Baseball
Sunday, July 18, 2021
Hey, you two got tickets?
In honor of my father:
My father and I drove to St. Louis in July, 1965, to see the Los Angeles Dodgers play the Cardinals at Busch Stadium (Sportsman's Park, actually). This was in the days before interstates and I don't remember the route we took but I know it took forever...and worth every mile. I was 12-years-old.
We arrived at the stadium and I'll never forget the excitement when I first looked up at that huge stadium. Personally, I was a Yankees fan but the closest they ever got to us back then was Chicago. On this day, though, the Yankees were the furthest thing from my mind. Today, Don Drysdale was pitching against Bob Gibson and I was going to be there!
It was the Saturday Afternoon Game-of-the-Week and the stadium would be packed. It is hard for young generations to fathom that there was a time when there was only one game a week on TV. If you missed the Saturday game then you waited until next week for the next game. If you are wondering why we didn't set the VCR...
We didn't have tickets. In those days I'm not sure how you could get tickets in advance but, it didn't matter, we didn't have any. Daddy walked up to the ticket box and asked what were the best seats they had. The lady said upper-deck along the right field foul line which sounded great to me. Daddy said to let him think about it and we walked away. I'm thinking that I will sit on top of one of the light poles if I have to, let's get inside. Of course, I didn't say that. It was a different era when kids respected their parents a little more than today.
Then, a miracle happened. A man walked up to us with his son, about my age, and said "Hey, you two got tickets?" Daddy told him no, not yet, and he handed Daddy two tickets!! He said that a dad and his son were supposed to go to the game with him but couldn't make it and he was looking for a father and son to give the tickets to. He refused any money for the tickets (Daddy spent a huge amount on cokes and hot dogs and peanuts for them, though, during the game.)
Into the stadium we went. The seats were in the third row right behind the Cardinal's dugout! Right in front of me was Lou Brock, and Curt Flood, and Tim McCarver, and Bob Uecker, and the legendary Dizzy Dean. On the other side was Maury Wills, and Wes Parker, and Willie Davis, and Johnny Roseboro, and Sandy Koufax.
Batting practice was awesome with the most impressive being a guy I had never heard of, Bob Skinner, who hit shot after shot onto the roof in right.
The Cardinals hit the ball all over the place that day off of Drysdale but the game was close, Cardinals winning 4-3 and Bob Gibson pitching a complete game. He was so smooth, pitch after pitch with no wasted effort.
The last time we went to Atlanta to watch the Braves, when they were still at Fulton County stadium, I bought 6 tickets with four together and two separate. I told the family to go on in and I would be along in a minute. I stood near the ticket box until a father and son walked up and I asked "Hey, you two got tickets?"
My father and I drove to St. Louis in July, 1965, to see the Los Angeles Dodgers play the Cardinals at Busch Stadium (Sportsman's Park, actually). This was in the days before interstates and I don't remember the route we took but I know it took forever...and worth every mile. I was 12-years-old.
We arrived at the stadium and I'll never forget the excitement when I first looked up at that huge stadium. Personally, I was a Yankees fan but the closest they ever got to us back then was Chicago. On this day, though, the Yankees were the furthest thing from my mind. Today, Don Drysdale was pitching against Bob Gibson and I was going to be there!
It was the Saturday Afternoon Game-of-the-Week and the stadium would be packed. It is hard for young generations to fathom that there was a time when there was only one game a week on TV. If you missed the Saturday game then you waited until next week for the next game. If you are wondering why we didn't set the VCR...
We didn't have tickets. In those days I'm not sure how you could get tickets in advance but, it didn't matter, we didn't have any. Daddy walked up to the ticket box and asked what were the best seats they had. The lady said upper-deck along the right field foul line which sounded great to me. Daddy said to let him think about it and we walked away. I'm thinking that I will sit on top of one of the light poles if I have to, let's get inside. Of course, I didn't say that. It was a different era when kids respected their parents a little more than today.
Then, a miracle happened. A man walked up to us with his son, about my age, and said "Hey, you two got tickets?" Daddy told him no, not yet, and he handed Daddy two tickets!! He said that a dad and his son were supposed to go to the game with him but couldn't make it and he was looking for a father and son to give the tickets to. He refused any money for the tickets (Daddy spent a huge amount on cokes and hot dogs and peanuts for them, though, during the game.)
Into the stadium we went. The seats were in the third row right behind the Cardinal's dugout! Right in front of me was Lou Brock, and Curt Flood, and Tim McCarver, and Bob Uecker, and the legendary Dizzy Dean. On the other side was Maury Wills, and Wes Parker, and Willie Davis, and Johnny Roseboro, and Sandy Koufax.
Batting practice was awesome with the most impressive being a guy I had never heard of, Bob Skinner, who hit shot after shot onto the roof in right.
The Cardinals hit the ball all over the place that day off of Drysdale but the game was close, Cardinals winning 4-3 and Bob Gibson pitching a complete game. He was so smooth, pitch after pitch with no wasted effort.
The last time we went to Atlanta to watch the Braves, when they were still at Fulton County stadium, I bought 6 tickets with four together and two separate. I told the family to go on in and I would be along in a minute. I stood near the ticket box until a father and son walked up and I asked "Hey, you two got tickets?"
