It was Friday night and after work (I was an assistant media planner at ad agency Scali, McCabe, Sloves) I poked my head into a few bars in the vicinity of my office on Manhattan's East Side. At Cowboys & Cowgirls on 53rd St. I was idly chatting with an older fellow (I was 22 at the time so most everyone qualified as "older") who teasingly mocked my choice of cocktail, a Tom Collins, as being an "old man's drink". That may have been, but I was a novice and still familiarizing myself with mixed drinks.
While standing at the bar we overheard that the U.S. hockey team had beaten the Soviet team 4-3 at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid (which made the victory even sweeter). It was a huge upset and took some of the sting from the the Russian basketball team's controversial defeat of the U.S. at the 1972 Summer Olympics.
Shortly afterwards I met up with a few friends from work and we went to the dance club Stix (formerly the Barefoot Boy) which was a few blocks north of the Queens-Midtown Tunnel on 2nd Ave. Two particular songs I remember dancing to were Vertigo/Relight My Fire and Don't Cry for Me Argentina (from the classic Disco Evita album). We stayed until the wee hours and since I lived in New Jersey at the time (Bayonne) I slept over at my friend Phillip's place in the Lower East Side.
Although the U.S.'s victory over the Russians was a huge accomplishment it wasn't the end of the story. In order to win the gold medal they still needed to win one more game. That match was played two days later on Sunday - and they prevailed over Finland. This provided a huge boost to a nation whose pride had taken a serious hit a few months earlier as a result of the Tehran hostage crisis - which continued for nearly another year.
For the most part I watch the Super Bowl for its commercials and the game but I usually don't stick around for the halftime show. However, I do remember seeing a few of them, e.g. Diana Ross being lifted up by a helicopter after her performance in 1996; U2 performing in 2002 as the names of 9/11 victims were displayed on an electronic banner; Prince stoically prancing around in the rain in Super Bowl XXXI.
But halftime is usually when I'm in the kitchen preparing dinner or washing pots and pans. And that's where l was when halftime festivities of Super Bowl XXXVIII began (February 1, 2004). Although I could hear Justin Timberlake singing his hit song Rock Your Body I missed "the incident" when he aggressively exposed Janet Jackson's right breast to the night air - and to 90 million viewers nationwide. In fact, I wasn't even aware of it happening until the next day when I went into the office and overheard the water cooler chatter.
Although Janet Jackson's career went into somewhat of tailspin after her "wardrobe malfunction" Timberlake's wasn't hurt one bit. By the way, there was a football game played that evening as well, one with a thrilling ending. After the Carolina Panthers tied the game with one minute left to play the New England Patriots won the game on a field goal with four seconds remaining.
Perhaps helped by a weekend snowstorm and a cold wave over the Midwest and Northeast, Super Bowl XVI between the San Francisco 49ers and Cincinnati Bengals has the distinction of being the highest rated Super Bowl of them all. The game, which SF won 26-21, posted a 49.1 household rating/73 share. It still ranks as the 4th highest rated telecast of all time (behind the final episode of M*A*S*H in 1983, the "Who Shot J.R?" episode of Dallas in 1980 and the final episode of "Roots" in 1977). There have been Super Bowls with larger audiences (due to population increase) but no game has pulled a higher rating.
I didn't see the big game. That weekend found me in Connecticut visiting my boyfriend Rick who lived in Middletown (the following year he'd move into Manhattan with me). That Sunday afternoon we drove up to the hamlet of Norfolk in snowy Litchfield County (in the northwestern corner of the state) to visit his friends Debbie and Mort (a burly forest ranger). We had a brief delay on the drive there when our car was hit by a pile of snow and ice that crashed down upon us from a snowplow working on a highway overpass. And later that evening my trip back to Manhattan would be delayed because Rick's car became stuck in the driveway, frozen in place.
(Although no books/DVDs for this particular game are available the newly published book The Ultimate Super Bowl Book offers stats & stories about all 43 match-ups while the DVD NFL Films Super Bowl Collection XI-XX recaps highlights of the games played between 1977-1986.)
Until this year my hometown Pittsburgh Steelers had a long history of losing. This season, however, they finished with a solid winning record (11-3) and made it to the playoffs. On this Saturday afternoon the Oakland Raiders were in Pittsburgh playing the Steelers in the AFC Divisional Playoffs. While the game was being played I was out collecting payment from customers of my morning paper route (the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Since it was Christmas, instead of the usual 25-50 cent tips, I was collecting tips in the stratospheric $2 to $5 range.
When I returned home the game was on the radio and it didn't look good as the Raiders had a 7-6 lead late in the game. Then in a flash the tables were turned as a pass by Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw bounced off the intended receiver and landed in the hands of Steelers rookie (and NFL Rookie of the Year) Franco Harris just before it reached the ground. He scooped it up and scooted 60 yards for the game winning touchdown with less than 20 seconds remaining. However, it took five minutes before Harris' catch was confirmed by officials as a legitimate reception. It was even more confusing if you weren't watching on TV as was our case since the game was blacked out in Pittsburgh.
Even today it seems unbelievable that this catch happened. And although the Steelers season ended the next week when they lost to the undefeated Miami Dolphins it was the beginning of the Steelers becoming one of the most successful and widely followed teams in the nation. (To immerse yourself fully in "Steelers Nation" lore the book The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Pittsburgh Steelersis a good starting point.)
The day before Thanksgiving 1971 was a snowy one in the hills of Western Pennsylvania (about 4" fell). I was in the 9th grade at the time and my dad had gotten four tickets at work to tonight's Penguins hockey game at Pittsburgh's Civic Arena. I went with my older sister Linda, older brother Darrell (home for the holiday during his freshman year at Indiana University of PA) and a neighbor from down the street. The Penguins lost to Toronto 2-1 but it was an enjoyable outing nonetheless.
Walking home after getting off the bus we were playing around in the snow and throwing an occasional snowball. At one point I jerked my head to avoid one being thrown and my glasses flew off. After looking for them for some time with no luck I ran home to get a flashlight (Mom joined us). Finally, in the midst of our search a neighbor approached in his car and stopped when he saw our search party in the middle of the street. He stayed so we could look in the light cast by his high beams and shortly thereafter we found my glasses. We had been out in the cold for close to an hour.
Meanwhile, while we conducted our search another was about to unfold in the Pacific Northwest. A passenger named DB Cooper had hijacked a plane, demanded parachutes and $200,000 (about $1 million in today's $) and then jumped from the plane during a rainstorm into the wilderness north of Portland, Oregon. Although hijackings had become a hazard of air travel since the late 60's, the way this one was carried out made it unique. And although a bundle of deteriorated twenty-dollar bills was discovered in 1980, and traced back to those given him, Cooper himself was never found.
(The book D.B. Cooper: Dead or Alive? provides the full story of this mysterious man and his curious caper.) The following clip goes into greater detail about Cooper.
It was Saturday evening and I had gone to a commitment ceremony for two lesbian friends, Helena and Diana, who lived on the Upper East Side. After the ceremony our party of 15 hopped into taxis and went down to the Chinese restaurant Marvelous Mandarin in the East Village. The entire night we followed Game 6 of the World Series between the Red Sox and Mets. (By coincidence I had gone to the Mets' last regular season game with Helena and Diana.) After dinner the gang was going dancing to continue celebrating this happy occasion but I had a touch of a cold and was low on energy so I decided to go home instead.
When I left the restaurant shortly after midnight the Mets, who had come back twice to tie the game, had once again fallen behind. It was now the bottom of the 10th inning, Boston was ahead 5-3 and there were two outs and the bases were empty. I reconciled myself to the reality that they lost the World Series and the Red Sox had finally broken their "curse". Of course it was a disappointment, especially since the Mets had gone 108-54 during the regular season. However, a few minutes after I began walking across town to my apartment in the West Village the streets exploded as if it was New Year's Eve. Curious, I popped my head into a nearby bar and heard the unbelievable news that the Mets had come back to win the game after an easy ground ball hit by Mookie Wilson went through the legs of Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner!
The Mets went on to win Game 7 making them World Series champions but after Game 6's amazing finish it was almost anti-climatic (similar to the 1975 Series in which the Red Sox's Carlton Fisk's memorable HR in Game 6 is remembered more than the fact that Boston lost the Series the next day).
Growing up in Pittsburgh, one of the proudest moments in the city's history, and a story passed down from generation to generation, was the Pirates' World Series championship in 1960 over the mighty New York Yankees. In the most dramatic ending in World Series history, Pirate second baseman Bill Mazeroski hit a home run in the bottom of the 9th inning to win Game 7. It seemed fitting that the title came to Pittsburgh because the "Steel City" was going through its "Renaissance" a the time, a massive civic campaign to clean the air/water, create parks and rebuild parts of downtown.
In the first six games of the Series the Yankees had scored twice as many runs as Pittsburgh yet the Pirates managed to win three games. In the games the Yanks won they crushed the Pirates (16-3, 10-0, 12-0) while the Pirates won games in which its pitchers shined (6-4, 3-2, 5-2). Then in Game 7 the Pirates ramped up its offense. It was a see-saw game and after the Yankees scored two runs in the top of the 9th the game was tied 9-9.
"Maz" was the first batter in the bottom of the 9th and he hit his famous home run a little past 3:30. My mother was watching the game with my older brother and sister who were already home from school (2nd and 5th Grades, respectively). As for me, I was just 3 years old so I have no recollection. Since my father had bet against the Pirates, when he came home from work at 4:30 Mom and my brother Darrell met him on the sidewalk waving a "crying towel". His bet was with a neighbor from across the street for a case of beer (Iron City, of course). Mr. Zamanski magnanimously didn't want Dad to pay-up but Dad insisted and they drank a bottle together.
Fast forward 50 years. As the anniversary of Game 7 approached word came last month that a kinescope of Game 7 had been found in the wine cellar of Bing Crosby's home outside of San Francisco. Crosby had been a partial owner of the Pirates back in 1960 and was too nervous to watch the game so he arranged to have a tape made of the game being shown on the TV screen that he could watch later. It's the only recording of the entire that exists.
The Pirates also had dramatic World Series triumphs in 1971 and 1979, both times coming from 3-games-to-1 deficits to prevail (and over Baltimore each time). However, neither matched the adrenaline rush of that late afternoon HR over the scoreboard in beloved Forbes Field. (The book The Best Game Ever: Pirates 10 Yankees 9 offers an in-depth, inning-by-inning account of Game 7.) Happily, "Maz" is still with us (at age 75) and to honor him a statue outside Heinz Field was unveiled last August.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about ten hurricanes and the memories I associated with each of them. In this post I've chosen to write of memories I connect with ten post-season baseball games over the past 40 years (not including the 1986 World Series, which I've written about in a previous post).
1969 World Series/Game 5/Mets vs. Baltimore (Oct. 16) - I was home from school (7th Grade) with a cold so I was able to watch the entire game. I wasn't rooting for the Mets because, despite winning 100 games in the regular season, in my eyes their rise was a fluke. (I felt the same when expansion teams like Florida, Arizona & Tampa Bay played in the World Series.) And I certainly didn't think they'd be able to prevail over the mighty Orioles (who had won 109 games), but not only did the Mets do it - but in just five games.
1971 World Series/Game 7/Pittsburgh vs. Baltimore (Oct. 17) - It was a Sunday afternoon when the Pirates won a 2-1 nail biter over the Orioles to win the World Series. My mother and I waited for the game to end before we drove my grandmother home, honking the car horn the entire way. (My dad, never a big Pirates fan watched the day's football games on our other TV.) We also put a big "Bucs Fever" sign in the living room window. Since I was too young to celebrate the Pirates' 1960 World Series victory over the Yankees this one was very sweet. The '71 Series was the first to have a game played at night, a novelty that eventually became the norm by the mid-1980's.
1972 Nat'l. League Playoffs/Game 5/Pittsburgh vs. Cincinnati (Oct. 11) - The game was still being played when I headed out to my weekly Junior Achievement meeting in downtown Pittsburgh, so I brought my transistor radio with me to listen to the closing innings. As the bus I was riding approached the City on the Ft. Pitt Bridge I heard the Reds score the winning run in the bottom of the 9th inning on a wild pitch to advance to the World Series. A similar crushing loss in the bottom of the 9th happened to the Pirates 20 years later when they lost Game 7 of the NL Championship Series to Atlanta. (The Pirates haven't had a winning season since.)
1973 Nat'l. League Playoffs/Game 3/Mets vs. Cincinnati (Oct. 8) - I had just come home from school and turned on the game. As I was changing clothes Pete Rose and Mets shortstop Bud Harrelson got into a scuffle after Rose slid hard into Harrelson at 2nd base. However, the Mets got the last laugh by advancing to the World Series. Like 1969, I wasn't a Mets fan, especially since they barely had a winning record (82-79) and had passed my Pirates in the final week of the season to win the NL East. Two big news events occurred during that post-season: 1) VP Spiro Agnew resigned due to tax problems and 2) Egypt attacked Israel on the eve of Yom Kippur during the weekend the World Series began.
1975 World Series/Game 6/Cincinnati vs. Boston (Oct. 21) - I was in my freshman year at Penn State and watched the game in a friend's dorm room when it went into extra innings, so I saw the Red Sox' Carlton Fisk hit his famous game-winning HR in the bottom of the 12th inning. This game was such a good one that almost forgotten is the fact that Cincinnati won the next day to win the World Series.
1978 AL Tie-Breaker/Yankees vs. Red Sox (Oct. 2)- The Yankees had stormed back in August and September to tie the Red Sox for the AL East crown and played a 1-game tie-breaker. I watched the first seven innings in my dorm's TV room. I left for dinner after seeing the Yankees' Bucky Dent (pictured w/Reggie Jackson) hit his memorable 3-run homer over the Green Monster at Fenway to erase Boston's 2-0 lead. The Yankees won the game and went to the World Series - which they won over the Dodgers for the second year in a row.
1979 World Series/Game 7/Pittsburgh vs. Baltimore (Oct. 17) - The "We Are Family" Pirates defeated the Orioles in a carbon copy of their 1971 World Series championship over them, i.e. after falling behind 3 games to 1, they swept the next 3 games. But it was a bittersweet victory for me because I was living in New Jersey and there was no celebrating crowd. I called my brother who lived down the street and then my parents back in Pittsburgh to share the good news.
1989 World Series/Game 3/Oakland vs SF (Oct. 17)- This World Series is forever known for the earthquake that struck minutes before Game 3 was about to start - and captured on live TV. I had turned on the game about five minutes after the quake hit. Since the Series involved two teams from the Bay Area it was delayed for 10 days.
2003 NL Championship Series/Game 6/Florida vs. Cubs/Oct. 14 - As was my usual habit I went to the gym late after taking a nap (around 9:30). The game was on one of the TV monitors above the treadmills and stairmasters and when I left it appeared the game was in hand with the Cubs leading 3-0 in the top of the 8th inning. If they won they'd advance to the World Series and get a chance to break their 95-year streak without a World Series championship. However, between the time I left and got back to my apartment, about 10 minutes, the game had turned around completely and the Marlins had taken an 8-3 lead! It turned out that an overzealous fan (the infamous Steve Bartman) had leaned over and deflected a fly ball that the Cubs outfielder was about to catch. After that the floodgates opened. (This was was somewhat similar to what happened in the 1996 AL League Championship between the Orioles & Yankees when 12-year old Jeffrey Maier reached out to grab a flyball hit by Derek Jeter that was about to be caught. It was called a home run and the Yankees won the game because of it.)
2009 World Series/Philadelphia vs. Yankees - A novel experience was having someone to watch the games with as my boyfriend David was also a baseball fan. However, we had different ways of enjoying the games. For instance, David was more a student of pitching while I liked high-scoring games. Furthermore, he found it peculiar that I often commented about the appearance of each player as they came to bat (which I thought was normal, especially for a gay man). Lastly, I found it nerve wracking to sit through an entire game, especially if the Yankees had a lead, while David enjoyed watching the entire nine innings. However, one thing we had in common was rooting for the Yankees who beat the Phillies in six games.
My nascent interest in baseball was boosted by the excitement created by 1967's American League pennant race, decided on the final day of the season. The race was between Boston, Minnesota and Detroit. Boston played Minnesota in the closing weekend and both games were telecast. The rabid interest shown by my dad in these games rubbed off on me and the rest of the family. Although our hometown team was the Pittsburgh Pirates he was closely following the Red Sox's Carl Yastrzemski because of their shared Polish heritage (truth be told, my dad was never a big fan of the Pirates).
Boston won both games over the Twins that weekend but then had to wait for the outcome of the second game of the Tigers' doubleheader against the Angels (the Tigers lost) before laying claim to first place. As for "Yaz" he finished the season by becoming one of the select few players to ever win the Triple Crown (i.e., highest batting average, most home runs and most runs batted in). In fact he would be be the last player to achieve this honor. His storybook season was instrumental in making Boston a serious contender, a huge surprise after it finished next-to-last the previous season.
Before this weekend the only other baseball event I had any recollection of was the 1966 World Series between the Dodgers and Orioles. My 15-year old sister, Linda, had a crush on Dodger pitching great Sandy Koufax and at her urging we visited our Uncle John so we could watch one of the games Koufax pitched on his new color TV.
Ultimately the Red Sox's magical season would end in defeat in Game 7 of the World Series versus the St. Louis Cardinals. The book The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox recounts Boston's enthralling season. And here's a great clip from a 1967 TV special on Boston TV station WHDH celebrating the Red Sox's season.
Skip ahead to the spring of 1968. I shocked my male classmates because here I was, the boy who preferred reading rather than go to recess, rattling off baseball statistics in front of them on the playground. It was the first instance of me being drawn to numbers and the math behind them. This interest in statistics and the analysis of them is what would also interest me in meteorology (high/low temps, amounts of precipitation), music (Billboard charts) and many years later proved instrumental in fueling my career in media research.
It was Tuesday evening, September 8, 1998, and I turned on the game between the Cubs & Cardinals in hopes of seeing Mark McGwire break Roger Maris' record for most home runs in a season. Since his home run chase had been so widely followed the game aired on a broadcast network, Fox, which was highly unusual for a regular season game in primetime. After he failed to do so in his first at-bat I decided to go to the gym.
Although my gym (Crunch Fitness) had TV monitors I missed seeing McGwire launch historic home run #62 because I was in the middle of doing a set of pulldowns, so my back was to the screens. When I turned to look after completing my set I saw McGwire rounding the bases and then watched some of the celebration including congrats from his young son and fellow home run chaser Sammy Sosa of the Cubs. It was a sweet moment. (The YouTube video of the HR is no longer available.)
Looking back at it now, with all we know about the charges that McGuire, Sosa (as well as A-Rod, Big Papi and Manny Ramirez among others) were taking performance enhancing substances, this milestone leaves a bitter taste. A supposed moment of triumph instead somewhat resembles the foolishness of President Bush's "Mission Accomplished" moment five years later a few months after the U.S. incursion into Iraq began.
Three years later, on October 5, 2001, I also missed seeing Barry Bonds break McGwire’s record. I happened to switch to ESPN close to 11:00 PM (the game was being played in San Francisco) just as Bonds was rounding the bases in the 1st inning. However, compared to McGwire's pursuit of the record, I had less interest in following it this time around since I was hardly a fan of Bonds. Also, since it came just a few weeks after 9/11 it seemed somewhat trivial.
And six years later when Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s all-time record for career home runs (Aug. 7, 2007) I was vacationing out at Fire Island and read the news about it online. I was happy Bonds' joyless pursuit was finally behind us and delighted that once the media attention ended he more or less disappeared from public view. (Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO and the Steroids Scandal does a good job of revealing the underlying reasons behind the Bonds controversy.)
Happily, I did see Hank Aaron hit the home run that moved him ahead of Babe Ruth (April 8, 1974). I was a junior in high school and had taken a time-out from studying for the SATs to watch the game. After Aaron eclipsed Ruth's record with HR #714 in the bottom of the 4th inning I resumed studying. It seems fitting that this is the milestone I witnessed since his achievement appears to have been the only legitimate one of the three players since he wasn’t hopped up on performance enhancing drugs. (For more on Aaron's pursuit you might find the book Hank Aaron & the Home Run That Changed Americaof interest.)
