| One of the most rollicking of times: the night the Mets wives got into the act.
October 13: There Just Is Nothing Like a Mets Dame Baltimore - Oh to be young and a Mets wife. The Mets and Orioles are tied at one game apiece in this World Series, but the Met blokes on the playing field will have to flex their muscles a bit to come up to the performance of their women. The Mets girls--pretty plum pudding young mothes and wives--got into the action in yesterday's game, and only a misogynist would insist Les Met Girls didn't help inspire their menfolk to victory. In the top of the eighth inning, after the Orioles came from behind to tie, 1-1, a large white banner started moving up the aisle from the right-field sector. The banner read, "Let's Go Mets." It was carried by four delicious things in miniskirts or pants suits. They were four Mets wives: Ruth Ryan(miniskirt, brown-haired), Nancy Seaver (miniskirt, blonde), Lynn Dyer (pants suit, blonde) and Melanie Pfeil (pants suit, brunette). It was almost as if the Mets wives had got together to send their most powerful contingent out into the treacherous enemy territory because all of the girls were . . . well, just scrumptious. They went out there with no less derring-do than their husbands battling Frank Robinson. They were greeted by a smattering of cheers and boos, and some galoots threw peanuts at them. Not many people threw peanuts, though, because a pretty face generally triumphs uber alles. That, as they say in the dugous, is what makes America the great country that it is. After completing their mischievous tour they went back to their seats in the rear rows of section 34--in the boondocks in the right-field corner. In the aisle an exuberant young man reached up and kissed each of them. It was all right, they said. He was a Mets fan. The four fair Maidens of the Inspired Banner were welcomed vociferously by the other wives, and they all settled down to exhort their men in a tingler of a ball game. To the visitors from the press section who went out to join them they were the best show in the ball park. More noise came from the section of Mets wives than any part of the stadium. They had brought a little slice of Shea Stadium to Baltimore. They made up in noise for the distance of their seats from the field. Their husbands had been angered about their less-than-choice locations and had used the rallying cry, "Win it for the wives," for the first game. The Mets didn't win the opener, so now the wives got into the thick of it with the banner and the squealing. The banner was the idea of Lynn Dyer, wife of the Mets' third-string catcher, Duffy. Lynn, mother of two toddlers, said, "We wanted to do something to show our support and to make it seem a little like Shea Stadium. It was so quiet here yesterday and there were so few fans cheering for the Mets. So I stole a bedsheet from our hotel--I don'think you ought to tell anybody that--and I got some black shoe polish and made up the sign. "We didn't go out with it earlier because Jerry Koosman had a no-hitter and we wouldn't want to jinx him." Ruth Ryan, wife of the pitcher, a champion tennis player at a high school in Texas, and the choice of many keen observers as the prettiest of all the Met wives, said, "When I saw the banner I volunteered to help Lynn carry it, and so did Nancy. We needed one more and Melanie raised her hand." It didn't matter to Melanie Pfeil that her husband, Bobby, a substitute infielder, was sitting on the bench ineligible for the Series. When you are a Met, you are a Met all the way. "Beat the Birds, beat the Birds," the ladies gallery chanted. "Let's go Mets, let's go Mets," they cried. In those moments you could understand the fervent feeling among Mets fans that somehow they can help the team by cheering louder. (Tommie Agee, a bachelor, says, "Even if you can't do well, the Shea fans make you do well.") When Koosman allowd the tying run in the seventh, one of the women said to Laverne Koosman who is seven months pregnant, "If I were you I would have had the baby right now." As Koosman labored through the final innings, they came up with a clap cheer to the words, "Here we go, Kooz, here we go. . ." It was right out of the high school gyms of Alvin, Tex., Fresno and Half Hollow Hills and all the places that button-eyed dancing girls are doing their all for their athletic heroes. When the Mets broke through with the winning run in the ninth on a hit by Al Weis, they danced and squealed and hugged each other. Barbara Weis, a petite and fresh-looking young mother who is the personality of the Weis family, said, "I'm so happy." She had trouble keeping still in her seat. Lynn Dyer's mother-in-law was with her and she said, "I'm too old for this." Nancy Seaver, wearing brown boots, beige sweater and brown minsskirt, did her cheering by dancing on a chair. Ball games are won on the field with base hits and runs, but a team captures the fancy of the public with intangible qualities. The Mets women provided this, and so did third-base coach Eddie Yost. This unassuming man played the gallant gentleman in the sixth inning when the stadium dustgirl came around dusting third base with her broom. As is her custom, she finished up by dusting the shoes of the Oriole infielders and the visiting third-base coach. When she got to Yost, she handed him the broom, saying, "Now it's your turn," meaning that she had dusted Yost on Saturday. So Yost dusted the shoes of the dust girl, 13-year-old Linda Wareheim, and then made a big bow and doffed his cap after she dusted him off. She rewarded him with a lovely kiss and it was just grand. Eddie Yost is a Met all the way. After the game the Met husbands reported they had seen their wives in action. Nolan Ryan showed mock anger and threatened to speak to his wife harshly. He has been warned: if he dares raise his voice to her he will be branded in the press as a wife-beater. Seaver echoed Ryan's comments and then laughed. Duffy Dyer was delighted with his wife. He said, "She told me she might do it, but I didn't believe her. I think it was terrific. She's a great girl." Cleon Jones, whose wife, Angela, was in the thick of the cheering, said, "Wives are as good as their husbands make them."
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Youth of America Answer Casey's Call 
