Good morning Mets fans – I have to run out the door to soccer practice, so lest you think I live on a world where Santana doesn’t exist – I’ll be killing time at soccer very shortly.
September 11, 1987. This is one Mets game I can never forget. The Mets had injury problems you wouldn’t believe (unless you were alive in 2009), almost brought Tom Seaver back, and scratched and clawed all the way back….they were going to catch the Cardinals after all that…and then Terry Pendleton stepped to the plate as Osh41 and I stood out in right field on the Field Level at Shea…
Daaar-ryl, Daaar-ryl,” sang the faithful, and Darryl Strawberry came out of the dugout to acknowledge the cheering after his two-run homer in the first inning. “Mooo-kie, Mooo-kie,” the fans crooned after Moookie Wilson hit a home run in the second, and Wilson’s wife, Rosa, sitting behind home plate, hugged the guy next to her, who happened to be Richard Nixon. “Ho-Jo, Ho-Jo,” the crowd bayed at the man standing on second base in the fourth, and Howard Johnson tipped his cap after a successful steal that made him the eighth player, and first balding infielder, to join the 30/30 Club for those players who amass 30 homers and 30 stolen bases in a season. “Sweep, sweep,” they chirped.
Chops were being licked all over Shea Stadium last Friday night as the New York Mets, leading the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 in the ninth, closed to within one out, one strike even, of slicing the Cards’ first-place lead in theNational League East to a measly half game.
From SI’s “Take That!” – you youngsters will definitely want to read it.
