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Wednesday, October 25, 2000
NEW YORK -- Benny Agbayani made the fans in Shea Stadium dance. Agbayani hits it big
in the ‘Big Apple’
Valentine's decision pays off
Associated Press
No, the Mets aren't going to fulfill his pre-Series prediction and beat the Yankees in five games.
He merely got the hit that sent the Mets to their first World Series win since 1986 and stopped the Yankees' record Series winning streak at 14.
"I didn't definitely say we were going to win in five," he said last night after his tiebreaking double led the Mets to a 4-2 win. "I just blurted it out."
With the score tied at 2 and the Mets needing to bust up Orlando Hernandez's perfect postseason record, up to the plate stepped Agbayani in the eighth inning with a runner on first.
The chubby 28-year-old Hawaiian, whose 13th-inning homer beat San Francisco in Game 2 of the first round, was supposed to be on the bench. Manager Bobby Valentine was supposed to start a left-hander against El Duque.
"We're here because of him," Valentine said. "He's been one of many key players our team."
On the top of his locker in the Mets clubhouse in a sign, a constant reminder to the Mets of what it takes, what he tries to provide: "Faith, Passions, Consistency will give us VICTORY!!"
He took a ball, then drove El Duque's second pitch, his 133rd of the night, into the left-center field gap. Todd Zeile, not the speediest of runners, scored all the way from first.
"As I was rounding first, I said, 'C'mon, Todd, you can do it, you can do it,' " Agbayani recalled. "Once he crossed home plate, I was like, 'thank you.' "Joe McEwing came in to pinch run for him and scored on Bubba Trammell's sacrifice fly as the Mets went on to pull to 2-1 in the first Subway Series since 1956.
Valentine never wavered in his support, not even after Agbayani's Mets-in-5 prediction made front pages and was tacked up in the Yankees' dugout last Friday.
"He always has faith in me," Agbayani would say later, as the fans in Shea Stadium went wild. "He put me in today, and everybody told me I wasn't playing today before he even told me."
Seattle loaded its lineup with left-handers against Hernandez. Some said the Mets should have put Darryl Hamilton in left and put Agbayani on the bench.
"I was a little bit baffled by people who followed our team all year thinking that maybe he shouldn't play today," Valentine said. "I never considered him not playing. I never considered pinch hitting for him, and I'm glad about that."
Agbayani had struck out, flied out and walked in his first three at-bats. He talked with the Mets' hitting coach before walking up to the plate in the eighth.
"I was trying to look for something low because he was throwing me up, and I was chasing them," he said. "So (Tom) Robson just told me get the ball down and drive it out to the outfield."
Before this October, Agbayani had been best known for his accomplishments at the start of the 1999 season, when he hit 10 homers in his first 73 at-bats, becoming the fastest Met to reach double figures, breaking a mark Ron Swoboda set in 1965.
NEW YORK -- It's a good thing Mets manager Bobby Valentine doesn't heed the advice of the media. Valentine’s decision
pays off for MetsBy Ben DiPietro
Special to the Star-BulletinThe all-knowing scribes of newspapers, radio and television speculated Valentine might sit Benny Agbayani in Game 3, since Yankee starter Orlando Hernandez is particularly tough on right-handed batters like the Mets left fielder.
Valentine said he never considered such a move, and was rewarded for his confidence in his guy from Hawaii when Agbayani drove home the game-winning run with a sharp double to left center in the eighth inning to give the Mets a 4-2 win over the Yankees and their first win in the Subway Series.
"We're here because of him," Valentine said of Agbayani. "He's been one of many key players on our team, but he's been key."I was a little baffled by people who covered our team all year thinking maybe he shouldn't play. I never considered him not playing. I never considered pinch-hitting for him, and I'm glad about that."
Agbayani lined a Hernandez fastball over short and into the gap. The ball rolled to the wall, and Todd Zeile -- one of the slowest Mets -- rumbled home from first to snap a 2-2 tie.
Agbayani moved to third when Jay Payton beat out an infield hit, and scored on a sacrifice fly from pinch-hitter Bubba Trammell.
"It was a rocket," said Mets hitting coach Tom Robson, who told Agbayani before his at-bat to find a ball to "click," a code word they use to get Benny to stay under control and not be overly aggressive.
"I thought he had been a little jumpy. He's a young kid. Sometimes he gets out of control."In his previous at-bat in the sixth, Agbayani was down 1-2 in the count, but managed to work a walk off Hernandez. Back in the dugout Robson told him to get Hernandez to "throw you a ball where you can handle and drive it out into the gaps."
Agbayani said Robson also told him to wait for something low, and to lay off Hernandez' fastball up in the zone.
"I was looking for something I could drive to the outfield," said Agbayani, who extended his postseason hit streak to 13 games
Before the game all the Mets heard about was how Hernandez being unbeatable in the postseason. Agbayani was unfazed by the talk.
"All we heard was how he won so many times in the postseason and never lost," said Agbayani. "He's a tough pitcher, he comes at you from different angles . . . so you have to be patient. You don't want to go down 3-0, especially (on) your own field."
Thanks to what Agbayani calls the Mets "never say die" spirit, the Mets are back in this World Series and, as Benny well knows, "Anything can happen in the World Series."