Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing #67: To Infinity and Beyond.. Well, Technically No Beyond: The Strangest ERAs in Mets History

Welcome back to Sunday School: Forgotten Faces of Flushing, our weekly stroll through the Mets attic, the place where the yearbooks are a little dusty, the bubble gum cards stick together, and every once in a while you stumble across something that makes you stop and say, “Wait… I remember that.”

Last week, we took a detour down to Florida and spent some time with the St. Lucie Legends, a team that felt like a baseball reunion wrapped in sunshine, nostalgia, and just enough pine tar to hold it all together. It was a reminder that Mets history doesn’t always stay neatly filed away in Queens. Sometimes it shows up in unexpected places, wearing familiar names and taking one more swing.

This week, we’re back in the attic. But instead of one player or even one team, we’re diving into something a little more unusual, the outer edges of the statistical universe. The kind of numbers that make you do a double take, squint at the page, and wonder if the calculator is broken.

We’re talking about extremes. The highest ERA in Mets history. And on the other end of the spectrum, a number so strange it technically doesn’t exist at all. Infinity. Yes, that infinity. And as it turns out, Mets history has room for both.

Let’s start with the highest ERA ever worn by a Mets pitcher, a title that belongs to Garrett Olson.

Olson’s journey to Queens was the kind of path baseball produces all the time, a promising young arm, a first round caliber pedigree, and a career that took a few turns before landing in Flushing. A standout in the Orioles system, even named their Minor League Player of the Year, Olson had the look of a pitcher who might stick around for a while. He debuted in the majors in 2007, had his moments, and like so many pitchers, rode the shuttle between promise and reality.

By the time he signed with the Mets in 2011, he was looking for another opportunity, another chapter. And for one brief moment in August of 2012, he got it.

Unfortunately, the chapter that followed was written more like something out of a Stephen King novel than a baseball script.

Olson made exactly one appearance as a Met, on August 8, 2012, against the Marlins. He entered the game in the eighth inning in relief of future Mets pitching coach , now with the Braves Jeremy Hefner, with the Mets already trailing 7 to nothing. Not exactly a high leverage appearance.

What followed was the kind of inning pitchers try to forget and hitters try to remember forever. Olson gave up a double to Greg Dobbs to start things off. He briefly steadied himself with a pop out from Nick Green. Then came a walk to John Buck. A single by Gorkys Hernández loaded the bases. And then the inning truly got away when Bryan Petersen cleared them with a triple to left center, three runs scoring in what felt like the blink of an eye.

By the time the dust settled, Olson had recorded just one out while allowing four earned runs. He was lifted from the game, and just like that, his Mets career was over as quickly as it began. One third of an inning, four earned runs, and a Mets ERA of 108.00. Not a typo. Not a misprint. One hundred and eight.

Three days later, he was designated for assignment. He would never pitch in the major leagues again.

And if that feels like a rough day at the office, well, it somehow gets even stranger.

Because as high as 108.00 is, it is still a number. It exists. It can be calculated, printed, and stared at in disbelief.

Which brings us to Stephen Tarpley, and a Mets ERA that technically goes beyond numbers altogether.

Tarpley’s path to the Mets had a little bit of everything. Drafted, developed, traded, rebuilt, and eventually making it to the majors with the Yankees, even appearing in the postseason. He later pitched for the Marlins, and in 2021, he found his way to the Mets. Along the way, he also made a stop on Long Island with the Ducks, which feels appropriate because his Mets career had a certain local, blink and you miss it quality to it.

On July 2, 2021, Tarpley made his one and only appearance for the Mets. He entered a game against the Nationals in the fifth inning with New York trailing 5 to 1. Again, not exactly a low pressure situation.

And then, things unraveled.

Tarpley walked Josh Bell. He gave up a single to Kyle Schwarber. He walked Starlin Castro. Then he hit Alex Avila with a pitch, forcing in a run. At that point, without recording a single out, he was removed from the game.

Line score, zero innings pitched, two earned run, no outs recorded.

And that is how you end up with an ERA of infinity.

Because ERA is calculated based on innings pitched, and when you don’t record an out, the math quite literally breaks. No denominator. No number. Just an idea floating somewhere out beyond the right field fence. And even with a parting gift of a CASIO Personal Mini Electronic Calculator from Ralph Kiner, there still wasn’t much help in making the numbers behave.

Tarpley was designated for assignment not long after, and like Olson, his Mets chapter was brief enough to fit on the back of a bubble gum card with room to spare.

If all of this sounds rare, it is. But baseball has a way of collecting these strange little stories. In fact, there is even a historical footnote that takes this idea one step further. A pitcher named Larry Yount once appeared in a major league game in 1971 without ever facing a batter. He was announced, walked to the mound, got hurt warming up, and left the game before throwing a single pitch. He is the only pitcher in major league history to have appeared in a game with zero batters faced.

Which, when you think about it, feels like a distant cousin of an infinite ERA. Baseball always finds a way to push the boundaries of its own rulebook.

And that’s really the beauty of digging around in the Mets attic.

Sometimes you find greatness. Sometimes you find heartbreak. And sometimes you find a box score so strange it feels like it was written by a guy who just discovered numbers for the first time.

A 108.00 ERA. An ERA that doesn’t exist. One out. No outs. No batters faced. Careers that flickered for a moment in a Mets uniform and then disappeared into the larger story of the game.

They may not be the names you see on the back of jerseys at Citi Field, but they are just as much a part of Mets history as any pennant or postseason run.

And honestly, they might be even more fun to talk about.

So what do you think?

Have you ever come across a stranger stat line, Mets or otherwise? Jump into the comments and let’s hear it. And as always, keep the conversation going over on the KinersKorner.com Facebook group, where the attic door is always open and there’s always another story waiting to be found.