Mike Hampton
The New York Mets twelve game losing streak is finally over. Mark Vientos went from embarrassingly running through a stop sign to a go-ahead RBI single.
This magic was brought to us by Bark in the Park Night. Dogs and Mets games. Sounds like the 2000 Mets blaring “Who Let the Dogs Out” during their pennant run.
That’s right. As Timo Perez caught the final out, and the Mets players swarmed NLCS MCP Mike Hampton, “Who Let the Dogs Out” blared across Shea Stadium.
The song wasn’t exactly embraced, and there was the blight of the Baha Men on the Mets dugout in the World Series. We can all forget the Z100 trying too hard version of “Who Let the Mets Out.”
However, we’re two years removed from the 2024 magical run to the NLCS. That team was left for dead only to rally around Grimace and OMG. Sometimes, you need these goofball things to get you going.
The 2026 Mets broke the 12 game losing streak with the dogs at the ballpark. The 2000 Mets were powered by that song to a pennant. Let’s embrace this same spirit that worked so well in 2024.
Time to dust off “Who Let the Dogs Out” even if no one wants to hear it.
Well, no one is whining over losing Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso, and Jeff McNeil. David Stearns has drastically and dramatically remade the New York Mets into possibly the best team in baseball.
They recently made huge additions with Bo Bichette and Louis Robert Jr. (two moves requiring overdue posts). Stearns then took a big swing trading for Freddy Peralta and Tobias Myers.
People will say Peralta was needed because the Mets rotation was bad. They were very wrong. That said, Peralta is a very good pitcher, and when you can add a very good pitcher, you do it.
Peralta makes the Mets rotation better in so many ways.
He was 24th in the majors in innings pitched, and he’s made 30+ starts in three consecutive years. He was 17th in the majors in FIP and 15th in WAR. He was seventh in ERA and eighth in ERA+.
While you may uncomfortable calling him an ace, he’s a number one starter. It’s a fact. When there are 30 MLB teams are you’re top 25 and better in most categories, you’re a number one.
When a team adds a number one starter, it dramatically improves their outlook. Go back to 2000. Mike Hampton wasn’t an ace, but he was a true number one, and he was a big piece that helped the Mets win the pennant.
Peralta may not even be the Mets best starter. That is probably Nolan McLean. It’s hard to find a better 1-2 in baseball than Peralta-McLean . . . or McLean-Peralta.
Speaking of McLean, this makes him and the whole rotation better. At the moment, the Mets have six starters. This gives McLean an extra day of rest to help him get through his first full MLB season.
Kodai Senga has been better with an extra day of rest, and now, he gets it. David Peterson and Clay Holmes wore down from the increased workload, and now, they also get an extra day. Sean Manaea also gets a needed extra day.
They just didn’t get better by adding Peralta. They got better because the six man rotation makes the entire rotation better. They’re getting the best out of all their starters, which is very bad news for the National League.
Senga and Peterson have been All-Stars. Manaea was a top of the rotation pitcher for a team that went to the NLCS. McLean’s ceiling is as high as we’ve ever seen. They’re now all positioned to be at their best making them arguably the best rotation in baseball.
Keep in mind, Peralta was not the only pitcher the Mets obtained. They also received Myers, a pitcher who is not even arbitration eligible until after the 2027 season.
Myers has been a dominant reliever in his brief Major League career. If you go back to that 2024 Game 3, he absolutely dominated the Mets and appeared to be the game winning pitcher until Alonso did what he did.
Myers may still yet be a starter. He could be a future closer. He’s the Mets 2026 version of Seth Lugo. That’s a dangerous pitcher to have on your staff, and Myers is probably better.
Now, the Mets paid an understandably steep price for Peralta and Myers. In fact, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel explains the Mets trading Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat moved them from the top farm system to sixth best. Ironically, the Brewers moved from sixth to first.
There will be some who try to nitpick the prospects. We can point to Sproat’s struggles at Triple-A and his four Major League starts. We shouldn’t be doing that.
Sproat has a bright future ahead of him. After all, he made his MLB debut a year after being drafted. He could’ve been a big piece for the Mets in 2026.
Williams is a top prospect. He has a real future at second, short, or CF. He’s got speed and power in his bat. Losing him hurts, and it takes away insurance for the 35 year old Marcus Semien and injury prone players like Bichette and Robert.
The Mets can soon come to regret this trade, especially with Peralta being a year away from free agency. That makes this a real gamble and a worthwhile one at that.
Peralta improves the Mets rotation and improves the entire pitching staff. Myers makes the Mets deeper. If Myers is in the bullpen, this could be the best staff in the entire Major Leagues.
The Mets officially went all-in. They’ve built a team better than the 2025 Mets, and it could be the best this century. Time will tell. Whatever happens, it’ll be because the Mets made the very bold move to add Peralta to make the Mets the one team who can dethrone the Dodgers.
Back in 1998, Nelson Doubleday went down the hall and told Fred Wilpon the New York Mets were going to go out and get Mike Piazza. When Wilpon brought up the injured Todd Hundley (lost for most of that year), Doubleday said they were getting Piazza.
That was the way it was with Doubleday. He made sure the Mets went out and got the best players. He was in charge when they got Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter. Sure, it led to disaster with Bobby Bonilla, Vince Coleman, Eddie Murray, and Bret Saberhagen, but the team was always trying to bring in the best players.
Being fair to the Wilpons here, they did learn their lesson after they let Mike Hampton walk in free agency, and the team refused to go out and get Alex Rodriguez. When that 2000 pennant winner blew up with those decisions, they went out and got Omar Minaya and pivoted.
When Carlos Beltran and Pedro Martinez were free agents, Minaya made sure they were Mets. Then, the Madoff scandal happened, and the Mets would not bet the Mets again until Steve Cohen took over the franchise.
When the Wilpons were faced with having to sell, they hired Brodie Van Wagenen to completely mortgage the future and try to win one last World Series before they had to hand the franchise to someone else. Their big move and big salary they took on was Robinson Cano.
That was partially because Cano wanted to come back to New York, and Van Wagenen was doing a favor to his former client. It also helped the Seattle Mariners were eating money on the contract regardless of whether or not Cano was eligible to play.
That same offseason, Bryce Harper was a free agent. Harper was a player who belonged on the biggest stage. Harper loved the Mets pitching and was highly complimentary of them during the 2018 All-Star Game:
For a player that wanted to win, the Mets would have been in the conversation if the team pursued him. Instead, the Mets were set with Cano, and then they tried to sell us having no $30 million players is the same thing as having two.
https://x.com/TimBritton/status/1088516450019627008?s=20
With that, Harper went to the Philadelphia Phillies with him really having no other realistic suitors. Since that time, he has won the 2021 NL MVP and 2022 NLCS MVP. He has completely altered the trajectory of the Phillies franchise who is in consecutive NLCSs.
Helping Harper and the Phillies get there is Zack Wheeler. Van Wagenen tried to sell us they replaced Wheeler in the rotation with Marcus Stroman despite both pitching in the same rotation in 2019. He then went on to tell everyone Wheeler was only good for two halves of his entire career despite his being the best free agent starter on the market.
Wheeler asked the Mets to stay after he was almost traded to the Milwaukee Brewers. He asked to stay for less when he hit free agency. He didn’t want to uproot his New Jersey family making it between the Mets and Phillies for him. The Mets didn’t want him. Instead, we got Rick Porcello.
Wheeler has been a Cy Young caliber pitcher with the Phillies. He has been a postseason ace. With Harper, he has the Phillies back in the NLCS.
This never should have happened. This was Wilpon and Van Wagenen incompetence. Fortunately now, the Mets have an owner that is not going to let this type of nonsense happen again.
Well, it’s July 1, meaning this is yet another year the New York Mets make their installment payment to Bobby Bonilla on the 25 year buy out. It’s also the day people try to rush to be funny.
Truth be told, Bonilla Day and everything associated with it should be celebrated by Mets fans:
1. The deal got rid of Mel Rojas, who needed to go because he was terrible and cost the Mets the 1998 Wild Card.
2. His injuries opened the door for playing time for Roger Cedeño, who would set the then Mets single season stolen base record.
3. Cedeño’s breakout helped the Mets use him as a key piece to obtain Derek Bell and Mike Hampton. Of course, the other key was buying out Bonilla freed up the money to permit the Mets to make the trade.
4. Hampton was the NLCS MVP as the Mets won their first pennant in 14 years.
5. When Hampton departed in free agency for the Colorado Rockies money and Denver school system, the Mets used their compensation pick on David Wright.
As we know, Wright would go on to become the Mets best third baseman and arguably their best ever position player. Certainly, any organization would do all they could do buy out a player for a pennant and to obtain a player like Wright.
There’s also the fact the joke is on everyone else now. The Bonilla money is a rounding error for the Mets now. Unlike the Wilpons who were ashamed, Steve Cohen uses Bonilla to promote special experiences at Citi Field.
This #BobbyBonillaDay, Bobby is heading to the plate to host an @Airbnb stay at @CitiField, in the ultimate Mets overnight experience. Starting on July 8 at noon, #Mets fans can request to book one night at Citi Field on July 28. #LGM
⚾️? https://t.co/mX83DzGsBt pic.twitter.com/O5hWqr1kz3
— New York Mets (@Mets) July 1, 2021
Overall, the Bonilla buy out was one of the best things the Mets ever did, and it will continue to be. So everyone can repeat the same lame forced jokes while Mets fans bask in the glory of it.
There has been a real push from players like Marcus Stroman and Pete Alonso for the New York Mets to bring back the black jerseys. For a limited time basis, it will happen in 2021.
This seems to be the right time to do this as the current Mets team does have strong 1999 vibes to it. After all, they did bring Mike Piazza back to the fold (at least in a more meaningful fashion), and they’re looking to take down the Atlanta Braves.
It’s also important to remember when Steve Cohen bought the franchise he said the Mets were going to honor the team’s history. That’s more than just Old Timer’s Day. It is also the black jerseys.
It’s the jersey the Mets wore for so many big moments in team history. Robin Ventura wore it when he hit the Grand Slam Single. Mike Hampton wore it when he pitched the Mets to their last pennant at Shea Stadium.
It was the jersey Piazza wore for most of his Mets highlights. That includes the homer against the Braves capping the improbable comeback and his passing Johnny Bench for most homers by a catcher.
It’s also the jersey the 2006 Mets wore when they clinched the NL East. David Wright would wear it again when he hit the first Mets homer at Citi Field.
There are a number of highlights and important moments with the Mets wearing those jerseys. In fact, the Mets wore them for the best stretches in team history after their last World Series.
The black jerseys always have a place in Mets history, and they should be around for a limited basis (as should the racing stripes). It’s a good thing they’re back, and we should be all eager to see the next great Mets moment that comes in these uniforms.
According to reports, Jeff Wilpon has a Zoom call to say goodbye to New York Mets employees. Other reports confirmed he will not be seeking a role with the Steve Cohen led Mets even with his team holding onto a small minority ownership.
While he says goodbye, Mets fans say good riddance.
Everything that is wrong with the Mets is in large part due to him, and with him gone, he know stories will soon leak out about how he was even worse than what we already knew.
We already know they failed to capitalize on two pennants. In 2000, it was letting Mike Hampton walk, refusing to sign Alex Rodriguez, and then following that up with actually signing Kevin Appier and Steve Trachsel.
In 2015, it was not re-signing Daniel Murphy. Also, if not for a miracle, they would’ve replaced Yoenis Cespedes with Alejandro De Aza.
There was forcing players like Pedro Martinez to pitch through injuries which everyone said should’ve shut down his season, and there was the attempts to try to prevent Carlos Beltran from getting career saving knee surgery.
There was not just signing Jose Reyes, but also holding him out as a role model. Better yet, around the same time, Ed Kranepool needed a kidney transplant only for pettiness to stop the Mets from initially reaching out to help (thankfully they eventually did).
Speaking of Mets greats, there is still no Tom Seaver statue at Citi Field, and now Tom Terrific is gone. Even when the Wilpons did think to finally act, they did it when Seaver had dementia and couldn’t enjoy the honors.
There was firing an unwed pregnant woman and really so much more. With actions like this, not only did Jeff Wilpon fail as a person in charge of building a winner, he disgraced the Mets organization.
Speaking of disgrace, the way the Mets got rid of people was deplorable. No one was allowed to keep their dignity. Willie Randolph was fired one game into a west coast trip and after the Mets won. Instead admitting they didn’t want to pay them fair value Justin Turner had his professionalism questioned and Wilmer Flores was said to have an arthritic condition he didn’t have.
Hopefully, Jeff Wilpon will be afforded the very same treatment he gave others when they left the Mets. It would only be fitting, and it would give Mets fans more reason to celebrate his being gone.
When you have a tired and beleaguered bullpen, and your team has had to go to the whip to pull out some games, what you desperately need is for a starting pitcher to step up and get you innings. Mike Hampton did more than that in going the distance for the second time this season.
In fact, it was a complete game shut out where he set a season high with nine strikeouts.
After the fifth inning, Hampton would not allow another hit, and he would limit the Pirates to just five hits total. With him pitching this way, the win was assured. The question was just how badly the Mets would beat the Pirates. It was a rout.
The game winning RBI was a Jay Payton RBI single in the second scoring Robin Ventura, who had led off the inning with a double off Kris Benson. It would stay close through five-and-a-half until the Mets offense battered a tiring Benson.
In the sixth, the Mets loaded the bases with no outs. Ventura would walk to force home the first run, and Todd Zeile would hit a sacrifice fly to increase the Mets lead to 3-0. The Mets then put the game away in the seventh.
Joe McEwing led off the inning with a single, and he went to third on a Melvin Mora single. Mora then stole second, and he would come home to score with McEwing on a Derek Bell RBI single. The Mets weren’t done there. Edgardo Alfonzo and Mike Piazza hit back-to-back doubles to increase the Mets lead to 7-0. It was 8-0 after a Ventura RBI single.
Mora would cap off the Mets scoring with a solo homer in the eighth. That was the capper for a great game from Mora. He was 4-for-5 with three runs, a double, homer, RBI, and a stolen base. If not for Hampton going to the distance, he would have been the star of the game.
Game Notes: With Hampton complaining about the city traffic, there are some who are concerned about the Mets chances to re-sign him. Mora seems to be winning the shortstop job. He has a five game hitting streak, and he is hitting .281 this month.
Editor’s Note: With there being no games to begin the season, this site will follow the 2000 season and post recaps as if those games happened in real time. If nothing else, it is better to remember this pennant winning season and revisit some of the overlooked games than it is to dwell on the complete lack of baseball.
Look, Armando Benitez was going to blow a save sooner or later. With how dominant he has been on this recent stretch, you knew it was going to happen sooner or later. He’s allowed these hiccups, but ultimately, he’s not the biggest reason the Mets lost this game. Far from it.
The Mets seemed like they were primed to crush the Phillies. In the first, Edgardo Alfonzo hit a two out single against Paul Byrd, and then Mike Piazza hit a two run homer giving the Mets a 2-0 lead. After that homer, the Mets did nothing.
Byrd came into this game with a 7.86 ERA, and he had allowed 4+ runs in five of his nine starts. In two of his last four starts, he allowed 6+. However, today, after allowing that two run homer to Piazza, the Mets would muster just four more hits and one walk over the ensuing five innings.
That included a blown opportunity in the sixth. Robin Ventura hit a two out single putting runners at the corners with two outs, but Todd Zeile was unable to capitalize on the opportunity as he grounded out to end the inning.
Still, the Mets would have the lead as Mike Hampton, who finally pitched without a rain delay, was brilliant. Through the first six innings, he shut out the Phillies limiting them to two hits. Now, that doesn’t mean the Phillies didn’t get their chances. They certainly did with Hampton walking six batters.
That meant he needed to do a few Houdini acts. In the first, he walked two batters, but he got around that by picking Ron Gant off first and getting Mike Lieberthal to hit into an inning ending double play. Again, in the third, Hampton walked two, and he would retire Lieberthal to end the jam. It would not be until the seventh when the Phillies got to Hampton.
In the seventh, the Phillies rally started with Kevin Sefcik and Alex Arias leading off the inning with back-to-back singles. After Desi Relaford sacrificed them over, Doug Glanville pulled the Phillies to within 2-1 by hitting a sacrifice fly. Hampton got out of the inning retiring Gant.
After John Franco pitched a scoreless eighth, Benitez took the mound looking to record his 17th save of the season and extend his scoreless inning streak past 17.0 innings. That all ended when Pat Burrell led off the top of the ninth with a solo homer.
Benitez got out of that inning without allowing another base runner, but he would not be so lucky in the 10th. After the Mets went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth, Glanville led off the inning with a double. Benitez seemed to shake it off striking out the next two batters. That’s when Liebererthal, who had failed twice earlier in the game, came through with an RBI single to give the Phillies their first lead in the game.
After the Mets went down 1-2-3 in the 10th, they would suffer a very frustrating 3-2 loss. The Phillies just had Benitez’s number today, but at the end of the day, you really have to pin this on a Mets offense who could not score any runs over nine innings against a very suspect Phillies pitching staff.
Game Notes: Curt Schilling said he would be willing to accept a trade to either the Mets or the Yankees.
Editor’s Note: With there being no games to begin the season, this site will follow the 2000 season and post recaps as if those games happened in real time. If nothing else, it is better to remember this pennant winning season and revisit some of the overlooked games than it is to dwell on the complete lack of baseball.
Well, after beating the Brewers nine times in a row, the Mets finally lost one to the Brew Crew yesterday. Today, Rick Reed would make sure that was not going to happen again.
The Brewers did get to Reed in the first when Ronnie Belliard homered to lead-off the top of the first. The Brewers wouldn’t get to Reed again until the sixth, but by that point, the Mets had a substantial lead due to a big fourth inning from the Mets offense.
Up until that point, Jason Bere had only allowed a hit to the opposing pitcher, Reed. The second time through the order was a much different situation with Bere as he could not get the first four batters he faced out. Matt Franco and Edgardo Alfonzo singled in front of a Mike Piazza RBI double tying the score 1-1.
After Robin Ventura was intentionally walked, Jay Payton hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly. Then, Kurt Abbott had the big blow with a three run homer increasing the Mets lead to 5-1. That was a huge hit for Abbott. It was almost a week ago his error helped cost the Mets the game. Since that time, he has played sparingly, but this is his second big extra base hit in that time frame.
From there, the game calmed down until the sixth when the Brewers started the sixth with runners on the corners after Geoff Jenkins and Jeromy Burnitz led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Reed was able to stifle that rally by getting Charlie Hayes to hit into a 5-4-3 double play. A run would score on the play, but the Brewers did no more.
The Mets got that run right back. After Reed reached on a Tyler Houston error, Jason Tyner had the somewhat unusual task of sacrificing the pitcher to scoring position. After Franco singled, Alfonzo hit a sacrifice fly to score Reed to increase the Mets lead back to five runs.
In the seventh, it was clear Reed was at the end of the line. Henry Blanco hit a one out double, and he would score on a Belliard two out triple. Reed was able to get out of the inning, and he had a quality start under this belt. After his struggles post injury, he has now posted consecutive 6+ inning starts allowing three runs. This is exactly the pitcher the Mets need him to be.
As they had done in the top of the seventh, the Mets got that run back. This time it was Ventura hitting an eighth inning lead-off homer against Valerio De Los Santos. After that homer, John Franco and Armando Benitez would pitch consecutive scoreless innings to secure the Mets 7-3 victory.
Game Notes: The players wore wristbands in support of pancreatic cancer research, and the homers by Abbott and Ventura led to $50,000 in donations by an independent sponsor. Mike Hamptonthrew a bullpen and seems set to return for his next start. Bobby Jones is set to make another start in Triple-A.
Editor’s Note: With there being no games to begin the season, this site will follow the 2000 season and post recaps as if those games happened in real time. If nothing else, it is better to remember this pennant winning season and revisit some of the overlooked games than it is to dwell on the complete lack of baseball.