{"id":2704,"date":"2017-02-23T17:00:51","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T23:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/?p=2704"},"modified":"2017-02-23T17:00:51","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T23:00:51","slug":"spitters-swappers-sluggers-and-doubleheaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/?p=2704","title":{"rendered":"Spitters, swappers, sluggers and doubleheaders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.beta.mbtn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/26.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-109\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beta.mbtn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/26.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"55\" height=\"48\" \/><\/a>Big thanks to longtime reader Pete Mahoney who pointed out the the below audio recording of\u00a0the May 22, 1966 Mets-Giants game at Candlestick Park (game one of a twinbill, doncha know) that also provides a missing artifact in Mets uniform history.<\/p>\n<p>As relayed by Bob Murphy at the 20-minute mark, lefty Gerry Arrigo makes his Mets debut in this game, having been recently purchased from Cincinnati, and is wearing No. 26. Until now, the nearest proof I&#8217;d collected of Arrigo&#8217;s number that season \u2014 the below scorecard in early July \u2014 indicates Arrigo is in 34, and Bob Shaw is wearing 26.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MIMfq1ksvQg\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The latter bit of info on Shaw was never in question but it raises the issue\u00a0of when Arrigo switched out of 26. The answer would appear be, as soon as Shaw arrived.<\/p>\n<p>The Mets acquired Shaw from San Francisco on June 10. Shaw in fact pitched for the Giants in the second game of the doubleheader referenced above. One of the reasons the Mets made the purchase was a broken finger sustained by Arrigo the day before. In fact the Mets made room for Shaw on the roster by placing Arrigo on the disabled list. Did I happen to mention all this happened on the day I was born? Well, it did.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.beta.mbtn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/34.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-117\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beta.mbtn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/34.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"58\" height=\"48\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.beta.mbtn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/scorecard-660702.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2707\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beta.mbtn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/scorecard-660702-300x93.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"93\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.beta.mbtn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/scorecard-660702-300x93.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.beta.mbtn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/scorecard-660702-768x237.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.beta.mbtn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/scorecard-660702.jpg 799w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Shaw, an accomplished if well-traveled vet, had worn 26 in two of his previous stops \u2014 Kansas City and Milwaukee \u2014 so its possible he&#8217;d requested the number, but at any rate when Arrigo returned to the club June 25, he took 34.<\/p>\n<p>Shaw by the way wasted little time establishing himself as an effective No. 26, reeling off victories in his first four starts as a Met including three complete games. He also provided some hints as to why he had so many different employers until then: He was a chronic contract holder-outter who didn&#8217;t mind making his opinions known. He once slugged his own catcher, Jerry Grote, who&#8217;d gotten between the home plate umpire and an irate Shaw after a call hadn&#8217;t gone his way. And as represented in the below photos, Shaw had a reputation for putting something &#8220;extra&#8221; on his pitches from time to time, though only admitted to enjoying the fact that opponents believed that of him:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2706\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2706\" style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.beta.mbtn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-23-at-4.03.42-PM-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2706 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.beta.mbtn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-23-at-4.03.42-PM-1-1024x451.png\" width=\"480\" height=\"211\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2706\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click to embiggen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Big thanks to longtime reader Pete Mahoney who pointed out the the below audio recording of\u00a0the May 22, 1966 Mets-Giants game at Candlestick Park (game one of a twinbill, doncha know) that also provides a missing artifact in Mets uniform history. As relayed by Bob Murphy at the 20-minute mark, lefty Gerry Arrigo makes his &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/?p=2704\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Spitters, swappers, sluggers and doubleheaders&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[411,751],"tags":[755,754,553],"class_list":["post-2704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-met-mysteries","category-wild-speculation","tag-bob-shaw","tag-gerry-arrigo","tag-jerry-grote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2708,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704\/revisions\/2708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}