1980 TOPPS PETE FALCONE
The Mets record book is one part strict classicism and two parts dark magic.
Most of the canonical season and career records are held by your Seavers and Strawberries and such.
But many of the more obscure and occasional marks belong to short timers and journeymen.
Take, for example, the team record for most consecutive strikeouts to start a game.
Just this week, against a patchwork Marlins squad built for September, Jacob deGrom set a new Mets’ mark by mowing down the first eight batters he faced. This tied the MLB record set by Jim Deshaies back in 1986.
(Thesis: This record can only be achieved by 26-year-olds whose surnames begin with the letters “d” and “e.” Discuss.)
When deGrom punched out Jordany Valdespin for his seventh consecutive K, he erased from the Mets record book another 26-year old: lefty Pete Falcone. Or as I like to call him, Pete deFalcone…
Falcone (a cousin of long-time Mets coach Joe Pignatano) came to Flushing from St. Louis in a late 1978 trade that saw the Mets surrender Tom Grieve and Kim Seaman. It was a homecoming of sorts for Falcone, a Brooklyn native who had attended Lafayette High School (alma mater of Sandy Koufax) and Kingsborough CC.
Ultimately, Falcone pitched to mediocre results for a run of poor teams from 1979 through 1982. But on May 1, 1980 in a home game against Steve Carlton and the Phillies, he came out of the gate roaring.
Lonnie Smith, Pete Rose, and Garry Maddox all went down on strikes in the top of the 1st, while Mike Schmidt, Greg Luzinski, and Bob Boone did the same in the 2nd. Larry Bowa broke the spell leading off the 3rd by grounding out to Falcone.
The strikeouts dried up until the 5th, when Luzinski went down again to start the inning. But lightning struck from unlikely sources in that same frame, as a Bowa single was followed by a Luis Aguayo home run, giving Philadelphia a 2-0 lead.
Falcone stuck around through seven innings, ringing up Schmidt in the 6th for his eighth and final strikeout of the game. The Mets could not muster more than a run against Carlton and Tug McGraw, losing by a final score of 2-1.
Falcone signed with the Braves as a free agent in 1983, and put together two thoroughly decent campaigns before retiring in 1984 at the age of 30 because he was, and I quote, “[J]ust tired of baseball.”
I hear you, Pete Falcone. I hear you.
Thanks for the chance to remember Falcone, the guy who always seemed on the verge of something better. I went and looked at his 1981 numbers and his last 10 games he put up the following line, which I challenge a pitcher to do today:
49.1 IP, 2.19 ERA, 14 BB, 18 Ks
His last start of the year — 9 IP, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 Ks
You never knew what you were going to get from him. He had the stuff to throw like he did the last game of the 1981 season each time he took the mound. But he rarely did.
Pete, you could have made us proud.
I enjoyed the card and the opportunity to remember Falcone so I’ll let you off the hook for calling JDG a lefty.
Oh, I deserve the hook for calling JdG a lefty!
I like that fro he was rocking.