We have a winner!
 

You are correct, Scott.
This game was played on July 13, 1977. Ray Burris vs Jerry Koosman.
It was around 9:30 pm with Lenny Randle batting. The stadium went dark. You could see a little out the back that the whole area was dark, but nobody knew it was the whole of NYC that had lost power.
It was kind of surreal. For a while, everyone waited, figuring it was temporary. No one panicked. The organist, Jane Jarvis, played music. In a bit, a couple of cars were brought on to the field through the outfield fence. The headlights were put on to light up the field and a few players came out to run around and entertain us. I don't know who they were as we couldn't see them all that well.
A bit later, the news filtered in that the whole of NYC was blacked out. Most people hurried to their cars to get out of there. My dad drove home without any highway or street lights. There was lots of mayhem.

The blackout lasted until the next day. Power returned one area at a time starting around 7am. By 10:40 the power had been restored to the entire city. Unfortunately, this blackout was marked by extreme vandalism and theft.

The first part I can remember just as it was yesterday.
The last bit I got from Wikipedia's page about the blackout.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Yor...ackout_of_1977

I was at my Mom's house yesterday helping clean out some stuff from my childhood room. I found this and a whole bunch of other stuff, most of which brought back great memories of being a kid and spending time with my Dad. Pretty cool!

Edit: I just noticed I made a scoring mistake. I forgot to credit the Mets with a run in the bottom of the 5th on Mike Vail's HR. They were losing 2-1 at the time of the blackout.

That must have been a very scary time in New York with a blackout and Son of Sam still on the loose.

Wow, no kidding! :eek:

For me it wasn't particularly scary. It was actually kind of cool, like a great adventure. My family moved to northern NJ in Dec 1976, so we drove directly out of NY. NJ power was not affected, so when we got home, we watched the news. I don't remember the details of which channels were on, etc. All I remember about the aftermath were the news reports of all the looting, fires and general destruction that went on. I'm not too sure most were worried about the Son of Sam at that particular moment.
I can't believe I actually saved the program. I wasn't into collecting at the time and probably just put in a pile of stuff which then got buried.

I read Koosman had 11Ks at the time the lights went out at Shea.
Could've been a big night for him!

Here are a few of my favorites I thought I would share.

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...eaverpsa10.jpg
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...7/scan0020.jpg
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...7/scan0310.jpg
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...7/scan0305.jpg
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...scan0157-1.jpg
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...Seaverpsa8.jpg

Nice Seaver/Ryan collection. That Seaver Topps pinup is badass!

I forgot I had this item.

A number of years ago I purchased a collection from a man who used to write to the teams and players in the early '60's. He was about 12 years old at the time and would always request autographs and photos but usually he would only get team issued pamphlets and flyers regarding merchandise the teams were selling. Many times the flyers were nothing more than mimeographed pages sent to them with a price list. I was going through some of this stuff tonight as I am preparing to sell much of it and found this price list from the Mets. Judging by the fact that their address was the Polo Grounds, I can only assume this was from 1962 or '63. A good majority of the other items this man had in his small collection are from mainly '62 so I can only assume this must be from the same year.

Its kinda cool to look back and see what they are selling and for the prices the souvenirs were selling at.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...cards/mets.jpg

Reyes
 

To add some more modern Mets history to this thread, here is an early career Reyes GU helmet (which I am open to selling) and an incredible Reyes bat that is just demolished by use. I photo matched it to a whole series of games over 2 weeks in 2008.

Matt M.

This has to be from 1962 because at the bottom it offers additional copies of the '62 yearbook.

and here 's the old perfessor wearing said hat???

Not nearly as Amazin' as most of the other items shown in this thread, but what do you expect from a YankeeFan? :)

Press photo from first day of Spring Training, 1962.

This is my favorite Mets item in my collection. I have some regrets about selling my 1962 Game 1 stubs and 1969 signed team photo.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104704196/Me...s_19620227.jpg


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104704196/Me...20227_Back.jpg

Here's my latest acquisition... a check from Casey Stengel to the Mets' ballboy (batboy?), dated September 23, 1962...

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8321/8...cc676a63_b.jpg

9/23/62 was the final home game of the season, and at the time it was thought to be the last game ever at the Polo Grounds, with the Mets expected to move into Flushing Meadows Stadium the following season.

Presumably the check was an end-of-season gratuity, and it's interesting to note that the "Ol' Perfesser" misspelled the young man's name, as seen by the endorsement signature on the back.

That is a nice one Gary. Wish I could say the same for the team this season :(.

I suppose at the beginning of the season I would have signed for a Santana no-hitter and complete irrelevancy otherwise, but after the break they've been almost unwatchable.

As a collector of figural memorabilia, I always love this set of statues of Mr. & Lady Met from the mid/late 60's.

Lou
www.insidetheparkcollectibles.com

Almost?? After last night forget the almost :(.

Suffice to say I turned the debacle off to watch football after about fifteen minutes - and I'm a Jets fan, not a Giants fan.

The Mets Theme Song, Circa 2012"

Meet the Mets, Greet the Mets, head to the park and beat the Mets
Errors, dropped balls at Citifield, like it or not, thats the deal
Cause the Mets are really dropping the ball, giving up Homers, losing em all
East Side, West Side, everybody come around, to Boo the M E T S Mets of New York Town.:)

The Ryan Express
 

Here is a vintage signed 8 x 10 Mets team photo of a fresh faced Nolan Ryan at the beginning of his career.

Boy, I wish my name was Mike, but I love the fact that it's signed!
I've had this in my personal collection for quite a number of years.

I don't own this, but I saw it for sale in the Mets Team Store at Citi Field. They had a 2009 Sean Green team-issued jersey, price $200... but this is no ordinary team-issued jersey - this is a shirt with a story. First, take a look at the jersey...

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8177/8...db9b5183_b.jpg

To me, a "team issued" jersey falls in a grey area. It's possible for a team to "issue" as many jerseys as they want to a player, knowing full well that the player is never going to wear it in a game, but the team can still say "maybe he didn't wear it, but we did issue it to him, it did hang in his locker," and charge Collector's prices for it. I consider myself knowledgeable about memorabilia, but I make no claims to being an expert, and I have no idea how those of you Net 54 people who are active in the world of uniforms feel about "team issued" jerseys, so take my comments with however many grains of salt as you wish.

That having been said, this jersey attracted my attention because of the Inaugural Season patch. You don't see too many of those anymore on the game-used racks at Citi Field. So I took a picture, and noted the MLB hologram number (LH439627) so I could research it later. Unfortunately, the MLB authentication site was no help, because it only identified the shirt as "NEW YORK METS HOME WHITE JERSEY," authentication session date 10/15/10. A quick check of an all-time numerical Mets roster showed that nobody named "Green" wore #48 in 2009.

However, a little Internet digging unearthed an article from the New York Daily News, 3/31/09 (link), which included this interesting factoid...

Reliever Sean Green was assigned No. 48 by the Mets after arriving in a trade from the Mariners, since his former No. 54 was already worn by bullpen catcher Dave Racaniello. But Green has learned that Aaron Heilman wore No. 48 as a Met. So [he] resolved to swap his number for anything else by Opening Day, rather than place an added bull's-eye on his back with comparisons to Heilman if he has any early struggles.

Sean Green wore #50 during the 2009 season. #48 went to Pat Misch.

Here's a gem I just acquired... a Casey Stengel check written October 3, 1961, just a few days after he was named the manager of the Mets.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7385/...71fb9d63_c.jpg

I guess you'd have to consider me a Matt Harvey fan. I go to most of his home starts, and I have a transcript of WFAN broadcaster Howie Rose's call of his very first pitch in the majors. But even *I* have to say this is ridiculous!

At the MLB All-Star Fanfest last month, in the Authenticated Game-Used Memorabilia section of the MLB Clubhouse Store, they were asking $1,000 for this game-used baseball from Matt Harvey's Major League Debut.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3725/9...6b1ef6f7_c.jpg

But wait, there's more!

At the Amazin' Memorabilia kiosk at Citi Field on July 21, they had game-used baseballs from the Home Run Derby, attributed as to player and out. There was also a Matt Harvey autographed baseball, but I didn't think much of it at the time - the Home Run Derby balls were the star of this shot.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3828/9...3282096b_c.jpg

It wasn't until later that I noticed the label on the Harvey ball's cube, indicating that the ball was from his Major League Debut. So the next time I went to a game I went to the kiosk, and since the ball was no longer on display - I don't know if it was sold, or just in storage - I showed them the picture, which was still in my camera, and asked how much they were asking for it.

$2,000.

That's right.

Two thousand dollars.

'Nuff said.