Mets-Cubs: The team with the most homers wins

We heard so much about the Cubs hitting six home runs in Game 3 of the NLDS and 10 homers overall in their 3-1 win over the Cardinals. If the Mets were to win this series, their young pitchers were going to have to limit the long ball or else the Cubs would run away with the thing. The hype was so much it brought to mind another team from another sport in another era that was known for its power:

Phi Slama Jama*

The greybeards immediately know what that means. For the under 40 crowd who may be going WTF – Phi Slama Jama was the nickname given to the University of Houston’s basketball team in 1983 for their unbelievable dunking prowess. At the time, college basketball was just starting to experiment with shot clocks and still trying to break free from coaches trying to control every possession and that tyranny which resulted in games where the winning team struggled to break 40 points.

The Cougars featured one tremendous athlete after another and a coach who didn’t mind if his players tried to dunk on every possession. It was a perfect blending of team, coach and era and it unleashed something on the national stage which we had never seen before.

Houston made the Final Four in 1982 but fell to one of the tyrant coaches. But the team came back better and stronger than ever the following season and once again made the Final Four. The semifinal game against Louisville was one of the most intense games in college basketball history. Phi Slama Jama went up against the Doctors of Dunk.

Louisville jumped on top early but a second half comeback by Houston sent the Cougars to the championship game. Houston won, 94-81, but all anyone remembers from the game were the highlight-reel jams. The Cougars ended up dunking the ball an unheard-of-at-the-time 13 instances in the game.

The finals were a foregone conclusion. Sportswriter Dave Kindred echoed the national mood when he wrote, “Trees will tap dance and elephants will drive in the Indy 500 before N.C. State beats Houston.” Even the Houston players got in the act. Before the game, Akeem Abdul Olajuwon (as he was known then) said, “We figure the team with the most dunks will win.”

Olajuwon was indeed prophetic as a last-second dunk by Lorenzo Charles propelled the Wolfpack to a 54-52 win. Charles’ slam gave N.C. State a 2-1 edge in dunks in the game.

Meanwhile, last night Daniel Murphy homered in the bottom of the first inning and Travis d’Arnaud hit a cruise missile to straight away center field, which ended up ricocheting off the famous apple in the sixth. Kyle Schwarber got the Cubs on the home run scorecard when he hit one in the eighth inning. That made the final HR count 2-1 in favor of the Mets.

The Cubs have received attention all year long for their young sluggers and rightfully so. Nine different Cubs hit double digit homers this year, with six of those being age 25 or younger. The 22-year-old Schwarber hit 16 homers in 232 ABs in his rookie season.

But the Mets out-homered the Cubs this year, 177-171. Since the acquisition of Yoenis Cespedes, the Mets held an 88-79 edge over the season’s final two months. The Cubs may have had that historic game in the NLDS but it’s far from a slam dunk to think they’re going to blow past the Mets in homers this series.

* – Despite what Sports Illustrated might tell you, there’s only one “m” in Slama. For an excellent article on the early 80s Cougars and the origin of their nickname, check out this piece.