Vendor's home movie of '69 Swoboda catch finally to be on TV
TMC
Never before seen on TV!
"Well," said Tim Hanley, "not on your TV, not yet."
Forty years later, Hanley can't quite recall if he'd been assigned to
sell peanuts, ice cream or soda, that day: "I was 17, so I know I
wasn't allowed to sell beer."
Regardless, it was the ninth inning, quitting time, as far as he was
concerned. Shoot, with a 13 percent commission as a Shea Stadium
vendor, and with a full house for Game 4 of the 1969 World Series,
he'd already had a big day, cleared at least 15 bucks.
Besides, young Tim had brought along an 8mm movie camera. He could be
the first on his block in Ozone Park to have home movies of the '69
Series.
FORTY YEARS LATER: Tim Hanley, a Manhattan law librarian who was a 17-
year-old Shea Stadium vendor for Game 4 of the 1969 World Series,
filmed the great catch by Mets outfielder Ron Swoboda on his home
movie camera. Hanley's footage will be featured on the MLB Network's
"Baseball Seasons" devoted to the '69 Mets this Wednesday at 8 p.m.
So in the top of the ninth, with one out, Orioles on first and third,
down 1-0, Hanley stood on a water fountain just outside the vendors'
locker room in right field. And when Brooks Robinson hit a sinking
liner to right-center, and Ron Swoboda made the greatest catch in Mets
history, Hanley not only caught the catch, he caught it flush, a clean
angle never before seen on our TVs.
"It was still sunny in right. The shadows hadn't yet covered the
outfield," said Hanley, who now lives in Manhattan and is the law
librarian for Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. "I probably was the closest
person to the catch who filmed it, and certainly the only one with
that distinct angle."
Hanley says that in NBC's coverage of the game we can see, in the
ninth, a distant figure standing on top of something near the right
field corner. He figures that has to be him.
In transferring home movies to disc last year, Hanley threw in the
Swoboda catch. This year, when the 40th anniversary of the catch came
up, Hanley contacted the folks at MLB Productions in Secaucus. And
they liked what they saw.
Wednesday night at 8:00, Thanksgiving Eve, MLB Network will present
"Baseball's Seasons," this one devoted to the '69 Mets -- Hanley's
clip included.
Oh, Frank Robinson tagged from third to tie the score, but then Elrod
Hendricks lined out. The Mets won it in the 10th.
So remember: Any rebroadcast or retransmission of any game without the
expressed written consent of Major League Baseball is strictly
prohibited, give or take 40 years.
*
Sports Culture Game of the Week: In what almost surely was one more
home loss than will be indulged under Charlie Weis, Notre Dame on
Saturday was leading UConn 14-0 when, on third-and-4 from its own 31,
UConn threw incomplete. But DB Sergio Brown nailed the intended,
exposed receiver with a late and excessive hit.
Brown seized an opportunity to hit a defenseless guy as hard as he
could, perhaps even knock him out of the game. That's how the game is
now coached, sold.
And, instead of punting, down 14-0, UConn was given 15 yards and a
first down. Six plays later it was 14-7. Regulation ended 20-20. ND
lost in OT.
*
Given that this city's most self-serving radio play-by-player and
biggest homer, John Sterling, also is the city's most imitated, the
purveyors of good-faith radio deserve recognition.
Saturday, when Nets center Brook Lopez was called for fouling the
Knicks' Danilo Gallinari -- Lopez felt it was a clean block -- Lopez
and Nets coach Lawrence Frank erupted. And on WFAN, Nets' play-by-
player Chris Carrino seemed sold on the Nets' contention they were
robbed. Even if he was wrong, who'd know? It's radio.
But Carrino next said that having just watched a replay, ref Mike
Smith made the right call. Lopez fouled him, got him in the head. Much
appreciated.
*
Moose Johnston's "Keys to the Game" on Fox yesterday included this for
the Falcons' defense: "Get off [the field] on third [down]."
Translation: Force the Giants to punt. Geez. Johnston is another who
would be twice as good if he said half as much. Yesterday: "[Browns'
QB] Brady Quinn has had a tough start to his professional career, over
the years."
Marv Albert yesterday told us that a report -- later debunked -- about
a fist-throwing beef he had with 50 Cent's crew prior to appearing on
Jimmy Kimmel's show was "preposterous. As much as I value my street
cred, my posse and his posse weren't even in the same room." . . .
Frank Caliendo's parody of Jim Rome and his ESPN show, during Fox's
pregame show, was a howl.
We're (almost) used to it. As the Falcons and Giants played OT, CBS
picked up OT of Steelers-Chiefs -- only to lose it to the opening of
Jets-Pats. . . . Catch of the Day: Keith Levin, Vernon, Conn.,
correctly notes that the crawl during Fox's pregame show gave the
forecast for Jets-Pats, a 4:15 kickoff, as "mostly sunny." Sunset in
Foxborough, Levin added, was 4:19.