Flitgun Frankie
November 17, 2020
The first game I ever went to at Shea Stadium, and my second in-person game ever (saw a game at Yankee Stadium earlier that year, Orioles vs. Yankees). I remember nothing about the game besides going to it, and can only identify it because I remember it was a Sunday and they played the Pirates. This was the only Sunday game they played vs. the Pirates that year at Shea Stadium.
I also remember, and here's where memory gets tricky, that it was helmet day. I remember this because I remember not knowing it was helmet day and then entering the stadium, the guy at the turnstile hands me a helmet, which I wasn't expecting. So, as a six year old kid, I thought maybe you got something free every time you went to a game. What makes me doubt my memory is that this game was in September, which is kind of late for helmet day. Also, looking at a Mets program for 1968, which I still have (but not for this game), there is no helmet day listed. Did they add helmet day later on in the year, after the original schedules were printed, so it's not on the schedule? Did they have two helmet days, one earlier in the year and this one? The Yankees used to do that with bat day. They'd have their real bat day in June or something, then have a later bat day announced during the season so they could get rid of the left over bats from the real bat day (the Yankees didn't always draw big crowds in those days, even on bat day). Attendance might give a clue, since Helmet Day, in those days, was usually a near sell-out, but it's listed as 33,838, not bad for a couple of also-ran teams playing out the string in late September, but not up to usual Helmet Day standards.
So I'm not really sure this WAS my first Shea Stadium game. I know my first game was a Sunday vs. the Pirates in 1968. I also know it was Helmet Day, but if the only Sunday Pirates game in 1968 wasn't Helmet Day, then what game did I go to? Or is it two different games I have mixed up? Well, I was only 6 years old at the time, so that's my excuse.
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