Sep 26 2012 11:33 PM
I think of Eddie K. and this is one of my favorite memories: August 21, 1979. The Mets at 51-70 aren't really going any place, and a paid attendance of 9,337 suggests few cared if they did.
Pete Falcone, having a tough season, comes up big against a good Astros team. Doug Flynn of all people picks up three hits and three RBI, and Pete is cruising into the ninth with a shutout. Falcone gets Cedeno and Cabell with the ol' knuckle curve before Jeffrey Leonard comes to the plate.
That's where it gets weird. Jeff Leonard hits a can of corn to Mazzilli, and the Mets head for the dugout as Mazz squeezes the final out.
But no, one of the Mets infielders had asked for and received a time-out. The out is discounted and the players in the midst of congratulating Falcone are sent back to their positions. Leonard, given a second chance, singles to center. As the ball is relayed in, somebody notices that for the last few pitches, the Mets have had no firstbaseman. Ed Kranepool, closest to the dugout, had headed to showers without bothering to salute Falcone.
Heads are scratched. Nobody knows what to do. Replacement ref time. (Apparently, the game had only three umps to begin with.) Kranepool is retrieved and Leonard is told to take his at-bat for the third time. Bill Virdon goes nuts, believing his team shouldn't get punished because Ed Kranepool was a space cadet, so he protests the game. In his third trip to the plate in a row, Leonard flies out again. Ball game: Mets.
But whoah, late that night, or early the next morning, MLB upholds Virdon's protest. Leonard should have been allowed to remain at first. The next night, this night's game is continued, with Leonard at first and Jose Cruz up. Joe Torre isn't going to send his Brooklyn homie Pete Falcone out there the night after throwing 8 2/3 innings, so that night's starter Kevin Kobel is pressed to get the final out, which he does as Falcone grounds to second, the action is paused only long enough for the Mets to switch to the lineup for the scheduled game, and Kobel continues pitching into the next game.
He threw seven innings of one-run ball, too, but ended up getting the loss, with a 2012 dose of hard luck. Thanks, Ed!
(I won't say much for 1979, but all of our pitchers --- save Tom Hausman, I think --- had some interesting facial hair.)