An MMO Fan Shot by Joey D.
Today, June 27, is the 50th anniversary of the New York Mets’ Jack Fisher beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 1-0 at Shea Stadium by getting Bill Mazeroski to hit into a ninth inning game ending 5-4-3 triple play!
Of course, the game didn’t count in the standings. It was filmed prior to the Mets-Pirates game and appeared in “The Odd Couple” starring Jack Lemmon (Felix Unger) and Walter Matthau (Oscar Madison).
Roberto Clemente was initially asked to hit into the triple play that Oscar misses, but he was ultimately replaced by Mazeroski. The fleet-footed Clemente did about six takes but despite trying to run slower, he kept beating the throw to first base, so they went with the much slower Maz.
I was there sitting in the upper deck behind home plate when they filmed it, getting in free with a dozen box tops from Borden milk products!
It was the scene in the press box when Oscar was called to the phone with the Pirates having the bases loaded and nobody out and trailing by that one run.
Oscar said no way he could take a call at this point in the game, however, he was told the call was urgent.
Begrudgingly, he gets up only to find it was Felix telling him not to eat any hot dogs during the game because he was making a frank and bean casserole.
Just then, with his back toward the field, Oscar hears the crowd roar and misses seeing the triple play.
It was a classic moment in a classic movie that eventually became a long running series by the same name. Incidentally, the Mets actually won the regular game, aided by the Pirates batting out of order.
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This Fan Shot was contributed by Joey D. from the MMO Community. Have something you want to say about the Mets? Share your opinions with over 20,000 Met fans who read this site daily.
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