But let's back-up a few weeks . . .

In July our family had gone to the World's Fair for the day. At night, while we waited for the subway, we walked to the ramp leading to Shea. As most Mets fans recall, from that ramp a person could see into the stadium from "right field". You could only see the batter at home plate, the pitcher on the mound, the first baseman and the right fielder through that sliver of daylight between the backs of the stadium and the scoreboard. When I looked, I saw something I never saw before: multi-colored seats rising to Heaven; cigar and cigarette smoke creating a haze around the brilliant lights on top of the stadium; the rich green of the grass; the distant but excited burst of the crowd when a Met got on base. WOW, what an image! THIS WASN'T CHANNEL 9! IT WAS IN COLOR! This was pretty heady stuff for a seven year old.

So, I guess mom and dad thought this was as good a time as any to teach me the "facts of life" as a Mets fan. My dad probably bought the tickets a few days later in downtown New York where he worked. The tickets were for the Tuesday August 3 game v the Pirates.

Because I was seven, I probably was overwhelmed with the whole event of being at Shea; the playing of the game was secondary.

Here though are images, snippets that have remained in my memory of that game:
1 --- We sat in Mezzanine Reserved, Section 7. Since my dad was only a clerk in a brokerage firm, he could only afford $2.75 per ticket. Field box seats were out of his financal league; they were $3.50 per ticket. PS-The last year of Shea and my last game at Shea in 2008, for old time sake and to complete the circle, I bought a ticket to a August game, sat in Mezzanine Reserve, Section 7. I can't recall the 2008 price but my dad would have thought I became a millionaire after he had died. I pretty sure it wasn't $2.75.
2 --- I remember seeing Ralph Kiner or Bob Murphy standing near the Mets dugout with a stick microphone interviewing a Mets player before the game. Hmm, no tv camera on the field? My dad said it was in the press box just below our seats opposite first base. Ohhhh.
3 --- I saw Mr. Met walking around on the field before the game shaking hands and having his picture taken with those stuck-up rich fans in the field boxes. Now, I may not have known what 6 X 7 was in school but I knew Mr. Met was just a guy in a Mets uniform with a baseball-shaped hydrocephalic head. My dad said it was made of paper-mache. Ohhhh.
4 --- Sometime during the game, one of the umpires was injured. I don't know which umpire or how it happened but I swear I saw him being carried off the field on a stretcher. Now, here on this page, I see this photo on the back of the Daily News, the next day. It shows the ump walking off the field with help from Chris Cannizzaro and trainer Gus Mauch. Maybe I imagined him on a stretcher? My dad always said it was my drinking too many Rheingolds at the game. Ohhh.
5 --- I learned the Mets version to the "Facts of Life" . . . they lost 7-0. But I stuck with the Mets through those horrible late '60s teams and was going to be rewarded with a unbelievable 1969! Ohhhhhh, now I get what it'll be like as a Mets fan.

lox & knishes and LETS GO METS !!!
bmcd