The Day I Lost A Quarter

I first fell in love with baseball back when I was 8 yrs old when I went to a Yankee game and was very fortunate to have gotten to see the great Mickey Mantle play. It was a school class trip, and the highlight of the trip was when Mantle hit a foul ball and my classmate that was sitting right next to me had the ball in his hands but couldn't hold onto it and some guy a few rows down ended up getting the ball. He was totally bummed as you can imagine. But it wasn't until the Mets won the world series when I truly became a fan of baseball and a fan of the Metropolitans. Since 69' the only games I think I missed were the games off air, maybe a handful of others but not many. One of the great games I witnessed was back on September 2, 1972. The Mets were at Houston, and it was the top of the eight when the Mets came up to the plate down 0-8. I was watching the game with my dad, and I told him they were done. He said I'll bet you a nickel that they come back and win. I naturally knew my chances were very good to win so I upped the wager to a quarter (back then that was the most I was allowed to bet- dad's rules)- he accepted my offer. Well, sure enough I lost my first bet of my life, the Mets actually came back to win that game by a score of 11-8. To this day it's the biggest late inning comeback in franchise history and I was one of the lucky ones to have witnessed it my father bet me the greatest come-back ever I lost a quarter