METS FANS SHARE THEIR MEMORIES OF THE SEPTEMBER 8, 1974 GAME:
Richard George "Seaver" Biever
October 8, 2001
It was a Sunday morning, and my Little League team -- Citizens National Bank -- from Tell City, Ind., was heading to a Big League game. It would be my first. Our coach had said earlier it would either be the Dodgers and the Reds, which pretty much everyone wanted to go to (in Tell City, along the Ohio River about an hour west of Louisville, Ky., almost EVERYONE was a Reds fan in the mid-70s), or the Mets at St. Louis. There were about three Cardinals fans on our team, and one Mets fan: me. Tom Seaver was my hero. Even at age 12, I realized I had to be different; I couldn't root for the Reds since everyone else did. I chose the Mets. I was born in 1962; they were born in 1962. It was destiny. That morning, we gathered at the coach's house and he broke the news: the Reds and Dodgers, in the heat of a pennant race, was sold out. We were going to St. Louis. My prayers were answered. It was the only time I saw Seaver pitch in person, but what a glorious day. He had a bad year that year, but won that game on a Wayne Garrett home run into the right field corner. Lou Brock stole an important base, can't recall if he tied a record or what. It was the same day Evel Knievel attempted his idiotic rocket jump across Snake River canyon. But my thoughts were only on Seaver, the Mets and the bobble headed Mets guy and the big Mets pennant I bought and the Mets win. I was about the only happy guy on the long 4-hour drive home that day!
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