I attended this game and was surprised for the first time to see Joe McEwing, acquired from St. Louis for Jesse Orosco at the end of spring training, playing left field and leading off. From our seats in left, we could see Rickey Henderson in the doghouse. The night before he’d led off the game with a long fly and went into his home run trot, only to see the ball hit the wall. The best base stealer in history wound up stuck on first and the Mets lost to the Marlins,one of three teams ahead of them in the standings.
So Super Joe was summoned overnight from the minors and was at Shea the next afternoon. In a game where Bobby Valentine went through the whole bench, Henderson only came in for the ninth to play left field after McEwing moved to shortstop. Valentine had to send up pitcher Mike Hampton to pinch-hit in the ninth. Representing the winning run, he nearly won the game, lining a ball that just missed the foul pole. Hampton then struck out and the Mets lost, 7-6. By the time I got back to the car, Rickey Henderson had been released. As has always been the case a Mets pennant-winning club looked in disarray in May.