"Those Lovable Losers" - Louis Effrat, New York Times (4/11/62),,,
That headline could indicate only one thing, the New York Mets had played their 1st game in the National League. The date was April 11, 1962 and before the end of the season that headline would include the word "lousy" inserted between "those" and "lovable". It didn't take us long to see what kind of a new team we had in New York. In their 11-4 opening day loss in St. Louis, the Mets committed 3 errors, a balk, allowed 3 stolen bases and Met pitchers gave up 16 hits but there was more to come. There would be 119 more losses before the season would mercifully end with the "Amazin's" 60 1/2 games behind the San Francisco Giants at 40-120...
But these Mets were lovable starting with manager Casey Stengel and characters like Marv Throneberry, "Choo Choo Coleman", Don Zimmer (yep, "that" Don Zimmer). The pitching "leader" in 1962 was Roger Craig with a nifty 10 and 24 record. That team was a combination of fading stars, a handful of young players who deserved to be playing in the majors and too many that didn't. In the words of Casey Stengel, "can't anybody here play this game ?" The answer was quite clear in 1962 but 7 years later the Mets would become a championship team...
No matter how bad those early Mets were, they always had the best team song, still do, thanks to songwriters Ruth Roberts and Bill Katz:
"Meet the Mets, Meet the Mets, Step right up and greet the Mets ! Bring your kiddies, bring your wife; guaranteed to have the time of your life, because the Mets are really sockin' the ball; knocking those home runs over the wall! East side, West side, everybody's coming down to meet the M-E-T-S Mets of New York town !"
More April 11 Memories...
1876] The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks organizes (can someone please tell me what this organization does, I mean besides elk calls)...
1890] Ellis Island is designated as an immigration station...
1898] President William McKinley asks Congress for a declaration of war with Spain. On this date in 1899 the treaty ending the Spanish-American War was declared in effect...
1924] WLS in Chicago signs on...
1951] President Harry S. Truman fires General Douglas MacArthur as head of U.N. forces in the far east...
1957] Elvis Presley is #1 with "All Shook Up"...
1961] Bob Dylan makes his professional debut at Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village. Dylan opens for John Lee Hooker (prior to that he lasted 3 weeks as a member of Bobby Vee's backup band, the Shadows before being fired)...
1962] The New York Mets make their National League debut (and lose) (see feature story)...
1966] Emmett Ashford becomes the 1st black major league umpire...
1966] (Doobie doobie doo) Frank Sinatra records "Strangers in the Night"...
1968] Big Brother & the Holding Company make their national TV debut on ABC-TV's "Hollywood Palace" (where'd they go, before or after Sophie Tucker ?)...
1970] Apollo 13 blasts off on a mission to the moon that is disrupted when an explosion cripples the spacecraft but it will return safely with the astronauts...
1979] Idi Amin is deposed as president of Uganda as rebels and exiles backed by Tanzanian forces seize control...
1980] The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issues regulations specifically prohibiting sexual harassment of workers by supervisors...
1981] President Ronald Reagan returns to the White House from the hospital after recovering from an assassination attempt 12 days earlier...
1981] Eddie Van Halen marries actress Valerie Bertinelli of "One Day at a Time"...
1988] Cher wins the Best Actress Oscar for her role in "Moonstruck"...
1991] Ringo Starr shows up on "The Simpsons"...
1991] New York City's "Museum of Broadcasting" becomes "Museum of Radio and Television Broadcasting"...
1996] 7-year old Jessica Dubroff, who was trying to become the youngest person to fly cross-country is killed with her father and flight instructor after takeoff from Cheyenne, Wyoming...
2002] U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr (D-Ohio) is convicted of taking bribes and kickbacks from businessmen and his own staff...
2002] The former Mrs. Tommy Lee, Pamela Anderson says "yes" when Kid Rock proposes in the desert outside Las Vegas...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]...
Happy Birthday To...
1919] Former New York Governor Hugh Carey...
1928] Ethel Skakel Kennedy...
1932] Joel Grey...
1939] Louise Lasser ("Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman")...
1947] Peter Riegert...
1950] Bill Irwin...
1972] Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek...
1987] Joss Stone...
Commentary...
When the Mets came to town in 1962 I suspended my Yankee rooting in favor of following the Mets and it was, despite their miserable record, enjoyable. There were no demands or expectations about this team. They were terrible but you didn't care and they were truly, as the New York Times described them, "lovable losers" and listening to Casey Stengel and his "Stengelese" was, at times, hilarious. If you could understand what he was saying, that is. This is a team that won New York over by being what they were, no more, no less. They didn't do it by winning but it didn't seem to matter. They provided something that was sorely missing in New York sports...
Paul Power wants to remind everyone that Jane Swift was only "acting" Governor of Massachusetts in 2001 and apparently, according to Paul, didn't do a very good job of either acting or being Governor...
[Today is the 101st day of 2006 with 264 days remaining in the year and 48 days remaining until Memorial Day]
