If you count the piece that introduced Double3header Dip, this is the 20th installment of The History of Mets Doubleheaders (Whether You Wanted It or Not). This last part I admit to putting off because it requires me to tally up all the numbers and hope I didn’t miss a game (or two : ). It also forces me to reflect on the inglorious—and rather dull—recent present. I had a long, depressing conclusion about the team’s current state in terms of ownership, leadership, and on-field talent, but I tossed that out. Too negative a piece going into a new season, but I won’t spare the rod.

To me the period since the opening of Citi Field puts me in the same mindset as the post-Seaver era I grew up in (1977-83), and the post heyday period (1991-96). In both those cases the fallow periods gave way to well-constructed, entertaining teams I am still incredibly proud to call my own. As for the period we are in now, all I can say is that I’m proud of every kid who’s become a Mets fan in this time, because I know it hasn’t been easy. For every upturn there have been three setbacks, two embarrassments, and something else I can’t believe Jeff Wilpon said in public.

As for the future… How ‘bout them doubleheaders?

2009: Two day-night doubleheaders in the first year of Citi Field: one split and a loss, though these don’t technically count as doubleheaders—I believe “split” doubleheaders are actually classified as a pain in the Brian Asselstine. The first such event at Citi Field began with a combined shutout by Johan Santana in the opener against Colorado, giving the Mets their fifth straight win. They went 20-41 the rest of the way, including being swept all day and all of the night in Philly. Pedro Martinez—remember him?—combined for a 1-0 shutout in the nightcap.

2010: Citi saw its second day-night doubleheader—the opener featured Lady Gaga doing a dance with her middle fingers and underwear in Jerry Seinfeld’s box. (Maybe she had just learned there was a second admission several hours later for another meaningless Mets-Padres game.) The nightcap was worth the price of admission as Jon Niese threw a one-hitter. Generally, though, the Mets do not need to clear the stadium for a twinbill. There are plenty of seats for all. The Mets lost a twinbill at year’s end against Milwaukee, but a midweek April makeup I saw against the Dodgers proved historic. Jason Bay hit his first Mets home run, in his 20th game—one of 26 he hit in three years as a Met—but the Mets took both ends from LA, the first time the Mets have ever swept the Dodgers in a twinbill. It sounds unbelievable, especially given the scheduled doubleheaders back in the day and how big a draw the Dodgers were in New York, but keep this in mind: The Mets haven’t always been good. In 20 doubleheaders with LA, the Mets are now 1-7-12. All right, Hamilton!

2011: The Collins-Alderson era began with getting swept twice in the first weeks of the season—and then came Fred Wilpon’s deflating New Yorker comments. The Mets lost three of four twinbills. They also swept a day-night doubleheader—scheduled, apparently, for the benefit of Phillies fans invading Citi at year’s end.

2012: Just one twinbill this year, getting swept after a rainout against the Giants on their only trip to New York. (Hey schedule genius, how about not having a California team’s lone trip to New York coming in April?) Lincecum and Bumgarner looked like world beaters—and this was during their even-year, off-year Giants plan where they win a World Series and take the next year off. It seems to work as they’ve won more World Series in five years than the Mets have in 50.

2013: There were two straight doubleheaders and two split doubleheaders. The first one was the result of more scheduling foolishness, the Mets traveled to Denver in the middle of April and it snowed pretty much every day. They would have had a day-night doubleheader, but the Rockies thought better of it for the players and the 20 people who actually showed up to see the Mets get swept. The Mets split another split doubleheader—against Washington—and split a straight doubleheader against the Marlins, but the best day of this year was a day-night doubleheader in Atlanta with the team already 15 games under .500 in June. In the first game Matt Harvey, off to an epic start to the season, had a no-hitter through six innings and the Mets held on for a thrilling 4-3 win. The nightcap marked Zack Wheeler’s major league debut. He was awesome and fortunate that Anthony Recker went deep in his last inning so he could get the win. The best day of the year and arguably the best day-night doubleheader in Mets history.

2014: I got annoyed about this at the time, and I’ll bring it up again. The Mets have Banner Day and a doubleheader the same day—due to weather—and the Mets still can’t figure out how to get the banners on the field between games? In the name of Jane Jarvis, that’s pretty infuriating. Here’s what between games of a Banner Day doubleheader should look like. I was at the linked to game with my uncle and cousins, and though the Mets got swept that Sunday afternoon in ’84 by the Cubs, it was a damned special day. Thirty years later, I miss my uncle, I miss those banners that never stopped coming, and I miss that team that was so hungry to put an end to an era of losing.

Can I get an amen?

Nightcap: The Final Score

All right, here is our final score for doubleheaders. Since the Mets began in 1962, I count (drumroll please, make that double drumroll, if you will)…

461!

That is only two off the number the Mets use as their official number of doubleheaders. The main discrepancy is how they categorize the three doubleheaders in which the second game ended in a tie, all played in the 1960s, which I don’t count in terms of the win-loss-split record but count toward the doubleheader total. I’d be glad to share my findings with them—or anyone else—to clear anything up. Though to be honest, like most participants in a doubleheader (and I once caught both games of a fast-pitch softball doubleheader loss in 97-degree heat and without a cup), right now I’m mostly happy it is over. And yet it’s not truly over because there’s still more information spewing out.

The Mets record in doubleheaders? 94-156-208. (Remember that’s minus three for the tie games.)

The team the Mets are most likely to play a doubleheader against? The Cubs. The two teams have not been in the same division for 22 seasons, but they are still double trouble. The Mets and Cubs have played 62 twinbills with the Mets going 10-15-37. Yeah, 37 doubleheader splits is tops against anyone. The most amazing thing is that they’ve accumulated all this without playing a doubleheader against each other in 15 years (or it will be 15 years on April 22). I have seen the Mets and Cubs play twice in a day thrice in my life, including my first doubleheader in the flesh in 1979. They split, of course.

The team the Mets have beaten the most in doubleheaders is Pittsburgh, another long-lost friend sent to live with relatives in the home-wrecking Central Division. The Mets have an all-time doubleheader mark of 14-10-24 against the Pirates, the only one of the nine teams in existence when the Mets were born in 1962 that they have a winning mark against in twinbills. The team they have lost to the most in doubleheaders? The Phillies (11-24-25). Doesn’t that just figure?

Since interleague play began, the Mets have played only two twinbills against AL teams: the Mariners and the Rangers.

“Wait, wait, wait a minute,” you say. “I know for a fact that the Mets and Yankees have played four doubleheaders, three of them in both Flushing and the Bronx the same day, and the other was played at Yankee Stadium.” Very good memory—or considering that the Mets won one of those eight games, bad memories. That leads us back into the dark closet that is day-night doubleheaders.

Day-night doubleheaders have put a bee in this bonnet since I was first exposed to them in the 1990s. (There were also day-nighters played by the Mets in 1967 and 1972, the reason for which seems unknown even to Greg Prince; he tipped me off on the first Shea day-nighter in 1972.) What annoys me the most is how much of everyone’s time they waste, in addition to being a rip off—especially when there would have been enough fannies to fill the stadium once instead of being half-full twice. Many a dad or mom or sibling or grandparent or family friend or teacher or somebody took a kid or four to a doubleheader because it was 2-for-1 baseball. But who cares about the heart pulls of yesterday or considerations for future fans when there is money to be made today?

Now that my disclaimer and digression have been noted, the official stat keepers of MLB—at least as yet—also have a bee in their bonnet about day-night doubleheaders. These doubleheaders are recognized separately for record keeping. The tally in the 20 day-nighters in Mets history? 5-6-9. Record against the Yankees in two-city doubleheaders is 0-2-1 (0-3-1 overall). Their best record in day-nighters? Philly: 2-1-1. Maybe that doesn’t make up for all the straight doubleheaders the Mets have lost to the Phillies, but it is something.

Oh, and to answer Alan’s September 10, 2011 Letter to the Met-idor query that launched this three-plus year, very off-and-on, don’t sue me if I missed a doubleheader research project, the Mets’ record in first games of doubleheaders: 186-272; 209-249 in the nightcap. I hope this answers your question.

Doubleheader Denouement

Ernie Banks is now the patron saint of doubleheaders. He died a few weeks ago at the age of 83. He played in 19 Mets-Cubs doubleheaders, including starting three twinbills in as many days in September of ’67. (Kudos to Mets Ultimate Database for putting that and a lot of other info for this study—and so much other research—right at my fingertips.)

There were few better ambassadors of the game than Ernie Banks, and none who advocated the doubleheader more than Mr. Cub. “Let’s play two.” Sure, Ernie, why not? Who’s counting?