METS FANS SHARE THEIR MEMORIES OF THE JUNE 16, 2008 GAME:
Phil Thiegou
July 7, 2008
Once again, I schlepped out to the West Coast to see my beloved Amazin's. As we all know, Willie's head was on the chopping block for some time. I was joking with others, who would make it out to Anaheim first, me or Willie? Well, I did as I flew out the previous day, and Willie did later that night. I sat behind the Mets dugout (first base side) with a couple other Mets fans who schlepped out there too as well as a bunch of transplants. I was directly behind Willie (well, about 20 rows behind him) and I saw him come out to make pitching changes and congratulate the team after they won. Afterwards, my cousin and I had dinner at the only all-night diner in San Bernadino County. (You can count on one hand the number of all night diners in So. California.) Well afterwards we hear about Willie. "Huh? They fired him? They won. Now they have to fly him back home cross- country after they just flew him out for one game." As you know, they also fired pitching coach Rick Peterson and 1st base coach Tom Nieto, so the next day there was practically a new coaching staff. Had it not been for Tiger Woods winning the US 0pen in overtime and on a bum leg to a Cinderella story, this would've been the biggest sports story of the day.
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