On July 12 Lenny Harris became the 113th third baseman in New York Mets history. Harris is the seventh Met to occupy the position this season. Mets manager Bobby Valentine saw duty at third when he played for the team. Only nine Metropolitans have occupied third for 200 or more games. They are: %% %%
%% Player Games
Howard Johnson 835
Wayne Garrett 709
Hubie Brooks 516
Edgardo Alfonzo* 308
Ed Charles 247
Dave Kingman 238
Lenny Randle 234
Ray Knight 232
Charlie Smith 211
*active
%%
1,000 CLUB
Baltimore reliever Jesse Orosco is five games away from becoming the sixth major leaguer to pitch in 1,000 or more games in his career. The five 1,000-game pitchers are: %%
Pitcher Games
Hoyt Wilhelm 1,070
Kent Tekulve 1,050
Dennis Eckersley* 1,044
Lee Smith 1,022
Goose Gossage 1,002
*active
%%
TIMELY
Efforts to speed up major-league games this season seem to be working. From 1994-97, an average American League game took three hours and one minute to play; this season, the average has fallen to 2:56. In the senior circuit, games averaged two hours and 51 minutes from 1994-97 but have fallen to an average of 2:47 this year.
SLUGGERVILLE
As Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals and Ken Griffey Jr. of the Seattle Mariners continue to threaten Roger Maris’ home run record, a look ahead shows whom they face over the final 2 1/2 months of the season. The chart below shows how many homers each player has hit against each team and how many games are remaining on the schedule against those opponents (numbers through Saturday): %%
Mark McGwire
Team Homers Games remaining
Arizona 4 0
Atlanta 1 7
Cubs 2 7
Cincinnati 0 6
Colorado 1 3
Florida 2 5
Houston 5 5
Los Angeles 4 1
Milwaukee 1 9
Montreal 1 3
New York 1 9
Philadelphia 5 0
Pittsburgh 0 9
San Diego 4 2
San Francisco 5 2
White Sox 2 0
Indians 2 0
Tigers 0 0
Royals 1 0
Twins 1 0
Total 42 68
Ken Griffey Jr.
Team Homers Games remaining
Anaheim 4 3
Baltimore 2 7
Boston 3 5
White Sox 1 7
Cleveland 3 6
Detroit 1 6
Kansas City 1 5
Minnesota 1 2
New York 3 6
Oakland 2 5
Tampa Bay 2 4
Texas 3 4
Toronto 3 4
Arizona 2 0
Colorado 3 0
Los Angeles 2 0
San Diego 2 0
San Francisco 1 0
Total 39 64
%%
MARGIN CALL
The New York Yankees through Wednesday had built a 15-game lead over the Boston Red Sox and could win 100 games by going only 33-41 for the remainder of the season. Only two teams since 1976 have finished July with leads larger than 15 games, the 1995 Cleveland Indians (17 1/2 games) and the 1986 New York Mets (15 1/2). The 1995 California Angels were the only team during that span that held a double-digit lead on July 31 but failed to win their division. The 10 teams since 1976 that had the biggest leads at the end of July were: %% Year Team Lead
1995 Indians 17 1/2
1986 Mets 15 1/2
1977 Dodgers 14
1980 Royals 12
1984 Tigers 12
1976 Phillies 11 1/2
1995 Angels 10
1996 Yankees 10
1976 Yankees 9 1/2
1976 Reds 9 1/2
%%
DISTAFF DIRECTORS
With Bud Selig’s decision to continue as baseball’s full-time commissioner, his daughter, Wendy Selig-Prieb, will likely assume control of the MIlwaukee Brewers. Selig-Prieb has acted as the team’s chief executive during her father’s stint as interim commissioner. According to the Society for American Baseball Research, she would become just the sixth woman since 1911 to run a major league team, following Helen Britton (St. Louis Cardinals), Grace Comiskey (White Sox), Joan Payson (New York Mets), Jean Hawkey (Boston Red Sox), Joan Kroc (San Diego Padres) and Marge Schott (Cincinnati Reds).
