A Kid on a Road Trip

 Paul Cincotta

There’s a lot of background before I get to the game I’ve never forgotten, even though I remember only three plays. On June 26, 1976, the day after 4th grade let out, our family moved from North Merrick on Long Island to the Pines Tuckerton, NJ. I went from New York to Philadelphia, and yes, there is a big difference between the two fan bases.  Baseball tryouts were in March 1977, and I was eager for the day. However, there was a family outing that day at my Aunt’s in New Hyde Park (no one in my family remembers the reason) and regardless of my pleading, my father insisted we all go.   As a result, I missed tryouts and the 1977 baseball season.

Paul at 12

My father was a salesman, and taking trips with him was fantastic.  Why? During these trips to Long Island or Ardsley, NY, where my uncle lived meant I visited my uncle or Grandmother and was treated to food that any 10-year-old would love. To get to Long Island, for about 40 miles you had to take Route 9 (not the Parkway), and my father knew every McDonalds, in a 100-mile radius.   Our nearest McDonalds from home was over 25 miles away, so this was a rare treat. Not to mention, Route 9 must have had 10 Carvels on the way and another treat was White Castle and their little hamburgers that must have cost like 19 cents.  My father was the spender in the family, and so eating out on these trips (which was deductible) was something I looked forward to. 

Taking Part in the Pitch, Hit and Run Competition

So, on June 24, 1977, I was with my father on a trip, and when it ended, we stayed at my Aunt’s house, where my grandmother also lived.   The same Aunt whose visit cost me my baseball season. For the only time I can remember, my father already had tickets for that night’s Yankee game vs the Red Sox. It was late June, and it was hot, and the stadium was packed. Those tickets were $1.50 for the bleachers, but who cares, it was Yankees/Red Sox. We had the bleacher seats in Right Field.

This is the schedule from the 1977 Yankee Yearbook. Notice I followed the games in the schedule and had the June 24  game marked as a “W”.   And how about box seats for $6.00

Although we were in the Bleachers, I guess our seats could have been worse as this advertisement picture from the 1977 Yankee Yearbook shows,

This was without a doubt the most memorable game I had ever attended until going to some World Series games in the late 90s. The Yankees trailed 5-3 with two outs in the 9th inning.  Willie Randolph was up and hit a ball to left field a little more than medium depth and sort of in the alley. Carl Yastrzemski was the left fielder, and it was the last out if Yastrzemski could make a running catch.   But this was not Fenway Park, where this ball may have hit the monster, and Yastrzemski overran the ball. Randolph was on third with a standup triple. Next up was Roy White. The pigeon-toed stance of his as a left-hander was ideal for the short porch in right. Sure enough, a dramatic game-tying homer by White, of which I could not tell if it was fair or foul except by the fan’s reaction, tied the game at 5. The game went extra innings, and a man who did not start the game but came up in the 11th (Reggie Jackson) hit another deep fly to right with a runner on 2nd (Nettles).   At  Yankee Stadium, if you were in the bleachers, you could not tell where a ball would land if it hit in the corner. But it didn’t matter, the ball bounced off the wall and Nettles scored easily for a 6-5 win. 

It was a great game and a win for the Yankees. They went on to win the World Series that year for the first time since 1962. So when asked if I would write a story about a memorable game, I knew this was the game I would write about.  The three hits I remember. I knew it was in June or July 1977, but the score I had to look up. But what made this truly memorable, I did not realize till now, 48 years later. My father was a depression era man. It hit me that this was my dad’s way of saying I am sorry you missed your baseball season without coming out and saying I am sorry.  I went to other games with my family, but this was the only time I took a trip with my father on his sales runs that we ever went to a game. And it happened to be that year 1977. When I realized that, it made writing about this memorable game even more special because I learned about something I never thought of or even considered from 48 years ago.