Sponsored by Shea Stadium Remembered with help today from The Happiest Recap, First Base 1962-1973 by Greg Prince
On this day in 1972 a Mets Banner Day twi-night doubleheader stretched the bounds of even a Mets fan’s patience. The Mets had slumped hard since the greatest start to that point in team history. Injuries and a complete lack of hitting had sunk the Mets to seven games behind the Pirates as August began. Nonetheless there were still 31,846 who came out on this Tuesday night, and 3,900 of them left their seats to stand beyond the center field fence with banners ready for the annual between games festival of whites (bed sheets that is). Would they have a long wait.
It looked good when Cleon Jones homered in the eighth against Philadelphia starter Wayne Twitchell. The Phillies, with the worst record in baseball, looked like easy pickings. But even with another great start by Jon Matlack, who would be NL Rookie of the Year, there was a bump, courtesy of Don Money. His home run tied the game to start the ninth.
As Greg Prince described in his awesome book, The Happiest Recap, First Base 1962-1973, “The would-be banner wavers, deprived of viewing the game, waited patiently…or as patiently as possible.” The game went on and on as more and more fans bagged their banners, went back to their seats, or went home. These were two bad teams without much offense. After the equivalent of another game had been played, the Phillies finally blinked. The Phillies walked Ed Kranepool to set up a force in the 18th with Cleon Jones, who had driven in the other two runs for New York. He knocked in this one, too. According to Prince, “Shea Stadium personnel hustled the swarm of 2,176 banners inside… and got them hustled back into the stands in about 45 minutes.”
There was still that second game. It would be over quickly. Steve Carlton, who, despite pitching for a horrible club, finished the year at 27-10 with a 1.97 ERA and 310 strikeouts to unanimously win the Cy Young winner, made mincemeat out of those Mets in a 4-1 win that got everyone out of there by 12:45 a.m. It was still not even a club record. The 27-inning twinbill was still five innings short of the 32-inning doubleheader played at Shea in 1964, still the most innings an MLB twinbill has gone.