Chicks dig the long ball, but the same can be said of dudes. The Mets hit 177 homeruns in 2007, which you can see in tabular form at Baseball-Reference.com or get precise vector data at Hit Tracker. Homeruns are down across baseball:
| Year | HR/Team |
|---|---|
| 2007 | 165 |
| 2006 | 180 |
| 2005 | 167 |
| 2004 | 182 |
| 2003 | 174 |
| 2002 | 169 |
| 2001 | 182 |
| 2000 | 190 |
Teams hit fewer homeruns in 2007 than in any other season this decade, but that doesn't mean there was any shortage of exciting homeruns among those that were hit. Here are the ten biggest Met homeruns of this past season.
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Carlos Gomez's First Career Homerun, 6/10/07
In an otherwise mundane 15-7 drubbing at the hands of the Tigers in Detroit, Carlos Gomez strode to the plate in the top of the sixth with one out and two runners in scoring position. Gomez was looking to do some damage with his bat and, after going homerless through the first 53 at-bats of his big league career, wanted to show the world that a sinewy kid from Dominican Republic could bash with the best of them.
With one swing of the bat, Gomez went from solid prospect to solid prospect with one career longball to his credit when he cranked an Andrew Miller offering 383 feet into the left-field stands, propelling the Mets from a seemingly insurmountable 10-3 deficit to an improbably hopeless 10-6 hole.
Video (scroll down to June 10)
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Julio Franco Takes the Unit Yard, at ARI, 5/4/07
Though he was largely useless for the Mets in 2007 before being mercifully released on July 12, the ageless-but-showing-his-age Julio Franco re-established his own MLB record by becoming the oldest player to ever hit a homerun, again. Franco's only homerun of the season came in the second inning of a 1-0 game out in the deserts of Arizona. With nobody out and Paul Lo Duca on second, Franco sent a shot 401 feet to right-center off of Randy Johnson to give the Mets a 3-0 lead in a game they would eventually win 5-3.
Video (scroll down to May 4)
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Alou pwns!@&*$# Soriano, vs ATL, 8/8/07
After laying another stinker against John Smoltz and the Braves, the Mets entered the bottom of the seventh trailing 3-1. They rallied for two runs against Smoltz in the seventh, and Aaron Heilman kept the Braves at bay in the top of the eighth. With one out in the bottom of the eighth and Rafael Soriano throwing gas, Moises Alou came to the plate and promptly deposited an 0-2 no-doubter through the stratosphere and into the Braves' bullpen, giving the Mets a 4-3 lead that Billy Wagner would shakily lock down for the win.
Video (scroll down to August 8)
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David Wright and Mike Myers Aren't Friends, vs NYY, 5/19/07
In a sloppy game that was sloppily broadcast by FOX, Yankees starter Darrell Rasner was hit on the hand by the second batter of the game and had to leave, replaced by lefty specialist/escaped homicidal mental patient Mike Myers. Tom Glavine had allowed a run to score in the top of the first, but David Wright bailed him out with a mammoth two-run homerun in the bottom of the inning to give the Mets the lead. The Mets and Yankees traded runs in the second inning, and after Carlos Delgado led off the bottom of the fourth with a single, Wright launched his second two-run homerun of the game off of Johnny Damon's glove in center. The Mets went on to win 10-7, with Wright picking up three intentional walks to go with his pair of two-run blasts.
Video (scroll down to May 19)
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Endy! Endy! Endy!, vs NYY, 5/18/07
In the first intra-boro meeting of the season, the Mets sent Oliver Perez to the hill against Andy Pettitte. The Mets scored a run in the bottom of the first when Jose Reyes scampered home on a Carlos Delgado sacrifice fly. Perez kept the Yankees off the board until the fourth inning, when Jorge Posada singled with one out and Hideki Matsui turned on a terrible mistake, sending it skyward and into the right field stands to give the bad guys a 2-1 lead.
The Mets managed nothing in their half of the fourth, but after Paul Lo Duca led off the fifth with a double, Endy Chavez came to the plate and parked a 1-0 pitch over the right-centerfield wall to give the Mets a 3-2 lead that they wouldn't relinquish.
Video (scroll down to May 18)
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Woot! then D'oh!, at SD, 7/18/07
The Mets got off to a rough start in this one and trailed the Padres 4-0 after six innings. Carlos Delgado led off the top of the seventh with a solo (duh) homerun, but the Mets still trailed by three when David Wright came up to bat with two on and two out in the top of the eighth. With one swing of the bat Wright tied the game, sending a missile into the left field stands that scored Jose Valentin and Carlos Beltran, with Wright's run tying the game at four.
Unfortunately, the coda to this symphony of destruction was Joe Smith allowing the go-ahead run to score in the bottom half of the eighth on a walk and a couple of singles, the final blow an RBI liner to right by Geoff Blum.
Video (scroll down to July 18)
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Valverde? I Hardly Knew Her!, at ARI, 5/3/07
The Mets plated three runs in six innings against Micah Owings, but trailed 4-3 heading into the ninth after managing zippo against relievers Tony Pena and Brandon Lyon. Endy Chavez got the ninth underway by striking out swinging, and Shawn Green hit a grounder to Tony Clark at first for the second ou....woot, he booted it! Paul Lo Duca followed by working a walk that pushed Green to second and set the stage for Damion Easley. Valverde, noticeably shaken by Clark's gaffe and two close non-calls against Lo Duca, quickly fell behind Easley 2-0. Valverde grooved the next offering and Easley sent it into the left-centerfield crick for a three-run homerun that put the Mets ahead 6-4.
The Mets would tack on another three runs on a David Wright homerun that helped to turn a one-run deficit into a laugher, and the Mets were even comfortable enough to let Scott Schoeneweis come in and finish the Diamondbacks off in the ninth.
Video (scroll down to May 3)
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Eight Months Too Late, vs STL, 6/25/07
The Cardinals made their first trip to Shea since ousting the Mets from the 2006 NLCS. Carlos Gomez hit his second career homerun in the third to give the Mets the early lead, but So "Effing" Taguchi tied it at one apiece with an RBI groundout in the fifth. The two teams traded zeros for the next five innings when Shawn Green strode to the plate to lead off the bottom of the eleventh. After working the count full, Green turned on Russ Springer's payoff pitch, blasting a long homerun off the scoreboard in right to give the Mets the walkoff victory.
Video (scroll down to June 25)
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A Balk in the Park, vs SF, 5/29/07
A Tim Lincecum/Oliver Perez duel begat a 3-3 game that nine innings of baseball just couldn't decide. Neither team could get any traction in the tenth or eleventh, but Joe Smith changed all of that by turning in a delightful rendition of Amateur Hour at Shea in the top of the twelfth. A walk, a wild pitch, a bunt, an HBP and a groundout produced an ugly, ugly run for the Giants, but all of that ugliness still added up to a 4-3 San Francisco lead in extra innings.
Old friend Armando Benitez came on for the save in the bottom of the twelfth, but the Mets weren't about to let him off the hook. Jose Reyes led off with a walk and, with Reyes darting off first base, Benitez's nerves got the best of him and he balked Reyes to second. Endy Chavez bunted Reyes to third, where the same annoying flea routine somehow induced a second balk out of Benitez. The game now tied at four, Carlos Delgado connected on a 2-2 offering from Benitez and sent it over the right-centerfield fence for a delightfully satisfying 5-4 walkoff win.
Video (scroll down to May 29)
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Pfft. Damion Easley? The Dude's Washed Up., vs COL, 4/24
This one was a pitchers' duel, as Aaron Cook and Orlando Hernandez each completed seven shutout innings. The game was still scoreless after nine, but the Rockies took a 1-0 lead in the tenth when Troy Tulowitzki scored Willie Taveras with a two-out triple. Billy Wagner struck out pinch-hitter Chris Iannetta to end the inning, stranding Tulowitzki at third.
The Rockies brought in closer Brian Fuentes to seal the deal, and he quickly dispatched Shawn Green and Jose Valentin on a groundout and flyout, respectively. Damion Easley came on to pinch hit for Wagner. Easley was just 1-for-10 on the season with a couple of walks and a homerun, but after falling behind 0-2 he worked the count back to 2-2. Fuentes shook off a few pitches before deciding on a fastball that Easley turned on, dumping it into the left-centerfield bleachers to tie the game at one.
After trading scoreless frames in the eleventh, Scott Shoeneweis and Joe Smith combined to set the Rockies down in the twelfth. Facing Ryan Speier in the bottom of the inning, Shawn Green led off with a walk and moved to second on a Jose Valentin sacrifice bunt. A balk shifted Green to third, but a David Newhan whiff made for the second out of the inning. Speier fell behind Jose Reyes 3-1 before issuing the intentional ball four, electing to face Endy Chavez instead. In doing so, the Rockies made a fatal mistake that many others have made but few have lived to tell about. Chavez toyed with Speier, allowing the tall righty to throw a knee-high strike to start things off. Chavez tired quickly of this game, and ended it all with one check-swing of the bat, sending a drag bunt down the first base line, perfectly placed between Speier and first-baseman Todd Helton. Speier and Helton flailed about like whales giving birth while Endy sailed across first, giving the "safe" sign as he turned to see Green crossing home plate with the winning run. Huzzah, huzzah!
Video (scroll down to April 24)