On Wednesday night, former Mets co-owner Nelson Doubleday died at the age of 81.
In a story for MLB.com, Marty Noble looks back on Doubleday’s ownership of the Mets from 1980-2002.
Here is an excerpt:
The traffic on the Major Deegan Expressway was at a standstill in both directions; it had been for close to 30 minutes. It was about 8:30 p.m. The Yankees were playing at the Stadium, and they were playing the Mets. It was June 1997, the first year of Interleague Play in the big leagues. And for the first time since the Giants played the Dodgers in 1957, two New York teams were playing in a regular-season game.
Those stuck outside on the paralyzed highway couldn’t help but hear the raucous reactions of the 56,000 who had gathered to witness history. Hearing the crowd noise and the distinctive public-address introductions of Bob Sheppard wasn’t enough for the robust and happy man who walked between the frozen lanes of traffic. He needed more, he needed to know what was happening.
So, as he moved down the Deegan on foot, Nelson Doubleday Jr. stopped at cars with windows open and radios audible and asked for updates. “I stopped only at the cars that had our guys doing the game,” the former Mets owner would say by telephone after he had found his seat inside the enemy’s fort. “If they had [Mets radio announcer Bob Murphy] on the radio, I’d stop and ask, and maybe listen to an at-bat.”
That was Nelson Doubleday, a regular guy. Just your everyday, pedestrian multi-millionaire hoofin’ it down a major thoroughfare on an early summer evening in the Bronx, giving up his ride about a mile from the Stadium and enjoying every step of the everyman experience.
To read the rest of Noble’s story, click here.
Just Mets 