Either set your recording devices before embarking on the busiest travel/patdown day of the year or hurry back from wherever you’re spending the holiday, and for the love of Mike Bruhert be sure to get your bargain-hunting done early. SNY is running a SEVEN-HOUR MARATHON of Mets Yearbook, every one the network has produced, from 3 o’clock Friday afternoon to 10 o’clock Friday night.
The fourteen installments will run in chronological order. Brief teaser and refresher on contents:
1963: The Polo Grounds closes. Shea Stadium nears. Mets prospects agree the Mets are a good place for a youngster to find quick advancement. Casey Stengel is still talking.
1965: Casey finishes talking and hangs them up. Mets are still the Expressway to the Big Leagues. The winter caravan that remains a Mets tradition to this day (cough, cough!) winds its way deep into Long Island.
1966: Mets leave the basement and rise all the way to the boiler room. Ron Swoboda hits a mighty homer. Jacksonville Sun ace Tom Seaver looms as a possibility for ’67.
1967: Guess who made it up from Jacksonville.
1968: Jerry Koosman thinks to himself before the Home Opener. Buddy Harrelson tells Little Leaguers about The Good Lord. Gil wants you to know he’s doing fine.
1971: The Mets don’t hit, but they sure can pitch and give away batting helmets. Ralph Kiner instructs Ken Singleton so adeptly Montreal can’t wait to take him off our hands.
1972: Rusty! Willie! And sadness for Gil. But fine promotional dates, too.
1973: Edited to exclude NLCS and World Series footage (either for time or rights fees), but you can’t go wrong with a fresh dose of You Gotta Believe!
1975: Dave Kingman has personality. Mike Vail has star written all over him. Joe Frazier takes the reins for next year promising he’s not an evil devil (or am I confusing him with somebody else)?
1976: One helluva Bicentennial celebration in Flushing. Seriously. Stephanie saw the red, white and blue pageantry (like a million balloons) and decided it was more impressive than the final ceremonies at Shea. More festive anyway.
1978: In case you’re wondering if anybody can make stars out of Doug Flynn and Craig Swan, the answer is yes.
1980: The film starts with the hiring of a whip-smart, universally admired general manager and ends with a lot of talk about how great newly acquired Dave Roberts will be in 1981. Draw precedent-related conclusions at your own risk.
1984: The Mets stop sucking, and for 28 minutes, the message is essentially just that. Gary Carter shows up at the end to declare he’s saving his right ring finger for his World Series bauble, and son of a gun, he made good on it.
1988: Roger McDowell screws around with a camcorder, not nearly as entertaining as it must have sounded in those Mets Can Do No Wrong (except in the playoffs) days. Otherwise, Mets can do no wrong.
And there’s like a thousand more highlights from these highlight films that will, appropriately enough, be the highlight of your Thanksgiving weekend, whether you’ve never seen Mets Yearbook before, whether you’ve missed a few or whether you’ve dropped everything every time you flip by SNY and see it’s Dairylea Day yet again.
Watch it, record it, ignore everything else in deference to it. You’ve been suitably notified.
I just had to google Mike Bruhert. Ha.
The 1963 episode has amazin’, classic footage. It’s my favorite of the series so far.
1968 is too trippy for me – just very odd.
That said, what a great programming block!
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This is like crack for Mets fans!!!, I remember when I was a kid and when Chammel 9 had a rain delay, I used to pray that they would go to highlights of some year whether it was 60 or 73, I loved them all. The only thing I don’t like about SNY whether for time or rights they cut some things out. 1973 for note and 1980 (I have an old copy) was missing stuff too but those are small potatoes and I dare say Mets fever will be running high friday……AND THAT IS SOMETHING TO BE THANKFUL FOR!
“This is like crack for Mets fans!!!” should be used as a testimonial.
I couldn’t possibly recommend the 1978 edition more highly. A highwater mark in obfuscation, it’s called “Turning It Over” because the Mets were second in the NL that season in defensive double plays turned. Like the rest of this film, the title begs a lot of questions that go unanswered. There is a large section about the promise of Dan Norman, before the whole thing devolves into fond reminiscences of Batting Glove Day, Old Timer’s Day, and Ice Cream in a Mini Helmet Day.
Trust me, the ’78 year-ender is a time capsule tastier than any turkey. Speaking of turkeys, is Terry Collins freebasing? I couldn’t understand one cliche he was spouting the other day. Man, does that guy ramble, fast. He also places a heavy premium on Carlos Beltran’s supposed red-hot desire to win, so we already know he’s the gullible sort.
Let’s not forget the capper, in which Linda de Roulet speaks directly into the camera and promises more of the same for 1979.
And as testimonials go, I think I like “a highwater mark in obfuscation” at least as much as “crack for Mets fans”.
I thought the best part of the 1978 highlight film was the lengthy and in-depth coverage of the bubble-gum blowing contest.
Already got them all on DVD-R, just waiting for the rest, especially the 1964 and 1969 editions.
Mike Bruhert LOL, if you remember the Mets of the late seventies, you understand why that’s so amusing. If that era was before your time, by all means watch it. You know when people say, “it could be worse?” when the Mets are busily swan-diving down the division standings yet again? The late seventies are what they mean by that.
Funny, I thought I would have known that Mike Bruhert was originally from Jamaica, NY. I watched and listened to way too many games during those seasons and I never remember it being mentioned. Which seems odd because Ed Glynn was from Flushing (the Flushing Flash!) and it’d only be mentioned two dozen times every time he pitched. Then again, he probably never lasted long enough during his starts for the announce team to get around to mentioning it.
Those years were Mount Suckmore. Everything else (with the cosmic exception of 1993) is volcanic ash.
The bubble gum blowing contest! That’s what I couldn’t remember. As Joe D mentions, there is a long, long breakdown -with highlights and analysis – of that bubble gum blowing contest. They were desperately running out the clock on this one, trying to obscure the on-field ’78 Mets as greatly as possible. The best part of the bubble gum blowing contest was that it was won by a smirking, arrogant, rubbing-it-in, almost Satanically-douchey Bobby Valentine. PricelessI
Ah the late 70’s Mets.My guys!…From the already mentioned Mike Bruhert,Ed Glynn,Ray Sewage I mean Searage,Sergio Ferrer,Kevin Kobel,Rick Baldwin,Roy Staiger(the 3rd baseman of the future),Mike Phillips…I can go on and on.This is when I fell in love with my Metsies and my all-time favorite Felix Millan….I tried to block out the DeRoulets!Best line was from one of the daughters:”Can’t we wash the baseballs to save money?”…Remember going to a game in 1978 against the Phillies in September and sitting in box seats behind the Mets dugout.I still have the stub:$7.50!….No color-coded crap in those days…..buying a new plactic Mets batting helmet and munching on stale hot dogs and kinishes…thanks for the forum guys.
This was a great idea by SNY, a nice break from the Metless programming like Big East football and boxing they offer up during much of the off-season. The 1980 yearbook is a hoot, it would make a brutal drinking game. Watch it and imagine having to do a shot every time someone says the word “magic.” What they left out was a popular variation on the slogan of the day, “The Magic is Tragic.”
I’m convinced that the bulk of 1977 through 1983 was one long drinking game designed to take our minds off what was going on on the field. Every time the Mets lost, we were supposed to down a shot. Boy were we wasted!