Susan Marie Davniero: The Day My Husband Caught a Met's Foul Ball

Susan and Bob
Mets Game at Shea Stadium, NY

THE DAY MY HUSBAND CAUGHT A MET'S FOUL BALL

(Published Pancakes in Heaven)

Suddenly it’s summer at a baseball game. From the view of our box seats at Shea Stadium we were looking around at the baseball landscape. I have to give a nod to my twin sister, Laura, who supplied the prize box seats tickets for the home game.

We were up close and personal to the Mets baseball star players on the field warming up; close enough to take photos and get autographs. Their names stitched on the back of the team’s jerseys read like an all-star line up - Mookie, Hernandez, Dysktra, and Carter as if to name their place on the team.

The Mets 1986 World Series Championship wasn’t far behind cheering on the team this June 4, 1988 day. They didn’t look defeated. The summer sun spotlighted the champs. Given that my husband, Bob, was the loyal lifetime Mets fan forever in the group, it was really his day. I was there with him as only a wife, who hates sports but loves her husband, would be.

And Bob is really a big Mets fan. He can rattle off all the World Series dates but can’t remember his Mother’s birthday. He can listen to FAN sports talk radio non-stop day and night, even in his sleep, yet can’t hear me when I ask him to bring out the garbage. Bob even brought a pocket radio with him to listen to the game when the Rockettes kick it up at Radio City. I’m talking a real fanatic fan. Get the picture of how excited he was that day my twin sister took us all out to the ballgame.

Before the game we browsed the souvenir stands catching sight of a circular dome to display baseballs. My intuition thought we might need one if Bob catches a ball. Suggesting we buy it “just in case” Bob laughed and we returned to our seats without the sale.

A slight breeze awakens the stillness of the summer day. It was the first inning, bottom of the first, as the first batter of the Mets, Dysktra, goes up to bat. He hits a foul ball racing to the stands in our direction. The crowd cheers as our section takes to their feet extending arms readily in place to catch the flying foul ball. All eyes are on the ball.

The moment was frozen in time. Then it happens – the ball falls into Bob’s hands. He catches the ball as the crowds cheer him on. That’s as good as it gets for this Mets fan!

And my prediction had gone beyond words and became true. With ball in hand we revisited the same souvenir stand to purchase the baseball circular dome (the same one I suggested we should buy earlier that day) to display his prize catch of the day!

Thru the lens of time Bob’s catch at the game was recorded on the VCR taping the televised game at home. We were all on television as Bob proudly waves the prize ball for the camera. Perhaps Bob’s catch couldn’t quite rival Carters – yet for a moment in time Bob felt like he was in their league.

Bob’s catch of the day lives on forever on tape and in memory. Memories are made of this. For a Mets forever fan like my husband, Bob, it wasn’t just a ball game – it was the game of his life!

A summer story had just come into being.

Susan Marie Davniero