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Fifty Years of Believing (1973 Mets Thread)

G-Fafif

By G-Fafif
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G-Fafif College Ball

G-Fafif

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Wasn't scheduled to be televised, but it was. This is from the next day's Daily News:


Mets on TV In Quick Deal



Bowing to public pressure, the Mets televised last night's game with the Pirates and hope to do likewise tonight against the Bucs. The games were not previously scheduled under their contract with Rheingold.



The Mets and Rheingold didn't receive a dime, the beer company being one of 11 special sponsors in a quick deal arranged by WOR.


<span style= 21 Sep 1973, Fri Daily News (New York, New York) Newspapers.com



<span style= 21 Sep 1973, Fri Daily News (New York, New York) Newspapers.com



This was from the day of the game:


Met Fans Ask Why No TV?



Protest calls are pouring in on Rheingold like draft beer. Indignant Mets fans want to know how come no television these important pennant games.



"We have received about 3.000 phone calls," disclosed a member of the public relations staff of Rheingold, the primary sponsor of Mets games. "They say. no Pirates games, and no Willie Mays Night on TV? How come! We tell them that Pepsi-Cola has turned down our request to add these games to the TV schedule. Pepsi is our parent company now. They told us they don't believe there i sufficient public interest. Can you imagine that?"


<span style= 20 Sep 1973, Thu Daily News (New York, New York) Newspapers.com



Hopefully the links embedded in the code will lead to the original copy.


batmagadanleadoff College Ball

batmagadanleadoff

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https://img.newspapers.com/img/img?clippingId=131696926&width=700&height=722&ts=1607535806>



https://img.newspapers.com/img/img?clippingId=131697238&width=700&height=849&ts=1607535806>


Wow. We discussed this the last time and I became sort of obsessed with this topic. So I sought out the NYC edition of that week's TV Guide and eventually found a copy for sale on ebay. I won the auction and when I received the TV Guide, I went straight to when the game would be played, and it wasn't televised -- according to that TV Guide. So I'm assuming that the decision to televise the game came too late to update or revise the TV Guide.



Also, what added to my obsession was coming across a poster for the famous Billie Jean-King/Bobby Riggs tennis match. It was played on the same date and at the same time as the ball off the wall game. This triggered a grade school memory where the day after the game, when we took our seats in the classroom that morning, in the few minutes before our teacher commanded our attention, an argument/discussion begin raging across the class about what everybody watched on TV last night. I didn't participate but I remember a good friend of mine back then who sat one seat away from me diagonally was touting the tennis match and I was thinking to myself, "Who'd wanna watch girls' tennis?" I would've surely watched the Mets game if it was televised but I have no memory of seeing the ball off the wall play in real time. Plus, the surviving footage of the play isn't WOR-TV footage. WOR never shot from that angle back then. That's surely a hand held camera shot by the producers of those annual 35-45 minute Mets highlights films produced every year back then. That crew was likely at Shea for that game because the Mets were in the thick of the pennant race, playing meaningful September games.



Oh, and the other bit of great TV programming in prime time that evening was the TV premiere of Bonnie and Clyde.


batmagadanleadoff College Ball

batmagadanleadoff

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https://img.newspapers.com/img/img?clippingId=131696926&width=700&height=722&ts=1607535806>



https://img.newspapers.com/img/img?clippingId=131697238&width=700&height=849&ts=1607535806>


Wow. We discussed this the last time and I became sort of obsessed with this topic. So I sought out the NYC edition of that week's TV Guide and eventually found a copy for sale on ebay. I won the auction and when I received the TV Guide, I went straight to when the game would be played, and it wasn't televised -- according to that TV Guide. So I'm assuming that the decision to televise the game came too late to update or revise the TV Guide.



Also, what added to my obsession was coming across a poster for the famous Billie Jean-King/Bobby Riggs tennis match. It was played on the same date and at the same time as the ball off the wall game. This triggered a grade school memory where the day after the game, when we took our seats in the classroom that morning, in the few minutes before our teacher commanded our attention, an argument/discussion begin raging across the class about what everybody watched on TV last night. I didn't participate but I remember a good friend of mine back then who sat one seat away from me diagonally was touting the tennis match and I was thinking to myself, "Who'd wanna watch girls' tennis?" I would've surely watched the Mets game if it was televised but I have no memory of seeing the ball off the wall play in real time. Plus, the surviving footage of the play isn't WOR-TV footage. WOR never shot from that angle back then. That's surely a hand held camera shot by the producers of those annual 35-45 minute Mets highlights films produced every year back then. That crew was likely at Shea for that game because the Mets were in the thick of the pennant race, playing meaningful September games.



Oh, and the other bit of great TV programming in prime time that evening was the TV premiere of Bonnie and Clyde.


On further thought, I just came up with a horrifying possibility. Because I have a strong memory of being sprawled out on our living room floor very late at night, fighting off sleep when everybody else was asleep and listening to one of those Mets/Pirates games on the radio. I think it was the ball off the wall game because I remember the extra inning rally. I think I listened to the game on the radio because I never found out in time about WOR's late changing decision to televise that game.



Oh, the horror!


G-Fafif College Ball

G-Fafif

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I very definitely watched that play in real time and discussed it at the bus stop the next morning with the father of one of the other kids who was impressed/disturbed I'd stayed up to see the game to its stunning conclusion.


G-Fafif College Ball

G-Fafif

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The decision to televise didn't occur until after the game of Sept. 19, the third of the five games vs PIT.


G-Fafif College Ball

G-Fafif

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=batmagadanleadoff post_id=137326 time=1694562840 user_id=68]
So were any of those Pirates games not televised?

ashie62 Draft Eligible

ashie62

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=batmagadanleadoff post_id=137324 time=1694562491 user_id=68]
=ashie62 post_id=137322 time=1694562261 user_id=90]
I must have missed



Was any one game that month not televised?


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