Willie Mays

As New Yorkers filed into Shea Stadium that night in 1973, there was much more for fans to think about than an aging baseball star’s home run total.

It was Aug. 17. On that day, the Soviet Union had successfully tested a nuclear missile that could split into multiple warheads. The daily dose of Watergate news was on front pages again, the Vietnam War raged, and on a rooftop on the East Side of Manhattan, an 8-year-old boy was murdered, adding to a growing sense of chaos and fear in the streets.

Sports may be a diversion, but the Mets were not doing their part to distract the troubled populace. They were 12 games under .500, in last place in the National League East, and they lost that night, too, to the Cincinnati Reds, in agonizing fashion. An article in The New York Times said that for the Mets, the game “produced some of the bitterest memories of a memorably bitter summer.”
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But something remarkable happened in that game. It had occurred twice before in baseball, and it is about to happen again. A player — in this case, Willie Mays, 42, in the final act of his career — hit his 660th career home run.

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