The Crane Pool Forum

On this day, 12 years ago, rookie Jordany Valdespin, with zero MLB hits to his name, faced off against Jonathan Papelbon, who, as Gary Cohen notes, had not given up a hit with runners in scoring position all season.



What rogues gallery of Mets are in that dugout to greet him — a bunch of guys like Andres Torres, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Ike Davis. All of them are talented — even multi-talented — like Valdespin, capable of doing a lot of things, but holding down a regular job for a good team wasn't one of them. You get a not-ready-for-primetime version of Justin Turner, playing shortstop that day, Murph as elder statesman, and a total non-starter in Mike Nickeas scoring ahead of JV on the homer.

Was this PH HR the night of his infamous "I'm the man right now ",or did that come later in a post game with Burkhardt ? IiRC he had a few pinch hit home runs that season

This put them in the lead on the road. The "I'm the man" comment came after a subsequent home walkoff.

In fairness to JV, Burkhardt set him up for that.

He was the Schaefer Mets Bench Player of the Month three times, so he has what is probably a disproportionate number of 1970s baseball cards:



Only Dominic Smith (6 times) and Wilmer Flores (5) have won it more often. Jordany's three ties him with Fernando Tatis, Daniel Murphy, Eric Campbell, and Kelly Johnson.

What was the date we (and he painfully) found out he didn't wear a cup?
It made quite an, uh, ... impact on the IGT.
(or am I thinking of another player?)
Later

Verlander IIRC

The no-cup HBP was in Spring Training iirc