Let me take you back 24 years, to October 25, 1986.
Setting: A cool Fall night.
Place: Shea Stadium.
Time: 10th inning.
Mets are down 5-3 with two outs in the 10th. Gary Carter refusing to be the last out lofted a soft single to left. Then Kevin Mitchell singled. Then Ray Knight singled, scoring Carter to make the score 5-4, and sending Mitchell to third.
Then the AT BAT. Up stepped Mookie Wilson: Everyone remembers "The Play", but I would like to point out another forgotten moment that changed the series and history. On that wild pitch that Bob Stanley threw, Mookie was like an acrobat getting out of the way, and not being hit. If that ball hits him, the bases are loaded and there are still two outs with the Mets down by one. With Wilson jack-knifing out of the way, Mitchell was able to score the tying run easily.
Many Bostonians say if Buckner had made the play... Here is my take: the game was already tied. If Buckner fields that ball, with those two bad ankles, do you really think he would have beaten Mookie to first? Not a snowball's chance below. Stanley was late breaking to first, and people seem to forget how quickly Mookie scooted down the line every day of his baseball life.
Mets win and we live to see a seventh game. One of the greatest comebacks I have ever seen.
Where was I? I was a transfer student at SUNY Cortland. I was known in my brief two months there as Mr. Met. Since I was a transfer student, I was in a dorm, and what started out as a Mets World Series party, quickly turned to a morgue. I will never forget once I saw Backman and Hernandez get out to start the 10th, saying, "I can't believe they lost."
Then the miracle TAKE II began. First Carter. Then Mitchell. Then Knight. Then Mookie. Before the start of the inning, or maybe it was during the inning (give me a break, I was drinking and it was 24 years ago) I stepped out to use the ever disgusting facilities of 2nd West in DeGroat Hall.
Apparently while I was away, the host of this party and fellow fraternity brother, and others, were so upset, that they took the trash can full of empty beer bottles, and dropped them out the window. Needless to say, it was a loud explosion, coming to rest two floors down.
We were so happy the Mets won and we would have a game 7 which no one thought we could lose.
The fun part was a next day when I was called down to see my dorm director. Still high from the exciting game 6, and possible still a bit inebriated, I was told that along with my fellow party members, we were being brought before the Venerable JRB (Judicial Review Board). Not really venerable, just a bunch of geeks who think the had the ability to pass judgment on others. Well, needless to say, or maybe not needless, we were able to run circles around the the Venerable JRB like Mookie Wilson running the bases.
Personally I had fun with it. If "convicted", could have, at the least, been tossed from the dorm. At worst, could have been expelled, but a judgment like that against us would have had to come from President Clark, not a pimply faced honors student who was my age.
One of the RA's (Resident Assitant) never saw the bottles drop, only heard them. We ran with that. We kept asking if she didn't see it, but heard it, how could she be sure it came from my friends window. I reminded her that she came up to my room asking if I or my roommate were lifting weights. We weren't, and acted stunned. What we really did was this: a guy two doors down had a bowling ball. He would roll it to me on the tiled floor. I would scoop it up and deposit it in my closet. By the time Patty, the RA, got to my room, I invited her in to check for weights. Of course she couldn't go into my closed closet. As soon as she left, I would roll the ball back to its rightful owner. She'd be back again. I'd like to think if she ever had a nervous breakdown, I, in some way, had a part in it.
Anyway, I looked Patty in the eye and reminded her of how she heard things, and kept coming to our floor thinking we were lifting weights, but she never found any because we didn't have any. Couldn't she be mistaken about what she heard on October 25, 1986?
Anyway, we were acquitted. I will never forget that night, except for where beer might have clouded my 20 year old mind, but will never forget that magical night and the foolishness of college undergrads.
Where were you and what were doing 24 years ago tonight?
Source: Baseball Almanac
Then the miracle TAKE II began. First Carter. Then Mitchell. Then Knight. Then Mookie. Before the start of the inning, or maybe it was during the inning (give me a break, I was drinking and it was 24 years ago) I stepped out to use the ever disgusting facilities of 2nd West in DeGroat Hall.
Apparently while I was away, the host of this party and fellow fraternity brother, and others, were so upset, that they took the trash can full of empty beer bottles, and dropped them out the window. Needless to say, it was a loud explosion, coming to rest two floors down.
We were so happy the Mets won and we would have a game 7 which no one thought we could lose.
The fun part was a next day when I was called down to see my dorm director. Still high from the exciting game 6, and possible still a bit inebriated, I was told that along with my fellow party members, we were being brought before the Venerable JRB (Judicial Review Board). Not really venerable, just a bunch of geeks who think the had the ability to pass judgment on others. Well, needless to say, or maybe not needless, we were able to run circles around the the Venerable JRB like Mookie Wilson running the bases.
Personally I had fun with it. If "convicted", could have, at the least, been tossed from the dorm. At worst, could have been expelled, but a judgment like that against us would have had to come from President Clark, not a pimply faced honors student who was my age.
One of the RA's (Resident Assitant) never saw the bottles drop, only heard them. We ran with that. We kept asking if she didn't see it, but heard it, how could she be sure it came from my friends window. I reminded her that she came up to my room asking if I or my roommate were lifting weights. We weren't, and acted stunned. What we really did was this: a guy two doors down had a bowling ball. He would roll it to me on the tiled floor. I would scoop it up and deposit it in my closet. By the time Patty, the RA, got to my room, I invited her in to check for weights. Of course she couldn't go into my closed closet. As soon as she left, I would roll the ball back to its rightful owner. She'd be back again. I'd like to think if she ever had a nervous breakdown, I, in some way, had a part in it.
Anyway, I looked Patty in the eye and reminded her of how she heard things, and kept coming to our floor thinking we were lifting weights, but she never found any because we didn't have any. Couldn't she be mistaken about what she heard on October 25, 1986?
Anyway, we were acquitted. I will never forget that night, except for where beer might have clouded my 20 year old mind, but will never forget that magical night and the foolishness of college undergrads.
Where were you and what were doing 24 years ago tonight?
Source: Baseball Almanac
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