As we salute Shea Stadium and relentlessly promote Shea Stadium Remembered. I will be posting (as needed) about great days in Shea history. Shea never saw a game on March 28, but as we have a season opener on this day in 2019, we need something.
With some digging, and a post I found on Amazin’ Avenue, I uncovered an incident on March 28 that directly links to the tenure of one of the few bright lights of Shea’s darkest year. Literally.
On this day in 1977 Lenny Randle punched Texas manager Frank Luchessi. A solid hitter (pun intended) and member of that organization since it had been called the Washington Senators, Randle, 28, sent his skipper to the hospital after Luchhesi told him that Bump Wills, heralded son of the great Maury Wills, would be taking his place at second base. Randle was suspended for 30 days. The Mets—as always, desperate for a third baseman—traded for him. The Mets the Rangers infielder Rick Auerbach, languishing in Tidewater after his acquisition from the Dodgers that winter for Long Islander Hank Webb and Richard Sander, another high 1970s draft pick who never saw Triple-A.
Lenny Randle was a breath of fresh air in the season from hell that was 1977. (And I say “breath of fresh air” because his blowing a ball foul a couple of years later at the Kingdome is probably Randle’s most famous/infamous moment.) He played almost every game for the Mets in ’77 after his suspension ended. He hit .304 and stole 33 bases on a Mets team that was stripped bare after the Midnight Massacre sent Tom Seaver away—Dave Kingman, a fan favorite, or at least this fan’s favorite, was shipped out, too.
My Lenny Randle moment came when he hit a game-winning home run in the 17th inning to beat the Expos at Shea Stadium on July 9, 1977. It was the day before I shipped off to sleepaway camp—baseball camp—and I have rarely been more nervous than I was at 12, grimly contemplating my first time away from home. A rare Mets win in ’77 helped me buck up. I was enjoying camp a few days later when the lights went out in New York. Randle was batting against Ray Burris at Shea when the Great Blackout of ’77 hit. Here’s a rendering of that night from Shea Stadium Remembered:
People at Shea Stadium did not know how bad things were elsewhere, they only knew what they could see, which was nothing. Mets third baseman Lenny Randle, who’d been released by Texas that spring after punching the manager, was at the plate facing Ray Burris of the Cubs when the lights went out. Randle claimed to have hit the ball in the dark and started running. Burris, who would later join the Mets, later told Vice Sports his thoughts while watching Randle in the dark, “‘What in the world is he doing?’ I had the ball in my hand.”
The game was not televised and was only broadcast on radio. Mets announcers worked three innings at a time solo, but Lindsey Nelson joined Ralph Kiner in the booth during the blackout and described the scene. “As you can tell, the organ is still workable, the PA system is still working, and we hope we are, too,” Nelson said…
How did that Randle-Burris rematch go when that game resumed in September? You know where to find out.
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The Opening Day Eve signing at the Rough Draft in Kingston was a home run! Thanks to everyone I met. And I do mean it about being part of an Ulster County Mets group. I am tired of being an army of one, fighting the good fight in a Yankee Jungle (where most people, admittedly, don’t much care about pro sports—please prove me wrong). Thanks for having me at the Hudson Valley’s best bar/bookstore. Thanks to my social media maven Lace Photo Media —and my new buddy, Hudson—for setting it up. Now let’s play ball!