BIRTHDAY NEWS

Saturday was a big day for me. Not only was it my birthday, but it was pretty much THE birthday I've been looking forward to since I was little. 7/7/07. It's a small consolation for being born a year too late, in my opinion, which would have had me born on 7/7/77. I'm jealous of those people who have that birthday. But we celebrated during the day Saturday (Justin from NYC tells me he threw a huge, worldwide concert in my honor of my 29th birthday - and the codeword was to substitute "John" for "Earth". I had just read in the paper all about this "Concert for the John". He's a great guy.), and then on Saturday night, watched most of the Mets' big 17-inning win against the Astros (and watched Carlos Delgado homer at 7:07 [Central time] on 7/7/07...I love it!). And it got me thinking...how often did the Mets do well on my birthday? How often have they even played on my birthday?

As a kid, my birthday parties usually revolved around the Mets - we'd have cake at my house, then pile into a car and my dad (God bless him) would take a bunch of little boys to a baseball game at Shea. But this rarely happened on my birthday - either it was the All Star break, when no one played, or the Mets were not playing at home. So I decided to actually look up the information, and found out some great stuff (this is only since 1978, on the day that I was born):

• The Mets are 13-11 all-time on my birthday ...2-9 at home, 11-2 on the road.
• Including Saturday night, there have been 3 extra innings games, with the Mets winning all three.
• The Mets have had 3 3-game losing streaks on July 7th's, and have never won more than two consecutive years, which they've done six separate times.
• Gary Carter went 1-for-8 in two games on my birthday (1985, 1986).
• Todd Hundley homered three consecutive years on my birthday (1994, 1995, 1996).
• Andy Benes pitched a one-hitter against the Mets on my birthday in 1993, and the Mets' loss that day was one of the hard-luck Anthony Young losses that year- it dropped him to 0-12.
• In 2000, I remember watching the Yankees beat the Mets 2-1, on what I believe was a Friday night. El Duque outdueled Al Leiter. The next day, Roger Clemens beaned Mike Piazza. That was the angriest July 8th I've ever had.
• How about Sid Fernandez, the official pitcher of my birthday - he pitched in 1985, 1989, 1990, and 1992! In the 1992 game, El Sid got the win, Anthony Young came in for the save.
• And then there's Saturday, which I couldn't make all the way through - I conked out in about the 12th inning. But it'd be tough to beat as an all-time July 7th (into the 8th) classic. David Wright and Carlos Delgado homered in the first nine innings, then it was scoreless for the next 8, until Carlos Beltran drove home the winning (go-ahead) run. Beltran also saved the game defensively with a Mays-esque over-the-shoulder catch going up the hill in center field with two men on and two out in the extra innings.

ALL STAR BREAK: Not sure what I'll be posting this week - I'll try to do an All Star recap, since there are some Mets implications...but I do have some work this week, Monday through Thursday. So there's definitely not going to be a radio show this week.

BEAT THE STREAK: An update - I'm taking a 9-gamer into the break. That's fun.