That Magical Day

A lot of baseball games are won by lopsided scores, and 19 runs is a long way from a record. But such is the state of the New York Mets that when they score 19, fans all across the U.S. sit up and take notice, and newspapers print pictures of the Scoreboard to prove that it really did happen.

There is no rational reason why the Mets should ever score 19 runs in a game. But maybe they were rereading those grand old boys' books, Baseball Joe and Double Curve Dan. The team is in a losing streak--disaster after disaster. Then, all of a sudden, comes that magical day when everyone has springs in his legs and all the bats are made of hoki-moki wood, and the ball sprouts long ears and a cottontail.

So it was for the Mets last week. Of course, the victims were the ninth-place Chicago Cubs, and only 2,503 home folks were at Wrigley Field to witness the massacre. In the very first inning, the Mets scored four runs. They added three more in the second, two in the fifth, four in the seventh, and six in the ninth. They banged out 23 hits, including 17 singles, three doubles, two triples and a home run. Charlie Smith, who had driven in only five runs all year, drove in five that afternoon. Dick Smith, who had 13 hits to show for the whole season, got five in six trips to the plate. The Cubs, naturally, were in a state of complete shock. The catcher and first baseman collided chasing a foul ball. The rightfielder let a routine fly slip through his hands. One Met run scored on a passed ball, and another crossed the plate on a balk. Final score: Mets 19, Chicago 1.

The books always ended there. But there was more to come, dear reader. Back home in Shea Stadium a few days later, the Mets rose up and smote the fearsome San Francisco Giants, 4-2, before 55,062 wildly cheering fans. It was the biggest crowd of the year in either league. Now that kind of a house deserves an encore. And so next day, the Mighty Mets walloped the Giants once more, this time by a score of 6-2.

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