It came during the ninth inning of Game 4 of the 1941 World Series. The Brooklyn Dodgers led 4-3 and when the Yankee right fielder swung and missed at a low curveball. Dodger’s catcher Mickey Owen couldn’t handle the pitch and it got by him as Henrich scampered to first base. Low and behold, the Bronx Bombers rallied and took a 3-1 lead in the Series, wrapping it up the next game and breaking hearts all over Flatbush.

The Dayton, Ohio native passed away on Monday at the age of 96 in his hometown. He made his major league debut on May 11, 1937 and played 11 seasons, all for the Yankees. He missed three years serving in the Coast Guard during World War II (1943 through 1945) and won five rings in the Bronx.

“Tommy was a darn good ballplayer and teammate,” former Yankee Yogi Berra said. “He always took being a Yankee to heart. He won a lot of championships and did whatever he could do to help us win. When I came up in 1947, he taught me little nuances about playing the outfield. Being around Tommy made you feel good, whether playing cards or listening to him sing with that great voice. He was a proud man, and if you knew him, he made you proud too.”

Although Henrich was a very productive player his first few years in the league, he broke out in 1941 with a career-high 31 home runs and made the All-Star team a year later. After the war, Henrich returned and became an integral part of a very successful club. With a superstar like Joe DiMaggio playing next to him, it was easy to remain in the background, something not lost on his teammates.

“The called him “Old Reliable” and he was just that,” said Jerry Coleman, who played two years with Henrich. “My first year with him was 1949 and it seemed like every home run he hit won the game. His career stats might not show it (.282 career batting average), but he was a great clutch player. When he hit, it counted. He was also a fine defensive player in the outfield.”

That same year, Henrich was instrumental in the Yankees winning another pennant in a close American League race and hit the first walk-off home run in World Series history. The Yankees and Dodgers were locked in a scoreless tie when Henrich led off the bottom of the ninth inning against Don Newcombe. He launched the 2-0 delivery into the stands and sent the crowd home happy. He also starred in Game 5 as the Yanks won yet another Fall Classic.

Although Henrich was named to the All-Star squad in 1950, he retired after the season. Playing through injuries, he hit only .272 with 6 home runs and 34 RBI. Henrich went on to become a coach for the Yankees, New York Giants and Detroit Tigers.

Yes, Henrich did many great things on the baseball diamond, so many in fact that a strikeout can be included in that list.

If you’re a Met fan, you have to.

And, Angel fans on the west coast?

If you’re wondering who in New York might support your team in its quest to accomplish the unexpected in the Bronx this weekend (winning a Game 6 as well as a Game 7 against C.C. Sabathia), look toward the suffering fans of New York’s other team, which just completed its worst season in six years, finishing 23 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies. Yes, the defending world champion Phillies, otherwise known as one of the reasons Met fans are on your side for at least one more game in this year’s American League Championship Series.

Met fans have reason to search for something to cling to this October after enduring one of the most brutal years in their team’s 48-year history. It was a season of ineptitude and bad luck, of off-the-field issues and poorly handled public relations.

The Mets had a relentless string of injuries to seemingly every other player they put on the field this year (including freak ones, like second baseman Luis Castillo injuring himself walking down the dugout steps during a game). They lost games in which Castillo dropped a routine pop-up, turning the final out of a win into an excruciatingly embarrassing loss, and in which the right fielder they traded out of New York (Ryan Church) failed to step on third base, costing the Mets a possible winning run in Los Angeles. There was the firing of their former Vice President of Player Development, Tony Bernazard, who reportedly challenged players of the Mets’ minor league affiliate in Binghamton to a fight, while shirtless, in the locker room. And, there were the stammering, incoherent, bumbling press conferences of the man who is supposed to represent the face of the Mets’ franchise, general manager, Omar Minaya.

To top it all off, the Met faithful are just one more New York Yankees’ win from ending their nightmare of a 2009 baseball season with a World Series matchup between their two most hated rivals: the Phillies and the Yankees.

It’s easy to realize Met fans’ natural loathing for the Phillies once Philadelphia replaced Atlanta as the Mets’ latest nemesis in the NL East division. Ever since the Mets were one big hit away from the World Series, losing in Game 7 of the 2006 National League Championship Series to the St. Louis Cardinals, the Phillies have been everything the Mets have not.

Philadelphia has been clutch, largely homegrown, and hugely successful, while the Mets have been chokers, failing with imports via ill-advised trades and misguided free agency moves. The sentiment among most Met fans is that the success which the Phillies have been enjoying over the past three seasons could have, and perhaps should have, been that of the Mets. And, perhaps they’re right.

The Mets had the biggest collapse in Major League Baseball history in 2007, finishing 5-12 while the Phillies went 13-4 to overcome the Mets’ once-thought insurmountable 7-game lead with just 17 regular season games left that year. The following season, the Mets were again passed by the Phillies, having blown a 3½-game September lead, while stumbling to the finish line with a 7-10 mark, setting the record for the biggest consecutive September collapses in major league history. After a pair of successive seasons like that, 2009, with the rash of injuries, a myriad of fundamental mistakes, and a leadership circus, seeing the Phillies back in the World Series, defending last year’s championship, is too much to take for Met fans.

Likewise, the disdain for the Yankees among Met fans is equally understood. With only two championships in their team’s history, and none since 1986, the mere thought of the Yankees’ comparative success often makes Met fans cringe.

Already hearing frequent Yankee fans’ boasting of their team’s 26 world titles (including a run of four in five years in the late 1990’s and 2000), seeing the Mets’ cross-town rivals back in another World Series this year might be cause enough for Met fans to skip viewing this year’s Fall Classic altogether.

As one caller on New York’s Mega sports radio station, WFAN, a self-described diehard Met fan put it this Thursday afternoon, “I’d root for Al Qaida before I root for the Yankees.”

Yes, when it comes to baseball in New York, the emotions run that deep, especially when a New York baseball fan’s biggest rivals are involved.

A Met fan’s second favorite team is usually whoever is playing the Phillies or the Yankees. So then, what does a Met fan do if those two teams play each other in Major League Baseball’s biggest series?

Alas, Met fans, there may yet be hope for you this October.

Remember 2004? Of course you do. You know, the moments that if they were pitched to Hollywood in a script, would have been denied for not being plausible enough? The Boston Red Sox, down three games to none after a blowout 19-8 home loss to the Yankees in Game 3, go on to win four straight games, with Curt Schilling and his iconic, bloodied red sock in Game 6?

Well, tell me you weren’t thinking the same type of thing is possible this year after the Angels’ comeback tonight in Game 5 of this year’s ALCS.

Should the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim not pull off such a series comeback (and they don’t deserve to with a ridiculous name like that), the conundrum of Met fans is that there would be no October bandwagon to hop aboard next week. Nope, no darling Cinderella team to knock out the hated Phillies or the despised Yankees. No wild-card Florida Marlins to stun the Yankees in six games as they did in 2003, after the Mets finished just 66-95. And, no scrappy, overachieving Tampa Bay Rays to root for to beat the Phillies, as Met fans did during last year’s World Series.

Tell me honestly that when the Yankees wiped out a 4-0 Angels’ lead with a 6-run seventh inning after Angels’ starter John Lackey, who had been cruising along for six innings, you didn’t say, “Damn Yankees! They did it again! NOW, who do I root for, or should I just skip the Phillies-Yankees World Series and hope that Omar somehow figures it all out in the offseason?”

And then, when the Angels stormed right back with three in the bottom of the seventh, to win 7-6, and send the series back to the Bronx, weren’t you thinking about 2004 all over again? And, were you justifying it by thinking, “Well, sure, the Yankees have followed up the majors’ best home record of 57-24 this year with a perfect 4-0 at the new Yankee Stadium, but so what?! The Red Sox were down 3-0 in 2004 and THEY did it! This is only 3-1! Let’s go Angels!”

You know, you thought it, Met fans. I know I did, as I’m one of you.

So, Met fans, do you believe?

Do you believe in Angels?

If you want to stomach watching this year’s World Series, you should.

So yesterday’s swap of Ryan Church for Jeff Francoeur was just that…something. It may not be a season changer for the Mets, but it does give Minaya’s team a new player, who may inject some life into the club.

“I know [Francoeur] a little bit – he’s a great guy, a talented guy,” outfielder Gary Sheffield said after the Mets were shutout, 3-0 by the Cincinnati Reds. “He’s a great outfielder and a great teammate. Any time you trade 1-for-1, who knows, it might spark the club.”

Sure it might, but the other 24 Mets will have to take cue from their new right fielder. Although Francoeur plays very hard every night and is a gold glover in the field, the rest of the Mets will have to take cue from his gritty play for this trade to be considered a success. Right now, there’s a malaise over Citi Field; almost an acceptance of losing because of all the injuries. This “woe is me” attitude has dropped the Mets to 6 ½ behind the Phillies, with the team losing 11 of 14 games.

Now they get some help with Francoeur. Make no mistake though, he is hardly a savior. Sure he is young enough at 25, but since the beginning of the 2008 season, he transformed from burgeoning superstar to average major leaguer – or to put it better, he was the righthanded version of Church, a nice player but you know there’s more talent there than production.

“We’ve got to keep on trying to do these types of things,” Minaya said.  “We are working, it’s not that we’re not, there a couple of things we are talking to other clubs about, they may be big, they may be minor, but we’ve got to continue to try to do things to shake it up a little bit, and not just be complacent.”

Here’s Minaya’s problem: The Mets do not have the type of chips to get in on the big name, impact type of player like Roy Halladay, so he has to try these types of lateral moves and hope a change of scenery will do the Mets well. Francoeur is that type of player, who went from golden boy to whipping boy in Atlanta over the past year. Now with a fresh slate, the young outfielder could find new life in Queens, especially if the “core” does come back over the next month.

Then Francoeur becomes a complimentary player for the Mets, which is the role he is better suited for. And if the righthanded bat can find his old stroke, this becomes an excellent trade for the Mets. Even if he doesn’t, all the Mets lost was Church, who wasn’t so great anyway.

Church, at 30, is never going to be more than he actually is now. He will hit .270 with 10-15 homers and drive in 70-80 runs. He will also struggle against lefties and can’t stay healthy. From the concussions last year – botched by the Mets or not – to falling into Jerry Manuel’s doghouse this season, Church never fit into the Mets plans and like Francoeur could benefit from the change of scenery.

Thus, this trade comes down the pike with the Mets at least more interesting today than yesterday. Sure Francoeur could be disaster, and Church could finally become an All-Star in Atlanta, but even if that happens, so what? Making this deal is better than watching the Mets burn.

However, that didn’t prevent the Renegades from spoiling the fun putting a damper on the Baby Bombers’ 2009 home opener- outpitching Staten Island (1-5) 3-1 before a disappointed packed house (7,171) at Richmond County Bank Ballpark in St. George Thursday night.

“It was nice. The fans did a good job of supporting us. It was nice to finally get a game at home but…would like to have had a different outcome but it’s early in the year,” Baby Bomber DH Luke Murton said.

The night began alright for losing starter Arodys Vizcaino, who retired the first six including an impressive five in a row by strikeout. However, the righty lost composure in a three-run (all unearned) Hudson Valley third. Given a one-run lead thanks to a wind aided two out second inning run scoring double by right fielder Zoilo Almonte, Vizcaino couldn’t handle prosperity committing a pair of costly errors that led to the only runs the Renegades scored.

Following a leadoff walk to Dustin Biell, a botched pickoff immediately put him in scoring position. Center fielder Chris Murrill followed up with an RBI single to left, tying it on Hudson Valley’s first hit of the night. A little disjointed in an otherwise sparkling debut, Vizcaino failed to field a sacrifice bunt and then loaded the bases with another walk. With nobody warming up, he got the next batter to pop out to short right and fanned Tyler Bortnick for the second out. But just one away from limiting the damage, he allowed a two-run base hit to Eli Sonoqui putting Staten Island behind for good.

That’s cause the Bombers had their hands full with Renegade starter Albert Suarez, whose only hiccup in four-plus came in the second. After Almonte’s RBI double, he retired the last nine batters before departing with two out in the fifth due to a leg injury which prevented him from getting the win. But Kyle Ayers came in and did a solid job tossing two and a third scoreless to pickup his first win.

“[Suarez] pitched well. He had good stuff. He threw a lot of his pitches for strikes. He did a good job but there were some times where maybe we could’ve done a better job swinging the bat as a team. But you gotta give their pitchers credit,” Murton added.

While their hitting shoes weren’t on held to a run on five hits, Staten Island certainly got inspired pitching from Vizcaino and a trio of relievers in Mike Solbach (2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 K’s), Gavin Brooks (1 IP, 0 HR, 0 R, BB, 2 K’s) and Ryan Flannery (2 IP, 2 K’s) with each giving them every opportunity for a comeback.

“I felt good today,” Solbach assessed while referencing a rough outing the day prior in a loss. “It was good to get back out there and throw the ball well.”

“The bullpen did a good job tonight keeping it at 3-1 like we’re supposed to do, trying to give the hitters a chance to come around. We’ll get it all figured out.”

While there weren’t a ton of chances, Staten Island twice brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh and eighth but couldn’t capitalize.

“We gotta stop stretching ourselves,” pointed out first baseman Rob Lyerly, who paced the home club with a pair of singles including a lead off hit to start the seventh before the next three went in order. “We’re still getting acclimated to everything around here. Especially to the curveball. So it’s a little bit of an adjustment here.

“We got a great team here. We just gotta start playing better.”

The Baby Bombers had one more chance after left fielder DeAngelo Mack’s double to start the eighth. But after being sacrificed to third by second baseman Hector Rabago, he was stranded there. Renegade closer Rich De Los Santos buckled down getting center fielder Francisco Santana to chase and shortstop Carmen Angelini to bounce into a 5-3 putout.

De Los Santos tossed a 1-2-3 ninth getting catcher Kyle Higashioka to bounce out to third, notching his third save.

New skipper Josh Paul emphasized how it’s the organization’s job to guide these kids along with many first-year players new to pro ball. The former veteran backstop has been around the block and understands what his pupils are going through.

“Exactly. That’s a perfect point,” he remarked to our insight about how pro ball gives players the chance to bounce back the next day. Something that’s not as prevalent in college. “Teams are gonna say, ‘Okay. That one’s over. Let’s move on.’ … The guys that succeed move on. So we got something to teach them.”

Notes: Vizcaino took the loss falling to 0-2 with all three unearned on three hits, walking a pair and fanning seven. In nine innings, Baby Bomber pitchers struckout 14 Renegades. … The start of the game was delayed nine minutes due to opening ceremonies. It took a manageable two hours and 27 minutes still finishing 15 minutes before 10. For one night at least despite hazy conditions, the rain held off.

… Following the game, traditional fireworks were set off lighting up the sky. They’ll also be on display later tonight when the same two teams get together. Cory Arbiso will get the start out of the pen and is on a 55 pitch count. … On this six-game opening homestand, the Bombers will host the Renegades twice more including Saturday before Aberdeen comes in for three starting Sunday afternoon at 4.