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Shea Memories – August 14, 1985
October 8, 2007 | Comments Off
This was a feature I was hoping to start a little later. But, well, you know. With the final year of Shea Stadium’s existence at hand, I thought it would be a nice trip down memory lane to look at each game I’ve ever been to. With the help of retrosheet.org I’ve been able to track down the details of each game. Yes, my memory is good, but it ain’t that good.
And how can I remember every game I ever went to? Well, I usually only went to one or two games a year, so it’s relatively easy to track down when I went. Things get a little hazier in 1999 and 2000 when I went more often, so I might miss a game or two. But this should be a fairly exhaustive rundown.
So let’s start at the beginning. I started watching baseball back in 1984, but started out a – GASP – Yankees fan. I quickly started rooting for the Mets as well, and remained one of those weird Mets and Yankees fans until 1988 or 1989 – whenever they moved to MSG network. Seeing as how Shea was much closer to my house, and everyone else in my family are Mets fans, unsurprisingly we were more likely to go to Mets games.
My father told me that he got tickets to this game about two days before game time. I was eight years old, and rather anxious to finally see a game in person, so the next two days were two of the most painfully slow of my life. Finally, my brother Joe and I headed out to Shea.
The place is a dump, but it was the coolest thing ever to finally see the inside of Shea Stadium. We had driven by it so many times, and it was like a big tease. Finally, here I was, and I felt like I was on hallowed ground, and it’s the kind of sentiment I had every time I went to a baseball game for most of my youth. Well, even today it’s still awesome to set foot inside a Major League baseball stadium. Nothing quite matches the excitement, the smells, the buzz of the crowd.
For some reason we were able to go up to the front office, and they gave me two baseball for free. After the game, I almost forgot them, and we had to run back and retrieve them. We also walked right through the Phillies clubhouse. I’m not really sure how we merited this VIP treatment, but it really set a high bar for all future games.
The game itself was a pitchers duel between Ron Darling and Kevin Gross. Batting third for the Phillies – Juan Samuel, who would haunt me years later. The only other Phillies player of note in that game was Michael Jack Schmidt, who went 1-4 with a double in the only game I ever got to see him play in.
The game went scoreless until the 7th, not the only time I’d sit through six scoreless in a Ron Darling started game, but I’ll get to that in two weeks. Finally the Phillies broke through when Rick Schu singled home Von Hayes. The Phillies added a run in the ninth off of Roger McDowell when Kevin Gross singled home a run with two outs. This game took place only 22 years ago, and how much has changed. Do you think a starting pitcher today would hit in that situation? Heck, how many starters would even still be in the game at that point?
Anyway, the Mets made it interesting in their half of the ninth. A Danny Carmen error allowed Howard Johnson to score, and then the Mets loaded the bases with none out. I’d actually forgotten that part until I looked at the retrosheet game log, but now the disappointment’s coming back to me. Unfortunately Wally Backman hit into a force play, and Rick Aguilera – who was actually being used as a pinch runner for Rusty Staub, was out at home. Then Keith Hernandez grounded into a double play, and the Phillies won 2-1.
So my first game in person ended in defeat, but I was still excited to go. Of course, the very next day the Mets won a wild one, 10-7, taking the series 3-1. 22 years later I was watching the Mets lose at home to the Phils, but with no other wins to surround it. But that’s for much later.
I wouldn’t get to a game for another year, but what a night that was.
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