Watchdog

Last home game at Shea in 1964, Fan appreciation day. I think against the Reds.

For some reason my strongest memory is Pat Corrales going back and catching a foul pop. Since it was my first pro game I was impressed that a batter could hit such a high, albeit foul, pop. Until that time us little leaguers might foul off balls but never something with height.

The things that stick in your mind.

My first baseball game was at Yankee Stadium in 1969. It was Yankees against the Royals and we had box seats behind third base. The stadium was mostly empty. I remember that Al Downing pitched for the Yankees, and this was before he became famous for allowing Aaron's 715th. One thing I vaguely remember is that after the game we actually walked across the field to exit in rightfield somewhere. I'm not sure, maybe it was to check out the monuments that were still in centerfield at the time. Does anyone else recall doing this?

My second game at Shea was during the same homestand in which you saw your first game - July 29, 1970 - Mets against the Giants. My father bought 4 loge tickets via the mail - total cost $12.00. He made sure to request seats that were just under the press level as he didn't want to move out of his seat in case of rain. On the big day, he hauled me, my sister, and my mother into Queens from New Jersey in the 64 Rambler. It was a hot sticky day and there was no air conditioning in the car as we sat on the BQE for an hour in a massive traffic jam. As my mother made me wear long pants and shoes since we were going out in public, this meant one uncomfortable ride. Since my dad always anticipated traffic jams in the city, we left early enough and got to Shea in plenty of time for the game. While our plans to picnic on the World's Fair grounds were disrupted, we just brought our picnic lunch into the stadium. Imagine that in 2007. They even let us bring our jug of lemonade into Shea.

When we got to our seats,
clouds were hanging over the stadium and my father was crowing about his foresight to purchase seats under the the press level.

After buying my sister a Mrs. Met pennant and my long awaited 1970 yearbook, Koosman took the mound against Skip Pitlock. The bottom of the first was a weird inning. Pitlock went into his windup for the first pitch of the game and the ball fell out of his hand and landed in back of the mound. Then Tommie Agee reached first when Willie Mays (playing first base) misplayed a pop up that put Agee aboard. Amazingly, Agee was credited with a single and Mays avoided a certain error. Don Clendenon drove Agee in with a sac fly and then hit a homer in the third before the rain hit in the 5th and delayed things with the Mets up 2-1. It poured for about 90 minutes and despite my father's assertion that we would stay dry, we did not. Shea was already a mess in 1970 and water was flowing in from a crack right above our seats. This did not sit well with him and after only 20 minutes he declared "They aren't playing any more today" and made us leave the stadium. Naturally, the weather broke after we left the parking lot and they resumed the game. While angry, I thought I could listen to the game on the car radio. Well, in those days, the Mets radiocasts were on WJRZ in Hackensack, WGLI on the Island, and WNBC-FM. There was no FM radio in a 64 Rambler and the two AM stations were low wattage affairs meaning that once we were across the bridge into Staten Island, there was no more broadcast. Just as well since Bobby Bonds hit his second homer of the game off Rich Folkers in the 7th to lead the Giants to a 4-2 win.

When we finally got home just after 6:00, I still had no idea what happened in the game so I rushed to turn on the TV in the basement of the house and see what Frank Gifford had to say on Channel 2 about the game. In those days, you had to wait about 2 minutes for the tubes to warm up and the picture and sound to come on. I pulled the on bottom and nothing happened. By this time, my father had come into the house and asked about game and I said that the TV wasn't coming on. It turned out that lightning had hit the antenna and shorted out the TV. I didn't find out who won until the next morning when Don Criqui gave me the bad news on Rambling with Gambling. That piece of bad news paled in comparison to the fate of the RCA color TV. Luckily, my father was an electronic engineer for RCA and had actually worked on designing that set so it was fairly easy for him to "secure" the needed transformer for the TV and get it up and running in a day.

Thank you Neil for saving my wife from another long winded tale of my childhood.

I messed up in my recollection. It was the last home game of 1965 against the Phils. Thank goodness for baseball-reference.com.

I also remember getting to the game and being surprised with "extra" baseball because the 2 teams had played 18 scoreless innings the night before and suspended the game (I guess) because of the curfew.

They finished that game then played the regularly scheduled one.

I think they gave out caps for fan appreciation day.

Some pretty impressive recall powers the Best Dawg Blog commenters have.

And while I can't say it was my first trip to a professional ballgame, I do have some very vivid memories of a night at the old San Diego Stadium, now known as Qualcomm Stadium, and no longer the home of the Padres.

My father was a PE teacher and coach for 44 years and is a bit cheap for going on 83 years now. In the early 70's he decided to take his 9th grade baseball team to see the Pads play the Pirates, and I got to go along (I was in about the 7th grade). In order to get the most bang for his buck, he picked a night they were playing a double-header. It ended up being not really a twin bill, but a triple bill, as the second game went 18 innings.

And I remember absolutely nothing about the night except the very last out. That's because from our seats about 2/3rds of the way down the 1st base line, I watched as the right fielder made that last catch, then took the ball and threw it with all his might away from the plate, over the stands and out into the night of what was then the open end of the stadium. The right fielder was Roberto Clemente.

The other part of the night that I remember is that when we got home after midnight, my mother was very upset. It turns out that she was the one answering all the phone calls from upset parents wondering what kind of teacher would keep young students out so late on a school night. (The cell phone had yet to be invented.)

Now, with the unbelievable efforts and programming genius of the folks at Baseball-Reference.com, with just a few clicks of a mouse, I am able to fill in the details.

This all happened on the night of June 7, 1972. The box score is loaded with unbelievable names. Mazeroski, Stargell, Clemente, Sanguillen, Hebner, Doc Ellis...the list goes on. And one of the oddest baseball twists from that night is that the last batter in that 18th inning was the pitcher, a fellow by the last name of Corkins. He pitched the last five innings in relief of one of the Padres best-ever pitchers, Clay Kirby, who started and went 13 innings.

I've also used Baseball-Reference.com to fill in the details of the game that was played the night I met my future wife at the Pads v. Giants game, June 14, 1984. I will spare you those details.

The first game I remember seeing was in 1961 the Los Angeles Angels vs. The New York Yankees. The only real memories I have of that day is Bob Sheppard on the microphone and a guy named Jerry Casale pitching for the Angels. My aunt and uncle took me. My aunt told me that was NOT the first game I ever went to because she took me to Ebbets Field when I was 1 1/2 years old (1956) and she had a season ticket there. The next games I remember was the 1962 season, a famous doubleheader at the Polo Grounds (only time I was there) between the Mets and Giants (first time back and a sellout.) By the bottom of the first of the first game the Mets were losing 9-0 and later in that game Marvelous Marv Throneberry hit a triple that was turned into an out because he missed touching first base, an event that was immortalized in a book called "Can't Anyone Here Play This Game?" because Casey Stengel didnt come out to argue the play--the reason Casey gave was that Throneberry missed touching second too.