The Sunday Memory Drawer - 9/24/69

Last Tuesday was the fiftieth anniversary of this glorious moment.  For me, this was more important than the moon landing.

My baseball team had landed.

I remember then-Mets announcer Lindsey Nelson clocking the moment.  

At 9:07 on September 24.

The other night, I was sitting in my LA home on the computer.   The little digital clock in the corner read 6:06PM.  For some mystical reason, I called a good friend in NY.   We didn't know each other fifty years ago.  We wish we had.  But, despite that, we were bonded by this moment.   

He picked up the phone.  He knew.  As the clock ticked a minute later.

"It's 9:07 on September 24."

Yep.   We shared the euphoria one more time.

Back in 1969, this was the date and time where my Mets had clinched the Eastern Division of the National League after seven years of languishing at the bottom ranks of baseball.   An amazing summer had them going to the playoffs for the first time ever.

I remember the day as cloudy and crisp.   The Mets' magic number to clinch was one.  They were playing a night game vs. the Cardinals and it was their last home game for the season.   It's all I could think about in school that day.  I planned my every moment of the day around the game that night.

It was a rare evening where I was actually ceded control of the color television set in the living room.  Usually, my video nonsense was confirmed to the black and white portable in my room.  But I think even my mother understood what this was all about.  My dad worked nights.  I wished he had been home.

It was over fast.  In two hours and two minutes.  These days, baseball games are usually only in the fifth inning at the two hour mark.  There were 55,000 fans jammed into Shea Stadium on a Wednesday night.  I consider myself lucky that I was in front of the Zenith color console.

It was a shutout and the Mets hit a bunch of home runs.  In the Cardinal line-up on that night was future Mets announcer Tim McCarver.  The game ended on a double play hit by future Mets manager Joe Torre.  Lindsey Nelson gave us the time and then the onslaught of fans quickly saturated the playing surface.   

There was joy.  There was mayhem.  There was me...finally with something to brag about to all my Yankee buddies in the neighborhood.

I remember watching the clubhouse celebrity and it was an out-of-body experience for this youngster.   I could think of little else.   Oddly enough, I didn't have a lot of Met fan friends that I could call on the phone and share the moment with.   The only one handy was my mom.

"That's really nice."

It would have to do.

Which is why I called my pal last Tuesday night.   He's an only child, too, and grew up in the Bronx with not a lot of Met fans around.  We reveled in the moment that had transformed our lives fifty years early.  If only we had shared it together.

Fifty years later, it was just as sweet as the clock made that inevitable move forward.  Click.

It was 9:07PM.   On September 24.

Dinner last night:  Sausage, peppers, and onions.