National League Standings, June 13, 1997
METS FANS SHARE THEIR MEMORIES OF THE JUNE 13, 1997 GAME:
Larry
February 19, 2004
Mo Vaughn hit a rocket HR in this, the first inter-league game in Mets history. The ball sailed over my head in the left field nosebleeds, and a man in a striped shirt reached up and made a sensational barehanded grab, the ball popping loudly (painfully) in his hand. A few celebratory 'I am the Man' arm pumps to those sitting around him, and, in a wonderfully fluid motion, he whipped Mo's home run ball back onto the field where it belonged. One of the greatest catches I have ever seen at Shea. I was so impressed that I took a disposable camera shot of the guy, but the blurry, out of focus picture that remains pales in comparison to my vivid memory.
Dave VW
September 21, 2023
Indeed, this was the first interleague game in Mets history, and it looked like they were headed to an easy win after Carl Everett hit Jeff Suppan's first pitch over the CF wall and Rick Reed was perfect over the first 4.1 innings. But things fell apart from there, as Scott Hatteberg broke up the perfect game with a single, and then John Valentin and Troy O'Leary followed with back-to-back home runs, and the Red Sox never looked back. In all, there were 7 home runs in the game, and they announced during the broadcast on Sportschannel that some company was donating $50k towards prostate cancer research for every HR hit between the two teams. That came out to a $350k grand total!
Though Larry is right that Mo Vaughn hit an absolute tape measure home run during the 9th inning, some of his details are a bit off. Mo's homer actually hit off the scoreboard, so there was no way someone in his section could have caught it. I think what he's remembering is a foul ball Vaughn hit earlier in the game (perhaps even earlier in his HR at-bat) that he yanked into the Loge section. That was probably the ball the fan caught and threw back. There were also an obnoxious amount of paper airplanes thrown onto the field during the game -- enough so that even the Mets PA announcer had to remind the crowd that, if they're caught throwing objects onto the field, they'd be subject to ejection and prosecution.
The Mets threatened to pull off a 1986 World Series-type comeback in the 9th. Entering the inning trailing 8-3, Alex Ochoa led off with his first home run of the year, and then the Mets loaded the bases with 2 outs for Todd Hundley, who had also homered earlier in the night. The Sox brought in their third pitcher of the inning to face Todd and, first-pitch swinging, Hundley grounded out to second to end the game.
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