Remembering Mets History (1973) Buzz Capra Saves the Game at Shea Hours After Attending His Dad's Funeral in Illinois

Wednesday June 27th, 1973: Mets 25-year-old pitcher Buzz Capra attended his father's funeral that morning in Illinois outside of Chicago. He quickly caught a flight back to New York to join the team & was ready in case needed for those nights Twi-night double header against the Phillies at Shea Stadium.

Capra was in his third season, having come up in 1971. He had been used as both a starter & reliever in those three seasons. He began 1973 at AAA Tidewater getting called up on June 11th.

The Mets had lost seven of their last nine & fell into fifth place. Soon a New York Post newspaper poll would ask the fans who should get fired, manager Yogi Berra, GM Bob Scheffing or Chairman M. Donald Grant. The fans chose Grant with Scheffing right behind him. With the popular Yogi Berra was safe from the fans there was no way the front office was going to anger them & the season went on.

At the time the Cubs were in first place with a 7.5 game lead over a good Montreal Expo team. But in July the Cubs would lose 15 of 17 games knocking them back down in the standings. In the crazy year of the NL East, the Mets had yet to make their way up the ladder to clinch the division & win the pennant.

Danny Ozark's Phillies were 33-36 at the time & would finish last for the third straight season.

In the first game of this double header, a big crowd of 31,095 came out to a wet She Stadium as the Mets George Stone (3-2) would go up against Barry Lersch (2-2).

In the bottom of the 1st inning, the Mets had one of their biggest innings of the year, scoring seven runs with nine hits sending 12 men to bat. It started with three straight singles from Wayne Garrett, Felix Millan & an RBI single from Rusty Staub.

After a fielder's choice & base hit from Ed Kranepool, the Mets got four consecutive RBI singles from Jim Gosger, Ron Hodges, Teddy Martinez & the pitcher George Stone giving them a 7-0 lead.

In the top of the 2nd, slugger Greg Luzinski homered, then three singles including an RBI single from the Phillies pitcher Barry Lersch made it a 7-2 game. 

In the top of the 3rd, Luzinski singled & Mike Schmidt drew a walk leading to Mike Anderson's three run HR bringing the Phillies back to withing two runs.

In the top of the 5th, Mike Anderson & Bob Boone singled, then Larry Bowa bunted down to third base, Wayne Garrett missed the ball allowing Anderson to score. 

Bob Boone attempted to score as well but was thrown out at home by Ed Kranepool in left field, with catcher Ron Hodges applying the tag. Stone then ended the inning striking out Barry Lersch.

Trivia: For George Stone he went on to have a fine year going 12-3 with a 2.80 ERA. In this game he gave up a season high six runs, five earned.

In the top of the 6th inning, Yogi Berra called upon Buzz Capra to come in relief making his fourth appearance of the season. Capra retired the side in order that inning. In the top of the 7th, he issued a leadoff walk to Greg Luzinski but then struck out Mike Schmidt & Del Unser, then got Bob Boone to line out to left field.

In the 8th Capra did issue another walk but retired the other three Phillies easily. In the top of the 9th, he struck out Bill Robinson, then got Luzinski to pop up in the infield & ended the game with Mike Schmidt grounding out to Teddy Martinez at short.

For Buzz Capra it was an emotional save on an emotional day that was a very bust one. Just hours after attending his dad's funeral in Illionois, he pitched four scoreless, hitless innings, striking out four & walking two earning his first career save.

Buzz Capra Trivia: In the 1973 pennant season, Capra went 2-7 for the Mets making 24 appearances all in relief, mopping up & finishing off ten games. 

He did not pitch in the post season although he was involved in a fight with the Reds Pedro Borbon during the Bud Harrelson Pete Rose brawl in Game #3 of the NLCS at Shea Stadium. 

Capra still has a memento from that game, his cap in which Borbon had taken a bite out of after realizing he had put it on his head instead of his Reds cap.

In 1974 Capra had his contract purchased by the Braves, there he won the ERA title (2.28) going 16-8 before arm troubles ruined his career.