From 1952 to the present, I've managed to visit a good number of major league ballparks, old and new. Ironically, although I spent more time at Yankee Stadium than at any other park since I grew up only a mile away, I have no souvenir tickets of those games. However, I'm including here a few of the souvenir tickets I did manage to keep. Immediately above you'll find a ticket from a game at Dodger Stadium in July 1997. Notice the picture of Mike Piazza. The way the Dodgers changed players in 1998, I suspect that their tickets in future years did not have photos of players on them. I saw my first game ever at age 7 in 1952 at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. Below on the left is a ticket to that wonderful ballpark for Saturday, May 10, 1952. Next to it is the ticket I held at the first Mets game ever played in New York. It was April 1962, and the Mets would lose to the Pirates. In the lineup for the home team that day were ex-Dodgers Don Zimmer, Gil Hodges, Charlie Neal, and Roger Craig.

My late brother, Gil, a fanatic Yankee fan who worked for the team as a teenager, was in the advertising business. Among his many work experiences, was a job teaming with Maury Wills, the great Dodger shortstop of the late 1950's and early 1960's, on a cigar commercial. During the shoot, Maury had a Polaroid taken for me (right) and inscribed the back "To Roy, Best Wishes, Maury Wills"
	Among the highlights of my baseball experience was attendance at the opening day of a major league ballpark. On April 17, 1964, I sat in Section 29, Row A, Seat 1 (left) of the brand new Shea Stadium. The Mets were two years old, but they still couldn't beat the Pittsburgh Pirates who triumphed that day.
And another significant baseball highlight was my one World Series game. To the right you'll see the ticket to Game 2 of the 1979 World Series between the Pirates and the Orioles at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. It was snowing and raining and, frankly, I was glad when the Pirates won the game and we could go home.

 

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