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http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/28/sport ... uture.html
BASEBALL; Mets' Present Is No Match For Pirate Future
By JASON DIAMOS
Published: July 28, 1999
The promotion was billed as Turn Ahead the Clock Night. But it was the kind of future the Mets could live without.
If last night was any indication for the Pittsburgh Pirates, however, the coming years will belong to their 24-year-old rookie right-hander, Kris Benson, who pitched the first complete game of his major league career.
Benson, the No. 1 pick over all in the 1996 draft out of Clemson University, throttled the Mets throughout a 5-1 victory. He received a little help from two home runs from Al Martin and a moon shot from Brant Brown that bounced off the scoreboard in right field.
Benson (8-8) allowed one run (a homer by Robin Ventura leading off the seventh inning) and six hits to halt the Mets' winning streak at six games.
''He had command of all three of his pitches,'' said Orel Hershiser, who was outpitched by Benson. ''If you command one, you can pitch here. If you command two, you can be tough. And if you command three, you can be dominant.''
With a fastball in the 94- to 95-mile-an-hour range and a hard-breaking curveball, Benson was indeed dominant.
The six-game winning streak had tied the longest this season by the Mets, who are still 33-14 since June 6. But last night's loss, coupled with the Braves' 10-2 victory over Milwaukee, dropped the Mets (60-42) a game and a half behind the first-place Braves in the National League East.
As for the promotion, which envisioned uniforms as they might be in 2021, it might have been a success from a box-office standpoint: the crowd of 36,337 was outstanding for a Tuesday night. But it's likely the Mets will not want to wear the uniforms again.
The black and silver threads looked like a cross between softball uniforms and something a 1980's band would wear on stage. The Pirates' red and yellow jerseys weren't much better, leading one to hope to get more out of the fashion world in the next 22 years.
Hershiser kept the Mets in the game -- he allowed seven hits and four runs in six and a third innings -- but these promotions have not been kind to him at all. Hershiser lost on Turn Back the Clock Day in Tampa, Fla., on July 17. As he said earlier this week, ''How come both times we wear the odd uniforms, I get to pitch?''
Rickey Henderson, who like Hershiser is 40, did not mind the uniforms -- he sported his without sleeves -- as much as the picture of him on the scoreboard for each of his at-bats.
Mets Manager Bobby Valentine had called the promotions department creative.
But that was not the word Henderson would have chosen. When he came to bat in the first inning, the home-plate umpire, Angel Hernandez, pointed out the futuristic scoreboard shot to Henderson: it featured him with a third eye in the middle of his forehead, huge ears and a bald conical head.
Henderson could not believe it.
''Funny?'' he said. ''Mine was funny enough. I don't know where they came up with my picture. I know my ears ain't that big. Before the game started, the umpires were laughing at me. And then when I lined out to short'' -- Abraham Nunez had to leap for the ball -- ''they were saying I hit the guy in his third eye.''
Hernandez was laughing so hard behind the plate, he had to close his eyes. Said the third-base umpire, Joe West, ''I told Rickey that was the best he's ever looked.''
With the Mets trailing, 1-0, in the third inning, Piazza came to the plate during the Mets' best threat of the night, the bases loaded with two outs. But Benson surprised Piazza with a sinker down and in, and Piazza grounded to third for a fielder's choice. Benson basically cruised from there.
''It was a bad swing,'' Piazza said. ''I wish I could have it back.''
It is doubtful the Mets feel the same about Turn Ahead the Clock Night.
''We should have had a big top,'' Hershiser said. ''If we can't sell the product the way it is, maybe we should give it a rest.''
INSIDE PITCH
Pittsburgh's AL MARTIN produced the fourth multihomer game of his career and third this season. His first? At Shea Stadium on April 5, 1996. . . . JIM DUQUETTE, the Mets' assistant general manager in charge of player personnel, said yesterday that the Mets had set Aug. 12 as the return date for the oft-injured outfielder JAY PAYTON, who has been sidelined with a strained oblique muscle in his abdomen. ''He's progressing slowly,'' Duquette said of Payton, who was hitting .388 with Class AAA Norfolk.
Photos: Rickey Henderson, above, received an extra eye to keep on the ball on Turn Ahead the Clock Night. Orel Hershiser, left, simply picked up a loss. (Photographs by G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times)(pg. D1); Mike Piazza went 0 for 4 and struck out last night as the Mets couldn't solve the Pirates' Kris Benson. (G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times)(pg. D4) |
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