My first game at Shea Stadium

I grew up in rural North Carolina, played Little League and collected baseball cards. My dad and I would watch weekend baseball games and during the summer we would watch Monday Night Baseball with Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek.  My dad was a Yankees fan, as were so many North Carolina mill town kids that were teens from the late forties through the fifties. My dad’s best friend, Rich, from graduate school grew up and lived in and around New York and was a Mets fan, and the Mets had won in 1969, so I became a Mets fan.  When you are in rural NC, there is no regional team, so people were fans of many different teams – my best friend then was an A’s fan.

When you live in rural North Carolina, you also don’t get to go to MLB games. I went to my first game in 1978 when we were visiting my great uncle, and the family (I had five brothers and sisters) went to Six Flags. But for me, going to my first MLB game was everything. I bought a Mets pennant that still hangs in my home office. That Phillies-Braves was my first game https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL197807150.shtml , Jim Kaat started for the Phillies, Jeff Burroughs and Bob Horner went back-to-back in the first inning, and the Braves turned a triple play.

Finally, in 1982, as a high school graduation gift, my dad planned a trip for me and him to go to see a Mets game in New York. My dad was a college Biology professor, and routinely attended conferences during the school breaks to give research papers. The summer of 1982, Penn State University was hosting the Ecological Society of America conference, and so I went to Penn State for the first part of the week, as we were sharing a hotel room with my dad’s friends, Rich and Bill. I watched my dad and his friends behave much like we do at SABR’s annual convention, and I laughed a lot.

The conference wrapped on Wednesday evening and Thursday, we headed to Rich’s house in Levittown, New York.

The Mets team had players I really enjoyed – Dave Kingman, Lee Mazzilli, and Le Grand Orange, Rusty Staub. Even with the losing, I had favorite players and had already adjusted to Mets fandom of some really bad teams

Unfortunately, the Mets had traded Mazzilli just before the season started for a couple of minor league pitchers.  Like the Tom Seaver trade, I was unhappy, but they still had Kingman and Staub. Then the Mets played pretty well.  If you don’t recall, the Mets finished 1982 abysmally.  Coming into July the Mets had been about .500, as Kingman was bashing lots of home runs. He would finish the season with 37, leading the National League – the first time a Met had ever achieved that. I was very excited to go to New York and to walk into Shea Stadium for the first time, possibly see Kong hit a home run or two.

The season hadn’t been without excitement. The week earlier Joel Youngblood was traded from the Mets to the Expos and managed to play in two games on the same day.

Coming out into any ballpark from the concourse, the beauty of a field always brings a smile to my face, knowing the next few hours are going to be enjoyable. Shea was no different.

Friday, August 13, 1982, https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN198208130.shtml , Rich had bought some $4 upper deck seats behind home plate but handed the usher a few bills and we sat in the lower bowl.  Attendance was sparse, but real – 12,000 through the turnstiles. The Mets were hosting the Cubs, and had dropped their last four games, and Kingman was sidelined.

The Mets lineup was very exciting. Mookie Wilson playing center field and leading off, Wally Backman batting and playing second. George Foster, Staub, Ellis Valentine, Ron Hodges, Hubie Brooks, Ron Gardenhire. Pat Zachry starting on the mound for the Mets.  Thinking about that lineup, I wonder how the Mets could not win more games.

The Cubs were not much better. The had Ryne Sandberg leading off, followed by Larry Bowa and Bill Buckner. Their starting pitcher was Doug Bird. The Mets ought to beat this team, amirite?

Then the game starts, and Bowa singles and Buckner hits a home run. I chuckle as I type that. 2-0 Cubs.  The Mets answered with Wilson, Backman and Foster all reaching and a sacrifice fly from Staub, tying the game. I ate and laughed and enjoyed the weather.

The Cubs took the lead in the third, 4-2 and the Mets got one back in the fifth, and at the seventh inning stretch, the Mets trailed 4-3. In the bottom of the seventh, the Mets rallied for three runs and won 6-4.

By and large, I don’t recall all the details of the game. I remember some extreme specifics – the Mets comeback, Staub driving in a run, and hitting a single in the rally. But like adults that don’t like traffic do, Rich and my dad were ready to beat the traffic, so once the Mets too the lead, we made for the exit.

I was disappointed about that, but my dad didn’t trifle.

I moved to the Philadelphia in 1995, and routinely went over to New York to see the Mets at Shea. With my tickets in the box seats, I never left the game early.

I didn’t know it at the time, but earlier that summer, Joe McIlvaine and Frank Cashen had drafted Dwight Gooden.  There was a kid named Darryl Strawberry in AA hitting prodigious home runs. The Mazzilli trade had brought in Ron Darling. While my first game to Shea was not the most memorable, the 1982 65-97 season was really a great one.