Watchdog

Great stuff... Neil: any idea why the Mets (and every other team besides the Yankees) don't do this anymore? It's such a good way to connect with longtime fans. Bill Wambsganss!!!

As they walk in from center field do you hear Jane Jarvis in the backgroud ? She was in high gear. Thanks Neil ,John.GREAT STUFF.

I'm glad you guys are enjoying these. You might appreciate this long and rambling peronsal anecdote about Bill Wambsganss. My grandmother was 17 years old in 1920. Before she died in 1991, she shocked the hell out of me by telling me that before she married my grandfather, she was engaged to someone else. She then told me that her fiance was a ballplayer for the "Brooklyn team" (she knew as much about baseball as I know about nuclear fusion). I then heard this amazing tale about hanging out at Coney Island and meeting balplayers. She continued by saying that she then went to some game in late September or early October against the "Cleveland ballclub." Since she was not a person to even slightly exagerate the truth, I soon realized that Grandma Ida was at the 1920 World Series. I tried asking her if she remembered anything about a "triple play" or "a grand slam homerun" but she had no clue what I was talking about. I never could get her to tell me what this guy's name was. I tried everything I could to get her to crack - visiting her in Tampa and getting her to drink a few glasses of wine while I had a baseball encyclopedia opened to the 1920 Dodger roster, but she wouldn't break and went to her grave with her secret.
I later told my mother about this wild tale and she confirmed that she had seen pictures of my grandmother with a guy who was not my grandfather while wearing a pretty substantial ring. She remembered hearing about a ballplayer, but nothing more than that. It turned out that my great grandmother disapproved of the whole arrangement and broke it off. My grandmother thought it was bad luck to keep the ring, so she gave it to her sister.

The point of this story is that my grandmother saw Wambsganns play in 1920 World Series in which he had the unassisted triple play - and had no idea what she was seeing. Unbelievable!

PS - Grandma Ida's eventual husband, my Grandpa Bill was a Giant fan who hated the Dodgers with a passion. I never understood why while he was alive, but do now.

They need to bring this back along with the Caravan! I'm sick of seeing Straw in The Bronx for Yankee Old-Timer's Day. He was a Met!

John Philips
That is an OUTSTANDING story and thanks for sharing it. (especially the closing about your grandpa....THAT'S funny).
Beats the hell out of the one about my aunt dating Whitey Ford.
(But I do have a few about my father playing with TW on the Marine Corps team in WWII).

And OUTSTANDING work on these videos as well.
As I watch these, I am fighting the urge to put on flares or bell bottoms and grow my hair out Prince Valiant style.

Neil,

Great stuff! The organ play reminds me of the organist in Slap Shot and the minor league caliber of play and it's inherent futility.

The day they trade Tom Seaver was the real day that the music died.

By the way, why does'nt SNY play this stuff and more importantly when are they going to get on Comcast so I can watch it? Communist cable monopolies must die!

And finally, I love Lindsey, Ralph and Murph but was there anything more physically painful to endure than a New York Mets Channel 9 rain delay show?

Bye for now.

John from Lyme