It occurs to me that the Mets’ Endy Chavez’s catch in the NLCS this month might have made the Top 10 list had the Mets beaten the Cardinals in Game 7. Alas, they did not. Fred must be still in mourning, because he hasn’t posted since then.
So, OK, my #1 favorite sports moment is probably obvious. It happened 20 years ago tomorrow. It was Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. But it wasn’t just the game, it was the atmosphere.
My high school friend Cecily was having her annual Halloween party in Binghamton, so I took the bus from Albany that Saturday morning. At the party, Cecily was dressed as Gary Carter, the Mets catcher, a fairly good likeness, actually. So while we were partying, it was with one eye on the game until about the 9th inning, when we just stood and waited in vain for a Mets victory. Then the Boston Red Sox went up in the top of the 10th, but the Mets tied and then won. Except for Ralph Branca and Bobby Thompson, few opponents are so paired in the mind of the sports affectionado than Mookie Wilson and Bill Buckner. Seldom have I been in a room with so much jumping up and down with excitement.
The next day, I took a bus home. It was a dark and stormy night. The bus drivers had been on strike for some months – I thought it was Greyhound, though research suggests they weren’t striking at the time. In any case, they had replacement drivers. We got out of Binghamton OK, but then the driver got off on Exit 13 of I-88, rather than Exit 15, which involved tooling around Oneonta until a group of passengers, including myself, directed him to the station, and importantly, back to the highway. There was further confusion at the college at Cobleskill when the driver took us to places on campus we had never seen before.
One of the great disappointments was that I’d be missing Game 7 of the Series. But, wait – I discovered the next morning that I hadn’t. The rain that pounded the area from Binghamton to Albany also caused the game in Queens to be postponed until the next day, when the Mets took the title. Game 7 was televised opposite a Monday Night Football game between Washington… and the New York Giants at the Meadowlands. NBC received a national Nielsen rating of 38.9 for Game 7 versus an 8.8 for ABC’s football telecast.
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Watched no football this weekend, though I’m thrilled the Giants beat the Cowboys. Still haven’t watched a single out of the World Series. I’ll probably catch part of Game 5 on Thursday after choir.
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I’m missing the endorphin rush of playing racquetball 4 or 5 times a week. My wrist and my knee are healing VERY slowly, and it makes me cranky.
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That sporting event participatory activity known as the Wave started 25 years ago this month. Maybe.
