Jan 29 2009 06:37 AM
Nice little bit today in the Daily Snooze.
| ] Jack Fisher clutched an umbrella in his right hand - the hand that threw the first pitch at Shea Stadium in 1964 - as he bid a sad farewell Wednesday to the ballpark to which his name will forever be linked. Trudging through slush along Roosevelt Ave., the ex-Mets pitcher marveled at the sturdy skeleton of the baseball landmark, which is being dismantled to make way for Citi Field. "I guess it's trying hard to stand up, like we were as a young ballclub," said Fisher, 69, shivering beneath the No. 7 train tracks. "It's a pretty sad scene." Gone are the field and the seats and a chunk of the upper deck, giving way to bulldozers and dirt mounds - a far cry from Fisher's last visit in September for Shea's closing ceremonies. Fisher, who now lives in Easton, Pa., spent a half hour roaming around Shea on his way home from a banquet for ex-ballplayers in Times Square - and memories flooded back. Most prominent was the stadium's opening on April 17, 1964, when Fisher began the game with a strike to Pirates shortstop Dick Schofield. "I had a pretty good idea that it would be a strike," Fisher said. That fleeting moment paid long-term dividends for Fisher, who will likely inscribe "1st Pitch at Shea" on dozens of items at a sports expo Saturday in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in East Elmhurst. In fact, the $15 cost for Fisher's autograph ranks close to much more accomplished guests signing at promoter Jack Berke's expo - like Hall of Fame hurler Juan Marichal - because so many fans appreciate Fisher's place in Shea history. He set several milestones in Shea's first game - surrendering the ballpark's first hit and home run, and started a baseball tradition with a simple pregame question to Mets manager Casey Stengel. "I asked Casey if it was okay to warm up in the bullpen [instead of on the field] to get away from the hustle and bustle and all the writers," he recalled. "I guess I started something." Fisher's return to Shea also reminded him of the Mets' soldout home games in the mid-1960s against the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants, who had moved out of New York just years earlier and still basked in local fan support. "I could actually feel the sound waves hitting me on the chest," he said of the raucous games. Moving forward, Fisher hinted he might feel better about Shea's destruction if the Mets had him throw the first ceremonial pitch at Citi Field. "If they think it would be a good thing, I'd be more than happy to do it," said Fisher, who still sports the husky frame that earned him the nickname Fat Jack. "I'd even get in shape." |
The bullpen thing is interesting.