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Bar Chat

09/25/2008

So Long, Farewell...

New York Mets Quiz: Who were the Mets’ first seven managers (Hint: prior to Joe Torre). Answer below. 

Oregon State 27...#1 USC 21

That other stadium, Shea, is seeing its last games this weekend, unless the Mets make the playoffs. The ballpark is named after former New York attorney William A. Shea, who along with Joan Whitney Payson, a former shareholder in the New York Giants, was responsible for bringing National League baseball back to Gotham following the departure of the Giants and Dodgers. With what would become the New York Metropolitans, or Mets, having their first season in 1962, one of the first tasks was to build a new stadium. 

Actually, way back in 1957, Shea had announced plans for a stadium with a retractable dome (for an as yet undetermined team and league…Shea was exploring the possibility of starting a new one), but the cost was estimated at $1.75 million for the dome itself and it was shelved. 

On April 28, 1960, the bid for the construction of Shea Stadium was awarded to P.J. Carlin and Thomas Crimmons. Well, the two didn’t exactly construct it themselves, they had help, you know, and by January 1961 it was decided the budget would be $16 million and the ballpark ready for the Mets’ inaugural season in 1962. But construction was delayed and due to loose girders and broken beams the Mets were forced to play their first two seasons, 1962-63, in the Polo Grounds. It wasn’t until Oct. 1962 that the new park being constructed was named after William Shea. The costs were also rising rapidly and the grand total was now $26 million. 

By spring 1964, New York was not only gearing up for the new ballpark, but also the world’s fair next door. As it was going up, Shea Stadium received its share of criticism. Jimmy Breslin, in his book “Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game?” wrote, “Crawling over the steel beams on this day is the flower of New York’s construction trades, a group of 483 tin hatted workers…and then it hits you. Now you realize, for the first time what this is all about….They are building a brand new stadium for Marvin Throneberry.” 

Shea Stadium was dedicated on April 16, 1964, as the Department of Sanitation Band (so apropos) was on hand to play tunes like “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Casey Stengel stole the show. 

“I have two bottles here. One has water from that grand tributary, the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. The Gowanus is part of the legend of the Dodgers, near whose banks was Ebbets Field. Although you couldn’t see the Gowanus from Ebbets Field, you certainly could smell it. The other bottle has water taken from the Harlem River at the very foot of the Polo Grounds. Although it is not customary to christen a stadium like a ship, I’m now pouring this water into the ground here to mix with the waters of the Flushing River below our stadium.” And with that, Shea, holding out one champagne bottle in each hand, poured its water contents onto the field letting it mix into the soil. [I know this is emotional…just let it all out. I have.] 

And so on Friday, April 17, 1964, before over 48,000 fans, the Mets played the Pirates and lost 4-3. Willie Stargell had the first homer in the new ballpark. By the way, a season ticket for a field level seat was all of $215. Box seats were $3.50, reserved seats $2.50. 

Of course Shea Stadium would be the scene of The Beatles’ historic 1965 event, drawing 55,000, a new world record for a pop concert. The cost of admission was $5.65. 45,000 showed at their second show in Aug. 1966, where they shared the bill with the Cyrkle, the Ronettes, the Remains, and Bobby Hebb. Tickets for this show ranged from $4.50 to $5.75 (add 50 cents to each order for the cost of postage and handling). And who promoted the shows? The great Sid Bernstein. [Somewhere on my site I have a lot more on these concerts if you’re interested.] 

Back to the Mets, Shea is really all about 1969 and 1986. Next year being the 40th anniversary of The Miracle Mets, I’m going to cover the season in great detail, whether you like it or not. 

The source for much of the above, incidentally, is a terrific book titled “Shea Stadium” by Jason D. Antos. Super pictures. Pick it up. 

Johnny Mac: “I was an original Shea guy, actually having gone to a few games at the Polo Grounds. My grandmother was a diehard Brooklyn Dodger fan and adopted the Mets and took us to many a game, including the Banner Day doubleheader each year. 

“One year, having just received a brand new first baseman’s mitt, a confirmation gift, I was at the park early for batting practice, tried to reach for one along the fence, and dropped the mitt. I was so in trouble! But Ron Swoboda came jogging over, picked up the mitt, stuck a ball in it and gave it back to me.”  

Phil W.: “The first game I ever went to was batting helmet day. Warren Spahn was pitching for the Mets. It was 1965, Spahn’s last season, and I was 7. Our seats were in the upper deck and I was walking around with my father when some guy grabbed my batting helmet off my head and put his own helmet on mine. His was broken with the foam missing. Needless to say I was very upset. 

“And there was the playoff game in ’73 against the Reds when Bud Harrelson and Pete Rose got in their celebrated fight. The Mets lost in extra innings with Pete Rose hitting a solo home run [off Harry Parker…had to look it up, Phil] in the 12th. Rusty Staub made a great catch as he ran into the wall, injuring his shoulder (though he played hurt during the subsequent World Series), and Tug McGraw pitched over four scoreless innings in relief. The place was going crazy as McGraw thumped his glove against his thigh. 

“That turned out to be the greatest sports day of my life as my dad [ed. ‘Stu Baby’] took me from Shea to the Knicks opener at the Garden, where they handed out their championship rings from the previous spring and raised the banner.” 

I myself had quite a few memories of Shea growing up, though I only faintly remember my first game in 1966. It was ’67, now age nine, that I really became a fan and lived and breathed the Mets (and Jets). In those early years before I was allowed to take the train in, Shea was a miserable drive for my father to take the four of us but he did it a couple of times a year, never complaining. I do remember once in 1970, I think, when the traffic was so awful at rush hour we arrived in about the fifth inning of what would be a Jim McAndrew shutout and in those days games flew by….like it was rare to have one last more than 2 ½ hours. I wasn’t a happy camper, seeing only like an hour of the game. 

I went to the Mets pennant-clinching win against the Braves in 1969 when my dad picked up tickets from a fellow in the Summit post office, of all places. Took a day off from school and everything. 

Growing up I went to 3 or 4 games a year. Aside from Mother’s Day, which the Mets and Yankees rotated for years and where I not only saw Mantle’s 500th, but Willie Mays’ first as a Met in 1972, we also had a tradition of going to Fan Appreciation Day. Often these were doubleheaders and you talk about a long day for Dad. I have a memory of (then) Richie Allen hitting 4 homers in a twin bill as the Phillies destroyed the Mets in both games. 

It was probably in 8th grade that I was allowed to take the train in to New York, a big deal in those days. That opened up a whole new world for us kids and lots of college basketball at the Garden, aside from the Knicks, as well as the Mets and Jets. 

And I have a vivid memory when I was 23 or 24 of a doubleheader with my brother and future sister-in-law that had a long rain delay in between. Let’s just say the whole day went from about 1:00 to 10:00 p.m. and copious amounts of Rheingold were consumed by the three of us. 

By the time I was 30, though, I only went to one or two games a year and the last time I went was last year for Ralph Kiner Night. 

As for the stadium itself, Shea was a dump even when it was just five years old….And then there were the Jets games. I went to a few of them (before the team moved to the Meadowlands) and that’s when Shea really showed its true colors, as in the floor of the concourse was… well, let’s just say that when I’ve noted Jets fans are the worst, it’s a well-deserved reputation. We’re pigs. 

Meanwhile, the Mets are threatening to pull off another epic September collapse. Joel Sherman / New York Post: 

“This cannot happen again. The Mets now have six games [ed. now five] remaining to prevent a second straight collapse. But so much more is at stake now than simply the infamy that would be attached to consecutive years of rolling into the fetal position. 

“The main core of Mets players must understand this becomes part of their permanent record. You can’t choke away the playoffs two years in a row and not have it attached to you forever. There is choking and then there is CHOKING. And two consecutive years of this would be CHOKING.” 

I’ve written before of Ms. Garber, the pioneering sportswriter who died on Sunday in Winston-Salem, N.C. at the age of 92. So from a piece I did long ago: 

When I was at Wake Forest there was a woman who reported on the sports scene for the Winston-Salem Journal, Mary Garber. Back in 2000 Sports Illustrated had an article on her and all the time I was at school I had no idea what a fascinating person she was.

Garber covered the sports scene in Winston-Salem for over 60 years. Her first job at the Twin-City Sentinel was handed her near the end of World War II when a teenage boy who produced the sports page after school enlisted in the Navy and there wasn’t any man to take his place.

After the war you can imagine the feeling towards Mary in the press box. “Once, I was sent to cover a football game at Duke, but they stuck me in the wives’ box,” Garber recalled. “All through the game the wives blabbed and the kids screamed, and I thought I would lose my mind.”

Mary was one of the first women to cover the college football and basketball beats. One day a high school basketball player tore his shorts during a game and the coach asked Garber to sew them up. A 1958 Sentinel article reporting Garber’s acceptance of a writing award said, “Miss Garber has received nationwide publicity as one of the few full-time female sportswriters. In addition, she bakes a mighty fine cake.”

Garber interviewed everyone from Vince Lombardi to Chris Evert, Satchell Paige to Brian Piccolo (a Wake alum). She also championed the overlooked and the bench warmers, particularly African-Americans before they were widely accepted in the South. Said legendary Winston-Salem State basketball coach, Clarence (Big House) Gaines, “Nobody cared much about black players 40 years ago, but Miss Mary covered a lot of things that weren’t too popular. She went out of her way to see that everybody got a fair shake.”

[On learning of Big House’s death, Garber said he “was like my brother.  Our families were part of each other,” adding, “The many championships he won seem unimportant compared to the influence he had on the lives of young men and women. He was respected by people of all races and creeds. We’ll never see someone like him again.”]

Back in 1947 Mary traveled to Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field to watch Jackie Robinson play and he was to become the most important influence in her life. “When people would step on me and hurt my feelings, I would look at how he kept his mouth shut and did his job as best he could with the belief that someday he would be accepted.”

In 1977 she wrote a column about Robinson’s legacy. “Has it really been thirty years since I sat in Ebbets Field and saw Jackie Robinson play?...Jackie is given credit for breaking the color line and giving thousands of black athletes a chance to play. But
he did more. He made it possible for thousands of black athletes to fail or succeed on their own merits.”

Garber says she received her most satisfying compliment while covering a Soap Box Derby in the ‘50s when she heard two black boys in the bleachers. One said to the other, “See that lady down there? That’s Mary Garber. She doesn’t care who you are, but if
you do something good, she’ll write about you.” [Source: Sports Illustrated / Tim Crothers] 

In June 2005, Garber became the first woman to receive the AP’s Red Smith Award. 

Phil W. passed along a piece from the Winston-Salem Journal by Bill Cole that talked of the relationship Garber had with Bob Knight. 

“Knight, the man with more victories than any other college coach, might have been closer to Garber than (Mike) Krzyzewski. When his Texas Tech team played in Winston-Salem in March 2007 in the NCAA East Regional, Knight planned to visit Garber. He had a busy day getting his team ready to play Boston College, but he had time for her. 

“She was in declining health then and wasn’t having a good day when Knight wanted to visit. Mary turned down his request through her late sister, Neely. Knight was hopeful of at least talking to her by phone, but she did not have one in her room and didn’t own a cell phone. 

“They didn’t speak to each other then, but in his press conference the day before Texas Tech played, Knight used the occasion to praise Garber for being a good person and a good sportswriter. When he learned late last year that Garber’s sister had died, he sent condolences and some Texas Tech memorabilia. 

“Garber and Knight were an odd match. She was barely five feet tall and never said a word unless necessary. Knight is 6-5 with a volcanic temper that could erupt in a flash. The opposites not only attracted but also formed a bond. 

“On March 12, 1976, Knight was in Charlotte to coach his Indiana team in the NCAA East Regional. Indiana won 63-62 against Furman to advance. Knight wasn’t pleased with his team, and he let a few profanities fly in the postgame press conference. 

“He looked down from the dais and saw Garber sitting in the front row. 

“ ‘Mary, you don’t mind if I cuss some do you?’ Knight asked. 

--After a stupendous 24-13 record last year, here are my first three selections of the college football season. Remember, kids. Bet no more than $42,000 of your college savings and, where appropriate, get your parents’ permission beforehand. 

--F. Carter Smith and Eric Lenkowitz had this sad tale in the New York Post: 

“Estranged former Yankee Roger Clemens was ‘heartbroken’ when his former team left him out of Sunday night’s Stadium-farewell festivities, which included a video montage honoring the Bronx Bombers’ greatest pitchers – but not him, a relative told The Post yesterday. 

“Clemens was sitting at home in hurricane-ravaged Texas, in front of a battery-operated television on his living room couch, when the team delivered a final crushing blow to its former star. 

“Clutching wife Debbie’s hand on one side and mother-in-law Jan Wild’s on the other, Clemens tuned in to his final team’s last home game hoping for some recognition for helping win two World Series titles, Wild said. 

“When the team played the video celebrating its greatest players at every position, the steroid-scandal-scarred Clemens was nowhere to be seen. 

“ ‘Debbie and I held his hand while we watched the game, and he was heartbroken,’ said Wild, 70. ‘Not mad. He still loves baseball and the Yankees, but it was sad what they did to him.’” 

That’s what happens when you mess with steroids, lie to your wife, sleep with 16-year-olds, and treat America like a bunch of chumps, Roger. 

--So after seeing the Jets get their butts kicked by San Diego, some of us (including my brother this time) ask, just why is it we got Brett Favre? And why was it that a healthy Chad Pennington wasn’t good enough? The Jets are now 1-2 and this coming week, at home against Arizona, the boo-birds will be out in force if Favre doesn’t win.  

--My heart goes out to the people of Detroit. First, I like many of you thought the Tigers had made a brilliant trade in acquiring Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera and were World Series bound (where in my case they would beat the Mets). Instead, having sold a ton of tickets before the season started, the Tigers have stumbled to a 71-85 mark. 

But it’s not just the Tigers. The dreadful Lions are off to an 0-3 start, the Michigan Wolverines suck, and Detroit has had to deal with ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and a sick auto sector.  

“Buzzing around the 17th green, the United States players extolled the team-bonding skills of (Captain Paul) Azinger. Faldo’s thin skin, the need to have his sports shrink by his side even out on the course and his grating sense of humor, had confirmed what we knew all along, which is that he is no natural leader. But what we had not expected was that a man who had dedicated himself so much to this job would make such a colossal mistake.” 

One wonders why anyone would want to be captain. Curtis Strange’s reputation took a hit for example when he was on the losing end. 

Meanwhile, Faldo’s best golfer at the Ryder Cup, Ian Poulter, had the following to say before catching his flight back to Europe. 

“I was body-checked by a certain member of their side on Saturday afternoon. [Anthony Kim] It was someone who just decided that I wasn’t there and they would like to walk through me, as opposed to walking around me, as I was walking off the [14th] tee. He decided to drop his right shoulder into me. I said, ‘that was awfully nice’ and he said, ‘What?’” 

Asked to confirm if it was Kim, Poulter said: “I’ll let you take one guess and make your own mind up, it was over the line. I don’t take too kindly to someone you would respect as a golfer trying to barge their way through you as if you weren’t there. That’s pathetic.” Chill out, Ian. 

--Last December I was at the Berlin Zoo and reported to you I had seen the famous polar bear, Knut. Well, it seems Knut’s 44-year-old zookeeper, Thomas Doerflein, was found dead at his home. Surprisingly, Knut himself has not been called in for questioning. 

--In an effort to stay relevant, actor Robert Wagner writes of a four-year romance he had with actress Barbara Stanwyck, from back in 1953 when he was 22 and she 45. 

“I would say she gave me self-esteem,” writes Wagner in his new memoir “Pieces Of My Heart.” 

--We note the death of 400 sheep, killed when their trailer overturned in New South Wales, Australia. Then again, they were headed to the slaughterhouse anyway. 

--What’s this? “New evidence has experts rethinking how the (Titanic) sank”? 

“For decades after the disaster, there was little doubt about what sank the Titanic. When the ‘unsinkable’ ship, the largest, most luxurious ocean liner of its time, crashed into an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912, it took more than 1,500 of its 2,200 passengers to the bottom. As the ship slipped into the North Atlantic, so, too, did the secret of how and why it sank.” 

The two initial government investigations blamed the iceberg and not the ship itself. Blame fell on the captain, E.J. Smith, who was condemned “for racing at 22 knots through a known ice field in the dark waters.” 

But historians, naval architects and materials scientists argue in two new books there is fresh evidence that “it wasn’t the ship’s steel that was weak; it was the rivets, the all-important metal pins that held the steel hull plates together.” 

Following the fateful night in April 1912, it would be 70 years before scientists were able to study the first physical evidence of the wreck. “As luck would have it, the first piece of steel pulled up from the bottom seemed to put an end to the mystery. When the steel was placed in ice water and hit with a hammer, it shattered. For much of the 1990s, scientists thought this ‘brittle’ steel was responsible for the massive flooding.” But later scientists found out the initial piece tested was just unusually weak, while the rest of Titanic’s steel passed the tests. 

But the latest research is focusing on the 3 million rivets. “Researching in the (shipbuilder) Harland & Wolff archives, they discovered that the shipbuilder’s ambitious plans to build three large ships at the same time had put a huge strain on its shipyard. ‘Not because of cost, but because of time pressures, they started using lower-quality material to fill the gaps,’ said scientist Tim Foecke, a co-author of ‘What Really Sank the Titanic: New Forensic Discoveries.’” As Justin Ewers writes, “This substandard iron was pounded by hand into the ship’s bow and stern, where the large machines required to pound in steel rivets didn’t fit. Steel rivets, meanwhile, which are much stronger than iron, were put in the more-accessible middle of the ship. When the Titanic hit the iceberg…the weaker iron rivets in the bow popped, opening seams in the hull – and hurrying the ship’s demise.   It’s no accident, Foecke says, that the flooding stopped at the point in the hull where the steel rivets began.” 

Harland & Wolff, now an engineering and design firm, rejects the claims the rivets were weak and that there was a cover-up. 

And that, folks, is your Titanic rivet update, Thurs., Sept. 25, 2008. 

--I was looking at Mickey Mantle’s stats on baseballreference.com, where you can get box scores for individual contests, looking for the exact game I saw him hit his 500th, when it struck me. In 1961 when Mantle had 54 homers and Roger Maris 61, both had just 16 doubles. Granted, you have to be a total junkie to give two hoots about this little factoid, but it’s really pretty bizarre. For example, in the four seasons in which Babe Ruth hit 50 or more… 

So I brought it up to Johnny Mac and he points out that the same season teammate Tony Kubek had 38, but overall the Yanks were last in the league with 194, but clubbed 240 home runs, far and away the most in the league. For example, in 2008, there isn’t one team (out of 30 in all of baseball) that is anywhere close to having more home runs than doubles. It boggles the mind. [C’mon, there has to be someone else out there whose mind is boggled by this.] 

--We note the passing of former Vikings’ linebacker Wally Hilgenberg, 66, who died of Lou Gehrig’s disease. Hilgenberg played 16 seasons in the NFL, including 12 with Minnesota where he appeared in four Super Bowls. 

--Many of you are upset over the latest Rock and Roll Hall of Fame fiasco, the 2009 nominees for induction. 

Jeff Beck (already in as a member of the Yardbirds), Chic, Wanda Jackson, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Metallica, Run-D.M.C., the Stooges, War and Bobby Womack. 

Believe it or not, five will get in. Dan L. is very upset that once again KISS is screwed. Liz S. wonders why the Turtles still aren’t in, or Chicago. I concur with both. 

And what the heck is it with a-hole Jann Wenner and wanting to continually open up the Hall to rap? Rap ain’t Rock, sports fans. Memo to Rappers. Get your own freakin’ museum…you could have two wings, East Coast and West Coast, with metal detectors for each. 

Anyway, if I had to vote on the above list, sure, put Metallica in.  

As for War, I love the group. Their Greatest Hits album is as good as any in terms of listenability throughout. They had seven top tens. 

But my favorite is actually the #35 Billboard Pop tune “All Day Music.” 

So does War deserve to be in? No…not by Hall of Fame standards. But compared to many of the artists that the Rock Hall has already enshrined? Yes. So War gets a vote. 

My only other vote would go to Little Anthony and The Imperials, even though they only had three top tens…

Little Anthony spanned Doo-Wop and Rock. And he had flare. So Little Anthony and The Imperials…you deserve to be in the Hall, too. 

That’s it. Just those three. Now discuss amongst yourselves. 

--Jeff B. assured me Abe Vigoda is still alive. And Clay Aiken announced he’s gay, as if anyone really gives a damn amidst the financial crisis, the return of Stalinist Russia, China’s poisonous food products, the ongoing tragedy in Darfur, and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. [Heh heh] 

Top 3 songs for the week 9/26/64: #1 “Oh, Pretty Woman” (Roy Orbison) #2 “Bread And Butter” (The Newbeats) #3 “The House Of The Rising Sun” (The Animals)…and… #4 “G.T.O.” (Ronny & The Daytonas) #5 “Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand)” (The Shangri-Las…ooh, baby) #6 “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” (Manfred Mann) #7 “Where Did Our Love Go” (The Supremes) #8 “Dancing In The Street” (Martha & The Vandellas) #9 “It Hurts To Be In Love” (Gene Pitney…great tune) #10 “Save It For Me” (The 4 Seasons…mega dittos) 

New York Mets Quiz Answer: First seven managers. 

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