1986 New York Mets documentary "Once Upon A Time In Queens": ESPN 30 for 30

He makes a bunch of appearances. He's one of the main people on camera throughout the series.

 

That is a good point, Knight was near the end of his career and the brain says he wouldn't be good re-sign. But even without considering his numbers in 1987 and 88, he was part of the great chemistry of that team. Man, it seemed like he relished getting into fights, look at him taking it to Eric Davis! That can be good and bad, depending of the psyche of a team, but it seemed to be perfect for those Mets.

The doc did talk about the chemistry issue a lot, and how the front office either doesn't understand it or doesn't care. Still, it seems like this integral piece that helped to win you a World Series (which the Mets would make lots of money on with memorabilia, raised ticket prices, etc) deserves a little piece of that pie. Or maybe Cashen thought he spent that money already to pay for the damages they caused on the return flight from Houston to NY after the NLCS!

I haven't looked at baseball cards in 30 years, but it looks like Topps made a bunch of new ones based on their 1986 set in conjunction with this documentary, including a cool one with Dwight, Darryl and Mike Tyson.

 

As a life-long Sox fan, this was an enjoyable documentary. Every time I watch a clip of game 6, I can’t believe they lose. Here are some random thoughts:
-over time, we’ve seen time after time that Clemens is a liar. Because of this, I’m inclined to believe John McNamara’s assertion that Clemens asked out due to blisters.
-Bob Stanley/Rich Gedman’s passed ball was a much bigger issue than the Buckner grounder.
-The number of foul balls that Mookie hit in that last at-bat was impressive.
-Never realized the Sox had 16 pitches to end the game.
-I now know why Dwight Gooden was sub-par in ‘86
-Bruce Hurst was arguably a better pitcher than Clemens that year.
-Although the Mets had a more impressive regular season, I’m convinced that Boston had a better team, or at least as good.
-I still dislike Lenny Dykstra as much today as I did 35 years ago. He’s just full of &@$
-The observation by Hernandez about Clemens shaving was funny.
-Listening to Gooden talk about missing the parade, and waking up in a crack-house was sad.
-I absolutely HATE interviews with celebrities in these documentaries. I don’t care what Cyndi Lauper thought.

One last thing that I will never forget. I have some vhs tapes from that post-season, and my favorite is a Mets locker room victory celebration(possibly from the NLCS). Frank Cashen is on screen as is hit with errant champagne. He looks mad the whole time, and comes off with the classic line “why is it, the guys that do the least, squirt the most champagne?”

 

I also remember watching after Game 6 a Boston reporter in front of the Red Sox locker room saying that he didn't want go inside there. I also remember listening to Eddie Andelman's Sports Huddle radio show where he let Sox fans vent & boy they did w/plenty of screaming.

 

Thanks for this. Man oh man, fans of the Red Sox, Astros and Angels all had it rough following each of their traumatic exits from the '86 playoffs.

Yes, that was really great. I would never in a million years have noticed that! And what other reason could there be? Unless Roger was somehow known for shaving during the game already. In my mind, after hearing what Hernandez said, Clemons was primping and getting ready for a big celebration!

Note that I don't have any ill will toward Dave Henderson and his catch for out #2, as was pointed out. Yes, he kind of did a freeze and held the ball after catching it, but that's just Hendu! I feel like he'd do that in a spring training game. Nothing odd there to me.

I can go either way on these. Cyndi Lauper and John McEnroe were certainly big NY celebrities in the mid-80s. And I feel like McEncore especially put into words of lot of the fans were thinking. I didn't know who those authors were by sight, so it's good they were identified. And Billy Beane! The only reason he was interviewed is because he became a top notch front office guy. So he's certainly good at analyzing players. But still, he was barely there in 84-85, just 18 plate appearances!

I was surprised that over the 4 hour documentary, there was no Seinfeld reference.

 

I root for the Nats (and the Orioles), so my feelings about the Mets go without saying. But the Nats were still the Expos in 1986 and I was a studying at Fordham in NYC. A good deal of my buddies were Mets fans and consequently I watched those teams more than most others. Fair to say I jumped on the bandwagon as a proxy fan. I saw that team many times at Shea.

I loved watching this. Brought back lots of memories. That team had a lot of characters.

I agree Bill Buckner gets too much grief.
Lenny Dykstra was a very exciting player, but strikes me as a crass jerk now.
Man, Keith and Daryl were carrying some demons.
Love the story about maintenance having to get the champagne and plastic out of the Sox locker room.
Learning why Doc missed the parade was grim.

Baseball Like it Oughta Be.

And it was. Good times.

 

I'll add a couple more thoughts.

-It's almost justice for the Angels fans how quickly the Red Sox fans got to experience the gut punch of having victory stolen from their grasp.
-I was never a Mets fan, but (other than Dykstra) I enjoyed the player interviews with both teams. I'd forgotten that Calvin Schiraldi played for the Mets the previous year.
-I remembered seeing the scoreboard congratulations to the 1986 World Series Champs Boston Red Sox on the tv screen. It was a very brief shot.
-I can't imagine the stress for the clubhouse and network guys when they're trying to get the locker room ready for a celebration, and the game is going back and forth in the closing moments. As I watched this, I wondered if they removed the championship t-shirts from the Boston lockers in time.

 

Poor Bill. He was a good sport to do this Curb Your Enthusiasm.



Get the f&*k out of my house.