“Welcome everybody to Kiner’s Korner, brought to you by Mitsubishi Motors. I’m your host, Ralph Kiner, and today we have three very special guests. My producer told me they would be No. 7, No. 6 and No. 5, so I had my questions ready for Eddie Kranepool, Al Weis, and the Glider, Ed Charles, but apparently we got our signals crossed.”
6. 1975
5. 1980
“I have to confess I feel a little like one of our previous guests, Marvelous Marv Throneberry, in those beer commercials. I’m still not sure what you’re why you’re on this episode of Kiner’s Korner. Maybe one of you seasons can help me out. 1970?”
“Happy to, Ralph. Greg thought it might be instructive to get the three of us together to talk about our seasons at once, since we all have so much in common in terms of how he’s telling his MY FAVORITE SEASONS, FROM LEAST FAVORITE TO MOST FAVORITE, 1969-‘PRESENT’ (with 2024’s slotting TBD) [1] story. Isn’t that right, 1975?”
“Yeah, I think you got it. Greg’s been doing all the talking about all the seasons, so today we get to tell it from our perspective a little.”
[2]“Well, we’ve had Choo Choo Coleman on and I managed to understand him, so I guess I understand this. Why don’t we start with you, 1970? You went 83-79, finished in third place, six games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates, which is not bad, but it was kind of a comedown from the year before, when the Mets won the World Series. Yet Greg has you ahead of 1969 in his estimation?”
“That’s right, Ralph. I’m No. 7, just ahead of 1969 at No. 8.”
“Why do you suppose that is? It kind of goes against the grain.”
“Ralph, for Greg, 1970 was something of an extension of 1969. In a way, it was his 1969.”
“1970, I feel like I’m listening to you in Stengelese.”
“It’s like this, Ralph. Greg was only six in 1969 and experienced only a little bit of that year, which is the first year he watched the Mets. He loves what he remembers, but he doesn’t remember that much [3]. So really, I was his first full season. Six to seven makes a big difference.”
“I don’t usually incorporate sabermetrics into these chats, but it is a difference of only one year.”
“Correct, Ralph, but it was a big year. Greg came into my season ready to be a Mets fan from beginning to end and make it his way of life. He caught on to Opening Day, the All-Star break, that you stay tuned after the game for your show,. It was the first time he saw how all 162 games play out. He began to know all the players.”
“Many of whom were still Mets from 1969.”
“That’s right, Ralph. What really helped seal the deal for Greg was he really got into baseball cards in 1970, which had the 1969 statistics on the back and pictures of the players wearing the MLB patch on the front, which he figured out meant they were photographed in 1969. Between the cards and Channel 9 showing highlights from the previous year’s World Series and the Mets being ‘defending world champions’ and all the afterglow and popularity that carried over from ’69, to Greg it was all one long, unbroken thread in a way. He was completely captivated.”
“Even though the 1970 Mets came in third.”
“In a weird way, I think that helped. Greg understood instinctively that 1969 was incredibly special. My year, 1970, we contended, but we came up short. Greg didn’t love that we didn’t finish first or go back to the playoffs, but it was ultimately OK with him. He knew we won more than we lost, that we were in it, that there was always next year.”
“We’re gonna get to our next year right now, which for us is 1975. 1975, you went 82-80 and tied for third place, 10½ games behind Pittsburgh, which won the National League East again. Those Pirates were much better than when I was there. Their stars got paid more than I did, too, probably because Branch Rickey was long gone. Anyway, 1975, why do you suppose you’re No. 6 on Greg’s list?”
“Great to be on your show, Ralph. I feel a little like 1970 in that I may rate as high as I do because of how Greg experienced a previous year, in my case 1973.”
“That was the year the Mets came from last place at the end of August to win not only the division title but the National League pennant against Cincinnati. Greg ranked that as No. 9, yet you’re three spots ahead and you didn’t win anything.”
“Well, like 1970 vis-à-vis 1969…”
“Vis-à-vis? Have you been talking to Le Grand Orange?”
“Good one, Ralph. Let me put it in plainer English. Because Greg saw how the Mets could come on late in a season and do unbelievable things in 1973, he got it in his head that a good Mets team — and mine was pretty good — could turn it on in September and pass teams like the Pirates or whoever was in front of them and again win the East.”
“So why not rate 1973 higher?”
“You gotta remember, Ralph, that Greg was distracted by other things [4] when he was ten years old in ’73. By the time he gets to 1975, he’s twelve and he’s narrowed his focus. He’s all about baseball and all about the Mets. Plus he’s old enough now to read everything in sight. He starts reading the Sporting News. He’s reading Baseball Digest every month. He’s loading up on preseason magazines. And as far as baseball cards are concerned, he collects them all in 1975. Commitment is a big part of Greg’s story where my year is concerned.”
[5]“Sounds like somebody could be committed for worrying so much about the Mets, which brings us to our final guest today, No. 5, 1980.”
“Hi Ralph.”
“1980, your record was 67-95, which was good for fifth place, 24 games behind another Pennsylvania team, the Phillies this time. Listen, 1980, I played on some bad Pirates teams in my day, and I don’t know if anybody besides Joe Garagiola was talking them up a whole lot of years later. These other seasons sitting next to you at least finished over .500. What does Greg see in you to rate you as high as he does on his list of all-time favorite seasons?”
“You got a minute, Ralph?”
“My producer says we don’t have any commercial breaks.”
“Funny you should mention commercials, Ralph, because an advertising slogan has a lot to do with Greg’s love affair with the 1980 season.”
“My beer is Rheingold the dry beer.”
“Not that one, Ralph.”
“No, my producer just let me know I had to say that so we didn’t have to go to commercial. Please continue, 1980.”
“Maybe you remember ‘The Magic is Back,’ the slogan the Mets used in their ads when my year began.”
“I do. Bob Murphy, Steve Albert, and I had a good laugh about it off-camera when we first saw it.”
“You weren’t alone, Ralph. A lot of people thought it was a joke, what with the Mets having been so terrible for the few years before 1980 and then not getting off to a very good start.”
“Yet I seem to remember there was more to the ‘Magic’ thing than misleading advertising.”
“You’re sharp as your suits, Ralph.”
“You should have seen Lindsey’s.”
“He wasn’t here when I was, Ralph. The Magic was, though. See, that little tagline was about hope coming to Shea Stadium, that the Mets might be good again. The club had been sold that winter…”
“From the de Roulets to Abner Doubleday.”
“Nelson Doubleday, Ralph. And his friend Fred Wilpon.”
“Nice men.”
“Folks were just happy that maybe something was going to change. What they couldn’t have known was that in the middle of May, the Mets started playing really well, and all of a sudden, Greg didn’t feel like such a sap for loving the Mets as he did.”
“If I could just chime in here…”
“Go ahead, 1975.”
“When Ralph reads our records and how far we finished out of the top spot, it kind of misses what our seasons were about, especially from Greg’s perspective. My year was in the race until September. 1970 hung in there until the second-to-last weekend. And you, uh…were you ever actually in the race, 1980?”
“Yes and no. I mean, not in the traditional sense. We were kind of close in July, and not all the way out of it as of mid-August, but the point about that is Greg was thrilled we were decent at all. To him, the fact that we were winning more than we were losing for a few months, and the fact that a lot of those games were come-from-behind victories, made the Magic theme come to life.”
“My producer is telling me that in 1980, Greg was seventeen years old. Do you mean to tell me that at age he believed in Magic?”
“In a baseball sense, Ralph, yes.”
“Seventeen seems a little old to be that involved in baseball unless you’re a prospect being scouted by a major league team. Was Greg a player of any sort?”
“Just in gym class and nothing special, to put it very charitably. But he loved the game, Ralph. And he loved the Mets. He loved being old enough to go to games on his own. He loved that he understood so much more about the Mets and their history than when we was seven or twelve. Those were great years for him, but he felt now like he was a new level of his life, his next level of fandom. Kind of like that shot in Goodfellas where you’re introduced to Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci as the adult versions of their characters you’ve only seen as kids to that point.”
“I met a lot of movie stars during my career. I even dated Elizabeth Taylor.”
“To Greg in 1980, the Mets were movie stars.”
[6]“Let’s talk about that, specifically Greg’s favorite player from each of your years. We’ll start with you, 1970.”
“Tom Seaver. Greg idolized him.”
“1975?”
“Tom Seaver. Greg still idolized him.”
“1980?”
“Tom Seaver. Greg didn’t care that he wasn’t on the Mets by then. Greg never stopped idolizing him.”
“Tom was on my show many times, so I can see why Greg grew so attached to him. He was a Hall of Fame pitcher and one of the all-time greats. His number was the first the Mets retired for a player. But were there any players who weren’t especially great who Greg gravitated to in 1970, 1975, and 1980? We’ll start this time with 1980.”
“Greg really liked when you had Lee Mazzilli and Steve Henderson on your show, Ralph. He actually did a passable impression of both them talking with you in high school.”
“I’m glad he had such an active social life as a teenager. What about you, 1975?”
“Greg got really excited about Mike Vail toward the end of my season. He hit in 23 consecutive games shortly after being called up from Tidewater.”
“Tying Richie Ashburn for the National League rookie record, Richie being an Original Met. And you, 1970, any Greg favorites who weren’t Tom Seaver?”
“He had an affinity for Ray Sadecki, who went 8-4 my year. I think Greg liked that your partner Murph pronounced Ray’s name as one word. ‘Raceadecki.’ Somehow, in 1971, Greg was even more impressed that Ray went 7-7, which, to his eight-year-old mind made him ‘consistent’.”
“And they say I’m prone to malapropisms. What about big moments from each of your years? Let’s start with 1975.”
“September 1, Ralph. Seaver shuts out the Pirates and closes the gap to four games. Tom strikes out his 200th batter for the eighth consecutive year, a record. Vail homers for the first time. And Buddy Harrelson comes off the Disabled List, as it used to be called. Greg was sure 1973 was in the process of being reincarnated, but with better power. Kingman had all those home runs, Rusty all those RBIs, Felix Millan played every day and set the club mark for hits. It was all coming together.”
“Quite a day. Does Greg have one to match it from your perspective, 1970?”
“He’s got five of them, Ralph — the five-game sweep of the Cubs at Wrigley Field in late June, somewhere between school ending and day camp starting. They were all day games on the Near North Side of Chicago, of course, so that accounted for Greg’s afternoons over the better part of a week. By the time the series was done, the Mets had overtaken the Cubs for first place. What a way for a seven-year-old to start his summer.”
“Five-game sweeps are very rare. Was there anything like that in 1980?”
“To be honest, Ralph, my year had a tough time putting together winning streaks, though for Greg, the 47-39 stretch from the middle of May to the middle of August felt like one long climb to the top.”
“Did the 1980 Mets spend any time in first place?”
“Unless you count Opening Day, no.”
“Longtime Mets fans will remember the Mets didn’t win on Opening Day until 1970, and then they won most every year to start the season.”
“Thanks for pointing that out, Ralph. But even though the Mets didn’t get any closer to first place in the heart of the season than three-and-a-half out on July 5, there is one game that resides in Greg’s heart and mind as a veritable pennant-winner.”
“Veritable?”
“Greg was studying for the SAT in 1980.”
“I see.”
“But like 1970, the memory that Greg cherishes from my year came from right around the end of school, with a Regents exam or two left. It was a Saturday night, June 14. The Mets were losing all night. Getting no-hit, in fact. Then they roared back from 6-0 and pulled it out in the ninth, 7-6, over the Giants.”
“Oh, I remember that one. It was The Ken Henderson Game.”
“Steve Henderson, Ralph.”
[7]“Either way, Hendu did do, and it was a great night for the New York Mets, and Greg was indeed lucky to have experienced the games you seasons are talking about. Still, he also saw 1969 and 1973 and later successful seasons. I guess I’m still a little baffled he remains especially fond of years that, with all due respect to some of the players and some of the games, came up shy of a big payoff.”
“Well, Ralph, if I may speak for my older friends 1970 and 1975, I think we are what we are to Greg because he’s able to reflect back so many years later and see what each of us meant to his future as a Mets fan.”
“Interesting assessment, 1980. You agree with that, 1970?”
“Oh, absolutely, Ralph. I’m noticing a trend, actually. 1975 is five years after my year, then 1980 is five years after that. It’s like Greg was learning, synthesizing, advancing, almost renewing his license to root every five years. And correct me if I’m wrong, 1980, wasn’t your year the year Greg got his driver’s license?”
“Absolutely right, 1970.”
“Does all of that sound right to you, 1975?”
“Sure does, Ralph. Remember, in my year, away from baseball, Muhammad Ali was the heavyweight champ. Right after the season, he and Joe Frazier fought the Thrilla in Manilla. Ali liked to rhyme, so I’ll say there was something ‘formative and normative’ about our seasons for Greg.”
“Joe Frazier, of course, managed the New York Mets at one time.”
“Different Joe Frazier, Ralph.”
[8]“The Mets have always had colorful managers going back to Casey Stengel and of course the great Gil Hodges. 1980, you look like you have a final thought.”
“Just that our respective roles as significant seasons in Greg’s life weren’t just about memories he’s held onto and emotions he can summon in a second. It’s that after our seasons, both immediately after and decades after for him and the Mets, there was always more to come.”
“And there’ll be more to come tomorrow as the Mets take the field and hit the airwaves. Our guests have been three of Greg’s favorite seasons, 1970, 1975, and 1980. They’ll receive Getty Gasoline gift certificates, as all guests of Kiner’s Korner do. You’ve come this far. Getty can help you go even further. And if you can’t make it out to the ballpark, we imagine we’ll see you right here. Seriously, we do a lot of imagining on this show.”
PREVIOUS ‘MY FAVORITE SEASONS’ INSTALLMENTS
Nos. 55-44: Lousy Seasons, Redeeming Features [9]
Nos. 43-34: Lookin’ for the Lights (That Silver Lining) [10]
Nos. 33-23: In the Middling Years [11]
Nos. 22-21: Affection in Anonymity [12]
No. 20: No Shirt, Sherlock [13]
No. 19: Not So Heavy Next Time [14]
No. 18: Honorably Discharged [15]
No. 17: Taken Down in Paradise City [16]
No. 16: Thin Degree of Separation [17]
No. 15: We Good? [18]
No. 14: This Thing Is On [19]
No. 13: One of Those Teams [20]
No. 12: (Weird) Dream Season [21]
No. 11: Hold On for One More Year [22]
No. 10: Retrospectively Happy Days [23]
No. 9: The September of My Youth [4]
No. 8: First Taste [3]