METS FANS SHARE THEIR MEMORIES OF THE JULY 7, 1979 GAME:
Hank M
September 22, 2007
I went to this game with a group of people on a bus trip. We watched from the upper deck on the first base line behind the Mets' dugout. It was Lee Mazzilli Poster Day and the famous San Diego Chicken made an appearance on this sunny Saturday afternoon.The Chicken turned out to be the best part of the day. He was entertaining while the Mets were downright awful! In the first inning, the Padres' Jerry Turner came up with the bases loaded and missed a grand slam by inches. He hit a ball off the top part of the right field wall for a 3-run triple. This set the tone for the entire game, which San Diego won easily. A little excitement came about at the end of the sixth inning. Steve Henderson was thrown out at home trying to score on a fly ball. Joel Youngblood came from the on-deck circle and got into the face of Padre catcher Gene Tenace. Everyone from both dugouts then came out to home plate, but no fight broke out. There's one other thing I recall from this day. The Padres wore gold jerseys during pre-game warmups. They switched to their regular brown ones for the game. This was the first time I ever saw a team wear special jerseys just for batting practice, which were just beginning to come around.
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