Photo: Jim Accordino / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)
Twelve-year-old boys never forget going to a ballgame with their fathers.
On July 13, 1973, my father took me to Yankee Stadium to see the Yankees play the Kansas City Royals. The early 1970s were often referred to as the Horace Clarke days by many Yankee fans. Those late 1960s and early 1970s years were pretty tough on Yankee fans. From 1965 to 1975, the team did not even make the playoffs. Nonetheless, for young kids growing up in the Bronx like myself, the Yankees meant everything.
When I say the Yankees meant everything to young kids growing up in the city, one must understand the culture at the time during most of the 20th century. Up until the mid to late 1970s, most people did not have cable TV; everything was broadcast television. In New York City, we had channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13. There were three major networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, and then the local channels, WNEW, WPIX, WOR, and public television.
The Yankees at the time were on WPIX, and for the most part in the 1960s and 1970s they did not air a lot of Yankee games. Maybe three or four a week at the most. It’s not like modern times, where every game is available on television or streaming. It was usually Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and maybe another weeknight game, but most of the time you had to listen on the radio or go to the stadium. The Mets, on the other hand, seemed to be on WOR a lot more. I don’t know the reasons; I’m sure it had everything to do with the television contracts they signed. My point is that if you wanted to see the Yankees, you had to go to the games, and fortunately during those days it really was not that expensive. Box seats cost three or four dollars. Grandstand seats were maybe two dollars, and the bleachers were about 75 cents.
I would like to argue that I didn’t care whether the Yankees won when I went to the games, that it was all about going with my father. But of course I wanted them to win; we always wanted them to win. Still, that was not the most important reason for being there. The most important reason was spending time with my father. I remember many games where we sat behind a pole. That stadium had so many obstructed views, but as I point out throughout this article, it really did not matter. Just being in that stadium, hearing the sounds, taking in the smells, and looking up at the sky above the famous facade was breathtaking. Every second I was there felt special.
The Yankees did not have many stars during those years. It is a period that does not get talked about very often, except by people like me who came of age during those seasons. But despite their lack of stars, they had one who was huge, one who many people viewed as the next Mickey Mantle. That was Bobby Murcer. Every kid has a favorite player, and Bobby Murcer was mine. I guess it would be like being an Aaron Judge fan right now if you are a 12-year-old. It’s always about the home runs. That is how you fall in love with ballplayers, watching them hit home runs out of the stadium. There is nothing more exciting than seeing your favorite player hit a home run while you are sitting in the ballpark. For me, I was lucky enough to see it happen three times in one night when my father took me to see the Yankees play the Kansas City Royals in 1973.
I cannot remember the significance of each at-bat. It was too long ago. But I do remember how excited I got every single time it happened. It felt like I was witnessing something that nobody else had ever seen before, that I was watching something truly special. I could not wait to tell all my friends. It was one of those magical nights. There are many Yankee fans, and baseball fans in general, who never get to see a player hit three home runs in one game. To be there and witness it, especially as a kid, is something you never forget.
I remember one of the saddest days after that was when the Yankees traded Bobby Murcer to San Francisco for Bobby Bonds. That broke my heart. I still think it may have been one of the biggest mistakes the Yankees ever made. You do not trade away players like that. They mean too much to the fans. Players like Bobby Murcer only come around once every decade or so. The Yankees have had many of them, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Bobby Murcer, Derek Jeter, and now Aaron Judge. Sadly, Bobby Murcer was the only one of that group who was ever traded away. At least the Yankees did not make the same mistake with Aaron Judge when it looked like they might lose him to San Francisco. That city has taken enough from New York already. I am glad they did not get Judge, too.
Over the years, it was a joy listening to Bobby Murcer as a Yankees broadcaster. There was never a game that I listened to with Bobby Murcer in the booth when I did not think at least once about the night I saw him hit three home runs. A young kid never forgets something like that for the rest of his life. And of course, the fact that I was sitting next to my dad made it a moment I will treasure forever.
