RobKirkpatrick.com

They're gettin' ready in the swamps of Jersey. (Photo by Tm Kaminski)

This just in: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will give complete album performances at each of their upcoming dates during their final Giants Stadium stay, which touches off tomorrow night–with Born to Run.

Here’s a link to story on Backstreets, where you can also purchase a copy of Magic in the Night from their online store: http://www.backstreets.com/news.html

Richard Safire, the New York Times columnist and former speechwriter for Richard Nixon, passed away today at 79.

Safire wrote the “contingency” speech that Richard Nixon would have read on television in the event that the astronauts of Apollo 11 had been stranded on the moon, as I discuss in 1969.  If not for Neil Armstrong’s quick thinking during his lunar approach, it’s something that very well could have happened.  And if Buzz Aldrin hadn’t figured out how to flip the broken ignition button with a ball-point pen… 

Here’s a link to the speech, courtesy of Gawker:

http://gawker.com/5369364/william-safires-finest-speech

Film director Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland on Saturday on charges stemming from his fleeing sentencing for a sex crime in the United States in the late 1970s. In 1977, he pled to having unlawful sexual relations with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer. He fled the country before he could be sentenced, however, and U.S. authorities have had a warrant out for him ever since.

Polanski has been living in France and was in Switzerland to attend the Zurich Film Festival, where he was to receive a lifetime achievement award. With advance knowledge of Polanski’s planned attendance, U.S. and Swiss authorities are said to have worked together on an extradition agreement.

Link to story:

 http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/27/zurich.roman.polanski.arrested/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Sunday, September 28, 1969

Mets pitchers extended their scoreless streak to 42 consecutive innings as Gary Gentry, Nolan Ryan, and Ron Taylor combined to shutout the Phillies and complete a three-game sweep in Philadelphia.

The only runs of the game came in the top of the second inning. Ed Kranepool’s walk followed by Wayne Garrett’s single placed men on first and second with none out. Jim Gosger, who came over in July as the player-to-be-named-later in the Mets’ preseason trade with the Seattle Pilots, doubled to score Kranepool. Gentry’s sac fly plated Garrett for the second and final run of the game. Garrett’s leadoff double in the seventh was the only other Mets hit of the day.

Gentry went five innings to pick up the victory and finish the season with a winning record. Ryan pitched the sixth, seventh and eighth, and Taylor threw a scoreless ninth for the save.

Batting leadoff again, Cleon Jones went 0 for 3 with a walk and saw his average drop to .340, now third in the league behind Pete Rose (.347) and Roberto Clemente (.341).

Mets 2, Phillies 0.  W: Gentry (13-12)  L: J. Johnson (6-13)

Saturday, September 27, 1969

Making his final start of the season, Tom Seaver won his league-leading 25th game as the Mets edged the host Phillies 1-0.  Not to be outdone by his staffmate, Seaver followed Jerry Koosman’s complete-game shutout on Friday with one of his own. The Franchise gave up just three hits, two to rookie catcher Dave Watkins, in yet another dominating performance. With the shutout, Seaver lowered his season ERA to 2.20, third best in the National League and just ahead of Koosman’s mark of 2.23. He finishes out the regular season on an amazing run, going 8-0 with an ERA of 0.63 in his final eight starts, all complete games.

Philadelphia’s Grant Jackson matched Seaver’s scoreless effort inning for inning until the eighth, when the Mets managed the lone run of the game.  Don Clendenon walked with two outs, advanced to second on Ron Swoboda’s walk, and came around to score when Bobby Pfeil knocked a single into center.  Seaver then retired the last six men he faced to close out the game.

Mets manager Gil Hodges batted Cleon Jones leadoff, giving his leftfielder the maximum number of plate appearances in his pursuit of Cincinnati’s Pete Rose in the National League batting title race. Jones collected two singles in four at-bats to raise his season average to .343, while Rose also went 2 for 4 and now stands at .348. The Pirates’s Roberto Clemente is currently third in the league at .340 after going 2 for 3.

Mets 1, Phillies 0.  W: Seaver (25-7)  L: Jackson (14-17)

Susan Atkins - the member of Charles Manson’s cult who confessed to killing 26-year-old pregnant actor Sharon Tate in the infamous Manson killings in August 1969 that also victimized Steven Parent, Abigail Folger, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca - passed away today at the age of 61.

Tate was murdered in the home she and director Roman Polanski rented on Cielo Drive in the Hollywood Hills.

Link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-09-25-susan-atkins-obit_N.htm?csp=34

Friday, September 26, 1969

Playing in their first game as reigning division champs, the New York Mets beat the host Phillies on Jerry Koosman’s four-hit shutout. It was Koosman’s fifth complete game and fifth win in a row, and the twenty-seven year-old lefty has lowered his season ERA to a staff-best 2.21.

With a batting lineup that featured a number of reserves including Rod Gaspar, Bob Heise, Amos Otis, Bobby Pfeil and Duffy Dyer, the Mets put five men across the plate. Two days after hitting a pair of home runs in Wednesday’s clincher, Don Clendenon went deep with two out and one on in the first inning to give New York and early lead. Koosman took it from there and allowed just one Phillies batter to reach base (a walk to Tony Taylor) from the fifth inning onward.

Otis had two hits and drove in a run while starting in center in place of Tommie Agee.

Mets 5, Phillies 0.  W: Koosman (17-9)  L: Fryman (12-15)

Wednesday, September 24, 1969

With Bill Hands pitching the Cubs to a win over the Expos at Wrigley today, the Mets had to take care of business themselves if they wanted to clinch the Eastern Division of the National League.

And take care of business they did, scoring five runs out of the gate off Steve Carlton, the starting pitcher for the National League in this past summer’s All-Star game.

Don Clendenon got the scoring started in a big way with his first inning home run, after Bud Harrelson had lead off with a single and Tommie Agee reached on a walk.  Two batters latter, Ed Charles went deep with a two-run shot to knock Carlton out of the box, and the Shea Stadium crowd could sense that this was the Mets’ night.

From there, rookie Gary Gentry kept the Cardinals at bay, allowing just four hits on the night. Clendenon homered again in the fifth inning, his fifteenth roundtripper of the season, to give the Mets another insurance run.

Gentry carried the shutout into the ninth. Lou Brock and Vic Davalillo both singled to open the inning. But Gentry struck out Vada Pinson for the first out, and the next batter, Joe Torre, bounced a tailor-made groundball to Harrelson. The Mets shortstop threw to Al Weis for the out at second, and Weis turned and fired to Clendenon for the final out of the game.

I recount what happened next in 1969: The Year Everything Changed:

Mets announcer Lindsey Nelson officially proclaimed: “At 9:07 on September 24th, the Mets have won the championship of the  Eastern Division of the National League!”

As the Mets players ran into the dugout and began spraying champagne inside the locker room, fans stormed the field to celebrate an event that had seemed unthinkable in the team’s first seven years. In what the Associated Press called “one of the most incredible souvenir-snatching safaaris in baseball history,” the Shea crowd tore up as much as 1,500 square feet of sod. The AP quoted a police report the next day that summarized the festive damage: “They celebrated by  breaking three wheels off the batting cage and stripping the netting off it. They celebrated by tearing up the all-weather matting in the coaches’ boxes behind first and third base. They celebrated by taking pieces of the scoreboard. They celebrated by stealing home plate.” Fans also sprayed graffiti across the wall in centerfield and stole the stadium’s American flag from atop its outfield post.

The Mets now await the winner of the National League West, which the Atlanta Braves currently lead by 1.5 games over the San Francisco Giants and 3 over the Cincinnati Reds.

Cubs 6, Expos 3.  W: Hands (19-14)  L: Renko (6-7)

Mets 6, Cardinals 0.  W: Gentry (12-12)  L: Carlton (17-11)

***

NL EAST                          W    L    T   PCT    GB    RS   RA
New York Mets*                  96   61    0  .611     -   615  531
Chicago Cubs                    90   67    1  .573   6.0   706  595
Pittsburgh Pirates              82   73    0  .529  13.0   691  632
St. Louis Cardinals             82   74    0  .526  13.5   567  527
Philadelphia Phillies           62   92    0  .403  32.5   624  711
Montreal Expos                  52  105    0  .331  44.0   574  762
* clinched division

NL WEST                          W    L    T   PCT    GB    RS   RA
Atlanta Braves                  89   68    0  .567     -   667  613
San Francisco Giants            87   69    0  .558   1.5   690  619
Cincinnati Reds                 85   70    1  .548   3.0   771  750
Los Angeles Dodgers             82   74    0  .526   6.5   628  538
Houston Astros                  78   76    0  .506   9.5   652  638
San Diego Padres                50  106    0  .321  38.5   447  716

Or so the rumor was. The “Paul is dead” urban legend was spawned forty years ago, fueled by supposed “clues” on the cover of their Abbey Road album, released that fall.  I trace the evolution of this odd cultural phenomenon in my book, 1969: The Year Everything Changed (click on the BOOKS link, above). 

Also check out the following “Retro Minute“ from getback.com: http://video.aol.com/video-detail/retro-minute-retro-minute-september-23-1969/269720594

Roger Daltrey once sang, “Hope I die before I get old” in the Who’s 1965/66 hit “My Generation.”  But rockers like Daltrey continue to sing and thrive decades later, and perhaps no rocker has aged so well as Bruce Springsteen, who today celebrates his third full generation of life – and still shows very few signs of aging.

Here’s a nice piece from Stan Goldstein for nj.com: http://www.nj.com/springsteen/index.ssf/2009/09/bruce_springsteen_celebrates_h.html

And to help mark Springsteen’s 60th birthday, here’s a list of his Top 10 Most Underrated Songs:

1. Fade Away (from The River)

2. Downbound Train (Born in the U.S.A.)

3. Back in Your Arms (Tracks)

4. I Wanna Be With You (Tracks)

5. Book of Dreams (Lucky Town)

6. Santa Ana (Tracks)

7. Roll of the Dice (Human Touch)

8. Nothing Man (The Rising)

9. Walk Like a Man (Tunnel of Love)

10. Living Proof (Lucky Town)

…And his Most Underrated Album?  Lucky Town, hands down.

For more on these and, well, all of his other songs, feel free to pick up Magic in the Night: The Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2009).  Click on the BOOKS link above for more info.

- Rob