The 1969 Mets were the Kings of the World!

[batmagadanleadoff]

Oh what fun it was to be a Met in 1969. And if you've been reading the Jefferson Airplane thread, you'd know that everybody was fucking everybody.

[whippoorwill]

We have a Jefferson Airplane thread?

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Linnette picked the worst looking and most ill-at-ease Met. She'd have done much better with Boswell or Garrett.

I wonder how their date went

[batmagadanleadoff]

Linnette picked the worst looking and most ill-at-ease Met. She'd have done much better with Boswell or Garrett.

I wonder how their date went

I thought she was disappointed when Rod came out from behind the other side of the stage. I actually compared this clip to the Ed Sullivan clip to see if the Dating Game Mets wore the same suits they wore on Sullivan. They didn't.

[whippoorwill]

Honestly from his replies I would have picked him too

[Benjamin Grimm]

Some takeaways:

• It's nice to know that Ken Boswell was a perfect baby

• That portable black-and-white TV looked sweet!

• I wonder if anyone was actually "literally" glued to their television set during the 1969 World Series

• Were all Dating Game first dates as extravagant as a ski-trip to Switzerland? I thought it would be more like dinner at Beefsteak Charlie's.

I was curious to know how the date went. This is what I found:



Jan. 01, 1970 - A Dream-Journey to Switzerland: An unusual couple is traveling around Switzerland these days. The 22 years old student from Los Angeles, Lynette Martin, winner of a TV-contest had the wonderful choice of a ''dream-partner''. For the journey she choosed Switzerland, as her ''dream-partner'' the famous baseball star from the ''New York Mets'', Rod Gasper. Photo Shows The winner of the ''Dating Game'' Lynette Martin, with Rod Gasper in a typical souvenir-shop in Zurich.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Eat your heart out, Frank Robinson. Now who's the "stupid" one?

That Dating Game research post just above was like one of the greatest posts ever.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Lynette is a total smokehouse. But it was only a few months later that Gaspar met his wife ( introduced by Danny Frisella, according to his bio).

Where is Lynnette today?

[batmagadanleadoff]

Do you suppose Rod and Lynette "did it"?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Lynette is a total smokehouse.

Yes, she's much prettier than the freeze-frame on the YouTube link would indicate.

Where is Lynnette today?

I couldn't find anything. If she's still alive, she's 77 years old and could very well have a different last name now.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Do you suppose Rod and Lynette "did it"?

I wonder what the actual role of the "Dating Game chaperone" was.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Gaspar is blunt in assessing the rest of his baseball career.

“I was very immature,” he said. “I was a single guy with a nickel brain who thought he’d be in New York for the next 10 years. No excuses.”

Hodges wanted Gaspar to play winter ball, but Gaspar decided to stick around in New York. He and teammates Ken Boswell and Wayne Garrett were on the Dating Game, and he was chosen and won a trip to Switzerland.

“That was the first year I didn’t work out year-round,” Gaspar said. “I used to come home and play with the Long Beach Rockets, which was always good training since there were so older guys on the team.

“I paid the consequences. Next spring, I couldn’t hit and couldn’t judge a fly ball. I deserved to be cut. Life is attitude. Sometimes people think they’re owed something, and that was my attitude. I messed up in a big way.”

Irony can be thick, too. He was sent to the minors by Hodges in ’70 a year to the day after Hodges told him he’d made the ’69 team. But he also met his future wife the next day. “God has plans for all of us,” he said. “It was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Gaspar played well in the minors but never got a regular shot again in the majors. He played in 11 games for the Mets in 1970, then was traded to San Diego. He played in 33 games in 1974, then finished his career with two more years in the Padres’ system in Hawaii.

https://www.dailynews.com/2009/10/13/ke ... a-miracle/

[Edgy MD]

I had an email conversation with Gaspar, inviting him here for part of our series of interviews that ultimately encompassed perhaps two or three people. He was kind enough but a little standoffish and suspicious, which makes some sense, and wanted to know if "Crane Pool Forum" meant Ed was involved.

Negotiations broke down and we went our separate ways, I to my life, him to his.

I definitely got that read from him that he felt he had fucked up his career. It's pretty sobering to read a quote from a guy whose meal ticket was being a defensive sub for a team with two strong hitting/bad fielding guys platooning in right that he couldn't judge a fly ball the next spring.

[whippoorwill]

She had time to grow her bangs out.


I love this thread!

[Benjamin Grimm]

[Edgy MD]

The term "luscious chick" appearing in a story is a good indicator that you're reading something better than run-of-the-mill journalism.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Those two words caught my eye too!

[batmagadanleadoff]

The Rod Gaspar book, published in 2019:




The Sports Illustrated cover:

[Edgy MD]

Those two words caught my eye too!

Re-reading, I just noticed that they spell it "lucious chick."

Also, the next-to-last paragraph quotes Dave Marshall as saying "There was no doubt in my mine I'd make the club when I came here."

As I wrote, that's some top-shelf journalism.

[ashie62]

Rod Gaspar felt he had screwed up his career? I just thought he was a marginal big leaguer and probably knew it