May 7, 1987 Mets vs. Red Sox

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Help!

I attended this exhibition game in 1987 between the Mets and Red Sox. My program was only half-completed. Does anyone know where I can find the box score for this game? I've tried the usual sources. But because it was just an exhibition game, it's not listed.

Thanks!

[Guest AG/DC]

Gary Hart drops out of the presidential race.

Congressional hearing goes hard after Iran-Contra figure General Richard Secord

Israel looking to make peace with Jordan.

Plot revealed to kill Noriega.

And in sports, the Mets revisit October in May and beat the Sox, 2-0.

A HINT OF OCTOBER ON A SPRING NIGHT

By CRAIG WOLFF

Published: May 8, 1987

No one saw Bill Buckner inch closer to the baseline, nor did he bring his legs together when Mookie Wilson came to bat. And he did not, in a stray moment, walk to that section of dirt deep in the corner of the infield and offer a small prayer for the one that got away.

Still, Buckner did seize the moment. First chance he got, the first baseman went up close to Wilson and said, ''Mookie, what do you say you hit me some groundballs?''

The Boston Red Sox came back to Shea Stadium last night for the first time since those fateful, wild nights last October to play a game for charity with the Mets. Apparently, the Red Sox suffered no seizures. Wade Boggs returned to the same dugout bench where last he cried, and not a whimper was heard. Marty Barrett, the man who made the last out of the World Series, said the Red Sox had ''gotten rid of that bad feeling one month after the end of the season.'' 'A Little Weird'

Still, to feel no pangs at all - it did not seem possible. ''Well, there is something a little weird about it,'' said Buckner. ''There's still all the noise here, the planes and the fans and the press.''

It was a rather odd circumstance for two participants in the World Series one year to meet the following year in May. But this was all planned some time ago. They played an exhibition last year in September at Fenway Park with great excitement attached to the game because both teams were in first place and the script was already building.

The Mets won that one and they won last night, 2-0, in a game that lacked any special fever, despite the feeling of nostalgia that seemed to run through the stands. There were 32,247 fans in the park and the proceeds went to the New York City Amateur Baseball Foundation and Boston's Jimmy Fund for leukemia research.

Both teams have been struggling. The Red Sox came in as a sub-.500 team, in fourth place in the American League East. The Mets were in third in the National League East. And both teams had spent a good part of the season without some main players. The Red Sox had played without Dennis (Oil Can) Boyd, who has arm trouble, and Rich Gedman, their No. 1 catcher who just re-signed with them a week ago. The Mets, of course, had been missing Dwight Gooden and Roger McDowell.

On that level anyway, the Mets did take care of some business last night. Gooden and McDowell each threw before the game. And when the teams were introduced, coming out to the baselines, World Series style, Gooden appeared with ''the rest of the world champion New York Mets,'' as the announcer put it. In a sense, this was Gooden's first truly public appearance since ending a month of treatment for drug use. But there was no discernible reaction from the crowd. Cone Is Sharp

The Mets got strong work last night from David Cone, the young pitcher who has been having trouble filling a spot in the rotation. He pitched seven innings and gave up three hits. Randy Myers pitched the last two with no problems. But then, most of the players seemed to want to get this done quickly. Many swung at the first pitches and the game was over in 2 hours 7 minutes, the only runs coming from Lee Mazzilli, who scored on a grounder by Rafael Santana in the second and a single by Santana in the fifth.

Clearly, the night was reserved for humor, mostly self-deprecating and mostly from Buckner. He committed the error on the groundball hit by Wilson that passed through his legs in the 10th inning of the sixth game of the Series, allowing Ray Knight to score the winning run and the Mets to complete an astounding comeback.

He was asked beforehand if he thought the crowd would give him a standing ovation. ''They'd better,'' he said. In fact, the fans gave Buckner two standing ovations, and when they watched a tape on the large screen of Jesse Orosco striking out Barrett for the final out of the Series - something that happens every night here - they roared. The Red Sox could be seen watching the tape from their dugout.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Retrosheet has a section dedicated to in-season exhibition games. The link's at the bottom of this post. Wait for the page to load and then scroll down all the way to the bottom of the page; the chronologically ordered list of games begins in the pre-Civil War era.

http://www.retrosheet.org/Research/LeConteW/InSeasonExhibitionGames.htm

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

FANTASTIC!!!! Thank you, Poolers!

[Valadius]

Wow, I was almost three months old when this game took place.

[bmfc1]

="Valadius"]Wow, I was almost three months old when this game took place.

Thanks a lot for that, Valadius!

I remember that Bill Buckner showed up and I don't think that anybody would have faulted him if he stayed away. Also, when he was introduced (the players were introduced as if it was a playoff game), he ran out from the dugout with his hat held high. The fans would have sarcastically cheered him but when he did that, he got a genuine ovation. Since that game, I have always respected Buckner.

Edited to reflect the fact that G-Fafif is smarter than me and that my memory stinks. Where are my car keys?

[G-Fafif]

Seaver, I mention for no apparent reason, gone from Red Sox by then. He was a free agent after '86 and got caught in the middle of collusion limbo (and was recovering from an injury at age 42). Pitching-strapped Mets gave him a long look in June, his final appearance in a Mets @ Tides game...and a simulated game where Barry Lyons went 6-for-6.

Visited Boston the weekend prior to the Sox @ Mets game. Leigh Montville wrote a column pleading that the Red Sox just send the Mets a check (it was a charity game) and never, ever go back to Shea Stadium. Even seeing the paneling in the Shea dugouts, Montville said, was too painful a reminder of what happened the previous October.

Also on May 7, 1987: Diane says goodbye to Sam & Cheers. I flipped back and forth between the finale and the game during commercial breaks. (Come to think of it, kind of unusual for in-season exhibition games to be telecast, but both this one and the September game at Fenway the year before were, such was the interest level.)

Edited to reflect bmfc1 way too hard on himself

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Cheers jumped the shark then, if not sooner.

[Benjamin Grimm]

="John Cougar Lunchbucket"]Cheers jumped the shark then, if not sooner.

My memory of Cheers has grown fuzzy with the passage of years, but I do recall thinking it was past its prime even before Diane left. I think the best seasons were the ones that came before Woody replaced Coach.

[Frayed Knot]

"[seaver's] his final appearance in a Mets @ Tides game...and a simulated game where Barry Lyons went 6-for-6."

Lyons wondered afterward if that meant he was destined for the simulated Hall of Fame