Wack job: Pitchers forced into OF duty

BY ANTHONY RIEBER | Newsday Staff Writer

August 17, 2006

On July 22, the Mets were one out away from a 3-1 loss to the Reds when Cincinnati rightfielder Dave Parker dropped the potential final out, a fly ball to the warning track hit by Keith Hernandez, for a game-tying two-run error.

Then things got really weird.

In the 10th, Reds outfielder Eric Davis, pinch running for player/manager Pete Rose, stole third base, popped up and elbowed and pushed Ray Knight. The Mets' third baseman, a former Golden Gloves boxer, responded with a right hand to Davis' face that led to a bench-clearing melee, four ejections, and the sight of Roger McDowell and Jesse Orosco in the outfield for the Mets -- although not at the same time.

With two players -- Knight and Kevin Mitchell -- ejected for the Mets, and with Darryl Strawberry having been ejected earlier for arguing balls and strikes, manager Davey Johnson was out of position players other than backup catcher Ed Hearn.

Hearn entered the game and Gary Carter moved to third base, a position he hadn't played since 1975, but the Mets still needed a rightfielder. Other than McDowell, the only players left were starting pitchers Dwight Gooden, Sid Fernandez and Ron Darling.

Johnson moved Orosco, who had been pitching, to right.

McDowell came in from the bullpen, and as the game wore on, Johnson switched McDowell and Orosco from the mound to the outfield depending on the situation. McDowell also switched with Mookie Wilson between rightfield and leftfield, depending on whether a righthanded or lefthanded hitter was batting.

"It was exciting to play a position you've never played in your career," Orosco said last week in a telephone interview. "Roger felt the same way. We were giggling about it when it happened."

Only one ball was hit to a pitcher/outfielder, when Orosco caught a fly ball to right hit by Tony Perez in the 13th.

Asked what he was thinking at that moment, Orosco said: "Oh, my God. I felt kind of comfortable because I had been out there a couple of innings. I'm just glad I didn't have to run too far."

Johnson, reached last week at his Florida home, said: "Both of them were great athletes, could run balls down. It wasn't a choice that I was that worried about."

The Mets finally went ahead when Howard Johnson hit a three-run home run in the 14th inning. They won, 6-3, and McDowell was the winning pitcher.

At the time, Davey Johnson called it "the strangest game I've been involved in" -- even stranger than the 19-inning Fourth of July game in Atlanta the year before, when a postgame fireworks show got under way at 3:55 a.m.

Of course, Johnson didn't know what was to come in the postseason.

As for the regular season, the memorable win gave the Mets a 13½-game lead in the National League East. By the end of August, the lead was up to 20. All that was left was to clinch the franchise's first division crown since 1973.