Jul 24 2019 06:40 PM
The Mets Three-Homer Club
Jim Hickman tags future-Met Ray Sadecki in each of his first three at-bats, capping his evening with an eighth-inning single by off of future-Met-on-paper Nelson Briles. Hickman had what had to be the least-intimidating walk-up music ever, approaching the dish to the strains of "Tennessee Waltz" on Jane Jarvitz' organ
Before getting hurt, Dave Kingman's record home run pace of 1976 was stunning. After the injury, even though he would go on to hit around more 400 homers, he never was the same, always looking at least a little uncomfortable on a ball field. This eight-RBI massacre featured one of the most famous Tommy Lasorda rants ever. The Mets 11-0 victory knocked the Dodgers out of first, a perch from which they would continue to tumble, as The Big Red Machine took the ball and ran with it, winning the division by 10 games and securing their last pennant.
June 22, 1980
A dreadful offensive club makes a mid-season move for Claudell Washington, a mid-career outfielder with a name, power, and an awesome arm, but needing a change of environment, as he had declined and become excess on his old team. This made Claudell perhaps the second member of a fraternity (after José Cardenál) that would grow to include Ellis Valentine, Kevin Bass, Bobby Abreu, José Bautista, Richard Hidalgo, and others*. Perhaps all of these hoped the mid-season change of address would help re-vitalize their careers, but none pulled off the trick quite like Claudell, who matched Kingman's feat, smashing three homers against Lasorda's team. Dave Goltz — notably homer prone — gave up the first two, and future Mets pitching coach Charlie Hough surrendered the third.
This was also the night a portion of Eight Is Enough was filmed at Dodger Stadium, featuring EIE character Merle "The Pearl" Stockwell making his debut for the Mets, I believe while his wife Susan Bradford Stockwell was going into labor.
A day game in August at Wrigley Field? A chance to face Derek Botelho and Ron Meridith? That's just more opportunity than anybody should give Darryl Strawberry. Darryl's first-inning homer came with two on after Botelho walked Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter. It might have been an opportunity for a grand slam, but Wally Backman had been thrown out stealing before Hernandez walked.
A ninth-inning single gave Straw a four-for-four afternoon. He had a fifth trip to the plate, but he was walked, which, you know, BOOOOOOO!!
September 3, 1985
Twenty years to the date after Jim Hickman established the Mets' Three-Homer Club, Gary Carter went deep thrice at the always-challenging Jack Murphy Stadium. Maybe September 3 is a good chance to catch pitchers making their debuts, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. The second Met to join the club that season, Carter was in perhaps his best stretch as a Met, homering five times in two days.
In perhaps the best offensive game in Mets history, Edgardo Alfonzo's three dongs were part of a 6-for6 day that included the aforementioned dongs, a double, two singles, six runs scored and 5 RBI. The beatdown was so devastating that long-lost MOFo poster SEVENTEEN changed his screen name to THIRTEEN the next day.
Making the showing somehow more impressive is that it came in the pitcher-friendly Astrodome. I'm going to guess the 17 runs the Mets scored that day is their all-time Astrodome record.
In the midst of José Reyes' best season as a Met and the near pennant-winning run of Willie Randolph's first-place team. This was a rarity in that the three blasts came in a losing cause, with Reyes driving in all-four runs in an 11-4 loss at Citizen's Bank Park. Forboding!
May 12, 2011
Carlos Beltran found a better place to hit than José Reyes did, and that place is called Coors Field. Even more impressive than his three homers was that they included shots from both sides of the plate, deposited in left, center, and right. It was a good day to bat Willie Harris second (and there's a sentence I imagine I've never typed and never will again) as Voltran garnered six RBI, driving Harris in each time.
The star-crossed Ike Davis actually topped Reyes' dubious feat, with his three homers adding up to the only runs the Mets would score in a 6-3 loss to the Diamond. The performance nonetheless had some poignancy for Davis, as a celebration and commemoration of Ike's late childhood friend was scheduled to coincide with the trip to Phoenix. Ike had been in the midst of a dreadful season, with his average below .200 most of the season, but his OPS rose from .686 to .726 over the course of the game.
Despite all the names above, no Met before Kirk Nieuwenhuis had ever joined the Three-Homer Club in front of a home crowd. What made it that much more impressive was the boomarang style his big night came in. Despite a really impressive season in a part-time role the year before, Kirk had gotten off to an anemic start in 2015, actually playing his way off the team. After seeing him go only three-for-his-first-38, the Mets were forced to put Nieuwy and his .257 OPS through waivers, when he was gobbled up by Anaheim and asked to join the Angels in the outfield. I'm not sure, but I believe Mike Trout had been injured.
Not doing much better on the West Coast (a .436 OPS through his first two dozen plate appearances), the Angels too put him through waivers, and the Mets grabbed him back. OH, there was much derision!
But the last laugh belonged to Met GM Sandy Alderson, as the sixth game following Nieuwenhuis' return was the game of his life, homering in each of his first three trips to the plate in the team's 5-3 win over Arizona.
Nobody could ever hit three homers in Flushing (or even at Polo Grounds) for the Mets, but once Nieuwenhuis showed it could be done, Lucas Duda was all on board, becoming the second guy to pull it off in 17 days. This evening was also (probably more) famous for Wilmer Flores breaking down on the field after getting wind of the fake news of his being traded to Milwaukee as part of a package for Carlos Gomez.
The rest of the Mets learned nothing from Nieuwenhuis, as Duda's homers represented three of only five hits the Mets would garner, with Big Boo being the only Met to cross home plate in the 7-3 loss to San Diego. The team would lose again the next night, and then would come August and the trade the Mets made instead of Carlos Gomez, and holy shit, did they start winning.
The guy the Mets got instead was Yoenis Cespedes, and he would hit (blast, actually) 17 homers over the final third of the season for them, with this August trio making him the third member of the Three-Timers Club to join in the second half of Fifteen. He also became the second Met to perform the trick in front of a Rockies home crowd. Travis d'Arnaud (who joined the Three-Timers Club this season as a member of the Rays) and Michael Conforto added homers of their own, but Céspedes pimped his custom ride with an additional single, double, and stolen base. He bagged seven RBI on the evening.
You hardly need any summary, but perennial All-Star Robinson Canó tenure as a Met had been marked by injury, underperformance, lack of hustle, and regret for the talent lost in the trade that brought him and fellow doghouse dweller Edwin Diaz from Seattle. It's too early to see if that narrative has been turned around, but his three-homer show last night launched the Mets to 5-2 win over San Diego, with Diaz getting the save.
(Scorecard Uavailable)
Fun Fuckin' Fact: The Mets three-homer club includes one guy at each position. And you don't really have to do much moving around — it's one guy legitmately at each position.[list=1]
Yes, the next club member WILL be a pitcher.