with something of a B-team lineup for this 12 o'clock contest, benching most of their stronger lefties (Todd Hundley, John Olerud, Carlos Baerga, Lance Johnson) to get an all-right-hand-hitting cast vs. Terry Mulholland. They started slow but finally got things going in the 6th, when Bernard Gilkey might have hit his longest HR as a Met over the LF bleachers to leadoff the inning. Huskey followed by banging one high off the left-centerfield wall for a double, and Todd Pratt, who was hitting a cool .435 at the time, singled him home to tie the score at 3-3.

The Cubs managed just 1 hit over the last 4 innings, thanks to some superb relief work by Greg McMichael and John Franco. Meanwhile, the Mets had a golden chance to walk it off in the 9th, but instead of sacrificing Pratt to 2nd with 1 out to bring up Hundley for a chance to win it with a single, they chose to have Baerga hit for Luis Lopez in the 8-spot, and he grounded into a force out. They then summoned Hundley to pinch hit, and he got a single, but with Baerga only on first he couldn't score. Rey Ordonez, in his first at-bat after spelling the injured Manny Alexander (who got hurt making a sparkling defensive play in the 8th inning, but would only miss 2 games), popped out to the catcher to force extra innings. With a little different strategy, the Mets could have won it right then and there. But not to worry, as Huskey drove in Edgardo Alfonzo to win it in the 10th, marking the Mets 4th straight win in a game that advanced to extras.

This game was interesting for 2 other reasons: First, Josh Lewin, who was a part of the Mets radio team from 2012-18, called the game for the Cubs on WGN. It was his only season with Chicago. Second, only a few weeks later the Mets and Cubs got together for a 6-player trade, and all but 1 of the 6 (Mel Rojas) were featured in this game. It would be the first trade made by Steve Phillips, who replaced Joe McIlvaine as Mets GM the day before this game.

Great day at Shea. Todd Hundley had two home runs, one from each side of the plate, as the sun beamed down on a crowd of over 40,000. It was Sunglasses Day, and they were ugly, but they came in handy.

Along with a great Mets win on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, this broadcast had a classic back and forth with Howie Rose and Ralph Kiner in the early innings Howie, talking to Ralph, says "You know Ralph, there's been a lot of chatter around the league about how good of a young umpire that Angel Hernandez is so far this season" (Never mind how poorly that quote has aged!).....Ralph, completely deadpan with perfect comedic timing, replies.."Where the heck do you hang out that they're talking about umpires?"

A great broadcast moment from an otherwise easy victory.

I watched this game recently and caught even more hijinx between the announcers, as Kiner was in a particularly joking mood on this day. He brought up the term "duck soup" and wondered where it came from, and then started talking about other weird things he's tried, like clam chowder and turtle soup. Later he asked Fran Healy what he thought the most important stat in baseball is, but before answering Healy called the action, which was a swing and miss by Dave Mlicki. So Fran says "swung on and missed," and immediately Ralph asks, "swung on and missed is the most important stat?" That got an eyeroll out of me. In case anyone's wondering, they both agreed it's RBI.

They also came to the conclusion that middle relievers only end up in that spot because they can't make it as starters and are really nothing better than minor leaguers. Another classic example of two stuck-in-their-ways, old-school know-it-alls who refused to see the evolution of the game happening before their eyes. Yes, perhaps that philosophy applied to the 1960s, but gone were the days when starters went 8 or 9 innings every start. Baseball was, by this time, becoming far more analytical, with knowledge of matchups and splits giving far more weight to picking a solid relief corps. Even in 1997, calling situation relievers or setup pitchers nothing better than minor leaguers was terribly antiquated.

Healy kept up the stupid later on, remarking how MLB will have to create an expansion team in Japan, or else the Japanese League will go under like the Negro Leagues did. There are just so many things wrong with that statement. First, the logistics of a MLB team in Japan would be impossible. Second, think about how many players from Russia play in the NHL, or are from Europe and play in the NBA. Both those places still have their own leagues, so why would Japanese baseball be any different? Third, Fran not understanding there's a huge difference in the origins of the Negro Leagues and Japanese baseball is shockingly ignorant. Please, get these old farts out of the broadcast booth already!

As for Hundley, he broke Bobby Bonilla's team record by hitting a home run from both sides of the plate for the fifth time in this one. His first homer was actually caught barehanded by one of the Reds relievers in the bullpen. He still holds the record, though Carlos Beltran tied it in 2011. It was also Hundley's last of six times getting 4 hits in a game.

This was also Dave Mlicki's only time collecting 2 hits in a game. With the win, the Mets moved to 13 games over .500 for the first time since 1991.

Making his first start since April 6, Brian Bohanon tosses 5 solid innings, and the combination of Cory Lidle, Greg McMichael and John Franco hold the opposition hitless over the final 4 innings, helping the Mets take down the Mike Piazza-less Dodgers, 2-1.

Manny Alexander, making his second-to-last appearance as a Met, doubled twice and scored both runs. Things got a little hairy in the 9th, as an Edgardo Alfonzo error allowed Raul Mondesi to reach base to lead off. Franco got some help from Eric Karros next, as he swung at ball 4 to strike out. Todd Zeile then hit one to LF that Bernard Gilkey appeared to lose in the lights, but he recovered to make an awkward catch. With Piazza available to pinch hit, LA instead let Wilton Guerrero bat for himself, and after a 9-pitch battle, he grounded out to third to end the game.

This was the first Mets game I had ever attended; at the age of nine, it was the day I officially became a Mets fan and joined the beautiful orange and blue tradition. Not that I had the slightest clue who any of the players were, but that didn't matter much at the time.

A rare noon start at Shea, this game was the last for Mark Clark and Lance Johnson, both of whom were significant contributors at the time.

Clark went the distance in this game, in an easy 12-4 win on a gorgeous, sunny day. Within 24 hours, Clark and Johnson would be traded to the Cubs for Brain McRae, Turk Wendell and Mel Rojas. A trade that was absolutely killed at the time on talk radio and in the newspapers. As it turns out, the Mets knew what they were doing (minus Rojas).

This game is a more significant memory than many other games I have been to. I went to this game with my dad, cousin Dan, and my friend Tim. It was the summer before my freshmen year of high school. On the way there, my dad turned on the radio to WFAN and whoever was talking was talking badly about a trade. My dad was like, "uh-oh" and the guy announced that they had traded Lance Johnson, Mark Clark, and Manny Alexander for Brian McRae, Mel "Smell" Rojas, and Turk Wendell. Whoever was talking said something about hoping he gave enough time to "spit out your drink" in shock or something of the sort. How could then new GM Steve Phillips do this when they had been playing good baseball the way they were assembled?

The game was awesome. I remember in the first inning, James Mouton was up for the Astros and was batting like below .200 and my cousin made a comment about how he sucks and then BANG! He hit the ball out for a home run. My cousin should learn to keep his mouth shut, LOL! The next half of the inning, Brian McRae (he arrived that day) got on base leading off with a single and got picked off. These fans started yelling, "We want Lance!"

But the Mets went on to win 6-1 behind a good starting effort from Brian Bohanon and some good offense knocking Shane Reynolds out in the fourth inning. He was a Met killer back then. Brian McRae did go 3 for 4, but did not do much the rest of that season (he only had like a couple good months in 1998 when he had some big hits). I had a lot of fun this night excluding the news of that trade. Lance Johnson was one of my favorites.

Darryl Kile picks up his ninth straight win despite two homers by John Olerud. The win improved Kile's record to 16-3, and he finished the year 19-7 with a 2.57 ERA (the league average ERA in 1997 was 4.00).

In his career, Kile was 13-4 in 22 starts against the Mets.

Edgardo Alfonzo's first career grand slam propels the Mets to victory, helping the team finish 9-2 against the Cardinals in 1997 -- the highest winning percentage they've ever recorded against St. Louis in a season.

Of course, this wasn't Alfonzo's only grand slam as a Met, as he'd notoriously hit one in the 9th inning of Game 1 of the 1999 NLDS vs. Arizona. His other 3 grand slams all came as a member of the Giants, however.

The other thing of note during this game was a stolen base by Cardinals starting pitcher Donovan Osborne, which came out of nowhere in the bottom of the 5th inning with his team trailing 5-0. It was the only SB of his career, and the first by a pitcher against the Mets since Scott Sanders did it with the Padres in June 1995. Oddly enough, that was also with Bobby Jones pitching.

This was an amazing game. It was a back and fourth battle into extra innings and it is probably the best Mets game I've ever been to and I've been to some classics. I sat in the first row of the upper deck, right behind home plate and Greg Vaughn of the Padres hit a foul ball straight back and I caught it and still have it, so that makes this game extra-sweet for me as well as the Mets win, I got a souvenir.

There were some little kids sitting to my left and they were hilarious...they were yelling about Mel Rojas, say "stick a fork in him, he's done!" They had me cracking up.

This happened to be Irish night at Shea and everyone got green Met hats which I still have to this day. I was 13 and went with my father and some of his friends. I remember this being an enjoyable game and Todd Hundley hit an opposite field grand slam en route to a Mets victory. Looking back 1997 was one of the few years in my lifetime when the season ended and I was satisfied. (The Mets went 88-74 that year.) They did better than I expected and it just seems every season since then they either just were bad, collapsed down the stretch (e.g 1998, 2007, 2008) or had an excruciating playoff loss.

This game is the first game I actually remember going to. Pete Alonso’s early home run pace in 2019 got me thinking about the Mets’ single season home run record and how Todd Hundley became my first favorite player growing up. We were at this game because my parents are Irish and we pretty regularly went to the Irish nights at Shea. I was 6 years old and this was the game where I learned what a grand slam was. I don’t remember much from the night given how young I was and how long ago it was, but I remember the excitement the home run gave me and my dad telling me it was a grand slam and explaining what that meant. I, unlike Dan the Man, do not still have my hat from that night, unfortunately.

This is a game I will always remember, because it was the first game I ever took my then 6 year old son to see. He was just getting into baseball at the time, and really took to the Mets. He loved John Olerud and purchased a Olerud key chain that day. And what a day it was as the Mets announced that they had resigned Bobby V and on top of that they scored 15 runs. During the game the Mets put his name, Jonathan on the scoreboard and wished him a happy 6th birthday. He was absolutely ecstatic and fell in love with the Mets at the Big Shea.

The Mets chalk up yet another come-from-behind win as they beat the Orioles, who at the time had the best record in baseball. The Mets bang out 19 hits, one off from their season high -- all without John Olerud, Todd Hundley or Carlos Baerga in the lineup.

Edgardo Alfonzo (4-for-6, 2 runs, 2 rbi) and Bernard Gilkey (3-for-4, HR, 3 runs, 4 rbi) did the heavy lifting, helping Brian Bohanon get the win -- despite giving up a season-high 5 runs. Cory Lidle, easily the Mets best rookie of 1997, pitched the final 4 innings to collect his second and final save of his career. Since this game, only 2 Mets pitchers have recorded saves of at least 4 innings: Turk Wendell, coincidentally just 3 days after this, and Brian Stokes in 2008.

The game was broadcast on FOX, and Joe Buck and Tim McCarver were in high-sell mode for the upcoming NFL season, which kicked off the next day with the Giants hosting the Eagles. I was surprised to look back and saw the G-Men actually went 10-5-1 in 1997, which was Jim Fassel's first year as head coach. They beat the Eagles, 31-17.

One other thing they brought up during the telecast was the apparent rift between Bobby V and Hundley, stemming from comments the manager made about Todd's self-inflicted sleep deprivation, and some subtle stabs at his fondness for drinking beer and smoking cigarettes after games. I totally get Bobby's point, but to make the issue public instead of approaching Todd privately was obviously not going to sit well. Bobby loved to play mind games with those who he disagreed with or who he thought weren't giving it their all, and while Hundley's vices certainly didn't help his career longevity, he was also dealing with an elbow that needed surgery, a painful toe fungus, and pregnant wife, and a terminally ill mother at the time. So maybe he should have been cut a little slack. Whatever the case, the seeds were already being planted here than Bobby was open to going a different direction at catcher -- despite Hundley's great numbers -- which of course would ultimately lead to Mike Piazza arriving in New York in less than 9 months time.

The Mets lock up their first ever interleague series win, topping the Orioles thanks to home runs from Bernard Gilkey and Butch Huskey, and a fantastic outing by Rick Reed.

Jimmy Key, in his only career start against the Mets, was uncharacteristically wild, walking 4 and hitting a career-high 2 in the game. He was facing a weird lineup that saw John Olerud getting his only start hitting 6th as a Met, and switch-hitter Carlos Baerga opting to bat left-handed against the southpaw due to his year-long struggles as a right-hand hitter in 1997. It seemed to work, as he went 2-for-4 in the game.

Prior to the game, the Mets announced they had designated Pete Harnisch for assignment after he threw a hissy fit at the team hotel when Bobby V informed him he was permanently getting moved to the bullpen. It was an academic decision, as Pete held an 8.06 ERA in 6 appearances since returning to the team after a bout with depression, and the team already had Reed, Bobby Jones, Dave Mlicki, Brian Bohanon and Jason Isringhausen locked into the rotation. After the game, the Mets traded Harnisch to Milwaukee, and he had nothing but bad things to say about the team and his former manager, calling Bobby "a very low-grade person" who "speaks with a forked tongue," and added "There's not really a guy on this team that respects Bobby Valentine." Big words from a guy who was given all the time in the world to get over the sads and had a largely lackluster tenure in New York while being one of the highest-paid players on the team.

The first game that John Olerud would play against the team that traded him. He hit a homer in the middle innings, and the camera immediately panned over to Blue Jays manager, Cito Gaston (who was vocal that Olerud didn't hit for enough power for his position in Toronto). Gaston, after a few seconds, seemed to give a tip of the cap to John.

This game was also one of the last real good appearances by Isringhausen, despite 6 walks. He went 6 scoreless innings, having recently made his season debut after missing the first 5 months.

Fran Healy just couldn't get over Gaston giving a slight nod of congratulations to Olerud, and must have called him a class act at least half a dozen times over the remainder of the inning. Nevermind that Olerud hit an absolute bomb yet simply put his head down, jogged the bases and never gave one sign of the sure jubilant retribution that was flowing through his veins at that moment. Fran gave all the classy credit to the opposing manager. Typical.

I thought Isringhausen was pretty lucky to wiggle his way through 6+ scoreless innings, as he tied his career high with 6 walks -- the same amount he tallied in his first start back from the DL a few days earlier. In the 6th, 2 walks and a hit by pitch loaded the bases with just 1 out for Toronto, but Ed Sprague gifted Isringhausen with a grounder right to Rey Ordonez, who turned the 6-4-3 double play to end the jam. Izzy, now up to 111 pitches, was for some reason left in to start the 7th and promptly allowed a single and another walk to lead off the inning, which finally earned him the hook. Greg McMichael came in and put out the fire, striking out Jacob Brumfield and getting Carlos Garcia to ground into a double play. McMichael somehow lost 10 games in 1997 but he was such an asset in the bullpen, and a clear improvement over the dark days of Mike Maddux, Jerry DiPoto and Doug Henry. Not to mention he was awesome at Shea, holding a 1.41 ERA at home in 1997.

Mel Rojas and John Franco combined to record the next 6 outs to secure the win, as the Mets suddenly looked like they had one of the strongest pens in the league. Franco earned his 34th save of the season, which broke his previous team record he set back in 1990. The 2 hits allowed by Mets pitching was also the fewest of the 1997 season.

Clemens always finds a way to get rocked at Shea. Not to mention Rey Ordonez' first career home run at Shea. I never forgot how that ball literally went over the fence by an inch.

The Mets really tried hyping this game up, what with Clemens pitching for the Jays and the team playing some strong baseball at the time while nipping at the Marlins' heels for the wildcard spot. But alas, they couldn't even draw 20,000 on this night. Perhaps because it was a weeknight and it was very humid? Whatever the case, fans missed out on a good one here.

After Brian McRae started the 1st inning by hitting a double that was too hot for Carlos Delgado to handle at 1B, Clemens then struck out the side. But his luck ran out quick, as the Mets manufactured a pair of runs in the 2nd when Ed Sprague threw too high coming home trying to get Bernard Gilkey out at the plate, and then Ordonez reached on a safety squeeze to score Carlos Baerga. The Mets plated 4 more in the 3rd, as Gilkey rocked a 2-run double, Baerga drove him in with another double, and Ordonez dropped down a perfectly executed suicide squeeze to get Baerga in. Roger then allowed another run on an RBI single by McRae in the 6th. The 7 runs allowed were his most in 1997, and the 10 hits tied his season high. All told, in non-playoff starts against the Mets, Clemens would go 3-6, while his teams would only win 3 of his 11 starts.

On the other side, Juan Acevedo started for the first time as a Met. He was wild but got big outs when he needed them. Despite earning the win and only allowing 1 earned run, he was sent back to the bullpen and only started one more time for the team before he was traded during spring training in 1998. Turk Wendell worked the final 4 innings and gave up a pair of home runs to Jose Cruz Jr. but still earned the save.

Of course, the other big news from this game was Ordonez's home run. He hit it off Kelvim Escobar, who was a rookie at the time and this was actually the first homer he allowed in the majors. It was also the first of only two HRs Rey would hit at Shea. Chris is right, the ball just got over the wall in the LF corner beyond Cruz's leaping attempt. The reaction of the Mets in the dugout was hilarious and it was a great cherry on top of another feel-good win in 1997.

This was the last game witnessed by original Met Richie Ashburn. He broadcast the game on TV for the Phillies, which he had been doing for 35 years, and died of a heart attack the following morning. Whitey's life ended with a '62-style lopsided Mets' loss that, as a genuine Phillie, he didn't have to feel bad about.

R.I.P. Richie.

This was a game that the Phillies played with heavy hearts. Richie Ashburn, a standout figure with the team for most of the previous half century, passed away suddenly that morning in his New York City hotel room. Ashburn's death was also felt by the Mets with his being their top hitter for the original 1962 club.

For seven innings, a scoreless pitching duel between Dave Mlicki and the Phils' Tyler Green took place with neither team having a runner past second base. Rico Brogna led off the top of the eighth with a home run for the game's lone tally. The Mets suffered a tough defeat, but perhaps it was fitting that the Phillies came away victorious on this night with a run total that matched Ashburn's uniform number (he wore #1 his entire career) on a homer by an ex-Mets player just like himself.

With hearts still heavy from the passing of Richie Ashburn, the Phillies practically lay down for the Mets in a 10-2 rout. Philly did all their scoring in the 1st inning, after which Brian Bohanon settled in and wound up pitching into the 7th to get the win. Alex Ochoa had the biggest day on offense, going 4-for-4 with a walk and 3 RBI. In the 8th, he just barely missed a grand slam as his flyball to LF hit the very top of the wall and bounced back in play. The only home run of the game was hit by Brian McRae when he pinch hit for Cory Lidle in the 8th. It was the first PH HR of his career and one of a league-leading 11 the Mets hit in 1997.

Passaic native Darrin Winston made his major league debut in this game, though it was an inauspicious one as he gave up 4 runs out of the bullpen. I was sad to learn he passed away in 2008 after complications from surgery to treat leukemia.

There was also a rare Carlos Mendoza sighting in this game, as he pinch ran for Butch Huskey in the 7th and later scored on an Ochoa RBI single. We'll be seeing much more of Mendoza now that he's the new Mets manager. I think I'm the first on this site to make mention of this.

The Mets put together a sixteen-hit attack for a decisive victory over the Phillies on this night. Winning pitcher Brian Bohanon helped his own cause with a game-tying RBI single in the second inning. The loss for the Phils was their first since Richie Ashburn's death.

Dave VW, it seems that you got one Carlos Mendoza confused with the other. An easy mistake to make, perhaps, since both are natives of Venezuela and have the same name. The one who scored as a pinch-runner in this game (Carlos R. Mendoza) is five years older than the eventual Mets manager (Carlos E. Mendoza). The team's skipper in 2024 never reached the major leagues as a player.

John Olerud hit for the cycle in this game, going 4-for-5, and driving in five of the nine runs the Mets put up off six Montreal pitchers. Three of the RBIs came on a stand-up triple, Olerud's first triple in three years.

Edgardo Alfonso had three-quarters of a cycle as well with a single, double, and home run. Fonzie drove in three and scored three times.

John Olerud hit for the cycle in this one as the Mets were trying to stay in the wild card race. Though his triple probably should have been ruled an error. Vladimir Guerrero, playing CF, had a bad leg and on the triple, he got to the ball (barely) and dropped the ball right before the wall. Generous scoring on the play for the triple, but still was a fantastic night for a fantastic player. Also the start of one of the more memorable 4-game series in Mets history, as both weekend wins in the coming days were truly noteworthy for their own reasons.

Wow!!!. This game has got to be one of the greatest games in Mets history. At the time the Mets were still mathematically alive in the wild card race that they had so valiantly crept back into. I remember being at this game and wanting a win so badly to keep pace with florida. However, at the start of the sixth the Mets were not only trailing 6-0, they were being no-hit by Dustin Hermanson. They ended hermanson's no-hit bi din the sixth, but did not strike until the 9th. With the bases loaded and the score 6-2, Carl Everett came up as the tying run. Everyone was thinking Grand Slam, and then it happened, Everett corked one 400 plus feetd down the line...FOUL!! Noone could believe it, it was that close, and everyone pretty much figured that was it. But not Everett, who took another mighty swing and launched one 400 plus again, only this time it was a GRAND SLAM, and the Mets tied the game. They went on to win on home-run in extra innings, SIMPLY AMAZING!!!

This truly was an amazing game for me, not only for the late-inning heroics, but just the fact that it was the second Mets game I had ever been to, turning me into a Mets fan for life. The stadium had cleared by the bottom of the 9th, so my friends and I easily found field level seats to watch the 9th. I am fairly certain they didn't score their runs until they had already made two outs in the inning. But what a shot by Carl Everett! As he ran around the bases after unloading the game-tying grand slam on a 3-2 count, the scoreboard flashed "KING CARL" which was pretty accurate for that game. Bernard Gilkey hit a three-run shot in the 11th inning to win the game, an amazing end to a wonderful game! This is still the greatest game I've ever been to, by far.

I have to admit that I was one of those fans that left the game after the 8th inning. As I was driving home, I almost drove off of the Major Deegan Expressway when Carl Everett hit that home run.

I have never left a baseball game before it ended after that.

This was just the second game I had ever attended, and at the age of nine, I was upset at my parents for taking me to a Mets game instead of the Yankees, but it was an experience I would never forget. At the time, I didn't understand the game of baseball all that well, but when Carl Everett hit that grand slam, it stuck in my mind for eternity, as it made me the proud Mets fan that I am today.

I was also one of those fans who left the game early. My friend and I were driving through the Bronx, I think (heading back to CT), when Everett hit the HR. I couldn't believe I missed it! We ended up going to Bobby Valentine's in Stamford to watch the end of the game.

My friend and I decided to stay despite the 6-0 score. When Carl Everett batted with the bases loaded, two outs, and launched a long drive just foul I was crestfallen. I told my friend I had never seen someone just miss like that then hit one out. Well this was the first time, as we stood in disbelief and watched the ball disappear, and the game tied. Bernard Gilkey's smash in the 11th only justified our staying. Now whenever I'm at a losing game and someone wants to leave, I bring this game up.

This game was similar to June 14, 1980...look it up all you ultimateMets.com fans

I was at this game, had front row upper deck right behind home, great seats. I remember the Mets had no hit= s until the 6th and that one could have been scored an error I was thinking to myself when the bottom of the 9th started, "Please all I want is one legitimate hit." Then they get a bunch of hits, score 2 runs and have bases loaded for Everett. He hits slam and Gilkey wins it in the 11th. A great night.

ok so you all wont believe this but it is the honest truth. I was there seated low in the right field seats and saw the grand slam home run when it happened I was going crazy along with everyone else but in the moment all I could think of was getting that ball. Well the ball hit the scoreboard. Anyone at the game knows that I went to the fence at the side of the small field that houses the scoreboard and the security dude threw me the ball. Yes he really did. So at the end of the game I went down to the exit to the locker room and was yelling, "I have the ball! I have the ball!" Well, Carl Everett's wife came up to me and asked to see it. Of course at the time I did not know who she was but she had access to the locker room so I figured ok, I'll show it. She looked it over and said, "Wow, this is the ball. It still has some of the green paint on it from hitting the scoreboard". So she said "If I get you a signed ball from my husband can I keep this ball?" I said "sure why not?" She really seemed to want it so I gave it to her and 20 mins later she came out with Carl and he shook my hand said, thanks for the ball and signed one for me and added "grand slam hr. Mets 9 - expos 6 sept 13, 1987" and on the opposite side of the ball he wrote "off Ugueth Urbina 3-2 change up." It was awesome and made the game even more memorable. I also got to meet many more of the Mets at the same time. Believe it or not I still have the ball and the ticket stub in a plastic ball box.

My girlfriend and I were back in high school and had been dating for only a few weeks when we went to this game together. She wasn't a baseball fan at all and this was her first baseball game ever. I wasn't leaving until the end and she was too polite to ask to go, so she suffered through what had been a horrible effort by the Mets until the 9th. I remember gathering our things as the Mets were down to their last out (so we could avoid the rush of all the 35 people left at Shea) when Husky got that single in the 9th. So we sit down and just a few batters later the game was tied and they had "King Carl" up on diamond vision as they followed him around the bases after his grand slam. I looked over at my girlfriend, who was near asleep 20 minutes prior, and she was up and jumping with her arms in the air like the biggest fan in the stadium. Unbelievable! So here we are, 15 years later and still together, married and bringing our 1 year old son to his first Mets game in a few weeks.

One of the greatest comebacks ever. The Mets did absolutely nothing for 8 innings and were down 6-0. They mount the comeback in the bottom of the 9th, with Everett tying it with a dramatic grand slam. No way they could lose after that and Gilkey won it in extra innings. Amazin!

Carl Everett slugged a grand slam to cap an incredible game-tying comeback for the Mets in the bottom of the ninth inning. They had only one hit from the first to the eighth, and that hit was really an error. Expos' left fielder Brad Fullmer misplayed a ball hit by Carlos Mendoza in the sixth that the official scorer ruled as a single. The fact that it was Mendoza's first major league hit could have been why it was scored that way! Fullmer was replaced in the field an inning later.

When Butch Huskey singled in the ninth, Fullmer was slapping hands with his teammates on the bench. They were celebrating his being off the hook in costing pitcher Dustin Hermanson a no-hitter. But after four more Met singles, two pitching changes and Everett's enormous clout, the Expos weren't exactly high-fiving each other anymore.

It was only fitting that the current #17 Luis Lopez drove in the only run of the game with a home run on Keith Hernandez Day. This was the day the Mets inducted Mex into the Mets HOF and presented his bust which is displayed in the Diamond Club.

Mlicki tried to nab his second career shutout in this game (after getting the Yankees a few months earlier), but ran out of gas in the 9th and put runners on, so McMichael had to come in and get them out for him.

Biggest highlight of this game was the finish. After little Louie Lopez hits a rare dinger for the only run of the game, it was Gilkey to Ordonez to Pratt to nail down a runner at the plate in the 9th to preserve the victory. Big cheer from the crowd brought back glory day memories. Good fun!

I remember this game for many reasons. First, it was the game after the UNBELIEVEABLE finish the night before with Everett's and Gilkey's homers.

And second, this was the only game I've ever gotten to sit in the Diamond Club at Shea. It was a great experience. I remember the play at home plate pretty well and to this day I think the Expos runner was safe. Great game!

If I remember correctly, Butch hit a home run into the upper deck in this game, one of the few to do so at the Vet.

I hate the Mets. Go Phils.

Anyhow, I was at this game. Schilling got his 300th K of the year on Alfonzo, but something that sticks in my mind even more was a tremendous catch made by Phils RF Tony Barron on an all-out dive where he landed right on his chest on the rock hard Vet turf. Not only was it spectacular, but it preserved a no-hitter at the time, which Schilling lost in the 8th.

The prototype for Turner Field heartbreak to come. The Mets (and me) were clinging to that Wild Card fantasy--and really now, with the Marlins as the competition, it could've happened. But all-star pitcher Bobby Jones retired not a single batter--said he couldn't grip the ball in the heat--and like Roto-Rooter, away went playoff hopes down the drain. When the disasters that have undone the Mets in Atlanta are tallied, I'm always curious as to why this two-game set that buried the Mets' first underfunded Wild Card quest is overlooked. It was, in its time, just as bad as the misdeeds of Angel Hernandez, Chipper Jones, Kenny Rogers, John Burkett...heck, you name it, it's been awful.

The Marlins could have clinched the wild card at any point the entire weekend with a win over the Mets, but this loss was their 3rd in a row and kept the Mets on life support for the 3rd straight day. Of course the race was absolutely over, but it was a nice showing of fight for the Mets to not let it happen on their watch. Another nice memory in a fun 1997 season.

Mets were eliminated from Wild Card contention this day although I do not recall whether the Mets loss or the Marlins win came first to do it.

This was the major league debut of John LeRoy, whom I played with as a teammate, growing up in Bellevue, WA. He got the win in relief for the Braves, never again pitched in the majors, and died of an aneurysm in 2001 at the age of 26.

Nobody has noted that in this game, Rafael Belliard hit a 2-run HR in the 7th inning off of Brian Bohanon. This is quite a notable feat. The last time Rafael Belliard had hit a Home Run previous to this was on May 5, 1987. That is 1987. 10 years and 1,869 at-bats in between HRs. And, of course, it beat the Mets. Simply remarkable.

I just watched this game back (well, most of it, as the video I watched cut off after the 8th inning), but I, too, made notes to write about both John LeRoy and Rafael Belliard. I know it's 20 years after your post, Mario, but I'm sorry for your loss. And to Mets2Moon, Belliard's home run was indeed a notable feat. His dingers against Show and Bohanon were the only two of his Major League career! Although he did hit 4 in the minors and one in the Indys in 1999. A slight correction, however: his HR didn't actually beat the Mets, but instead tied the score at 6-6. But geez, if this doesn't tell you everything about the Braves' fortune during the 1990s. This dude only hits 1 HR for the Braves over 8 years, and it just happens to tie a game during the latter innings of what would be an eventual Atlanta win. It's so infuriating.

There was one other rarity from this game: In the top of the 3rd, with the Braves starters just looking to get their swings in and get the rest of the night off, Brian Bohanon threw a 3-pitch inning, retiring Chipper Jones, Fred McGriff and Andruw Jones in order.

The teams treated this a lot like a spring training game, as the Braves replaced their entire starting lineup (save for Andruw Jones and Tony Graffanino) by the 4th inning, and then saw LeRoy get his first, and only, career win in his only ML appearance, and Kerry Ligtenberg his first ML save. The Mets also went with largely a B team lineup. New manager Carlos Mendoza received his last of 2 starts as a Met, and Roberto Petagine saw his only action in the outfield as a Met, playing the final 5 innings in LF.

Prior to Belliard's heroics, unlikely catalyst Alberto Castillo delivered a big 2-out, 2-run single with the bases loaded in the 6th. Atlanta led off the 8th with a single and a double to put runners on 2nd and 3rd and nobody out, but Greg McMichael came in for Bohanon and was spectacular, striking out the next 3 batters to hold serve. Later on, the Mets had another chance with the bases loaded and 2 outs, this time in the 10th with Luis Lopez at the plate, but he flew out to end the threat. The Braves then rallied off Mel Rojas in the 11th to take the lead, and the Mets went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the frame to call it a night.

Earlier in the day, Todd Hundley underwent elbow surgery that kept him out of the lineup until the following July. But this was essentially the end of the line for Todd in New York. By the time he came back, Mike Piazza was already on the team, and an experiment in LF didn't go well at all, leading to him getting traded to the Dodgers after the 1998 season. But despite looking washed up, Steve Phillips still managed to turn him into Roger Cedeno and Armando Benitez. Kudos to you, sir.

And hey, what would a 1990s game on UPN 9 be without some classic Kinerisms? The telecast had Steve Phillips in the booth for a couple innings and Kiner introduced him as "Steve Peters." After Kiner corrected himself a short time later, Phillips jokingly said "Nice to meet you Ralph," to which Kiner replied, "I guess I should go look for another job." He also later called Greg McMichael "Greg McAndrew" and Andruw Jones "Anthony Jones."

It was the Mets home (and season) finale and the sun played peek-a-boo with the clouds all afternoon but they got this one in. John Olerud got to the 100 RBI mark as the Mets defeated the playoff bound Braves 8-2 in front of 27,176. After the game, Bobby V and company came out for a curtain call and we cheered like crazy! It was a sure sign of good things to come as then-Dodger Mike Piazza hit his 40th home run in Colorado on the same day. Who knew at the time that several months later that Piazza would be a New York Met?

One of the most "feel good" games in Mets history in my opinion. The 1997 Mets finished off an 88 win season with a big win over the Braves. This team really came out of nowhere to put together a season that few expected after years of mediocre play, especially with starting the season off going 3-9. Once this game was over, Diamond Vision played a video of season highlights and even some of the players had tears in their eyes (notably Carlos Baerga and John Franco). Fun game to watch and really set the stage for a nice run of seasons for the team.