Maurice
August 16, 2002
Being a Mets fan living in Cincinnati, I might have been the only Met fan happy that the one game playoff was not at Shea.

Reds fans were is a riotous mood as the Mets built their lead, I was pretty nervous about my own safety, but most of them left after the seventh to hit the bars (or run onto the field as two or three fans did).

Fonzie and Rickey go deep and Al pitches a gem, a sweet night for a homesick Mets fan!

David
November 18, 2004
I'm 19 years old and have been a Mets fan since I saw my first game at Shea in 1992 and I've seen many games both on tv and at the ballpark from that time. This was the Mets most important game in 11 years and they came through beyond expectations.

The Mets dominated the whole contest from the first pitch to the last out. They allowed only 2 hits. Al Leiter probably had the game of his life aside from the no hitter, allowing only 2 hits in the shutout, 1 in the first and not another until 2 outs in the 9th.

The start and the end came in the top of the first inning with Edgardo Alfonzo's 2 run homer and from there the Mets never looked back. After the Reds got their second hit, a meaningless double by Pokey Reese in the bottom of the 9th, Barry Larkin smashed a liner to second base that went right into Edgardo Alfonzo's glove and with that the 11 year wait for another postseason was over.

Lee
April 29, 2005
After that Pirates series, I was a mess. My nails were all gone and all I could talk about or think about was the Mets and everyone around me was really pissed off about it and no one wanted to go near me but I could care less. One thing was for sure though. I wasn't gonna have watched the Mets come this far (two of the games I watched live) and see them miss the playoffs because of the Reds. And I didn't. After Fonzie's two- run shot in the first that sort of crept back and back and back until it dropped behind the center field wall, it was all Leiter. He threw a two-hitter and when Larkin hit a bullet up the middle and Fonzie reached out and grabbed it, the Mets were going to the playoffs for the first time in 11 years and I was as happy as ever.

Putbeds 1986
March 5, 2006
After falling asleep late Sunday night listening to the Reds-Brewers game on WFAN (They got one of the teams feed) and then waking up knowing it would be a 1-game playoff at Cinci on ESPN/WB-11. Al Leiter was lights out that night and Edgardo Alfonso was simply the best with his early home run and when he caught the last out; my phone rang off the hook with family and friends. What a night. I had an interesting set up: I had 2 tv's on (My big TV had the Mets game and the little TV had on the Dolphins-Bills football game and my VCR was recording my fave soap opera: WWF Wrestling.) MOJO RISING Indeed!!

DP30
October 4, 2006
This game was just one stroke of luck after another for me. I was attending college at Ohio University, about 2 1/2 hours from Cincinnati. I skipped my morning class that Monday to buy tickets for the game, which, thanks to the good people of the Midwest, were the same prices as a Thursday game in July ($7 each for my upper deck seats off 3rd base)!

Now, there was a question over whether the game would even be played, because it was rainy in Ohio that day. In fact, my baseball practice was cancelled, which allowed me to make the drive to Cincy (I was going anyway, but at least I didn't have to risk getting in trouble with coach for skipping fall ball). Luckily it was only misting a little out there, so I knew it was game-on!

I never heard 54,000 people shut up so quickly when Alfonzo hit that homer to dead-center, it was like a vacuum, with only the sound of me yelling "Yes!" and a few other Mets fans scattered throughout Cinergy Field cheering along. Once they jumped in front, I had a pretty good feeling about it. Leiter pitched great, worked out of the few jams he was in, Rickey added that blast off the left-field foul pole, and my first Mets' "playoff" game in-person was a success.

On the way back to campus, my buddy and I stopped at Skyline Chili in suburban Cincy to eat, and it never tasted better, even if I received multiple death stares as I happily munched down chili-cheese coneys in my grey Mets' jersey and black-and-blue hat.

The next day my pitching coach pulls me aside at practice and goes, "So how was the game?," knowing I'm crazy enough to make that trip. All I could do for my answer was smile.

Shickhaus Franks
December 30, 2006
On Friday Dec 22nd, SNY showed this Mets Classic where Fonzie hit one of his greatest dingers as a Met and Al Leiter SHUTDOWN the Reds as the now-departed Cinergy Field (aka Riverfront) stood in awed silence and at least one fan was taken to the local slammer for an unauthorized visit to the field. Hopefully before Spring Training, SNY shows us other great 1999 post-season games like Todd Pratt's walk-off HR vs the D-Backs and of course, Robin Ventura's grand slam "Single" in the pouring rain vs the Braves.

Michael
June 18, 2009
I remember this game real well. It's not too often that a wild card berth came down to a one-game playoff. I was at the Dolphins-Bills Monday night game in Miami and I ran every 20 minutes from my seat to the bar to see what was happening in the game. I went crazy when the final out was made and was finally going to get to see the Mets play some postseason baseball since the time I was a junior in high school in 1988.

DC
July 17, 2020
This game was supposed to be a 2 PM start, but since the Reds rain-delayed win didn't end until almost 1 am that morning, it was moved back to 7.

After so many nail biters, I remember this game being anti-climactic and over after the 5th inning. I'd take it after the previous two weeks.

NYB Buff
March 6, 2023
The Mets' played the first tie-breaker playoff in team history right on the 30th anniversary of their first post-season game. Al Leiter pitched a two-hit shutout over the Reds for the Wild Card title in the National League. The Mets then moved on to their first ever Divison Series, where they beat the Diamondbacks three-games-to-one.

Dave VW
July 2, 2024
I remember watching this game in my college dorm room with my 2 roommates, one who was a Yankee fan and one who wanted to keep switching the TV to Monday Night Raw. But they were good sports and let me watch from start to finish, and I was certainly riding on cloud nine when this one was all over.

That Alfonzo homer looked like a can of corn off the bat, but it just kept going and going and when it disappeared over the wall, I was in shocked disbelief. What a way to start the game, 6 pitches in and already up 2-0. And let's not lie, Leiter definitely struggled early on, as he walked the first batter he faced, then gave up two long flyball outs to Larkin and Casey, before striking out Greg Vaughn to escape a 23-pitch first inning. Kenny Rogers was actually warming up during the early portion of the game in case the wheels fell off for Leiter, but by the 4th he had completely settled in. He retired 13 in a row at one point, and didn't allow a runner to reach scoring position until the 9th.

There seems to be some confusion in earlier posts about that 9th inning, however. Reese actually led off with a double, and Larkin followed with a grounder to short that moved Reese to 3rd. Leiter then got Casey to strike out swinging, walked Vaughn, and it was Dmitri Young who hit a screaming liner at Alfonzo to end the game, not Larkin as previously mentioned.

The Mets also could have blown this game open much more than what the final score indicated, as they stranded the bases loaded in both the 3rd and 5th but only scored 1 run in each of those innings. Good thing Leiter brought his A game.

On a sidenote, this was Ordonez's 100th consecutive game without committing an error, which set a record. Also, the Reds are the last MLB team to win at least 96 games and not advance to the postseason.

I remember after the game thinking the Mets had no chance the next night at Arizona. The emotional rollercoaster they've been on the last few weeks must have them completely spent, and now they're being asked to go from New York on Sunday, to Cincinnati on Monday, to Arizona on Tuesday, where Randy Johnson awaits then in Game 1 of the NLDS. How long can they keep the magic going?