(Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)
By May 27th, after suffering from a five game losing streak the Mets stood at 19-23 in 4th place and nine games behind the Chicago Cubs who by their own accounts were already planning on what look the playoff tickets would have. Black (cat) and blue would have been my choice.
On May 28th I was back at Shea to see the San Diego Padres. All Jerry Koosman did that night was pitch 10 innings of four hit ball with 15 K's. Tug McGraw pitched a scoreless 11th as I hoped my bud (Ted Blecher) and I wouldn’t have to sit through a 20+ inning game.
Cleon Jones reached first base on an error by Roberto Pena who was playing third. Billy McCool (one of the great sports names of all time) then struck out Ed Kranepool. Frank Reberger then gave up a single to center to Ron Swoboda. Cleon moved to third. Jerry Grote was then intentionally passed to load the bases.
Believe it or not, and I swear on all that's holy, that what happened next would change not only the Mets season but bring me immense pain and pleasure within 20 seconds of each other.
With the bases stacked, Bud Harrelson smacked the first pitch, a screaming line drive right at us. I dove, (I could do that then) for the ball, missed it and broke two fingers on the railing as my friend Teddy snagged it like he was Brooks Robinson.
I was screaming so loud (what a wimp!) that I missed Buddy’s single up the middle to win the game.
The Mets went on to have an 11 game winning streak and by the All Star Break they were 53-39, in second place and just five games behind the Cubs. They went 34-16 during that stretch. I went to one more game with my wife during June. Grant Jackson shut us out and beat Don Cardwell 2-0 Hmmm.
On August 13th the Mets came staggering home from a miserable road trip ending in Houston where the Mets were swept and fell into 3rd place 10 games behind the Cubs. This called for drastic measures.
August 16th is my brothers’ birthday and he had no love lost for the Mets but never in his life had he ever turned down free tickets to a game, especially since I was taking him to Shea as a birthday present. I’m sure he would have rather had the cash but he agreed to go. My wife stayed home. I wonder why.
The Mets went on to win that game 2-1 and by the way my brother catches a foul ball off the bat of Bud Harrelson as I was hiding under my seat.
The rest is history.
The team went on to win 38 of their next 49 games and miracles were alive and well in Flushing Meadows.
My wife and I went to one more game that season and given the play of the team down the stretch I knew my curse with her was over. If not maybe well maybe, nah we didn’t think those things. Besides, my mother would kill me dead if I came over to her place some night and I told her I was leaving my wife because she’s bad luck for the Mets.
Anyway, the game, an 8-2 loss to Bob Veale on September 19th.
I’d love to tell you that I attended playoff and World Series games that year but I promised to keep this truthful with only a touch of literary license. So, no, the best I could do was watch the games on the tube like millions of fans across the country.
You know the story for sure. The Mets went on to glory and I think it was in the second or third week in November that a couple of my childhood buddies suggested we drop in and talk to Gil. So off we went to Gil who still lived on Bedford Avenue about three blocks from our apartment on Kings Highway and East 23rd Street.
Sure enough, as he often did when we were kids, Gil and Joan were home and we sat and talked baseball with him. His house hadn’t changes a lick in almost 20 years. As we walked out the door Gil said, “Hey guys want to see something cool?”
Like we would say no.
He then opened a desk draw and flipped a ball to me. I didn’t drop this or break anything. It was just a ball signed by a player whose signature I could not read. The ball had a black smear on it. I said, “You’ve got to be kidding me?” He just smiled as I tossed it back to him.
Simply “Amazin."
46 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete