We have a winner of the 6-DVD set
"The New York Mets: Six essential games at Shea."I put the names of all entrants in my lucky green Met hat last night and had the oldest Kingman progeny do the drawing.
The winner is...Andrew C.
Thanks to everyone who entered. We still have the Mayor's Trophy prize to hand out, which is the DVD of Shea World Series highlights. Look for that tomorrow, after the committee has finished reviewing all entries. I also will publish a few of the other entries next week when the Kingman crew is on vacation from work and all things Internet.
Here is what Andrew wrote to enter the contest:
I started actively following baseball in the summer of 1998, when
the Mets fell just short of the NL Wild Card. For that reason, I was
really looking forward to the 1999 season, and it didn't disappoint
until Kenny Rogers' ill-fated walk in Game 6 of the NLCS. One reason
that 1999 was such a great year was the game I went to on July 10, when
the Mets played the Yankees. It's still the only Subway Series game
I've been to, and it was certainly memorable.
Our seats were in the upper deck...I want to say about section 46
of the Upper Reserved, but I'm not sure. The important point is that we
were so high up that every fly ball looked like it was a home run...and
as it turned out, seven of them actually were home runs. The Yankees
had six of the seven, and going into the bottom of the ninth, I figured
the Yankees and Mariano Rivera would hold on to their 8-7 lead.
Except that they didn't. After Brian McRae grounded out, Rickey
Henderson drew a walk. Edgardo Alfonzo doubled, which put the winning
run in scoring position. John Olerud grounded out, and then the Yankees
walked Mike Piazza to get to pinch hitter Matt Franco. This was
exciting; you could feel the electricity in the air.
Rivera got ahead of Franco with two strikes in a row before
throwing a pitch that looked like it was strike three, even from our
seats. There was a collective groan from the Yankees fans and a sigh of
relief from the Mets fans. And then Franco singled into shallow right
field. And Alfonzo scored. And the Mets had won.
My father, my brother, and I all clapped and cheered for a good ten
minutes, along with the rest of our section. You could feel the entire
stadium rocking. It was a great win, the best game I've ever been to,
and my favorite moment of many I've experienced at Shea.
