Father’s Day and the Mets – hitting a game with dad in 1982
An excerpt from my eBook Send The Beer Guy which is on sale for just $2.99. When I think back about my dad and the Mets I remember an amalgam of nights that all come together around this box score. I hope you’ll consider picking up a copy of the book, and if you have picked up a copy please leave a nice review.
Randy Jones gets nobody out
June 1, 1982
In my 40’s I have taken to describing myself as a bartender’s son. That’s what I am and who I am. We’re not fancy people, we’re about family. I have a 1992 Civic that still runs, thus I still drive it even though it drives Mrs. Mets Police crazy and I can easily afford a new car.
My dad worked days at a local bar in 1982. One of the regular customers was a guy named Pat. Pat had season tickets since 1964 and was now a widower.
His seats were a odd three-seat-box in that part of Shea behind home plate that faced straight out, but were just to the right of the netting and had nobody in front of us.
More often than not Pat would tip my dad two Mets tickets and use the third ticket for himself. My dad finished up at 6. We lived along the 7 line so we’d head off to the 7:35pm game.
I saw a LOT of the bad early 1980’s Mets teams. Plenty of Mike Scott. Plenty of Randy Jones.
One night I remember is Randy Jones not getting any of the first six batters out. Awful. I was one of the 9,367 fans who made it out to Shea.
A look at the box-score shows that Joe Torre’s Braves beat George Bamberger’s Mets that night. Like most of 1982 it was not one for the ages. Mookie, Stearns, Rusty….but also a mix of Bob Bailor and Tom Veryzer.
Pete Falcone started the next night (with Craig Swan pitching the 9th in relief?) and I bet we were there. The next day the Mets had a road game and Tom Seaver pitched. Oh, he was on the Reds and upped his record to 2 and 6.
On the mound for the Mets against Seaver, Mike Scott. I saw a lot of 1982 Mike Scott and had little reason to fear him.
You may know the name Mike Scott. There was a guy named Mike Scott on the 1986 Astros (we will get to that). Supposedly it was the same guy from the 1982 Mets. I still have trouble believing that.
Mike Scott (Mets version) was a typical Mets pitcher. Took his starts. Didn’t really suck, didn’t really stand out. Not the sort of guy anyone would fear, and not the sort of guy you’d start in a do or die playoff game.
The memories all blur together but on any given night, Dad and Pat would have several (and my recollection is quite a few several) beverages and I would sit in the front solo seat of the three-box with my walkman on listening to either the game or rock music on WPLJ.
One thing that was crazy about going to that many games is that there really is such a thing as too much baseball. I can remember lots of nights hoping he wouldn’t get tickets. If he did, I would go, but sometimes as a kid you just want to stay home. I see that in my own son now as I will sometimes cajole him to go to games.
As I got a little older sometimes I’d get the box for myself and I’d bring some of my friends. I saw a lot of bad baseball in those seats, but I treasure all those nights, and man what I’d do to have one more of those nights as an adult able to have one of those several beers
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