First game

Baseball fans tend to have vivid memories of the first major-league games they attended, and I'm no different.

On Saturday, April 14, 1973, our dad drove my brother and me from home in Harrisburg to Veterans Stadium, to see the Phillies play the Mets. We picked that night because Steve Carlton, who was coming off a 27-win season for a 59-win team, was scheduled to pitch for Philadelphia.

I'd never seen a structure as immense as the Vet, which seated more than 60,000 at the time. As we walked toward the stadium, Dad pointed toward the columns at the top and joked, "Those are people standing up there because there aren't any seats."

We squinted to determine if those really were people and worried that, with Carlton on the mound, we might not be able to get tickets. Turns out the attendance that night was only 11,000-plus, so we were able to buy general admission, no problem. I think it cost a total of $7 for the three of us.

I remember the vendors walking around selling beer (I wasn't interested in that yet) and hot dogs, which they kept in portable heating units strapped to their necks and sold for what seemed like the unreasonably high price of a dollar apiece.

I remember the deep green of the Astroturf; the yellow, orange and red seats differentiating the various levels; and the striking symmetry of the Vet. Since I'd never been to a "traditional ballpark" like Forbes Field or Connie Mack Stadium, the newly designed stadiums that became known as "concrete ashtrays" were just fine with me.

I remember looking into center field and seeing the legendary Willie Mays. He might have been 42 years old, but his presence was a thrill for a little kid like me.

Most of all, I remember a couple of rookies who were available before the game to sign our yearbook. Their names were Bob Boone and Mike Schmidt. Boone went on to set the record for most games caught, since broken by Carlton Fisk. Schmidt, of course, went on to Cooperstown.

Boy, I wish I still had that yearbook.

As for the game, I remember the Phillies winning and Carlton pitching well. I looked it up, and he actually pitched a complete game in a 7-3 victory. I also remember that I'd never heard of his mound opponent, Jim McAndrew, before. It turned out that McAndrew, once a highly regarded prospect, was in his final season with the Mets and next-to-last in his career.

Things went much better for Carlton, who retired with 329 victories, second to Warren Spahn among lefthanders. But 1973 was far from his best season; he ended up losing 20 games as the Phils ended up in the basement again. The Mets went on to the World Series.

We attended several more games in '73, including one at Three Rivers Stadium, where we saw Willie Mays a final time. (Unfortunately, he fell down and hurt himself.) But the memories of those other games are lost in a haze compared with the first one.

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Trivia #10: Which pitcher's team failed to score a single run for him in his first four major-league starts? For the answer, scroll down and look to the right.