Tony Tarasco hasn’t gotten much playing time this year, but he’s sure made the most of his moments in the lineup.
Last night was more of the same.
Tarasco provided the only offensive highlight for the Mets, a second-inning homer off ex-Met Paul Byrd in the Royals’ 5-1 victory at Shea.
The homer came a night after Tarasco used savvy, aggressive baserunning and speed honed by training with the Santa Monica Track Club to score the winning run in the bottom of the ninth.
On Wednesday, he pinch-hit a game-winning homer against Minnesota.
Not bad for a guy who had just 55 big-league at-bats the previous four years and was best known for being in right field for the Jeffrey Maier play in the 1996 ALCS against the Yankees.
Including a stint with the Hanshin Tigers of the Japanese Central League, Tarasco has been with seven organizations in the last eight years. But the Mets took a shot on him.
“I had some family setbacks. I got a late start on the season,” Tarasco said.
The biggest was the death of his father, Jiacinto, a former Columbia University player and Yankee Stadium peanut vendor.
During spring training, Tarasco visited his father, who spent three weeks on a respirator while suffering from pneumonia. Tarasco returned to the team, only to go back to California when his father’s conditioned worsened; he died last May at 74.
“He was a baseball fanatic,” Tarasco said. “One thing he asked for when he died was to be cremated and [have] his ashes spread over a couple of baseball fields I’d played on.”
A park in Pasadena next to the Rose Bowl was one of the fields; when Tarasco finally got the call-up, he spread ashes around the Shea outfield as well.
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Mike Piazza – a late scratch last night because he was feeling “sluggish,” according to manager Bobby Valentine – slightly twisted an ankle when he bounced into a double play as a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning. He tumbled over the bag at first, but is expected to play today.