Okay, let’s give away another brand-new “1975 World Series Collector’s Edition” seven-DVD set:
Sorry it took so long to pick the winner of the second contest. The editors have voted and the winning story was submitted by Jim McCullough:
My story took place during Banner Day 1973. My friends and I had done Banner Day a few times just as a way to get out on the field at Riverfront.
Now being teenagers, we had become quite the smart alecks so we decided our banner that year would be aimed to take a shot at the man (aka Reds management) for the wonderful (cough, cough) trade that brought Richie Scheinblum and Roger Nelson. Scheinblum was the main target of our “A Chain is Only as Strong as Its’ Weakest Link†banner. To make it even lovilier, the banner was a bed sheet where the writing was done with cow marking crayons. We were class!
Banner Day in 1973 was between games of a doubleheader with the Dodgers. The Reds were trailing 3-1 when they called the participants down late in the game. My buddy and I went down with our lovely banner. They had us line up in single file somewhere under the stadium. As we were waiting, we hear the crowd just erupt into a roar. Suddenly some guy comes running down the corridor, leaping into the air and screaming. We stop him to ask what had happened. “Hal King! Just hit a 3-run pinch hit HR with two out in the bottom of the ninth! Reds win 4-3!†He continued to leap, skip, and jump his merry way.
So not only did my buddy and I miss one of the most dramatic HR’s in Reds history but when the guys came around to check out the banners, they wouldn’t let us go out on the field. Our banner wasn’t political correct by their standards.
The day ended okay as we did get to see Tony Perez’s game winning hit in the 10th off Charlie Hough to win the nightcap.
Great story. DVD giveaway number three coming soon.