A Rainy Day Question - Memories

[MFS62]

What is your first baseball-related memory?
Later

[RealityChuck]

Baseball and Ballentine.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

My grandfather watching the Mets win the 1969 World Series.

I was in the room, and I didn't even care. (In hindsight I find that mind-boggling.)

I could tell, though, that the Mets winning made my grandfather happy. That made an impression on my 6-year-old brain. The thought brewed in my head for a year and a half, and I signed on as a Mets fan in 1971 because I learned, from my grandfather's reaction, that a Mets win is a good thing.

My grandfather has been dead now for nearly 32 years. My interest in the Mets is a gift from him to me that I'm still able to enjoy in my middle age.

[soupcan]

Willie Mays playing in the '73 Series.

[MFS62]

I think it was when my father (may he rest in Peace) took me to my first game. It was in Yankee Stadium in the late 40's. Yanks against the heated rival Indians. There were over 70,000 fans in the pre-rennovated Ballyard in the South Bronx, and we bought walk-up tickets two rows from the back in the farthest section of the upper deck. He pointed out Joe DiMaggio and told me to watch how graceful he was.
I was hooked.

Later

[seawolf17]

My grandfather did a lot of traveling for work. I was a Cardinals fan as a kid (they were my first Little League team), and he brought me back a Cardinals hat and shirt from a trip to St. Louis -- I thought they were just about the greatest gifts ever.

[metirish]

When I first came to this Country(legally) I worked on the Arthur Ashe Tennis Center in Flushing, I would watch the Mets practice before games or watch them play form the platform while waiting for the 7 train back to Woodside.

[RealityChuck]

My first game memory (as opposed to commercial) was Roger Maris hitting his 61st. (I was in the stands at the time.)

[soupcan]

RealityChuck wrote: My first game memory (as opposed to commercial) was Roger Maris hitting his 61st. (I was in the stands at the time.)

Ding ding! We have a winner.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

I remember my grandfather trying to explain the game of baseball to me, and I just could not get the concept of it.

It wasn't until 1969 that it finally clicked for me.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

My own son, ten in October, has not inherited the baseball bug from me. He's mildly interested, likes going to a game once in a while, but drifts out of the room after an inning or so when the game's on TV.

He did get the comic book gene, though.

[Elster88]

Did he get the television gene?

[MFS62]

Still missing a few I'd like to hear about.

Later

[Guest sharpie]

It was either some scrapbooks my brother made of the '61 MFY season or the general excitement of a Long Island based new baseball team that was starting up back then. My first game was Mets/Phillies in August '64 with the Mets winning 12-4. My allegiences date from that game.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

I always screw up this question because my memories from early baseball are not filed chronologically.

For example. had I not known better, I'd say the Pete Rose-Bud Harrelson fight happened long before the George Theodore-Don Hahn collision -- and those are some early memories of the Mets I have.

I also recall Chuck Taylor pitching, which UMDB informs me was 1972 (probably June 4, 1972, UMDB indicates). But I must recall earlier things than that, because it seems to me I had to have some understanding of the Mets prior to that in order to process what I could recall.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I likely am screwing this up also. I remember Rusty Staub throwing underhandely during the 1973 World Series. Beyond that, I started caring about the Mets about ten seconds after I started hearing people bemoaning the Seaver trade. Before that, I knew maybe two Mets --- Kingman and Seaver ---- about two weeks after the trade, I knew pretty much the whole roster. My only real fandom of Seaver's Mets was 1983. What the Hell was wrong with me?

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Wow, you jumped on the ship just as many others were contemplating jumping off.

[MFS62]

I'm wondering if Mole's earliest memory was of Rogers Hornsby - as a player.
(j/k Mole)

I'm also wondering if Sal's earliest fond moment about baseball involved the Black Sox scandal.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

I have no memories of NOT being a Met/baseball fan.