It's one of the oddest, most memorable moments in the colorful 57-year history of the New York Mets.

On the night of June 9, 1999, beleaguered manager Bobby Valentine was ejected in the 12th inning of an eventual 14-inning win. He went to the clubhouse but came back down the runway to the dugout in a disguise of sunglasses and a fake mustache made of eye black.

Valentine, now the executive director of athletics at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, recently shared his recollections with William Weinbaum for an E:60 "Tell Me a Story" segment on the 20th anniversary of that singular Shea Stadium episode.

Those were stressful times. Three of my coaches had just been fired a few days before, and at the press conference, I predicted that we'd go 40-15 in the next 55 games. I said if we didn't do that, I would quit as the New York Mets' manager.

This was in that string of games that meant so much to my life and my career.

It was extra innings against the Toronto Blue Jays, a 3-3 game. Shannon Stewart, a real fast runner, is on first base, and I decided to call a pitchout.

Pat Mahomes, one of my best athletes, was on the mound -- he was 8-0 for me in 1999. I called the pitchout because of his big leg kick.

Mike Piazza is my catcher. He stepped out for the pitchout, caught the ball and threw it to second. Randy Marsh, the umpire behind home plate, was calling the play off. The reason? A "catcher's balk." [Catcher's interference, officially, giving the batter first base and Stewart second base.]

Now, I have read the rulebook for all my life, but I had never seen nor heard that play being enforced in a game, so I came out to talk with Randy. I asked him if I could get thrown out for what I was thinking and he said no. Then I told him what I was thinking and he threw me out. Well, I went up into the clubhouse and two of my favorites, Orel Hershiser and Robin Ventura, asked me what the heck I was doing up in the clubhouse when I was needed down in the dugout. I said, "I can't go down there."

Robin threw me a hat, Orel threw me some sunglasses and said, "Just put these things on, take off your uniform and go down to the dugout." And I said, "Guys, it's a night game. I can't wear sunglasses down in the dugout."

They said, "Do it!" So I walk in the training room to look in the mirror, pulled the hat down a little and then looked down and saw the stickers that you put under your eyes on a day game. And I took one sticker and put it here [to form the right half of a "mustache"], took another sticker and put it there [for the left side of the 'stache]. I looked at them and they said no one will ever know. I went down to the dugout, and Orel was supposed to be standing on the top step, shielding me from the umpires and the other team.

What we didn't realize was that the third-base camera up in the second deck had the view of me in the dugout. The announcers saw me.

Luckily, we won the game almost immediately, so there wasn't a long time that I was there, when I came out on the field and slapped everyone five.

The umpires laughed, but I was fined $5,000 and [received] a two-game suspension -- we won both of those games.

I really didn't think there would be repercussions. I thought that it was a normal thing, guys would relax a little more. I didn't expect to be out there long, and I don't think I was.

I think people think that I'm kind of kinder and gentler, the guy who doesn't mind levity and doesn't mind going into the clubhouse and coming out with this disguise so that the guys can smile and feel a little better about themselves. At least, I hope that's what they think.

It was made a big thing because things were kind of big at that time. I was supposed to be fired.

I think I did a lot of things in my life that were kind of important, but probably the one line that I get asked the most is, "Hey, where's your mustache and glasses?" And that's every other day.

It's the only thing that has transcended me from generation to generation. I've seen it a hundred times and I always say, "Orel, why didn't you block out that camera? You owe me five grand." The backstory is we went 40 and 15 -- and you can look that up.

Valentine's Mets had lost eight games in a row and were 27-28 when three of his coaches were fired in June. But they finished in second place in the National League East and won the wild card in a tiebreaker playoff for a 97-66 season record.

Valentine says the nearly 4-year-old son of pitcher Pat Mahomes was also in the clubhouse the night Valentine donned his disguise. But when ESPN recently asked the son -- better known as NFL MVP/Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes -- he said he was very young then and doesn't remember.

LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. – Chris Windom finally put six weeks’ worth of bad luck behind him on Saturday night by storming to his first NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series victory at Lawrenceburg Speedway.

Windom started fifth but marched to the front in a hurry, using a lap-seven slide job to wrest the lead away from his Clauson-Marshall Racing teammate Tyler Courtney and then masterfully holding off a hard-charging Chad Boat in the final laps.

The Canton, Ill., veteran led the last 24 circuits around the three-eighths-mile oval uncontested for a win that he said has been “right at the top of my priority list.”

“It’s pretty amazing to stand here and know that we’ve finally got a USAC midget win under our belts,” said Windom. “I’m kind of at a loss for words. The emotions are pretty high. I haven’t run a lot of midget stuff in the last few years, but I’ve been at it for a long time and Clauson-Marshall Racing has been working their butts off trying to get me to victory lane. I know it’s just as sweet for them as it is for me.”

Though Windom started fifth after a top-two qualifying effort earlier in the night, it was another NOS Energy Drink-sponsored driver in Shane Golobic who led the field to the green flag at the start.

Golobic edged out Courtney on the opening lap by .005 seconds, but Courtney was quick to take over with a deep slider in turn one on the second round, moving out into the lead with the No. 7bc.

Though he pushed his advantage out to two seconds in two laps after grabbing the top spot, Courtney’s reign was interrupted by a spinning Andrew Layser in turn three with five laps complete.

That led to a restart in which Windom rocketed from fourth to second in one lap, making a major move stick as he passed both Cannon McIntosh and Shane Golobic before going to work on Courtney.

Turn one was the place where Windom made his move, dropping a bomb to the inside of the race track as he swept inside of Courtney, got a run down the backstretch and cleared the series point leader through the third and fourth turns.

Windom never looked back after that.

“When I got past Courtney, it was really about being in the right place at the right time,” said Windom. “He messed up on the cushion, and I’d just hit the bottom perfectly on that lap to be able to throw a slider on him in (turn) one and get the lead.

“That worked out, kind of out of luck, but I knew we had a car that could win all race long.”

The first challenge to Windom’s dominance came with 14 to go, moments after Seavey cleared Courtney for second by railing the top side of the race track. Seavey chopped Windom’s lead down under a half a second, but jumped the turn-four cushion coming to 10 to go and fell back as a result.

Seavey was gifted a second chance, however, when Courtney slowed from third with a flat right-rear tire at the eight to go mark. That stacked the field up behind Windom, but he rocketed away on the ensuing restart as 16-year-old McIntosh went to work on the low side trying to take second from Seavey.

Seavey held that challenge off and closed back in, getting to Windom’s tail tank with three laps left and dropping a massive slider into turn three in an attempt to take the race lead away.

The move worked – with Seavey ahead by a nose at the line on lap 28 – but a caution was called at the same moment for a slowing Michael Pickens, negating Seavey’s pass and putting Windom back in front.

Windom didn’t let Seavey have another chance at him after that, diving deep into turn one on the final restart as a defensive move and holding off all comers to win by .607 seconds.

“Just before the last restart, Rizzy (crew chief Tyler Ransbottom) came out and told me to get up on the wheel, so I knew Seavey was probably ripping the top,” noted Windom. “I had to slide myself there to kill his momentum, because you could throw big sliders into turn one and I didn’t want to risk him getting that kind of a run on me.

“After that, I hadn’t been to the top in (turns) three and four all race, but I went up there with a prayer to try and take Seavey’s line away and it worked,” he added. “It’s just awesome to be here.”

Though he restarted in sixth with three to go, Boat came forward to steal second from Seavey on the last lap, with Seavey crossing third and extending his Indiana Midget Week points lead to 36 ahead of the finale at Kokomo Speedway on Sunday.

Tanner Thorson came from 17th on the grid to finish fourth and garner KSE/Prosource Hard Charger honors, with McIntosh completing the top five after missing the last two Indiana Midget Week features.

To view complete race results, advance to the next page.

FORT WORTH, Texas – Team Penske prides itself on perfection, strategy and execution.

The winningest team in NTT IndyCar Series history used all three as Josef Newgarden won Saturday night’s DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Team Penske President Tim Cindric called Newgarden into the pits during a caution period on lap 137 after Zach Veach turned the backstretch into a Slalom Course with his spin. Newgarden was ninth at the time and Cindric called his driver into the pit for fresh tires and full fuel.

Although he lost a few spots of track position, he ran faster laps than any other driver on the track by 8-10 mph.

That allowed Newgarden to be in position to leap-frog the field when he made his final pit stop on lap 198. The team executed with a very quick pit stop so that by the time the field cycled through its stops, Newgarden was the leader on lap 203.

He remained in front for the remainder of the 248-lap race to score his first win at Texas Motor Speedway, his first win on a superspeedway and the 13th victory of his career.

It also allowed Newgarden to increase his lead in the NTT IndyCar Series standings to 25 points over second-place finisher Alexander Rossi, who tried several times late in the race to make the pass for the lead, only to not have enough room in turn one.

“It’s these guys (on the crew), man, they keep putting me out front (and) I’m just trying to get it done at the end,” Newgarden said in victory lane. “I knew we had a rocket ship and it was all about getting in the front. We were better in the front than we were in the back. We knew if we could get some position, we would be OK. Team Chevy doing a great job for us. A good day to capitalize on some points. These guys put me in position so it’s all up to them.”

Newgarden credited Rossi for driving a competitive and fair race. Rossi started 11th and finished second by .8164-of-a-second.

“He was fast,” Newgarden said of Rossi. “Honestly, he ran a great race. Both him and Scott Dixon ran me really fair at the end. It was hard to get away on the restart; that was my biggest concern was getting a jump getting going again.

“(Rossi) was good, man, he was just hard to hold off. He was so good in dirty air. I saw him earlier in the race and how good he was behind people. I knew it was going to be tough, really tough, but you saw the speed I had on the front stretch to hold him off, so thanks to Team Chevy. It was a good day in Texas, man. I’m glad we finally figured this place out. It’s been a while.

“We’ve been close here before, not necessarily at the end of the race. I know we’ve had good cars here before and have not been able to make it happen and one thing happens or another. To just finally figure it out has been great.”

The first 135 laps of the race were run without incident, except for pole sitter Takuma Sato, who took out one of his pit crew members, Chris Welch, when he slid into his pits. Welch was taken to the infield care center where he was checked and released.

The incident ruined Sato’s chances at contending for a victory. In addition to falling two laps down because of the extra time in the pits, he was issued a stop and go penalty by IndyCar Race Control. Sato finished 15th, three laps down.

James Hinchcliffe was having a fantastic race, contending for a top-five finished when he crashed in turn two while running fifth on lap 219.

The biggest crash of the race came when leading race contenders Dixon and rookie Colton Herta crashed after making contact in turn three on Lap 229. Herta went low into the turn and Dixon forced him below the yellow line. Herta’s car broke loose from the track and spun into Dixon, taking both out of the race.

Newgarden was able to fend off Rossi’s charge at the end. Newgarden was the only Chevrolet driver in the top five. The rest were Hondas led by second-place Rossi, who was followed by Graham Rahal, rookie Santino Ferrucci and Ryan Hunter-Reay.

For complete results, advance to the next page.

OXFORD, Maine – Ray Christian III raced to his first Oxford Plains Speedway super late model triumph Saturday night, topping the Budweiser Championship Series stock car racing card.

Christian was runner-up to current points leader Curtis Gerry last Saturday night and followed that up with a third-place finish in Sunday’s Pro All Stars Series 150-lapper. His first victory made it three straight podium finishes for the Nutmeg State invader at the historic Route 26 oval track.

Ryan Deane led the race briefly before Christian took command.  Deane raced to an impressive runner-up finish, his sixth top-five run in seven starts thus far in 2019.  Shawn Martin spent most of the race in the outside groove and also posted the fastest lap of the race en route to a third-place finish.

Calvin Rose Jr. battled Christian for the early lead and set the pace for several laps before eventually crossing the finish line in fourth place.  Strong veteran Tracy Gordon filled out the top-five rundown.  The 50-lap super late model race went caution-free.

Jordan Russell drove to his first Allen’s Coffee Flavored Brandy Street Stock feature victory, leading all 30 laps to claim the big trophy.  Russell’s score was not without challenge, as 2017 division champ Billy Childs Jr. spent most of the race right on the rear bumper of Russell’s winning mount.

Zach Bowie provided the stiffest test to Russell’s supremacy in this race, claiming runner-up honors ahead of Childs.  Skip Stanley outdueled defending champion Matt Dufault for fourth.

Brian Hiscock wired the Bandits field, leading all 20 laps to win by a comfortable margin over his teammate and step-brother, Tyler Green. Chad Wills ended up in third place, followed by Dean Jordan and Dustin Salley, the defending division champion and current points leader.

Kyle Glover prevailed in another wild 20-lap main event for the Figure 8 racers.  It was the first win for Glover in the class.  Glover took the lead away from points leader Larry Lizotte and outran all rivals to the checkered flag.  Lizotte was the runner-up, with third-place spoils earned by Greg Durgin, bouncing back from early-race misfortune.  Eric Hodgkins and Dale Lawrence rounded out the top five.

Owen Stuart won his second Rookie division main event of the season. Stuart prevailed in a race-long battle versus point leader Brady Childs, who claimed runner-up honors.  Sophie Green earned third-place hardware, ahead of Maddy Herrick and Cole Binette.

MACON, Ill. – Fresh off a victory on Friday at Lincoln Speedway, Erik Vanapeldoorn completed the weekend sweep in the Hornet Challenge on Saturday at Macon Speedway.

The race began with Greg Garrison and Mike Eskew exchanging the top spot. Garrison took off and raced away. However, a caution flag led to a restart and Garrison fell through the group as he was driving around on a flattened right-front tire.

That’s when Vanapeldoorn, who started 15th, seized the chance and took the lead. He held serve for the rest of the race, earning the $1,000 payday as a result.

Other winners on Saturday evening at Macon included Tyler Day (micro sprints), Dakota Ewing (pro late models), Terry Reed (street stocks), Tommy Sheppard Jr. (modifieds) and Tim Hancock Sr. (pro modifieds).

KNOXVILLE, Iowa – Brian Brown notched his 47th career win at Knoxville Raceway Saturday night during the 410 sprint car main event.

The Grain Valley, Mo., driver bested Matt Juhl early in the non-stop event, and pulled away to the $4,000 win in the Brian Brown Racing No. 21.

Juhl shot out from his starting spot outside row one to lead early in the 20-lap 410 feature. Brown, who started fourth, was all over the leader in short order. On lap three, he slid in front of Juhl in turn three and took the point for good.

Lynton Jeffrey was also on the move, and bested Juhl for second on lap five.  Terry McCarl was moving forward as well, and claimed fourth from Justin Henderson on the seventh circuit.  The leaders entered lapped traffic on lap eight, and by the halfway point, Brown’s lead over Jeffrey was a straightaway.

Though the leader had checked out, the battle for second between Jeffrey, Juhl and McCarl was a showstopper lasting a good 10 laps.  McCarl had the momentum late, grabbing third with two to go, and second coming for the white flag. Austin McCarl entered the fray as well, claiming fourth on the last lap.

Brown was 5.7 seconds out front at the checkers, ahead of Terry McCarl, Jeffrey, Austin McCarl and Juhl.

“Our car is just so good,” said Brown, who was using the event to prepare for next week’s World of Outlaws event. “It’s just not much fun running that bottom. But you’re not going to win the bigger races this summer just blasting around the top. I made a conscious effort to watch video and run the bottom when I can. We’re glad to be back here on a Saturday night. This is home. You guys are my fans. We’re not going to put to much pressure on ourselves (next weekend). If we get our car good like it is and I drive smart, we can beat anybody in the country. We just have to do our best.  We’re not going to overthink it.”

In other action, Carson McCarl held off Clint Garner in a late restart to record his first 360 sprint car win, and his first since his 305 championship season in 2011 at Knoxville. Matthew Stelzer had a serious challenge from Mike Ayers, but persevered to win his fourth straight main event with the Pro Sprints presented by Pace Performance.

Mexico and Monterrey defender Miguel Layun revealed the real reason he was unable to feature for El Tri at the Gold Cup this summer was because he had to undergo surgery for a cancerous tumor.

The 30-year-old had previously said that a kidney infection required surgery and kept him out.

Layun and his wife underwent a general health check-up a few weeks ago when doctors found "a little surprise," as the former Sevilla and Watford explained in a video on his social networks.

The initial diagnosis was a cyst, but the doctor called Layun back for further tests.

"There became a doubt about whether it wasn't a cyst, but actually a tumor," said Layun in the video, without mentioning any more precise details. "When they mentioned the word tumor and that it could be cancer, you don't perceive it it in the same way. It was a malignant tumor, we were talking cancer."

"In the end it was completely removed (and) I can say that I had cancer and that it is now cured," he continued.

Layun went for a final examination on Friday to make sure the cancer had disappeared and said the event "shook" him and has changed his outlook on life.

"I'm happy, I'm more motivated than ever, I want to enjoy life more than ever," said Layun, who has been given the green light to play once his rest period is over.

The former Club America player also stated that he will look for a way to help those without the financial resources to go for regular check-ups.