Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from October 23, 2005

Blum's No Bum

Those of you who are religious readers of my work here may recall my tale of woe regarding a game in which I departed prior to the Mets winning in walk-off fashion. For those who don't: ( http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/2005/07/crying-uncle.html ) I mentioned that there was one other occasion in which I departed early. That took place on October 1, 2000. The 2000 season was remarkable, not only because the Mets won the National League pennant, but also because it included one of the most remarkable runs I've had in attending baseball games. If you include the postseason contests for which I was among those in the stands, I had a streak of in-person viewing of 13 consecutive Mets victories. The ninth of those, the October 1 contest, has an asterisk next to it because of my premature departure. A work shift on the sports desk at the Trenton Times that evening meant that I had to bail out after this regular-season finale (aka "Closing Day") between the Mets and Expos co

Didja ever notice where everybody else was?

You don't have to have a long, drawn out story about Game 6 of the 1986 World Series for it to be worthwhile. The fact that people can remember anything about that particular October 25 makes it noteworthy. Here are a couple of other memories that my friends shared. If you haven't contributed already, feel free to share yours in the comments section. Mike Duggan October 1986....It was the best of times, It was the best of times. After striking out on getting post season tickets when they originally went on sale, my brother in law was able to get us tickets for three games, Game 4 of the NLCS ( We lost to Mike Scott), Game 1 of the World Series (Mets lost 1-0 when Tim Teufel let a ground ball go thru his legs) and Game 7 of the World Series. The tickets were way up in sec 42 of the Upper Deck, but I was going to post season games for the first time in my life. The Mets were terrible all my life. I never thought this could happen. October 25, 1986. I received a phone call from my

Didja ever notice where Paul Alfieri was?

Sometimes, the best stories come from the moments we miss. Paul Alfieri, a media relations executive for Motorola, continues our series on Game 6 of the 1986 World Series by sharing his recollections of some magical moments. I was in Los Angeles for most of the 1986 World Series. I was 11 at the time, and we lived in New Jersey, but my dad was on extended assignment for his job on the West Coast. My Mom and sisters had flown out there to move him home, right smack on the middle of the Series. I was in the airport, watching the start of Game 6 on a monitor hanging in the terminal. Sometime during the third inning, we boarded the flight, and I lost contact. I was a nervous wreck... The flight was either a late evening or redeye (I don't remember which) but I know that I fell asleep listening to Channel 9 in my headphones (the one where you can hear the pilots talk to the ground towers). I was awakened by an announcement from the copilot, letting "all the Boston Red Sox fans"

Didja ever notice where Ken Hirdt was?

Our tribute to Game 6 of the 1986 World Series moves along as Ken Hirdt, statistician for the Elias Sports Bureau, shares his remembrance of the evening of October 25. I was 10 years old, watching the game in my parents’ bedroom with my brother while the family was having a dinner party with a few friends from Queens. (We had moved from Queens to Westchester two years earlier.) Towards the end of the game my brother fell asleep and I went down to watch with the grownups. For some reason, I was drinking warm milk. And I (or my mom – don’t remember the specifics at this point) had left it on the stove too long and it had that skin on top. And it grossed me out. But I watched the end of the game, Mookie’s at-bat and Buckner and all that, went crazy yelling at the TV with all the adults and I have not had warm milk since.

Didja ever notice where Barry Federovitch was?

We continue our series on Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, with guest writer Barry Federovitch, a sportswriter and copy editor for the Trenton Times, sharing his thoughts on where he was the evening of October 25. As Oct. 25 turned to Oct. 26 in 1986, I was sitting in my parents' living room in Howell, New Jersey, alone. They were both asleep. I had just broken up with a girlfriend I deeply loved and was in a distracted depressed state anyway. When it got to two outs, nobody on for the Mets in the bottom of the 10th inning, I bitterly muttered to the television set ''I've had a crappy year, why should it be any different for them.'' At that moment, Gary Carter singled. When Kevin Mitchell came to bat, I began pacing back and forth between the living room and kitchen. When Ray Knight got two strikes, I put my hands over my face like I was watching a horror movie. At the instant the ball got away from Gedman, I closed my eyes and at first didn't know what happ

Didja ever notice where Gordon Mann was?

For those who didn't read the most recent post, this week we are celebrating the 19th anniversary of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. As such, I have asked friends, acquaintances, and colleagues from all walks of life to share their stories of where they were on the evening of October 25, 1986. We begin with Division III sports afficianado Gordon Mann. I was probably either crying or sleeping or both. You see, my mother wouldn't let me stay up past a certain bedtime. While my mother was sympathetic to my sports fandom, that sympathy only extended so far -- roughly 9:30 as I recall. During football season I used to look forward to Monday night so I could watch MacGyver and then the introduction to Monday Night Football. That was back when they used the dramatic music and a simpler intro narrated by Al Michaels ("JimPlunkett knows the Broncos well") instead of scantily clad cheerleaderslip synching in dopey faux-bar scenes to that country guy's played-out"Are y

Oh yes, and a happy birthday

Happy birthday, mom! True Metsmoms know... On my mom's 47th birthday, Joe Carter hit a walk-off home run off Mitch Williams to win the 1993 World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays. (Thus making it much easier to remember the date, LOL)