A lengthier than usual excerpt from Mets.com. The BAT dinner will celebrate the 50th year of the Mets.
They will be coming back in droves this winter, telling stories of the highs and lows and the boys of summers past, because Baseball Assistance Team (B.A.T.) announced that it will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Mets at the 23rd annual “Going to Bat for B.A.T.” fundraising dinner on Jan. 24, 2012, at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel.
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Kiner, 88 and cracking jokes Wednesday, has been there for the whole half-century as a Mets broadcaster, following his own Hall of Fame career as a feared slugger. He noted that it was during his first Major League season with Pittsburgh in 1946 that he represented the National League and Allie Reynolds represented the American League as a pension plan was introduced for MLB players.
“It really was the basis for the beginning of the greatest pension plan in the history of all business,” he recalled. “It was a wonderful story and still is.”
Kiner will be among those who fans flock to see for an autograph at the B.A.T. dinner. He said of the 50th-anniversary celebration: “In a way, it means everything to me. I spent 50 years with the Mets from their beginning in 1962 to broadcasting their games ever since. I still work, in fact. Of course, the Mets have been a major part of our life in sports.
“The one thing about being around for 50 years, you can tell a lot of lies and nobody’s around to refute it,” he said. “I was there with the Mets in 1962, and that was the start of a wonderful experience of broadcasting baseball games for a New York City team. We had some great years, and they also had a lot of bad years, but the whole thing turned into a wonderful experience for me.
“The only thing that sort of bothers me about the whole matter, a lot of people come up to me and say, ‘Didn’t you used to be Ralph Kiner?’ Well, I still am Ralph Kiner. I was a baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1946, and that was the start of what became one of the great pensions of all-time.”
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For more information about B.A.T., to purchase tickets for the dinner, or to make a donation, phone 212-931-7821 or visit BaseballAssistanceTeam.com.
