[1]Wednesday night, the Fourth of July, you’ll want to pause your annual viewing of 1776 to be reminded of another year that made our country great: 1964, as SNY debuts Mets Yearbook: 1964 at 6:30. As every Mets fan was taught in school, our ballpark was founded in 1964, sewn together from patches of orange and blue by team seamstress Betsy Ross, with the white stripes perfectly laid in by colonial groundskeeper Pete Flynn.
I may be confusing my patriotic folktales, but in any event, the highlight film that includes the opening of Shea Stadium is the highlight film that is not to be missed. If your DVR is like mine, it can handle two simultaneous recordings, which I mention because at the same time SNY shows 1964, TCM shows 1776 [2]. The greatest movie musical ever made airs there on the off chance you don’t already own the director’s cut on DVD. 1776 (or America Yearbook: 1776, as I’ve come to think of it) has been regularly anticipated Fourth of July viewing here since 1991, and its 22nd consecutive annual screening is as anticipated as all the others before it.
But I’m really looking forward to Mets Yearbook: 1964 to find out whether those escalators they mentioned in 1963 pan out.
Image courtesy of “Mario Mendoza…HOF lock” at Baseball-Fever. [3]