30 Years As a Mets Fan - Part 3

30 Years As a Mets Fan – Part 3

October 27, 1986

I sat down, probably after doing my homework for 3rd grade, to watch a Mets game for the first time as a fan. I’ve watched so many more in the 30 years since, but the first time always sticks with you. I remember watching in my parents’ bedroom. I couldn’t tell you why I wasn’t watching in the den. But I wanted to watch. I had been hooked 2 nights before.

The events of the game and words of the TV broadcast don’t stand out in my head now. But I will tell you they once did (which is in contrast with Game 6). About 10 years later, I watched the game on ESPN Classic, and it was the first time I watched the game (and not just the ending) since it was happening. And I remember watching that replay, hearing or seeing things, and thinking to myself “I remember that” several times over the first 7 innings. Those memories were unlocked then and have faded away since.

Well, I watched until the point in Game 7 when I had to go to bed. It was played on a Monday night, and being in 3rd grade, I couldn’t stay up late to watch the whole game. It was the bottom of the 7th when I had to go to bed. My dad had the brilliant idea to tape the end of the game. I can tell you that the tape started as Gary Carter was grounding out to end the 7th inning. Honestly, having a tape of the end of the game might have been the best thing to ever happen to me. I watched that tape, maybe an hour long going through the post-game coverage, over and over and over, probably until the tape wore out. I really don’t know what happened to it. I have no idea where it is now. In a way it’s okay, because in the past 30 years, I’ve memorized it. And I have the DVD box set now.

There was one play in the later portion of the game which stands out to me, simply working with my few memories of 1986. Mookie Wilson was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the 8th inning. It was a similar pitch and a similar effort of his to the famous Wild Pitch in the 10th inning of Game 6. NBC showed replays and still frames of the two, speaking like the Wild Pitch was already famous, and it was completely foreign to me. Even after so many times watching that tape of Game 7.

And in that last 1 ½ innings, plus a few post-game words, was my introduction to the great voice of baseball, Vin Scully. “Sharks at feeding time” to describe the scene of the Mets fans celebrating the division clincher, talking about what wouldn’t happen that night when the Mets won because of all the police officers on horseback. “Joe, you just lost your house”, to partner Joe Garagiola, who jokingly bet his house that Jesse Orosco would bunt when Davey Johnson had him swing away for an RBI in the bottom of the 8th. “Got him!” on the final out, with a very long roar from the crowd following, similar to what Vin Scully let me hear after Game 6 two nights before, similar to what hooked Vin Scully as a kid.

It was my 2nd day as a Mets fan, and the Mets won the World Series. I’ve now been waiting 30 years for another one.

“He struck him out! Struck him out! The Mets have WON the World Series!” – Bob Murphy

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN198610270.shtml

30 Years As a Mets Fan - Part 2

30 years as a Mets fan

Prelude

I don’t remember the playoffs against Houston. I think I was aware of it at the time, but it wasn’t grabbing my attention. And I don’t remember the first week of games against the Red Sox. It wasn’t tugging at my curiosity.

October 25, 1986

I’m sorry that I can’t share memories of the actual game. Everything that I know about the Red Sox early lead, the Mets comeback and the 10th inning comes from having watched the DVD, tape, or televised replay several times over the past 30 years, or from history lessons, such as the Mets “How to keep score” page in their game day program/scorecard, which featured the bottom of the 10th inning from the time I could remember. I don’t remember the parachuting fan that opened Game 6, or the Red Sox jumping to an early lead, or the Mets making a mid-game comeback, a late-game comeback, and then the epic 10th inning comeback.

What I do remember is that my parents had friends over to watch Game 6. I can almost picture the scene in our den with the TV and the chairs. It’s funny how things like that stick with you. I remember that it was the night we changed the clocks back (ending Daylight Savings Time for 1986). I think that meant more to me at the time than the game did. And as the game kept going, past midnight and then a minute or two past 12:30 am, I was still awake (a novelty for an 8 ½ year old kid), watching the game with everyone else who was over at the house that night.

But something stuck with me about how the game ended. I don’t know what it was about the ball going through Buckner’s legs that drew me in. It’s something I’ve tried to figure out for the last 30 years. But I was hooked. I was a Mets fan from that moment forward.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN198610250.shtml

30 Years As a Mets Fan - Part 1

This is the first post in a longer series that I hope to launch in late October about my 30 years as a Mets fan.

30 years as a Mets fan

Intro

The Mets won the World Series on my second day as a fan, and I’ve been waiting 30 years for another one. It was October 25, 1986. This is my story of the past 30 years.

September 18, 1986

I went to my first Mets game on September 18, 1986. I was 8 years old at the time. My dad pulled me out of school to take me to a Thursday afternoon game at Shea. I still don’t know why he took me to the game, especially at that point in the season and school year. I don’t remember following the Mets before that day. I can’t say I remember following them after that day, at least not right away.

I only have a few vague memories of the game, some of which have been enhanced by some light research. Rick Anderson was the starting pitcher for the Mets. He went 5 innings. A rookie pitcher named Greg Maddux started for the Cubs. Howard Johnson hit a 3-run homerun. The Mets won the game 5-0. The image in my head of the game is the “green Band-Aids”, as my dad called them, all over the outfield grass.

If the date sort of rings a bell for Mets fans, it’s because the night before, the Mets finally clinched the division, formally setting the stage for an eventual world championship. I didn’t really know any of what was going on at the time. The “green Band-Aids” were the patchwork on the grass created by Pete Flynn’s Shea Stadium grounds crew after 50,000 fans tore up the field celebrating the division title about 14 hours earlier (a scene which Vin Scully described during the World Series as “sharks at feeding time”).

I don’t credit that game with making me a fan. That event came later.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN198609180.shtml

My first Mets memory

Editor's note: This is a preview for an off-season series that I am planning for my blog which covers my 25 years as a Mets fan (exactly half of their existence). This preview blog entry is meant to coincide with my first game.

I have exactly 3 memories from the Mets 1986 World Championship season. I will post about 2 of them later, maybe in late October. But my first memory of the Mets, a beginning of sorts, occured on this date 25 years ago (September 18, 1986). My father had actually pulled me out of school to take me to a Thursday afternoon game just a week or so after I had started the 3rd grade. I have no idea why he picked this game (and why not a weekend game or a summer game). I probably knew the basics of baseball from playing kickball in gym class and during recess at school. But I didn't know Major League Baseball or the New York Mets. I don't think I had any concept of what a magical season it had been or what "A September To Remember" was all about. And I don't think I had any knowledge or interest in the game the night before (at that madhouse called Shea). I really had a clean slate.

I don't remember much about this game. Rick Anderson pitched for the Mets (I had to look it up, years later, after the internet had been invented and populated with mass amounts of data that he went 5 innings to get the win, and a rookie pitcher by the name of Greg Maddux went 4 to take the loss). Howard Johnson hit a HR. 5 years ago, the great writer/blogger Greg Prince wrote about it as part of his Flashback Friday series that looked back on the 1986 season. He's older than I, has a better memory (certainly not the memory of an 8 1/2 year old from that season), and writes much better than I do, so please go read his recap of the game.

And the field looked like patch-work. Or as my dad called it, "green band-aids". I don't have pictures of this. I've seen the video highlight of HoJo's HR, and I honestly don't remember if my memory of the game is from the Mezzanine level near 1B because that's where I sat, or because that's which TV camera shot that HR in the lone highlight I've seen thus far.

I did find the video on YouTube this morning, as part of a larger collection of 1986 footage, and saw a few other highlights of the game. I really can say that I don't remember much about the game other than Anderson getting the win, HoJo hitting a HR, and the 5-0 score over the Cubs. And it was the day after they had clinched the division, which made it easy for me to find the game in the archives later on.

Just like in my new offseason series looking back at 25 years as a Mets fan, this game was sort of a start for me. I don't remember anything else from September. It's not like I recall watching the next game in which the Mets played. I don't remember any of NLCS against Houston as it happened. I have seen some of those games on DVD, Mets Classics, ESPN Classic, and MLB Network over the years. I don't remember most of the World Series either. None of the hype, nor watching any of the games. Until one Saturday night in late October...but that's for next time.


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The game that got me started

Well, 23 years ago today was the day that started it all for me. I'm talking about one of the biggest comebacks in baseball history. Game 6 of the '86 'Series. I have no recollection of any games from 1986 or before, except for the one I attended as a clueless kid in mid-September, before this game. I really don't remember anything from the first 9 1/2+ innings of the game either, aside from the video tape and DVD in much much later years. That bottom of the 10th is engrained in my memory though.

As an 8 1/2 year old with a future closer to the sciences than the arts, I remember that night as being the night we changed the clocks back to end Daylight Savings Time, and that I was even allowed to stay up well past midnight as my parents had friends over to watch the game. In fact, the nights of Game 6 of the World Series and ending DST coincided up until a couple years ago when both were pushed back. I thought I might get to be up to see 1am twice. I almost saw it once that night. Instead (and staying up that late at that time in my life was a pipe dream), I saw something much bigger and much more memorable.

I saw the greatest comeback in baseball history and it made me a fan forver. It made me a Mets fan forever. The bottom of the 10th is my flagship baseball moment. I have the audio of the bottom of the 10th from WHN (Mets) radio with Bob Murphy and Gary Thorne. Bob Murphy, forever the voice of the Mets, captured the hope and joy perfectly on radio. I'm listening now, with the DVD cued up for later today. An abbreviated transcript from Bob Murphy (in blue) and Gary Thorne (in orange):

Veteran relief right-hander Bob Stanley being brought on now by John McNamara. Stanley has pitched effectively in this World Series. He'll be pitching to Mookie Wilson. The Mets were down to their final strike. Ray Knight kept it going with a base hit.
...
Boston 5, New York 4. The first two batters up in the home 10th inning were retired. Three hits in a row. Gary Carter, a single to left. Kevin Mitchell, a single to left. Ray Knight with a two strike count, a single into Centerfield, scoring Gary Carter. Now, one more hit and the Mets, for the third time tonight, would have come from behind and tied this ballgame.
...
Bottom half of the 10th inning. Red Sox, one out away from a World's Championship. Stanley in the set position, the pitch. Foul ball, skidding off the bat handle, and again, the Mets are down to their last strike.
...
Stanley really anxious to get it overwith. He's getting the ball back and almost quick pitching. So Mookie will step out on him to slow him down a little bit. 2 balls and 2 strikes. Mets have only one strike left.
Stanley is ready. The pitch. Gets away! Gets away! Here comes Mitchell! Here comes Mitchell! Tie game! Tie game!
Unbelieveable, a wild pitch!
The game is tied 5 to 5. Mitchell comes in to score. Knight, the winning run is on second.
...
Mookie Wilson, still hoping to win it for New York. 3 and 2 the count. And the pitch by Stanley, and a ground ball trickling, it is a fair ball. Gets by Buckner. Rounding 3rd, Knight. The Mets will win the ballgame. The Mets win! They win!
Unbelieveable, the Red Sox in stunned disbelief!
A slow ground ball went right through the legs of Buckner, down the rightfield line. The Mets have won the ballgame. 3 runs in the bottom half of the 10th inning. 3 runs in the 10th inning. They were down to their final strike twice, in the bottom half of the 10th inning. They win the ballgame!

I won't go into the "why's", which are really from Boston's side. Or the "what if's". I just enjoy it. Bob Murphy's call of the 10th which I probably recorded one Christmas Day from WFAN when they would play the tape rather than have someone on air. I didn't know and probably couldn't have understood at the time that he was the guy hired to call Mets games 25 years earlier to work with the Hall of Fame player and Network-caliber broadcaster, getting his first chance in the World Series. Vin Scully's priceless work on NBC. I didn't know and probably couldn't have understood at the time that he used to call games in New York for a team that left nearly 30 years before. Or that he was a Hall of Famer who would still be going strong on a reduced schedule 23 years later. Or that Boston hadn't won in 67 years (at the time), and in numeric synergy, would win 18 years later breaking their drought of 86 years. It was just a magic moment that would make me a fan.

The story continues in 2 days (remember that the Mets only won Game 6 to tie the series, winning the right to play one more game, and that game would be rained out the next night).

Never Forget '69 has the transcript of the entire bottom of the 10th inning.


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My first game and my biggest game

Thanks to Greg Prince of Faith and Fear In Flushing for sending this over a while back from his "Flashback Friday" archives. It's a writeup on the first ever game I saw at Shea Stadium, attending as an 8 year old non-fan pulled out of school, and it happened 20 years ago today (September 18, 1986), the day after the Mets clinched the division. I can't say I was hooked on the Mets immediately. That didn't happen until the end of Game 6 and then Game 7 of the World Series. Those are the only three games from the 1986 season/post-season that I even remember watching, even parts of.

I wish I had pictures. I wish I had the scorecard. I wish I had the ticket stub. All I remember was Hojo hit a home run and Rick Anderson pitched. Mets won 5-0. I found out years later that Greg Maddux pitched for the Cubs that day. You'll recognize the game in any highlights because of the green "band-aids" on the outfield grass (that's how my father explained to me what that was, while later Vin Scully called it "Sharks at feeding time"). This wasn't the regular Mets lineup.

Today is also the anniversary of the 2006 Mets clinching the division (many many similarities to the 1986 Mets). I attended that game along with my father to honor the 20th anniversary of my first game. I also knew when I picked the game in August that it would be that year's clincher. I have the ticket stub, program, photos, and video from the 2006 game.




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