I was at Wrigley... Wow, one hell of a long time ago. Don't know why, but I recall that Len Matuszek (and I spelled that correctly off the top of my head) was in the game for the Dodgers, and that he was new to the team, and wasn't listed on my scorecard. That makes this story go back to 85, 86 or 87 (here I go with retrosheet again)... I'm 99% sure it was a Saturday... Lo and behold, Matuszek was traded from the Blue Jays to the Dodgers on July 9, and there he was in Chicago for a Thursday-through-Sunday weekend series on July 11-14. And I recall that he didn't start that day, and sure enough, the Saturday box score (http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1985/B07130CHN1985.htm) indicates that he was a defensive replacement late in the game, so I now know the date with specificity... Wait, where was I?

Oh, yeah, Wrigley Field beer vendors. To be dead honest, I remember very little about this game (and why Len Matuszek would stick in my mind beyond the fact that he wasn't on my scorecard is beyond me), other than the beer vendor. I went with my dad, my sister, and my Godfather, a big baseball fan who grew up in the Detroit area but lived then (and still lives) in the greater Schenechtady, NY area. He had gotten some Wrigley Field tickets through some contacts he had at GE (he worked there basically his whole life after he finished his PhD in chemistry). Bad seats. On the first base side... In fact, directly over first base, but about a dozen rows from the tippy-top in the upper deck. And the worst part? The roving beer vendor, whose call was (I kid you not): "HEY! BEER!.... HEY! BEER!... HEY! BEER!" (And the "HEY!" was pronounced more sort of like you would say the letter "A" when you are in a spelling bee.) As if she was some sort of nagging wife who was... I dunno, reminding you to drink your beer or maybe reminding you to be sure to set it on the coaster rather than directly on the end table or something. Shouted this at the top of her lungs. For 2 hours. She would get 2 or 3 sections away, and you could still hear her, she was that loud. Until, mercifully, roving beer sales were cut off at the 7th inning stretch. I remember this like it was yesterday, yet I was surprised to find the retrosheet box revealed that I had seen a start by Fernando Valenzuela. "HEY! BEER!"

I can speak for all three Dodgers fans here when I say:

Fernandomania Rocked!

I saw him five times but since I was a kid, the memories of each run together.

Joel