All-time Metfan
October 30, 2001
For about a month and a half I had tuned out the Mets after their 10 game losing streak in august and their flat play to finish up the season in september. Then I turn on the TV and David Cone strikes out 19 and gets arrested for sexual abuse the same day. I really felt like this game optimized what was a rather grim season. A season that would replicate itself in one way or another five more times until a guy named Piazza came around.

Fan 5/31/64 - 8/11/94
April 8, 2005
Like so many loyal Shea fans we took the trip down the Jersey Turnpike every time the orange and blue played in cheesesteak land. I believe that this was the last game of the year. Some time in late summer, the short-term 80's dynasty ended, although no one realized it at the time.

Cone had a slew of K's through the first 6 and I realized that he might reach 20 or 21 at that pace. In the top of the 7th, he walked and was out on the bases the whole inning. The bottom of the inning, he had no K's.

It was still exciting to see him get close and eventually tie the record that Seaver set one warm spring day in 1970. The writers, however, downplayed the feat as many of the players in the Phillies lineup were really Scranton-Wilkes Barre Red Barons that year.

Shickhaus Franks
March 15, 2008
The other night SNY showed this game and it featured the broadcast team of Ralph Kiner and Frank Cashen. (Tim was getting ready for the post-season for CBS.) I remember watching the game and the weather was rather dreary and many of the Phillies were swinging and missing like they had one foot out of the Vet. After the game, Ralph and Frank talked about the hopes of 1992 which turned out to be a long nightmare until Metal Mike Piazza arrived on the scene in May of 1998.

Michael
May 13, 2008
Cone's best start in his career. Although you could never tell if the Phillies had one step on the plane; 18 of the k's were swinging if I remember. =

The 1991 Mets seem to be a largely forgotten team among fans. Probably because it was the team right between the Strawberry era and the "worst team money can buy" 1992 Mets. But this team was just as disappointing. Channel 9 showed a stat on one of the last games of the '91 season, and it said no team in HISTORY had ever finished below .500 after being at least 14 games above .500 after at least 90 games. Except the 1991 Mets.

Robert Ford
June 16, 2010
The Phillies starting catcher that day was Doug Lindsey, who was making his Major League debut. He went 0 for 3 with 3 Ks and never started another MLB game (although he did get into four more games with three more at-bats with the Cubs and Phillies in 1993).

Dave VW
September 20, 2022
I hate to take anything away from Cone, but it really is true that the Phillies practically had a spring training lineup this game. Three guys combined for 10 of Cone's 19 Ks: Kim Batiste, Wes Chamberlain and Doug Lindsey. A real murderer's row. But a record is a record. His 19 Ks are still tied with Tom Seaver for most in a game in Mets history, and at the time tied the NL record for a 9-inning game, since topped by Kerry Wood, Randy Johnson and Max Scherzer (all with 20). However, the Mets remain the only ML team to have two different pitchers get 19 Ks in a game. The 19 Ks also allowed Cone to tie Roger Clemens for the ML lead in 1991 with 241.

As the previous commenter All-time Metfan alluded to, Cone was under investigation for rape allegations during this game, though I don't believe he was ever arrested, and the charges were later dropped due to lack of evidence. At the same time, he was also being sued for $8 million by three different women over alleged threats he made against them while they were accosting Sid Fernandez' wife after a game. That claim was also later dropped. But Cone admitted to looking into the stands every so often during this game, keeping an eye out to see if the cops were on their way to put him in handcuffs. What a story.

Outside of Cone, the other big story was Howard Johnson, whose RBI single in the seventh inning allowed him to overtake Will Clark for the NL lead, making him the first switch-hitter to ever lead the NL in RBI. He also led the NL with 38 HRs. He hit .285 with 10 HRs and 11 SBs in September to win Player of the Month honors, making him the last Mets player to win that award until David Wright in 2006. But this was it for HoJo. He completely forgot how to hit in 1992 and never regained his old form. He had more home runs in 1991 than he did over the remaining four seasons of his career, during which time he hit just .219. So sad. He also stated in a postgame interview he wanted to remain in the outfield in 1992, as he had become the Mets' regular right fielder in September. I wonder if changing positions might have had any effect on his sudden career downslide?

I also noted that the Mets announced lineup was completely different than their actual lineup, as they had made several last-second changes. I bet it had something to do with the alleged all-night party they threw prior to the game, causing some guys to not be able to play as planned (Templeton and Carreon were in the initial lineup but replaced with Boston and Gardner). Didn't affect Boston any -- he led off the game with a first-pitch triple, then hit one of only four career home runs off a left-handed pitcher in the ninth. Keith Miller also went 4-for-5 with a homer and two doubles in his last game as a Met -- even though Cashen said during the game, "...we always have plans for Keith Miller." I guess those plans included trading him, along with Jefferies and McReynolds, to Kansas City for Bret Saberhagen and Bill Pecota during the offseason. The times were definitely a-changin' for Mets fans in the very near future, and not for the better.