Thanks again for the invite!

I saw the kid that rushed the field being taking away in handcuffs by the player parking lot exit. He got put into a police wagon and hauled away. It was probably some Northeastern alum trying to high five his boy, Carlos Peña.
 

Kason Gabbard Fever......Catch It!

Watch the tape of Fisk's Game 6 trot around the bases, and look at all the young fans running onto the field. Or watch the film of the Shea celebration for the '69 Mets. Quite a contrast. The turning point I think came when the Phillies won the 1980 World Series, and the Philly cops patrolled the perimeter of the field with attack dogs.

Not that I don't understand and appreciate the need for very tight security today, but I do look back fondly on those more innocent days.
 

Going on the field is classic stuff! I love watching old celebrations where the crowd storms the field. Still happens in other sports. There's no stopping it in basketball. And college sports, forget it. There was nothing I wanted to do more, when I got to college at Nebraska, then storm the court/field. I did football field when we beat Colorado when everybody said Kordell Stewart would dominate us. We carried the goal post out to the Gameday "3 Stooges" as we so innocently called them back then, and then we walked it down O Street.

And for basketball, we beat Kansas and I stormed the court for that, too.

There were even the two dudes that came on the field when Aaron broke Ruth's record on 4/8/74. And who can forget Yankee Stadium turning into a madhouse on the Chambliss homer in '76? And the '69 Mets like you said. I'd have to do the research on the last baseball fans to come on the field en masse after a World Series win, but you could be right about '80.

I guess it's okay if it's a lot of people, but if you're one guy, you're gonna get tackled. But paid a LOT (beforehand, if you're smart) by all your friends who bet you couldn't do it.
 

Yeah, I think that fans continued to run on the field to celebrate pennants/WS victories throughout the 80's, but it seems like those celebrations diminished in frequency and size after that 1980 WS...I remember watching it at the time, and being amazed (along with the broadcasters) to see those cops with the german shepards circle the perimenter of foul territory before the final out....they're lucky the final out was Tug McGraw striking out Willie Wilson (I believe), and not a foul pop near the stands. I really can't recall fans rushing the field by the 90's.

My own experience w/rushing the field came as a freshman in college, when my Penn Quakers beat Harvard on a last minute field goal to clinch a portion of the Ivy League title for the first time in like 25 years...we ran out onto the Franklin Field astroturf, tore down the upright, and threw it in the Schuylkill River. Good times.

And my sister and I walked on the Yankee Stadium infield after the Dunbars beat the then-AL Brewers in the 1981 mini-series to clinch a spot in the ALCS (there was no formal ALDS back then, of course). A friend of the family got us the tickets. No, I wasn't celebrating with the Dunbar fans, we were just there, and figured we might as well see what it was like to walk around the field as long as everyone else was doing it. That '81 season was totally bogus anyway, because of the strike that ripped out the heart of the season, and the fact that they changed the rules for getting into the playoffs in the middle of the year.

I understand that way back in the really old days (like the 30's and 40's) that they used to let everyone walk on the field after the game.
 

I almost mentioned that, about fans just casually strolling to the exit they needed to get to by going across the field if necessary.

I keep forgetting you're not in your mid-20s, AJM. I think it's the whole Upper East Side connection. UES=mid 20s. Except for Chan and I, who are a little past that. So, I can talk to you about '81. I was only 6, but my dad didn't have to try very hard to convince me of Yankee advantages, etc. Yanks were in first, strike happened, strike ended, and they say, Okay, let's see, teams that were in first, you're IN the playoffs.

Wasn't it the Reds who had the best record in the NL that year, but weren't one of the four NL playoff teams, because a different team beat them in each half? Terrible job. At least I wouldn't have to see a Yankee championship that year, or for 15 more years. After that Brewers series, they swept the A's to go onto the WS, where they'd lose to Fernando and the Dodgers. I'll nnever forget the sticker in the '82 sticker book with the caption "Yanks Sweep A's" below it. The picture was of a guy sliding into home in a dirt cloud. I associated sweep with the sweeping dirt cloud, as I must've been still too young to grasp the concept of sweeping a series.

And yeah I would've gone on the field, too, just to do it. You should've tried to kick some Yankees in the butt in the commotion.
 

Thanks Jere...I try to maintain a youthful internet persona! Alas, my new wife just gave up the lease on her UES apartment last week, and I never did get to eat at Googies...

The Reds did have the best overall record in the NL that year, and I'm pretty sure that the Cardinals had the best overall record in the NL East; neither team made the postseason. I think the Brewers also had the best overall record in the AL East. In any case, to rule that the Yanks make the postseason because they were in first at some arbitrary point in the middle of the season was totally bogus. It all worked out for the best, because they really embarrassed themselves in the Series that year...neither NY nor LA belonged, but the Dodgers ended up winning an incredibly poorly-played, error-filled Series in six games in front of a full house of Dunbar fans. I was actually at Game 2 of that Series...I wrote a high-school book report between innings while sitting ten rows up from 3rd base.
 

Wow. If you've got pics from those visits to the Dunbar Domicile, I'd like to see them. Cincy had the best NL record by 4 games over the Cards and Dodgers. Red Sox finished a half game worse than the Yanks. O's had better overall than Yanks, but didn't make it either.
 

And Cards had best NL East record, but didn't win either half, so missed out on playoffs, just like Reds, who were in West.
 

I'll have to look around my parents' house to see if they have any pics. We broke out a whole bunch of old photos for my wedding, and I found some snapshots I took of Dewey Evans being interviewed at Fenway after a walk-off hit, probably around '79-'80 (before they called them 'walk-offs') Also, some snapshots I took from the upper deck of Shea Stadium of a Sox/Yanks doubleheader from July '75 (first time I saw the Sox play in person) and from my first trip to Fenway in August '75.

I went and looked it up...Milwaukee had the best record in the AL East in '81, followed by Baltimore. The Yanks and Detroit tied for third, with the Sox in fourth (even though they had the same number of wins as the Yanks). The Yanks actually had a sub-.500 record in the second 'half' of the '81 season. Like I said, totally bogus that they got to play in the WS that year.