Thursday, December 29, 2011

Press of Atlantic City: Stone Harbor fan twice a witness to October history

Stone Harbor fan twice a witness to October history
(Source: The Press of Atlantic City, Oct. 9, 2010)

John Atwood is the rare fan who saw not only Roy Halladay's playoff no-hitter the other night, but also Don Larsen's World Series perfect game in 1956.

John Atwood didn't move from his seat until the ninth inning Wednesday night. That's when he stood with the rest of the crowd of 46,411 at Citizens Bank Park, with Roy Halladay three outs away from a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds in Game 1 of their National League Division Series.

One batter down.

Atwood, 64, looked around him. People stared at Halladay, then the scoreboard and then back to the mound. Atwood's family, sitting alongside him in Section 427, didn't speak. No wanted to say anything that would jinx history.

Two batters down.

That's when the memories flashed back to Atwood.

The Stone Harbor resident had been in this situation once before. Fifty-four years ago, as an 8 year old, he was in the right-field bleachers at Yankee Stadium with his father, Stew, and older brother Mel for Don Larsen's perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series.

The Atwoods went to a number of Yankees World Series games from 1955-1958 and 1960-1962.
Stew, who owned a number of businesses in Stone Harbor, including the Sun 'N Sand Motel, piled the family into the car and stayed at The President Hotel across the street from the now-closed Mama Leone's on 48th Street in New York City.

Game over. Atwood had witnessed history, twice.

"I started thinking about my father," an emotional Atwood said from his home in Stone Harbor on Friday. "I have so many fond memories of those days. We got to go to the World Series at Yankee Stadium because of him."

Stew, who passed away more than 30 years ago, took John and his brother to games at Yankee Stadium. Back then, tickets were available the day of the game.

Unfortunately, Atwood doesn't have the ticket stub from that game. For years, he searched for it and two years ago when the family had to replace the roof and empty all the items from the attic, he still couldn't find it. But he found programs and stubs from many of the other games he had gone to with his father.

Long before Wednesday night's game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Atwood's son Jonathan, 27, knew that his dad had been at Larsen's perfect game. It was a memory his father loved to share with friends and family.

"He talked about it a lot and we searched for that ticket so many times," Jonathan said. "It was a special night for us and more special at the end of the game."

Halladay's no-hitter -- a walk by Jay Bruce in the fifth inning was the only thing keeping it from being a perfect game -- was only the second in postseason history.


A family celebration
John Atwood wanted to take wife Merry and daughter Tess to Wednesday night's game as a thank-you gift. Atwood was diagnosed with cancer on the back of his tongue in February.

Through his 39 radiation treatments and three chemotherapy treatments over six months, his wife and daughter were the ones who took care of him. On the days he felt miserable and didn't want to get out of bed, they were there to get him what he needed.

He was found to be cancer free two months ago.

Last week he found a block of eight tickets for Game 1 of the NLDS for sale on StubHub and decided to make it a family outing.

"I didn't even understand what (the doctor) said until I saw my daughter in tears," said Atwood, who owns Jonathan's Harbor, a catering company, and the Sun 'N Sand Motel, of the day he got the good news regarding his fight against cancer. "I knew something was up. I said, 'What did you say?' He repeated it for a third time."

Atwood feels lucky he was able to witness history twice. He joins a very, very small group of fans to have done so, a group that includes 1980 Phillies manager Dallas Green.

Atwood attended Halladay's no-hitter with family and friends. It gave him the same feelings he had experienced on Oct. 8, 1956.

"After the sixth inning, everyone sort of new something special was going on," Atwood said of the Larsen historic game. "After the seventh inning, even the Dodgers fans were rooting for Don Larsen."

As Atwood walked out of Citizens Bank Park on Wednesday with his son, he recalled that Larsen game again.

Fans around them talked about how it was just the second no-hitter in MLB postseason history. That's when it hit him about just how rare a feat he had just witnessed. Only two such no-hitters -- and he had been at both.

He walked out of the ballpark that night with a tear in his eye and his family surrounding him.

"It was a wonderful, wonderful moment," he said. "I just couldn't stop thinking about my father."

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