Remembering Mets History (1977) Shea Stadium During The 1977 Black Out

July 13th, 1977: The night began as 14,626 fans came out to Shea Stadium to see Joe Torre's last place Mets (34-53) take on a hot first place Chicago Cubs team (55-32) led by Herman Franks. 

'77 Cubs: On May 28th, the Cubs had jumped into first place & remained there over two months staying atop the NL East until August 6th. But from there on they went 18-37 finishing fourth at 81-81.

In New York, times were bad at Shea Stadium. It had been 26 days since Mets traded away the fans beloved Tom Seaver & to a lesser extent, Dave Kingman, the teams only true slugger. It was the start of some very dark years for Mets fans. It's fitting the lights went out almost to confirm these dark times were here.

Tonight featured a good pitching matchup, as Jerry Koosman (6-10) went up against the Cubs Ray Burris (9-8). The previous year Kooz won twenty games & was runner up in the Cy  Young voting. He had lost four of his last five starts. Ray Burris had lost his last two decisions as well. Burris would pitch in 15 games for the Mets two years later (1979).

It was a very hot humid, New York night, the start of a nine day heat wave that would devastate the city many ways.

In the top of the 1st, the game began with Ivan DeJesus grounding out to Bobby Valentine at short stop. Jerry Koosman walked Jose Cardinal & gave up a base hit to Larry Bitner. 

The former AL New Yorker Bobby Murcer now a Cub, grounded into an inning ending double play.

In the bottom of the 1st, the Mets went down in order.

In the top of the 2nd, Koosman walked Jerry Morales then Steve Ontiveros hit a two run HR giving the Cubs an early 2-0 lead. Koosman then struck out the next three batters. 

In the 3rd, he struck out his fourth straight batter then got two ground ball outs. 

In the top of the 4th, Koosman gave up a hit & walk but struck out three more batters. In the top of the 5th, he collected two more strike outs & added another the next inning giving him eleven strikeouts after six innings of work. 

In the home 5th, Mike Vail homered for New York making it a 2-1 game. 

In the bottom of the 6th inning, Jerry Koosman led off & grounded out for the first out. The next
batter was Lenny Randle, stepping in to face Ray Burris. 

At 930 PM, the lights went out at Shea Stadium & everything went dark, Lenny Randle thought God had come to take him away. 

Quotes- Lenny Randle: "I thought God, I'm gone. I thought for sure He was calling me. I thought it was my last at bat."

The '77 Black Out: Little did anyone know that all of New York City had gone dark in a wide scale power outage. 

The original problems began when three separate lightning strikes took place within a 22-minute period at Con Edison's nuclear power plant at Indian Point, the Buchannan & Yonkers sub stations. The remaining power lines could not handle the load & the secondary lines became overloaded. 

This led to the New York State Power Pool Operators to order an electrical load shed, as its last resort. This became the famous 1977 New York City Blackout. 

Mets Catcher John Stearns

lights candle at Shea Stadium

Back at the Ball Park: Lenny Randle swung the bat & ran the bases in fun. He later said he remembers being tackled by Cubs players  Ivan DeJesus & Manny Trillo who thought he was showing up the pitcher. Ray Burris claimed he threw the ball at Randle but no other reports verify that action.

Shea Stadium had a backup generator that came on keeping the Stadium partially lit, as well as keeping the public address system working. 

Originally, it was thought that the game would resume as soon as power was restored. 

The Mets players made the best of it, some of them entertained the Shea fans by doing a comedy routine on the infield, in the partially lit stadium. On the mound Bob Apodaca & behind the plate Jerry Grote. 

On the infield, Doug Flynn, Bobby Valentine & Bud Harrelson, who had a broken finger took mock infield practice without a ball. Pitcher Jackson Todd took the first base position. The fans got a laugh out of the effort & gave the players a standing ovation. Some players signed autographs around the dugout & outfield box seat areas. 

Mets pitcher Craig Swan & utility player Joel Youngblood drove their cars onto the field with their headlights on for extra lighting support.

Long Time Shea Stadium organist, Jane Jarvis played White Christmas on a hot humid, New York July night. 

Eventually when it was realized how wide scale the outage was, the game was officially suspended. It was scheduled to continue the next night. The players showered in the dark locker rooms & left the Stadium.

 The Cubs players were driven by bus down Northern Blvd eventually to Manhattan.

Quotes- Ray Burris: "Seeing the rioting & looting first hand was unbelievable, guys everywhere just walking down the street with stolen TV's. It was like people were possesesd We didn't say a word but you start thinking, this is not good. What if they storm or hijack the bus? Or realize there's pro athletes making good money on here?"

The Cubs safely got to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel where they were staying. They had to walk up to
their rooms with candles, since the elevators were not working. The next day they would have the task of carrying their luggage down the stairs to the bus & be ready for a scheduled double header in Philadelphia on Friday.

The fans left Shea Stadium safely, without any reported incidents. 

Shea Stadium Program sold at the
ballpark on that Night

New York Tragedy: In other parts of the city, the low life criminal element struck, as looters took to the streets, breaking into the dark store fronts stealing & walking away with anything they could grab. It was one of the most embarrassing low points in New York City's history as the world watched the events unfold. 

The next day, the power came back briefly but went out again shortly after. In total the blackout would officially last for 25 hours before power was restored for good.

Suspended Game: The baseball game could not be played the next day & was resumed in September, when the Cubs came back to Shea Stadium. 

Jerry Koosman & Ray Burris would both continue where they left off as the Mets would lose the game 4-2.