Ball On The Wall Play

Another thing that I love with a passion is baseball.  My favorite team is the New York Mets.  Unfortunately this year the Mets who were in the pennant race up until the All Star game (in July) summarily took a nose dive afterwards and lost something like 10 of 12 and were never in the race again.

This was not true in 1973, when an injury plagued Mets team who were in last place in the National League East on the last day of August got hot and managed to leap over all 5 division teams into first place and a pennant that year.  Though the team finished 82-79, a mere 3 games over 500 that was good enough to beat out the Cardinals by a game and a half.

One of the plays that symbolizes the amazing comeback of the "Ya Gotta Believe" '73 Mets was the "Ball On the Wall" play against the Pirates.

It was September 20th, 1973.  The Pittsburgh Pirates had a 1.5 game lead over the Mets at the time.  This game went into extra innings.  With 2 outs in the top of the 13th and Richie Zisk on 1st for the Pirates, Dave Augustine (a rookie) hit a fly ball to left field that looked like it was going to be a home run.  Somehow the ball hit off the top of the wall, rebounded to Cleon Jones in Left Field who threw a strike to the cutoff man, Wayne Garrett.  Garrett relay throw was a on line one bouncer to rookie Ron Hodges who managed to tag the runner for the 3rd out of the inning.   This became know in Mets lore as the "Ball On The Wall" play.   Hodges was a rookie at the time and in fact their third string catcher who was playing due to injuries to the other catchers Jerry Grote and Duffy Dyer.

As usually happens in story book finishes, With a runner on 2nd Hodges came up in the bottom of the inning and singled the winning run home.  The Mets would win against the Pirates the following night as well pulling into sole possession of first place.  I actually watched this game on a small Black and White TV set in my bedroom (up waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy.......... past my bedtime, LOL).

It was a wild race till the end of the season.  With 2 days left in the season it was still mathematically possible for the season to end in a 5 way tie for first place, as the Mets would need to play back to back double headers to end the season in Chicago.  On the final day of the regular season, the Mets had a double header rained out at Wrigley Field and needed to play the doubleheader one day after the official season was over.  The Pirates who were still in the hunt also had to make up a earlier rainout game with San Diego.  At the start of play on the day after the season should have been officially over, a three way tie between the Mets, Pirates and Cardinals was still a real possibility.  In the drizzle of early October, the Mets won the first game of the doubleheader, eliminating the Pirates and Cardinals and clinching the NL East.  The second game of the doubleheader was canceled.



Final Standings 1973 NL East

                   W   L    GB     PCT
Mets          82   79   ---     .509
Cardinals    81   81   1.5    .500
Pirates       80    82   2.5    .494
Expos        79    83   3.5    .488
Cubs         77    84    5      .478
Phillies        71   91   11.5  .438


The Mets went on to beat the Reds in a 5 game National League Championship playoff and meet the Oakland A's in the World Series.  I will have more to say about the '73 Mets in a future post, but this was one of my all time favorite teams !