Mets fans love the current broadcast team of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling. Mets fans from previous generations will recall with love the original Mets broadcast trio of Ralph Kiner, Bob “Back with the happy recap” Murphy and Lindsey Nelson.
Prior to joining the Mets broadcast teams, Bob Murphy had broadcast for the Red Sox and Orioles and Lindsey Nelson had been the voice of NBC’s coverage of baseball, football, basketball, and golf. The trio worked together from the Mets inaugural season of 1962 through 1978, with Nelson known for wearing garish sports coats.
While current announcers will often travel around the stadium to broadcast, April 28, 1965 is the day that Mets announcer Lindsey Nelson went above and beyond the call of duty to broadcast games to Mets fans.
When the Mets reached the Astrodome for a two-game series April 27 and 28, their radio producer, Joe Gallagher, noticed a gondola above the field attached to the dome’s roof and inquired as to whether it was possible to broadcast from there. Houston officials told him that the gondola could be raised and lowered like an elevator, broadcasts could be done from there, and that the gondola was strong enough and secure enough to hold several adults.
Why would a gondola have been added to what was called at the time the “Eighth wonder of the world”? According to the Houston Post, the gondola was installed to provide a sound system and lighting for planned boxing matches, basketball games, and concerts to be held on various floor stages.
The gondola took 45 minutes to come down, and Lindsey Nelson and Joel Nixon ascended to 208 feet above the above second base in the Astrodome, in four minutes. Note that Joe Gallagher, who originated the idea, stayed on the ground.
As lineups were exchanged and ground rules discussed prior to the game, Mets manager Casey Stengel proactively asked home plate umpire and crew chief Tom Gorman, what the ruling would be if a batted ball hit “my man Lindsey?” Gorman looked up to see Nelson, over 200 feet above him and replied, “Well, if the ball hits the roof, it’s in play, so I guess if it hits Lindsey, it’s in play, too.”
The Old’ Perfessor exclaimed to the press after the game, “How about that? That’s the first time my man Lindsey was ever a ground rule.”
Nelson was provided a walkie-talkie to communicate with Ralph Kiner and Bob Murphy. However, the walkie-talkies were on the same frequency as a Houston taxi firm. Sometimes Nelson heard Bob Murphy describe a play as the play-by-plan man; other times he heard requests to pick up passengers.
The vantage point also proved a detriment to helping Lindsey describe the action to fans and his fellow announcers. As he offered to the press after the game, “I couldn’t see anything except a lot of tiny figures. Everybody looked the same height, everybody looked short. You couldn’t tell a line drive from a pop fly.”
The featured image for this article was the view Lindsey had of the field that day.
As for the game itself, the Astros beat the Mets 12-9, with Tug McGraw getting the loss. The Astros would finish their first season in the Astrodome in ninth place, but with the second best attendance in the league. The Mets went 50-112, finishing in 10th place, and with the third best attendance in the league.
The gondola out-lasted Lindsey Nelson’s time with the team. While Nelson left after the 1978 season, the gondola stayed in place until a study was conducted in 1980 that concluded it was too heavy on a long term basis to keep it up there. It had already been hanging there for 15 years, but was removed in 1981 as part of a number of stadium renovations.
While readers may be WFH, use this time to recall 55 years ago today, when Mets announcer Lindsey Nelson was WFG – working from a gondola.
LGM
