Tonight marks the 40th anniversary of an Amazin' baseball game.

As I watched it on a black and white TV in a dormatory in Westbrook, Connecticut, real life drama was unfolding 100 miles southwest at Shea Stadium in Flushing, New York.

The Chicago Cubs, who played an outstanding 1969 season, were in the second game of a two game series against the New York Mets. Just three weeks earlier, the Mets were nine games behind the Cubs. Now the Cubs were in a late season slump and the Mets were playing their best baseball in their brief eight year history.  Five days earlier the Cubs were still up by 5 games.

The crowd at Shea was wild. The trio of announcers, Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner alternated on play by play.

In this photo, Murphy's on the left, Nelson center, and Ralph Kiner is on the right. Kiner is one of the first former athletes to have a career in broadcasting continously being with the Mets since 1962. He play for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1940s and 50s.

Baseball has very close ties with superstitions. Players will follow the same routine, wear the same clothing, have idiosyncratic rituals to keep streaks alive. The teammates of a pitcher who is throwing a no hitter or perfect game will stay away from him as the game progresses, so as not to jinx him.

So that night while Ron Santo was in the on deck circle, a black cat ran out on the field from under the stands. The cat circled Santo walked in front of the Cubs dugout and ran back underneath the stands.

I was amazed when I saw this happen on live TV. As you can see from the photo Santo was watching the cat as well.  Santo later said, "I knew right away we were in trouble. I wanted to run and hide."

The drama didn't end there as Mets fans waved white handkerchiefs and yelled "Bye-bye Leo" to Cubs manager Leo Durocher. The Mets went on to win the game 7-1.

They were now a half game behind the Cubs, who just lost they're seventh straight game.

The following night the Mets played the Expos and won the first game of a twi-night double header. During the second game the Cubs lost their eight straight game and the Mets moved into first place by percentage points. The Scoreboard read "WE'RE NUMBER 1" and the crowd at Shea started chanting "We're number one."

After the black cat, the Mets went on to win the division, the pennant and the world series. The Cubs finished eight games behind the Mets. Superstition or not?