The rhythms of the baseball season meant that when the Yankees were in town, the Mets were in Philly or Pittsburgh or Cincinnati; when the Mets were at Shea, the Yankees were off in Boston or Detroit or Cleveland.Well, it wasn’t close. The Yankees drew over 2 million fans every full year from 1976 through 1983, the Mets never more than 1.4, and the past four full years that number had barely averaged a million. But this was a different kind of day.
. Fans who held ticket stubs from that game, which began on July 24, would be admitted free. For anyone else, it was $2.50.Yankees manager Billy Martin tried to no avail to protest George Brett’s home run.“Five hundred? I say 500,” Don Mattingly said afterward, when Dan Quisenberry had set the Yankees down 1-2-3 on 10 pitches to end the game 5-4.At that very moment, there were already close to 50,000 people in the stands at Shea, listening to an unknown band out of Athens, Ga., named R.E.M.
The Yankees were stunned when they arrived at the Stadium midday, but the sadness of the Robertson crash was already overwhelmed by the silliness of the surrounding fury of business at hand. for having too much pine tar on his bat after hitting a go-ahead homer off Goose Gossage with two outs in the top of the ninth back in July.Joan Jett and the Blackhearts — and an up-and-coming band called R.E.M. — opened for The Police at Shea Stadium.But AL president Lee MacPhail had upheld the Royals’ protest of the ruling, and so here the Royals were, back in New York on a shared off-day before heading to Baltimore.