defense behind the plate. As great as the season-long per- formance of the team was, how- ever, it was in the playoffs that the team’s greatness truly ex- pressed itself. Perhaps the high- light of the season came on Sep- tember 12th in the second game of the semifinal series against Harrisburg, which had won the South Division with an incredible .633 winning percentage, posting 88 wings against only 51 loss- es. Harrisburg was led by future MLB All-Star Mark Grudzielanek, who hit .322 for the season and provided solid defense at short- stop; closer Alberto Reyes, who had 35 saves; and pitcher Ugueth Urbina, who would be converted to a reliever and go on to save 237 games over an 11-year MLB career. When Bill Pulsipher strolled to the mound to start Game 2 of the Series, the Mets were down in the matchup, having blown a 3-1 lead in the seventh inning as Harris- burg’s Phil Dauphin hit a three- run homer in the seventh to take the lead in Harrisburg’s eventual 5-4 win. Pulsipher was deter- mined to get the Mets even in the series and he turned his deter- mination into domination, as he struck out eight Harrisburg hitters and twirled a no-hit shutout! So complete was his dominance that he allowed only three balls to be hit out of the infield! Pitching coach Randy Nieman played the role of “Captain Obvious” when he told the Binghamton Press “To come up with that kind of game under these circumstances is unbelievable.” Pulsipher’s sterling effort was supported with a ho- mer hit by second baseman Doug Saunders and catcher’s Alberto Castillo sacrifice fly, providing Pulsipher with two runs for the win. The Mets returned home for the second game of the series and one of the all-time great games in Binghamton history was played on September 14th. The Mets were trailing, 4-2, in the bottom
of the ninth when Alfonzo came up with one on. On the mound for the Expos was their closer, Al- berto Reyes, who had finished an astonishing 53 games during the season. Reyes got ahead in the count with a first-pitch strike. He then spun a slider to Alfonzo, but he got too much of the plate, letting Alfonzo get plenty of his barrel on the ball, sending it far over the left-field fence. As Alfonzo circled the bases, fans jumped, slapped hands, and screamed into the night, forming a coryban- tic chorus along Henry and Lewis streets. Some had still not settled back into their seats when, only three pitches later, Jacobs hit a game-winning homer to right. With a 2-1 Series lead, Chris Roberts, a crafty lefty from the University of Florida, pitched the Mets to a 3-1 victory, clinch- ing the series and kicking off a champagne-filled celebration on the diamond. In the post-game celebration Steve Phillips, future general manager of the Mets and then the Mets’ minor league farm director, took to the microphone to congratulate the team. He told the fans “This was a superbly talented team. You may never see a team as talented as this one again.” During the on-field celebration, then N.Y. Mets Direc- tor of Minor League Operations Steve Phillips remarked, “It will be a long time before Binghamton sees a team with this much talent again.” Thirty years later, notwithstand- ing the 2014 team, we’re still waiting! Note: Jim Maggiore has authored seven books on the local sports scene.
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