Here is my Tuesday newspaper column on Ralph Kiner.
One of the topics I discussed with Mr. Kiner for which I didn't have room in the paper was the Mets' late-season collapse of 2007. Short story: He was as shocked and amazed as you were.
Kiner said he recently watched a replay of the regular-season finale against the Marlins on his local cable channel in Florida.
Don't look for SNY to show that one anytime soon. But I'm still working on them to show Game 1 of the 1969 World Series and become the first baseball-team-owned regional sports network in New York history to replay a loss.
My first sports memory is the Mets' sweep of the Expos to go into first place on Sept. 10, 1969.
Ron Taylor, whose name came up as the Blue Jays' doctor during the recent unpleasantness on Capitol Hill, was the winning pitcher in one of those games. But I digress.
Comments (2)
Did the "Mets move into first place for the first time in their history"between games (i.e. Cubs lose! Cubs lose!..alright, the parody of Harry Caray is an anachronism..he didn't arrive in Wrigley until the early 1980s). Besides watching the games, I had the Mets 1969 season on 8 track tape with Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner and that moment was on there. Much better than the 1973 Mets which had narration by Curt Gowdy.
It was the always well dressed Nelson who informed the masses of the change in standings.
"Who ever heard of the Cubs losing a game they had to win?" Frank Chance, 1908
That's ironic, my first sports memory is right around that time when my grandparents took me to Shea for the first time. I was around 6 years old. My grandmother's company had great box seats near right field, so of course my favorite player was Ron Swoboda! Since it's Shea's last year, might be a good idea to get fans greatest memories in the stadium over the last 45 years or so. Mine is Len Dykstra's home run in Game 3 of the '86 NLCS. I was not there for Game 6 of the WS, which probably would have been better, but I was at Game 7 which was great also.