More greatness from Faith and Fear. I don’t remember this at all.
In August of 1981, after a seven-week strike had been settled, the Mets invited people to attend their intrasquad games for free. Baseball-deprived since mid-June, I jumped on a Long Island Rail Road train or two (including one that wasn’t scheduled to stop at Shea, but the conductor was very nice to a clueless 18-year-old version of me) and practically ran to Gate C so I could be part of the first Mets baseball since June 11. This was the summer before I left for college, so I wanted every drop I could get. There were no tickets necessary. Just walk in and take a seat on the Field Level.
I figured it would be a festive afternoon in Flushing, but not really. The Mets basically chose up sides and played ball. I might be imagining this, but I kind of remember Lee Mazzilli serving as manager for one side of Mets and Doug Flynn managing the other. I also don’t think they bothered turning on the scoreboard. There were no concessions open. No public address announcements were made. It was just a bunch of guys in blue Mets warmup tops shaking off the rust and reacquainting themselves with the tools of their trade very, very quietly. There were maybe 500 of us taking in their maneuvers. We made a little noise, but after a while, not that much.
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