Mets Yearbook: 1972

It’s Saturday night, 8 o’clock, the Mets game, unless it’s going 20 innings, is over. What’re ya gonna do now?

You’re gonna watch Mets Yearbook: 1972 on SNY, of course. Cool down from your Pelf-injected excitement (or cheer up from your Pelf-related depression…just covering the bases here) with a look at the season that started a tad late due to strike, began sadly because of the passing of Gil Hodges but then accelerated with the best 32-game start in team history: 25-7, a six-game lead over the second-place Pirates.

That ended soon enough (accursed injuries), but no doubt this edition of the Yearbook will provide many happy thoughts to chew over, including the Hall of Fame induction of new manager Yogi Berra, the acquisition of slugger Rusty Staub, the homecoming of favorite son Willie Mays, the All-Star selection of Tug McGraw, the stellar rookie campaigns of Jon Matlack (ROTY) and John Milner and a 21-win season from Tom Terrific. Less likely to be mentioned: No Met collected as many as 100 hits, but they weren’t called “highlight films” for nothin’.

Looking ahead, mark Memorial Day, May 31, on your DVRs. Starting at 4:30, SNY will air, in chronological order, all Mets Yearbooks produced to date, culminating in the premiere of Mets Yearbook: 1988 at 9:00 PM. Then stay tuned for the Mets at Padres. Or go to bed. I’m not going to get all up in your business.

Image courtesy of “Mario Mendoza…HOF lock” at Baseball-Fever.