Remembering Mets History: (1973) Old Timers Day & Mets Retire Hodges #14

-

Old Timers Day 1973
Saturday June 9th 1973- Old Timers Day: A big Saturday afternoon crowd of 47,800 filled up Shea Stadium to first witness an Old Timers Day classic between former Brooklyn Dodgers & AL New York Players vs former New York Mets from the sixties.

A full cast of original 1962 Mets were on hand; Richie Ashburn, Ken MacKenzie, Jim Marshall, Rod Kanehl, Frank Thomas & Roger Craig. Other Mets on board included 1969 Amazing Mets Reliever Ron Taylor & pitcher Larry Bearnarth.

It was on this day, the Mets officially retired Gil Hodges #14, as Mets GM Bob Scheffing presented Gil's widow; Joan Hodges with his Mets uniform. Former Brooklyn Dodgers; Carl Furillo, PeeWee Reese, Ralph Branca, Carl Erskine, Sandy Amoros & Cal Abrams were all in attendance.

The Old Professor; former Mets Manager; Casey Stengel was on hand along with AL New York players Joe DiMaggio, Whitey Ford & current 1973 Mets manager; Yogi Berra.






 
For the actual game that day, the big Shea crowd saw Yogi Berra's fourth place Mets (23-27) host Walt Alston's second place Dodgers (34-23). 

 The Dodgers were still attracting big crowds when they came to New York, just 15 years removed from Brooklyn.

The Mets were beat up with injuries at the time, Bud Harrelson, Jerry Grote & Cleon Jones were all on the DL.

The line up that day consisted of Ted Martinez 3B/ Felix Millan 2B / Willie Mays CF / Rusty Staub RF/ Jim Fregosi SS / John Milner 1B/ George Theodore LF & Duffy Dyer behind the plate.

Today a struggling Mets Jon Matlack (2-8) took on Dodger hurler; Al Downing (5-2).

Trivia: In 1974 Downing would give up Hank Aaron's historic #715th HR.

In the bottom of the 1st, with the Mets down 1-0, third baseman Teddy Martinez singled to lead off for the inning. After Felix Millan grounded out, veteran Wille Mays, getting a start in center singled to put two aboard. Rusty Staub stepped in & doubled to left field bringing in both runs, making it 2-0 Mets.

In the bottom of the third, the score was tied at 2-2 after Bill Buckner had driven in a run with a sac fly.

The 42 year old Mays, who was older than some of the old timers in the first game, put on a show himself. First he made a classic Willie Mays circus catch during the game, saving a run .

Then in the bottom of the 3rd, Mays hit his first HR of the year, #655 of his Hall of Fame career. At this point in time, he was third on the all time HR list. It was a real thrill for the large Shea crowd & they gave "the Say hey Kid" a standing ovation.

In the Dodger 7th, Tom Paciorek led off with a double & Davey Lopes singled to right field, moving Paciorek to third. Mets lefty pitcher; Jon Matlack, who always had a great pick off move, threw to first & caught Lopes off balance. He was caught in a run down, as Mets first baseman John Milner & second baseman Felix Millan threw back & forth trying to tag him out. Short stop Jim Fregosi also got in the mix as did right fielder Rusty Staub. 

Jon Matlack
Rusty came running in from right field, took Milner's throw & finally tagged out Lopes. At third base Paciorek broke for home & tried to score, Staub after making the tag, alertly threw home to catcher Duffy Dyer who tagged Paciorek out for a most unusual 1-3-6-3-4-3-4-7-2 inning ending double play.

 Matlack & Downing pitched to the tie game until the bottom of the 7th inning, when Doug Rau came on for the Dodgers.

In the bottom of the 8th, with Doug Rau now pitching for the Dodgers, Felix Millan plunked a one out single to right field. After Mays went down looking, Staub came up & capped off  his big day with another RBI double, putting New York up for good 4-2.

Matlack went the distance, allowing just one earned run on seven hit, striking out four batters. The win had the struggling Mets at 23-27 now 7.5 games behind the first place Chicago Cubs.

Trivia: The 1973 Mets went on to win the NL Pennant & fall one game short of a World's Championship. Rusty Staub was one of the main reasons the Mets went so far that season. He led the team in batting (.279) RBIs (79) doubles (36) walks (74) & on base % (.361).

In the post season he hit a combined .341 with 4 HRs 11 RBIs & 5 walks posting a .413 on base.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering Vixen Founder / Guitarist; Jan Kuehnemund (1961-2013)

-
Image
centerfieldmaz was shocked to learn of the sudden passing of Jan Kuehnemund, the founding member of the all female metal band Vixen. Jan was a fantastic guitarist, song writer & women pioneer in Heavy Metal. I am a huge fan of hard rock all girl bands & Vixen were one my long time favorites. Janice Lynn Kuehnemund was born November 18th, 1961 in St. Paul Minnesota. The female guitarist formed one of the first all female Metal bands in Minnesota with singer Janet Gardner while in high school in 1980. By 1985 they moved the band to Los Angles California, to be part of the Heavy Metal scene. In 1987 the classic Vixen line up of Jan Kuehnemund (lead guitar) Janet Gardner (vocals/ guitar) Share Pederson (bass) & Roxy Petrucci (drums) formed & released their debut album the following year. Vixen 1988 In a world of all male Heavy Metal bands during its heyday, Vixen were groundbreaking in being an all female metal band. The Runaways, with Joan Jett & Lita Ford
Read more

Remembering Bobby Ojeda's Tragic Boating Accident (1993)

-
Image
Steve Olin, Tim Crews & Bob Ojeda March 22 nd 1993: was an off day from Spring Training, for three Cleveland Indians pitchers; Former Mets 1986 World Champion pitcher; Bobby Ojeda, Tim Crews & Steve Olin. The three friends, took out an 18-foot open-air bass boat & went out fishing & gator hunting in the darkness of the evening on Lake Nellie in Clermont, Florida. Tragedy struck, when the boat rammed into a private dock that jutted out some 250 feet into the still waters. Two other Cleveland Indians personnel had arrived to meet the fishing party just as the horror took place. They heard Bob Ojeda saying they needed help. The two men jumped into the water and called out for someone to call 911. 27 year old pitcher; Steve Olin was killed instantly. 31 year old pitcher; Tim Crews was alive but was struggling to breathe suffering from massive head wounds. Bobby Ojeda was in & out of shock, he was suffering from head lacerations but was coherent. The
Read more

Remembering Batgirl: Yvonne Craig (1937-2015)

-
Image
centerfieldmaz interrupts baseball with a sad note on one of his favorite actresses. Being a huge Batman (TV series) fan Yvonne Craig has been someone I adored since I was a child.  As a boy I always hoped the Batgirl cycle would wiz by on the opening credits, meaning it would be a Batgirl episode. I didn't realize why until I got older & liked girls. For myself & millions of young boys of the 60's / 70's Batgirl was one of our first crushes. But her character also she added so much more than that to the final season of Batman. She was special in so many ways ... rest in peace Batgirl! Yvonne Joyce Craig was born May 16th 1937 in Taylorville, Illinois. As a young girl she was a talented ballet dancer, getting accepted to the prestigious Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She eventually moved to Los Angeles & began an acting career. She landed a part in Gidget (1959) as one of Gidget's beach girl friends. Yvonne began dating Elvis Presley & landed r
Read more

Remembering Dawn Wells- Mary Ann From Gilligan's Island

-
Image
  getting away from baseball for a bit.......................... Dawn Alberta Wells was born October 18th 1938 in Reno, Nevada. She first attended college at the elite Stephens College in Missouri, majoring in chemistry. She then fell in love with acting & transferred to the University of Washington at Seattle, finishing with a Degree in Theater. By 1959 the brunette Ms. Wells was crowned Miss Nevada & represented that state in the  1960 Miss America Pageant, held in Atlantic City. She soon moved to Hollywood. In 1962 she married talent agent Larry Rosen, who helped her career. They would divorce in 1967 & have no children. She appeared in many TV shows of the early  sixties, until landing the role she is forever remembered for, Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island. Gilligan's' Island , was a big show for, me & millions of my generation. We were first generation in it's reruns, whether after school or later at night. The simple show, kept us laughing at its si
Read more

The 1970's Oakland A's Ball Girls- (MLB's First)

-
Image
In the days of the early seventies the Oakland A's won three straight Championships & changed the face of baseball forever.  The team's controversial owner was known to be cheap in paying his star players & known to meddle in the teams on field affairs. He drove managers crazy & even had Dick Williams resign after winning his second straight World Series. But Finley also revolutionized baseball in many other ways. He was instrumental in getting the designated hitter in the American League & have the World Series played at night, so fans could attend after work. He gave his players fancy names like Catfish, Blue Moon & True Blue.  When his star Reggie Jackson refused to shave his beard, he encouraged the whole team to grow facial hair by paying them $200 each.  The A's team even grew their hair long, a sign of the times. But before that baseball players had not had facial or long hair since the 1800's.  He introduced bright colored yello
Read more