OPENING DAY....HIP HIP HOORAY! ENJOY EACH AND EVERY ONE
The Mets open the 2019 season on this fine March the 28th, 2019, on my parents' 71st anniversary. My Mom is now nearly 92, and Dad passed away back in 1974, but he was a true baseball fan, his favorite team being the Yankees.
After watching Maris (my pick) and Mantle chase Babe Ruth in 1961, Dad suggested I root for the Mets, surprisingly enough, and here I am, writing about them 57 years later. Go figure.
Baseball in 1962 was in its pre-free agent phase, and team revenues in real dollars were drastically smaller - heck, a Yankee bleacher seat at the time cost less than a buck - so teams started their seasons far later than now...just not as bucks-driven.
Who woulda thunk that the same game of baseball that once produced a 41 game winner in Jack Chesbro would later have an entire 1962 Mets team win only 40? AMAZIN'!
Wikipedia had this brief recap of the Mets' losing (what else?) opener that fateful day:
The first game in franchise history was played on the road, at Busch Stadium, St. Louis, on Wednesday night, April 11, 1962. The Mets fell behind 5–0 early, then narrowed the deficit to one run, but ultimately lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 11–4. Former Brooklyn Dodgers Gil Hodges and Charlie Neal homered for the Mets, whose home opener at New York's Polo Grounds would wait until their second-ever official game, on Friday, April 13, 1962.
9 comments:
I was at the home opener with a good friend of mine that got life for murdering another friend of mine over a bottle of wine.
Boy do I miss New York
That's a story worth hearing sometime.
And New York misses Mack - written by me from my desk in NYC!
Murder over wine - sounds like a Blue Bloods episode story.
It wasn't even good wine.
Something like Ripple or Jive 7
Interesting article, Tom.......not giving anything away, but I was -7 when the 1962 opener took place!
But being born in 1969 was an omen for me and my future baseball fan self.
Mack, it gives new meaning to "Ripple Effect."
Mike, being it is 2019, being born in 1969 beats being born in, say, 1953!
Or 1947
1947??? Shazaam!
Frank Thomas & the guy who the Mets traded to get him, Gus Bell, batting to back. Ho often does that happen? OK, Bell was the PTBNL in the trade.
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