The first time? I remember that as if it were yesterday, even if it’s now 33 years’ worth of yesterdays ago. That was the evening of Friday, Feb. 22, 1980, and I was 13 years old, in the seventh grade, and I was working the scoreboard at West Hempstead High School for an evening filled with CYO basketball games.
You could hear the buzz first, and it moved slowly around the old gym on Nassau Boulevard, because there was no texting and no tweeting and no email and no cell phones, just old-fashioned word of mouth, person to person, row to row, and the resulting commentary.
“We did what?”
“Get outta here …”
“You’re lyin’ …”
Then, as if by divine inspiration — because it’s doubtful anyone ever had heard it before — a chant among the 175 or so people in the stands, softly at first, quietly, then louder, more rhythmic, finally enough to pimple the skin of your arms once they heard that USA 4, USSR 3 officially was in the books …
“U … S … A …”
“U! S! A!”
“UUUUUUUU! SSSSSSSSS! AAAAAAA!”
I’ll never forget it. And, of course, that was the first thing I thought about Friday night, sitting with an old teammate of mine named John, and with his kids, and with my wife, in Section 417 at Citi Field. We started higher, in 513, but John had said there were seats around him, and so we moved lower for a better view of Matt Harvey and Stephen Strasburg.
As it turned out, a better listen of what came.
It was John, the old point guard, who picked it up first.
“Listen,” he said. “I think we got him.”
“What is it?” one of the kids asked.
“Listen.”
And, yes: There it was. A couple of voices at first. Then a couple of dozen. I frantically tried to get a cell phone signal — no dice. My wife tried. The chant grew louder. This was the sixth inning. Later, in the seventh, the Mets put the announcement on the scoreboard and the place rattled with emotion and with chanting voices.
But this was the 2013 equivalent of word-of-mouth. Then my wife’s cell phone connected to a news site, and there it was.
“Yep,” she said. “We got him.”
Dozens of fans, maybe a few hundred, and suddenly it was the only thing anyone could think to say: “U! S! A!” “U! S! A!” “U! S! A!”
It has grown ubiquitous over the years, of course, and sometimes it doesn’t always elicit the chills it’s capable of. There were quite a few walk-over Olympic basketball games in Atlanta, and Olympic hockey games in Salt Lake City, when the chant was almost a taunt, a threat, an angry oath. When American teams play Canadian teams — the Rangers and Ottawa in last year’s playoffs, for instance — it seemed a silly strategy, what with all the Canadian players on the Rangers, and the Americans on the Senators.
But when it’s used in the proper context, in the right moment …
Well, it’s impossible to think of the Miracle on Ice and not be transported back to Feb. 22, 1980, and a gym of people chanting for their country. It was impossible not to be watching the Mets-Phillies game on ESPN the night Osama bin Laden was killed and not want to join in the chant that was circling around Citizens Bank Park.
And Friday, it was a good night to be out of the press box, where no cheering is allowed, and sitting instead in the grandstand, where it’s mandatory. Especially since no matter what you were wearing — Mets jacket, Nationals cap, neutral gear — everyone was on the same side.
Whack Back at Vac
Alan Hirschberg: In Sunday’s Post it was reported offensive tackle Lane Johnson ran a 4.72 40-yard dash. First thought: How often does an offensive lineman run 40 yards? Second thought: Maybe the Jets should draft this guy. Their linemen do spend much of the game running after interception returners.
Vac: Ladies and gentlemen, the New York Jets: the comedic gift that keeps on giving.
Edward Krauss: The Knicks’ acquisition of older, former stars reminds me of the Yankees of my youth. At the trading deadline they’d get guys like Johnny Mize, Enos Slaughter and Johnny Hopp and those “old” guys would help them hang up another championship banner. Here’s hoping the Knicks can replicate the “formula.”
Vac: I suspect the new Yankees might also emulate the old Yankees come deadline day this summer, too.
@mweiner29: What comes back first: short shorts to the NBA or thin stirrups (a la Frank Robinson) to baseball?
@MikeVacc: I think we’ll see the center jump after every basket return to the NBA before short shorts.
Bob Buscavage: After Harvey and Niese, the Mets’ starting rotation is Gee Whiz and Who Else!
Vac: Because these things always merit rhymes, let’s go with this: “Harvey & Niese/And more snow, please.”
Vac’s Whacks
Chris Scandaglia will hold his seventh-annual ALS Fundraiser next Sunday at 3 p.m. at NYY Steak. Several Yankees — including Curtis Granderson and Brett Gardner, among others — will stop by following the Yankees-Blue Jays game that day. Tickets, $125 a person, include dinner and a cash bar. For more information check out chris4lou.org.
* I like Francisco Cervelli just fine, but put me down on record hoping fervently that his orange nail paint doesn’t become a trend. There’s no crying in baseball, and there should be no pastels, either.
* I’m assuming that a few moments after Rex Ryan got a good look at the upcoming Jets schedule, the application for the Connecticut School of Broadcasting went right into the envelope.
* I’m having a hard time properly imagining what the reaction would be if the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim had been assembled in New York City. Give me a moment.