Does Anyone Remember Their First Major League Game?

[bosoxmal]

Anybody remember their first major league game? Mine was in 1934. My Dad and I got off a streetcar out on Commonwealth Ave, and walked down to Braves Field. I was nine. We were in the process of moving from Keene, NH to Somerville. My dad decided the move would be easier for me if I could quickly get acclimated. Left field bleachers. My hero, Wally Berger, almost within touching distance. He didn't hit a HR that day, and one of the few things that stuck was a line drive by Ernie Lombardi that I kept telling my mother banged off the left field fence, and never got more than 3 feet off the ground. I am now almost 92 and living in Ft. Myers; still living and dying with the Sox. Edited June 1, 2016 by bosoxmal
Title. A should be I!

[Youk Of The Nation]

In answer to the question, unfortunately, no, I don't remember it personally. I know a lot about it though. My dad took me with him and a couple of his friends to a Yankees-Red Sox game at Yankee Stadium, on one of those bus trip specials, when I was about 4 or 5. His friend Fran is a big Yankees fan, and the Yankees lost. Me, being an obnoxious 4-year-old little bastard, kept making fun of Fran on the bus back. He jokingly threw an empty beer can at me, and it hit the guy in the seat in front of me. Apparently that started an argument that snowballed into a near-brawl between a bunch of drunks on the bus, and the driver had to pull over and threaten to call the cops. My dad loves telling that story.

[mvp 78]

5/14/85. Oil Can Boyd was pitching. We had some nice seats on the 1b side. I remember being in awe of the monster and at how big the field was.

[User Name]

I wasn't even born on 5/14/85, old timer.

[illinoisredsox]

April 1967, Phillies at Mets. My grandparents lived in NYC and took me. Phillies won as I recall, but I don't remember much else except being there.

[Dojji]

Never been to a big league park. There was just never an opportunity. Also I get overwhelmed in crowds very easily.

[bosoxmal]

Now that's what I call a fun day!

[Bellhorn04]

I remember it, and through the miracle of Baseball-Reference, I can produce a lot of details about it.

 

September 8, 1974 (at Fenway)

Red Sox 8

Milwaukee 6

 

(Check out these pitchers for the Sox!)

Starter Juan Marichal

Winner Dick Pole

Hold Bob Veale

Save Diego Segui

 

Sox RBI's:

Evans 2

Carbo 2

Cooper

Griffin

Guerrero

Beniquez

 

Starting pitcher for Milwaukee - Eduardo Rodriquez

[User Name]

My first game was May 29th, 2011 with the Sox visiting the Tigers @ Comerica Park.

 

Clay Buchholz (of all people) started that game, and he and a rookie named Andy Oliver produced identical 6 IP/3 ER lines. The game stayed deadlocked until the 9th, when Papi took Valverde and his douchey hat and delivery deep giving the Sox the lead, then Papelblows (Papelbon at the time) came in and pitched a perfect 9th for the win. Bunch of pissed off Tigers fans and a very happy User Name?.

Edited June 1, 2016 by User Name?

[mvp 78]

I wasn't even born on 5/14/85, old timer.

 

Lousy millenials...

[TheBabeStrikesBack]

Sept 14, 1977 Yanks vs Sawx

 

Reggie hit a dinger with Munson on giving Ed Figueroa a 2-0 win over Reggie Cleveland.

 

I remember it being a long subway ride from South Brooklyn up to the Bronx. And my dad hating every minute of it because he was an old Brooklyn Dodgers fan and detested everything to do with the Yanks.

[sk7326]

1984, with my dad. Got blown out by the A's IIRC. A's were still rocking versions of their yellow softball duds.

 

I only truly caught the bug in 1986 though.

[TheBabeStrikesBack]

1984, with my dad. Got blown out by the A's IIRC. A's were still rocking versions of their yellow softball duds.

 

I only truly caught the bug in 1986 though.

 

I like the old A's uniforms.

[dustcover]

My first visit to Fenway was, as best I can recall, in 1949. It was a doubleheader against the Yankees. Vic Raschi was on the mound for the Yankees in one game and Allie Reynolds in the other. Johnny Mize made an appearance as a pinch hitter and naturally hit a home run.

 

Sox lost both ends of the twin bill, resulting in me loathing forever those damn Yankees!

[Thunder]

Lousy millenials...

 

What does that make me?

[Thunder]

I don't remember my 1st game. All I know is that we sat under the CF scoreboard... Crappy seats. I think it was sometime in or around 2005. All I remember. I would have been 6 turning 7.

[Youk Of The Nation]

The Millennial generation is generally defined as those of us born between the mid 80's through 1999, so you would be a Millennial, I think. Unless you were born in 2000, in which case by the loose standards of the social Generations, you'd be a member of "Generation Z".

 

EDIT: Okay, yeah, I read your post after I sent mine. So yes, you'd be Z. I couldn't remember how old you were.

[Spudboy]

I can't remember specifics about my first game.

 

But it was at Fenway vs Cleveland, I think.

[S5Dewey]

I don't remember the specifics of the game but I do remember my first impression of Fenway - how green it was and how small it was. It looks bigger on tv.

 

I was maybe 10 years old. My dad and one of his friends took their sons to Fenway in dad's friend's 1955 Ford sedan (the things we remember, huh? LOL) a trip of about 250 miles each way. It was a Saturday game and we had box seats behind the Red Sox dugout. We had left Friday afternoon and we spent Friday night before the game outside of the city at a relative's home. IIRC the Sox lost and we drove home Saturday evening arriving home after 10:00.

[mvp 78]

What does that make me?

 

A clean slate.

[Thunder]

The Millennial generation is generally defined as those of us born between the mid 80's through 1999, so you would be a Millennial, I think. Unless you were born in 2000, in which case by the loose standards of the social Generations, you'd be a member of "Generation Z".

 

EDIT: Okay, yeah, I read your post after I sent mine. So yes, you'd be Z. I couldn't remember how old you were.

 

No. I'm a millennial. I was born in 1998.

[Maxbialystock]

My first was a double header in DC, Senators against the Guardians, summer of 1955 (I was 15). You remember them: "Washington, first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League." But that was the year after the Guardians ran away from the AL with great pitching but lost 4 straight to the Giants in the WS, and I had a blast even though the Sox were my team. My future wife, whom I met the next year in high school, did the same thing about 5 years earlier, age 9, and has refused to go a MLB game since then. For her it was child abuse. I also remember reading Sox box scores in the Stars&Stripes in West Germany in 1949, but my real fandom began the summer of 1954 when we lived in West Springfield, MA and I could listen to Sox games on the radio with Curt Gowdy calling the play by play. I didn't get to Fenway until 8 years ago and went back 5 years ago. Horrible seats, very expensive, both times. Like watching a game through binoculars that have been turned the wrong way around. To me Fenway is best experienced on TV because it has some of the worst sightlines in MLB, especially anything down the right field line. I've also watched MLB games in Philly (where I saw Sandy Koufax pitch), KC, and Baltimore, and all were much better (for viewing) then Fenway.

[Jasonbay44]

Orioles/Rays in 2002/2003 at Camden Yards. Aubrey huff tossed me a ball in warmups and I liked him ever since, and that's all I remember lol

[Spudboy]

My first was a double header in DC, Senators against the Guardians, summer of 1955 (I was 15). You remember them: "Washington, first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League." But that was the year after the Guardians ran away from the AL with great pitching but lost 4 straight to the Giants in the WS, and I had a blast even though the Sox were my team. My future wife, whom I met the next year in high school, did the same thing about 5 years earlier, age 9, and has refused to go a MLB game since then. For her it was child abuse. I also remember reading Sox box scores in the Stars&Stripes in West Germany in 1949, but my real fandom began the summer of 1954 when we lived in West Springfield, MA and I could listen to Sox games on the radio with Curt Gowdy calling the play by play. I didn't get to Fenway until 8 years ago and went back 5 years ago. Horrible seats, very expensive, both times. Like watching a game through binoculars that have been turned the wrong way around. To me Fenway is best experienced on TV because it has some of the worst sightlines in MLB, especially anything down the right field line. I've also watched MLB games in Philly (where I saw Sandy Koufax pitch), KC, and Baltimore, and all were much better (for viewing) then Fenway.

 

This is a wonderful post!!!

 

You've been a fan a very long time. I remember the Senators but from a later era. Boy was Frank Howard HUGE!!!!!

[SoxHop]

I don't remember anything about my first game, which was at Fenway. I was too young to remember. Apparently my sister got Luis Tiant to autograph a baseball for me. She said he was a really nice about it. No idea where the ball went, but I used a Jim Rice autographed ball to throw around and lost it so I'm guessing the ball with Tiant's autograph probably went down the sewer hole or something. I wish I cared for those things at the time.

[Kimmi]

I am always impressed with people who can remember every detail of a game that took place 30 or more years ago. I can't remember much from the last game I went to, and I can't even claim alcoholic influence, much less remember anything from my first game.

 

I do remember going to a game and seeing my then idol Clemens pitch and win against the Yankees, but I don't remember any specifics of the game.

[a700hitter]

I can remember games and innings from more than 40 years ago,but I am not sure about my first game.

[Youk Of The Nation]

I can remember games and innings from more than 40 years ago,but I am not sure about my first game.

 

I think Cap Anson had the game-winning hit.

[a700hitter]

I think Cap Anson had the game-winning hit.

That was an entire year after my first game.

[harmony]

I'm coming up on the 50th anniversary of my first MLB games on August 28, 1966.

 

My father and I rode the Greyhound bus from a neighboring state to Chicago to see a doubleheader between the White Sox and my Minnesota Twins at old Comiskey Park. We had lunch at a Trader Vic's in downtown Chicago before taking the L to the stadium on the South Side. As we took out seats I remember being in awe of the green expanses and the smells of the grass, hot dogs and pipe tobacco.

 

The White Sox swept the Twins in a marathon, winning the first game 4-3 in 15 innings and the nightcap 7-6 in 11 innings:

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA196608281.shtml

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA196608282.shtml

 

... although my childhood hero, Harmon Killebrew, homered in each game.

 

In about the seventh inning of the second game my father said we needed to leave to catch the Greyhound bus home. Defiant six weeks shy of my 11th birthday, I told my father he was free to go and that I would find my way back to Iowa on my own. We ended up staying until the final out, catching a later bus home, arriving around 7 am when my father needed to report to work at 8 am. My father never complained, nor did my mother, who saw little of her husband on that memorable day, their 17th wedding anniversary.

Edited June 2, 2016 by harmony