Not quite a movie star.

• Author: Barrett, Wayne M.
• Position: SPORTS SCENE - New York Mets-Pittsburgh Pirates scene in 'The Odd Couple'

I ALMOST STARRED IN AN ACADEMY-AWARD nominated movie with Roberto Clemente--really! Well, not exactly starred, but we both were supposed to be in the picture (in the same scene, no less); too bad Clemente backed out and I never got my cameo close-up. Perhaps that's why Neil Simon was beaten out for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing Oscars that year. Perhaps Clemente's presence and my mug could have put the production over the top.

When "The Odd Couple," headlining Walter Mathau as slobola sportswriter Oscar Madison (a part I could play now; drats--40 years too late) and Jack Lemmon as neat-freak photographer Felix Unger, was shooting for its 1968 release, one memorable scene between the mis-matched roommates takes place at Shea Stadium, where the cellar-dwelling New York Mets are playing host to the Pittsburgh Pirates. With the Amazin's clinging to a one-run lead late in the game, the Bucs load the bases with none out. That was to be our cue. The camera pans the full house at the Big Shea and, as it scans by the upper deck behind first base, there I am--one of those indescernible little specks in my baseball uniform, part of a contingent of Little Leaguers making its annual trek to a big league game. (I supposed had today's Homeland Security technology been available then, a closeup would have been possible.)

At this juncture, Felix rings Oscar on the pressbox phone with some inane question about that evening's dinner. As Oscar turns to to take the call, the Mets miraculously pull off a triple play to get out of the inning and the livid sports scribe is left screaming in frustration into the receiver at a mystified Felix over having missed the most-unlikely of plays. Originally, the movie producers approached Clemente--one of the game's superstars in an age before that term even had been coined--to be the one to hit into the triple play. However, the ever-prideful Roberto re fused, maintaining that, with his speed and hustle, such a thing never could happen, even if it was just "pretend" for a movie.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Instead, it was Bill Mazeroski--the seventh-game ninth-inning home-run hero of the 1960 World Series against the New York Yankees--who consented to the deed. So, prior to the "real" contest, Maz took his place in the batter's box and began to swing away, attempting to hit a hard grounder to third; it took about a dozen takes before they got it right, much to the hearty approval of Met rooters.

Every time "The...