Tuesday, December 23, 2008

ANSWER TO YESTERDAY'S METS QUIZ...

We give questions and we give answers to Mets Trivia Questions.
Yesterday's question was:

Which Met in 2005 spoiled then-Angels' -- and new Mets' -- closer Francisco Rodriguez's Shea Stadium debut with a game-tying, inside-the-park home run?

The correct answer is c) Marlon Anderson

Anderson was pinch-hitting for first-baseman Chris Woodward, with one out and none on in the bottom of the ninth inning and the Mets trailing 2-1. Anderson came through with a rocket to right-center field that the Angels in the outfield couldn't correctly play. He slid into home, just beating a tag by catcher Bengie Molina, to tie the score at 2-2. Read on to find out how that bizarre game, which until that point had been a classic pitchers' duel between the Angels' Jarrod Washburn and the Mets' Kris Benson, turned out.

a) Mike Cameron, now a Milwaukee Brewer, was a charismatic, smooth fielding, speedy, streaky-hitting center fielder who joined the Mets as a free agent before the 2004 season and in that year, walloped a career-high 30 homers. In 2005, though, his season was cut short after 76 games after a gruesome outfield collision with Carlos Beltran at San Diego's Petco Park. In the 2005 game in question, against the Angels, he went 1-for-4 with a double.

b) Kaz Matsui, now a Houston Astro, accomplished unusual feats as a Met despite a subpar two-and-a-half year tenure in Queens. On Opening Night in 2004, against Atlanta, he homered on the first pitch he ever saw in a regular season game. In the 2005 Opener at Cincinnati, he homered in his first plate appearance. And in 2006, Matsui struck again, hitting an inside-the-park homer at Petco Park in his first plate appearance that year, after coming off the disabled list. But in this 2005 game against the Halos, Matsui went 0-for 3 with a walk.

d) Cliff Floyd, a member of last season's American League Champion Tampa Bay Rays, was one of the most popular Mets in recent years, for his off-field sense of humor, mentoring of David Wright and powerful left-handed bat. But leg injuries had him hobbling so badly in 2006 that teammate Paul LoDuca had Mets in-game entertainment personnel play the theme to the old NBC sitcom "Sanford and Son," to evoke images of lead character Fred Sanford's signature limp. It's doubtful he would ever have made it around the bases for an inside-the-park job. But on that night in 2005, Floyd could've used all the time he needed when he smoked a Brendan Donnelly pitch deep over the right field wall for a walkoff, three-run homer which overcame a 3-2 deficit and gave the Mets a 5-3 win at Shea.

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