The San Diego Padres were playing the Braves in Atlanta. Nate Colbert of the Padres was having a big day. He got hits his first three at-bats. His name was announced for his fourth at-bat and the crowd leapt to its feet and started cheering wildly.
Colbert was so touched he returned to the on-deck circle now occupied by teammate Cito Gaston. Colbert said, "Cito, I can't believe it. These are the most amazing baseball fans I've ever seen. I mean, here I am, an opposing playing, and they give me a standing ovation."
Gaston said, "Look up at the message board."
Colbert glanced up at the big stadium message board and it said, "We have landed a man on the moon."
It's been 50 years, but those of us who were alive to see it will never forget those spectacular few days when "the Eagle had landed." What an extraordinary achievement -- especially in hindsight when we see how primitive all the equipment and computers were.
I remember my grandfather was so choked up he cried. He was born before the Wright Brothers lifted off the ground. To go from no flight at all to landing on the moon in his lifetime was overwhelming.
When my son graduated from Tufts, the commencement speaker was Neil Armstrong. I generally don't get star struck, but HOLY SHIT! There he was. In person! I was in awe.
Congratulations to everyone who made this monumental achievement possible. Oh, for the days I was sooooo proud to be an American.
Easy to confirm. It would have been 4:17pm in Atlanta when we landed on the moon. So, was it a day game? If they meant when Armstrong walked on the moon it would have been just before 11pm in Atlanta.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great story, but almost certainly not true. For one thing, Colbert only went 1/4 on July 20, 1969.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of whom, has any player had a greater drop in effectiveness than Nate Colbert between 1973 and 1974?
The first-year Padres indeed were in Atlanta that day, but lost 10-0. Colbert batted fourth and went 1-for-4.
ReplyDeleteNate did have a career day against the Braves, but it came in an Aug. 1, 1972 doubleheader at Fulton County Stadium. He went 4-for-5 in the opener with two HR and five RBI, then outdid himself in the nightcap -- 3-for-4, all homers, and eight RBI. So Vin mixed up the dates; hey, we're all human.
The Washington Post recently wrote about the Senators' game on 7/20/69 at the original Yankee Stadium (aka the cathedral of baseball): https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/07/17/when-apollo-landed-moon-major-league-baseball-stood-still/?utm_term=.e5b2d3f737c6
Fast forward to the last moon landing on Dec 11, 1972, and Americans were totally over it. As I remember it, the prevailing attitude was: Not another one! Why don't they lower my taxes instead of sending people to the moon to hit golf balls.
ReplyDeleteToday everyone walks around with a Star Trek Tricorder/Communicator and plays Candy Crush.
Reminds me of the time Rob Lowe was being interviewed on the red carpet at an awards show. During the interview, the crowd suddenly started cheering wildly and he looked up at them and said, "Thank you!" What Rob didn't realize was that, behind him, Barbra Streisand was making her way down the red carpet...
ReplyDeleteIt was a spectacular achievement, and I vividly remember staying up for the moonwalk TV broadcast. I also remember the incredibly compressed flight schedule that got Apollo 11 there; Apollo 10 took on in May, and the Apollo 11 rocket was moving to the pad while it was still in the air. Apollo 9 took off in March, Apollo 8 in December -- and those 4 were the ONLY manned missions on Apollo. Four missions in 6 months, all building on each other, every mission wholly reliant on the learnings of the last mission -- all going in parallel. Wow.
ReplyDeleteI wonder, if all that happened today, how interested people would be in it. It just feels like folks today have attention spans of gnats, sci-fi has convinced a whole generation that travelling faster than the speed of light is possible and we'll all own light sabres soon so going to the moon would be boring and no accomplishment, and whether two branches of the American government could EVER reach agreement on anything as big, bold or expensive (who would pay for the astronau's health care, and the 2nd Amendment would require astronauts to carry guns into space would be argued). Climate activists would complain about rocket exhaust's contribution to global warming. Greenpeace and PETA would hang banners from the gantry towers. TV networks would never want to interrupt their current reality show for broadcasts, so it would only run on STARZ. The rocket would have to be be festooned with advertising logos to pay for it, but we would be worried about the Russians hacking into the rocket's control computers. Somehow, if it happened today, it feels like it would be... different.
And how much would be skimmed by contractors who now view govt. contracts as a trough at which to gorge.
DeleteBut what about Natalie Wood's birthday?
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, and watching the moon landing live was awesome!
Lefty Gomez, the Yankee pitcher, commented something to the effect that the first thing Neal Armstrong found when he stepped on the moon were a couple of home run balls Lefty had served up.
ReplyDeleteThe moon landing and Natalie Wood's birthday.....July 20, quite the doubleheader!
ReplyDeleteI had never watched the descent footage until today. Absolutely mesmerizing.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/xc1SzgGhMKc
Fascinating to watch broadcast coverage from that week in July. NBC, CBS, ABC. Huntley/Brinkley, Cronkite, Frank Reynolds and Jules Bergman. Calm reporting, calm observation, calm excitement (if there is such a thing). These broadcast practitioners, small armies of dedicated people behind the scenes and out front, provided a template on how broadcast journalism is done. Future generations can always pick up this available template. Maybe they will.
ReplyDeleteTo have the moon landing and the walk along with the live feed was incredible. What is really amazing for the time was the excursion module reconnecting with the main capsule. How incredible.
ReplyDeleteVP81955, you inspired a couple of things. Here goes.
ReplyDeleteApparently, there was an AFTRA strike in DC at the time, so Rex Barney, the longtime Orioles PA man who Ken got to know during his year in Baltimore, crossed the picket line and broadcast the game. So he got to call it.
As for Nate Colbert, a word about forgotten men. Colbert hit five homers in a doubleheader in 1972. Milo Hamilton later told about interviewing him and Colbert telling him he, a St. Louis native, was at the doubleheader where Stan Musial hit five homers. Hamilton had the pleasure of responding that Colbert had hit the five homers against Atlanta, for which he broadcast, and when Musial hit the five homers, Hamilton was one of the Cardinals broadcasters, so they were the only two people who had been at both games.
Wrong. One of the umpires at Musial's 1954 doubleheader, Augie Donatelli, also worked Colbert's 1972 doubleheader. It gets better. For both doubleheaders, Donatelli worked the plate in the first game and third base in the second game.
As for The Vin, I guess we have to quote Anthony Quinn in Lawrence of Arabia: He is not ... perfect.
I remember that Sunday the family had to go to some group picnic, something to do with a fraternal organization I think. I was miffed, because I wanted to stay at home and watch the TV coverage. The other event I remember from that day was that the Seattle Pilots game the night before had been suspended due to curfew in the top of the 17th inning. At the picnic I heard on the radio that the Eagle had landed and that the Pilots had lost in the 18th. We got home from the picnic in time to see the moon walk live on TV- I just sat there thinking "This is coming from the moon!" over and over. It seemed liked in just a few more years before we would be landing on Mars...
ReplyDelete10 years ago I went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum to see Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins. They were signing books- the line was huge- so I decided not to stand in line- but honestly just seeing those three in person was such a thrill.
Michael:
ReplyDeleteIn former Senators announcer Shelby Whitfield's fine book "Kiss It Goodbye" about the notorious Bob Short ownership era leading to the team's move to Arlington, Texas and no baseball in Washington until 2005, he mentions the Senators later gave away a commemorative record of Barney's broadcast, which did not endear the regular announcers to ownership. (Short's so-called promotion whiz was one Oscar Molomot, infamously remembered in D.C. for the team's Ladies Days giveaway of cheap, one-size-fits-all pantyhose.)
Whitfield alleges Short intentionally minimized attendance figures to keep the season mark below 1 million and help facilitate a move; he also charged MLB's highest ticket prices despite product that was average at best. (The '69 Senators were 86-76, Washington's first winning record since the original AL franchise in 1952, but plummeted to the AL East cellar in '70 and weren't much better in their swan song season of '71.)
Just a simple question Ken. Don't see why you had to censor it.
ReplyDelete1895 to 1955 had more major changes than 1955 to 2015.
ReplyDeleteCars, telephones, TV, airplanes.
Jump to the same house 60 years later, and you have a microwave and internet.
Gotta come clean....the moon-landing was not our major concern that night. We had tickets to see Led Zeppelin at the Musicarnival in-the-round tent stage in Warrensville, Ohio just outside of Cleveland; and that was uppermost in our minds. And what a show it was....Page had the whole wizard thing goin'on....Plant was wailing his finest....and Bonham was doing things with the drums that seemed humanly impossible. Plant even referenced the moon-shot in his intro to Dazed and Confused....and, yes, it blew our minds.
ReplyDeleteThe concert was over by 11 because of local sound by-laws. And with everyone rushing to their cars is when the magic happened. Most folks were cruising away to catch the moonwalk on tv at home (Yes, there were a few in the crowd who were actually not quite aware that something was going on with the moon at all....but HEY, it was the 60s, OK?) For many of us however, home with the parents was NOT where you wanted to be after a Zep show:) EVERYbody who hung around spontaneously cranked their car radios and I would estimate there were about 200 of us hanging in the parking lot hanging on Neil's every word. I'll always remember the cheer that rang out as they made it out of the lander. Followed by LOTS of high-fives and Miller-inspired man-hugs.
I've come to realize over the years that we were very lucky to see it happen in our imaginations, and to have the opportunity to do so in a bunch-of-screamin'-Mimi's group situation. Truly unforgettable!
AJ Pierzynski told a good anecdote yesterday during the Mets-Giants broadcast. Early in Gaylord Perry’s career, Alvin Dark, Giants manager, said “A man will walk on the moon before that guy hits a home run,” referring to Perry. Roughly 5 years later oin July 20, 1969 Perry hit his first career home run shortly after the moon landing. I looked it up. Perry’s first career home run was indeed on July 20, 1969 off Dodger starter Claude Osteen.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone checked with Marilu Henner about her remembrances of the moon landing in July 1969...
ReplyDeleteOne of the Instagram accounts I follow posted a pic of the moon landing on its anniversary. There were over a thousand comments, nearly all of them from literal flat-earthers who were screaming 'fake' and that it never happened. Just sad and appalling. *smh*
ReplyDelete