Unless you were still in a stroller, you probably remember your first time going to a major league baseball game. I couldn’t have been more than five, but that memory is still clear.
My dad took me to Yankee Stadium (the old Yankee Stadium) for my first game. I remember walking up the ramp between the stands on the second deck and suddenly seeing this immense pasture of beautiful green grass set against the clear blue sky, cumulus clouds, and the grand upper facade of the third deck (Mickey Mantle once belted a ball off of the right-field facade, just missing hitting it out of the stadium, a feat never accomplished in the big leagues, although many claim that Josh Gibson hit one out when playing in the Negro Leagues).
Perhaps because we are more impressionable as children, the baseball games I most fondly remember are those I attended. Here are my favorites.
Yankee Stadium, June 14, 1959, Yankees-Tigers doubleheader
“Moose” courtesy NBC Sports
I was only six years old, but I was already used to the Yankees winning almost all the time (they won the American League pennant from 1955 to 1958). So, with my Dad and I comfortably nestled in the second deck alongside one of the many columns that blocked the spectator’s views (but fortunately not ours that day), I settled in for what I was sure would be another Yankees victory, especially as the Yankees took a 2-0 lead, one of those runs scoring on a solo home run by Bill “Moose” Skowron.
Whitey Ford took that 2-0 shutout into the eighth inning. I was sure nothing could go wrong with the Yankee southpaw ace on the mound. However, the Tigers put a couple of men on base and noted Yankee killer Charlie Maxwell came up. Right on cue, the left-handed-hitting outfielder drilled a ball over the wall in right-center for a three-run homer.
I couldn’t believe it and burst into tears. An old man sitting behind us touched my shoulder to comfort me. The Tigers held on to win 3-2. Detroit went on to win the second game 8-2. But I had been inoculated into the possibility of the Yankees losing a game and took the second loss pretty well.
Polo Grounds, May 30, 1962, Mets-Dodgers doubleheader
To fully appreciate what the Mets meant to New York fans in their inaugural season of 1962 (when they went 40-120), one has to remember that the fans hadn’t had National League baseball since the Dodgers and Giants moved west after the 1957 season. The Mets’ caps were Dodger blue with the orange “NY” monogram of the Giants.
Sandy Koufax (Baseball Hall of Fame)
On Memorial Day 1962, the Dodgers made their first visit to New York since playing in Ebbets Field to face the Mets in a doubleheader. A remarkable 55,704 attended, the largest crowd in the major leagues that season.
Sandy Koufax pitched the opener for the Dodgers against Jay Hook, and it was like Jesse James squaring off against Wilbur from Mr. Ed. Hook was given the hook after two innings, trailing 5-0, and the relievers didn’t fare much better. Amazingly, the Mets put together 13 hits and six runs against Koufax, but it didn’t matter much, as they lost 13-6. Koufax struck out ten. I remember my father wincing when the great lefthander struck out Mets catcher Harry Chiti for the third time in a row.
For the second game, my dad maneuvered us from well back in the stands on the third-base side to a couple of seats in the second deck right above home plate. The Mets lost again, 6-5, but we had a great view of an incredible play from our perch.
With Maury Wills on second and Jim Gilliam on first with no out for the Dodgers, Willie Davis hit a liner that appeared destined to be a single to left field. But Mets shortstop Elio Chacon leaped skyward, pulled down the line drive in the web of his glove, and flipped to second base to nail Wills. Second baseman Charlie Neal fired to Gil Hodges at first, who appeared to stretch toward second too far and pull off the base. But the ball arrived before Gilliam, and the umpire gave the thumbs-up for the triple play. My dad said the ump had to overlook Hodges’ questionable footwork with 55,000-plus fans in the stands rooting for the Mets.
Polo Grounds, June 7, 1963, Mets-Cardinals
With a lineup that included legendary players Jimmy Piersall and Duke Snider, the Mets faced off against the Red Birds on a Friday night.
Duke Snider, who first played for the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, returned to New York from the Los Angeles Dodgers to play for the Mets in 1963 at the Polo Grounds. (photo courtesy of National Baseball Hall of Fame)
I remember the Cards’ great third baseman, Ken Boyer, launching a massive solo home run to left field that carried clear out of the park to give St. Louis a 2-0 lead in the sixth. Starter Ron Taylor carried that lead into the bottom of the ninth, but the Mets managed to get runners on second (Ron Hunt) and third (“Hot Rod” Kanehl) with one out. As Snider, the now-beloved Met who used to play in Ebbets Field for the Dodgers, strode to the plate, it looked like a redo of “Casey at the Bat.”
The Duke did what Casey could not, jumping on a pitch from left-handed reliever Diomedes Olivo and smacking it into the upper deck in right field for a three-run walk-off homer and a 3-2 Mets victory. But when the ball struck the bat, all the fans in front of me — much taller than I — stood up, and I never saw Duke’s shot land in the seats.
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This column first appeared in The Vacaville Reporter on August 29, 2020.
