Oh, September 22, 1966, via Neil Best – with a hat tip to BBTF:
For John Filippelli, YES’ president of production and programming, Sunday’s Stadium party resonated professionally and personally.
His first real job was as a Stadium vendor in 1966, including the September game against the White Sox that drew 413.
That was the day Red Barber famously insisted on discussing the attendance on the air, and soon thereafter was fired.
“I sold six bags of peanuts and got seven foul balls,” he said. “That’s what I remember. I had more balls than I sold peanuts. There was no one here. You could almost give them out, one per customer . . . It was very spooky and surreal and strange.”
In all fairness, the day before that game, 5.54 inches of rain fell on New York City – still a record for that day. So, maybe people just assumed that the field would be unplayable? And, from what I can tell, it appears that the forecast for the day of the game had a chance of rain in it too.
3 Responses to “When 413 Came To See The Yankees Play”
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September 23rd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I agree something had to have been up. Looking at the schedule, it may have been a series finale, with two games being rained out (the previous game to that one was a loss to the Twins on 9/18). The attendances for the next few games in that homestand (9/23-25 vs. the Red Sox) were 1,440, 5,897 & 16,467.
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Still, had to be an eerie sight, reminiscent of Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium back in the day.
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:42 am
[...] like 342 fans stayed until the end of this game. Hey, this new Yankee Stadium is starting to get a 1966 feel to it – in some [...]