John McGovern
June 7, 2003
The only real memory I have is that this was the night of the 1977 Blackout. After the stadium lights went out, the emergency lights at the exit ramps lit up. Looking out beyond the stadium you could see that the rest of the area was also in darkness.

My father, brother and I waited for a little while to see if the power would be restored. When we were reasonably sure that power wouldn't come back right away, we decided to leave. Since we had taken the #7 train to the stadium that night, we had to find an alternate route home. I remember walking along Roosevelt Avenue to Main Street and then down to Northern Blvd. to catch the Q66 bus back to our neighborhood. The next day I had heard that some of the Mets drove their vehicles onto the field and used the headlights to illuminate the field somewhat so they could entertain the remaining fans with some mock play.

As I research now I see that the lights went out in the sixth inning and the game was resumed on September 16th.

Dan
September 3, 2003
My father, brother and I were seated in loge section 5 when the lights went out with (I believe) Lenny Randle at the plate. In the shadows of emergency lights, we remember Jane Jarvis playing Christmas music on the organ, some players miming a game in the shadows of light provided by cars brought onto the warning track in center field, and M. Donald Grant making an announcement urging calm (just one month after trading "the franchise," Tom Seaver). We waited about an hour and joined a the thousands peacefully easing their way out. I had not heard they finished the game later that September til recently.

Kiwiwriter
October 18, 2004
Andrew was watching this on TV when the lights, TV, and air conditioning went out. Like a robot, he got up to try and adjust the reception on the TV, not realizing the big blackout had started.

I was in Times Square. Good place to see a blackout hit!

Mark Heaney
April 21, 2005
It was the blackout of 77. I was at Shea with my Dad and Brother. Jerry Koosman was striking out the world! He must have had 15 by the 6th inning. Lenny Randle was waiting for a pitch when the lights went out. He later said "I thought the good lord had called me." The announcer said power would be restored momentarily, yet you could see the whole city was out. As we waited, the emergency lights were bright enough for us to watch the Mets dance in the dark to the Christmas music that Jane Jarvis was playing on the organ! You could smell the reefer as people lit up in the dark. It was a peaceful, party atmosphere. What an amazing memory!

Charles Walker
April 5, 2006
I was at the game with two of my friends, Candido and Bernard. I know it's going to sound weird, but I remember just a couple of innings earlier Candido said something to the effect of (and I swear this to my dying day) "I wonder what would happen if all of these lights went out." And, the rest is history. Weird, huh?

Ed Anderson
April 2, 2007
I remember it being one of my first games ever going to. I remember when the lights went out everything was calm. They had the cars on the warning track in center and some of the players where on the field horsing around. I can remember also Koosman was on fire.

I hate to say it out of all the memories I have of that game one that stands out is the idiot father of a friend I was with scaring the life out of my friend and I. As soon as the PA announcer said the blackout was city wide he grabbed us and just said a bunch off stuff about how crazy the city was going to be and we have to get out of there as soon as possible and back to Long Island. Why scare kids, I think.

Another memory I have of that game is how when the game was resumed it was part of a doubleheader. They played the last 3 innings I think and then a whole second game. Jerry Koosman pitched in the resumed game 2 innings and the STARTED the second game. Let's see someone do that today.

The best memory of that game I have is in the resumed game doubleheader the second game was delayed by rain. I was able to sneak down near the Mets dugout and Lenny Randle jumped up into the stands and sat there and signed autographs and chewed the fat for about 15 minutes with several fans including myself. As an 11 year old at the time that is something I'll remember forever and tell my grandkids about.

Anthony Comunale
December 22, 2006
I remember this game like yesterday. I was in 10th grade and went to the game with a gang of my friends. We got Dairylea tickets for $1.00 a piece to sit in the rafters. The game wasn't sold out but we were sitting all the way up just to bust the peanut guy's chops. I saw the lights go out on the bridges first then the rest just went black except for the exit lights. The stadium erupted after figuring out after 10 minutes that the lights weren't coming on. The Mets came back on the field with cars and played a mock game of baseball to keep the fans calm and we were. But the best memory I have is when we left you can hear people rolling the kegs of beer down the ramps but that was it. It was a calm place for the most part.

d-man
August 7, 2007
Wow. This was, I think, the second game I ever went to. What a bizarre night for a 10-year-old kid from New Jersey who had hardly ever even been to New York City.

What fun it was though, with my dad, grandfather, and 7-year-old brother. Never even occurred to me that it could have been dangerous situation!!!

Stu Baron
May 10, 2012
Ironically, I attended a MLB game this night, not at Shea but in Philly. I was 17 and in a summer program at Shippensburg (PA) State College, now Shippensburg University. The college ran a bus trip to the Vet for the Cardinals-Phillies game, and a couple of us NY kids got a bedsheet and made a banner reading, "YA GOTTA BELIEVE, NY STILL LOVES TUG MCGRAW!"

Of course Tug wound up saving a win for Steve Carlton. During the game, the news was flashed on the scoreboard that the Cubs-Mets game was stopped due to a power failure, and this being only a month after the midnight massacre, my immediate reaction was, "What's wrong with the Mets now?" We didn't hear anything about the blackout until the next day.

Witz
December 27, 2021
I was at the finish of this game; my memory was that it was crappy night and after they finished this one, they called the full game. So we went to Shea to see all of three innings of a game that they were already losing!

Ironically, it seems that both SPs were able to resume their role in Sept!