Well, I have stopped watching the least likable of the 60 teams that have called themselves Mets, but tonight (and tomorrow) there is plenty of Mets baseball on your teevee.
Tonight is the debut of the 1986 thing which I am sure you’ve heard about. I heard Jimmy Kimmel do some interviews about it, and a trusted source has seen it and says it is good.
But there is also this..
ESPN’s E60 Remembers Iran Hostage Barry Rosen and Baseball’s Gift That Continues to Give
Going to New York Mets Games After Release Helped Rebuild Family Bond
Forty years ago, Barry Rosen was one of 52 people from the U.S. Embassy in Iran who were released after being held captive for 444 days. The release came minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President on January 20, 1981.
On Tuesday night, Sept. 14, ESPN’s E60 will tell the story of Rosen, who came home to a country that called him a hero, but to a family that no longer knew him. It was only after Major League Baseball gave the hostages the gift of a lifetime pass that Rosen was able to reconnect with his children at New York Mets games. Against the backdrop of Shea Stadium, and the rise of the Mets of Gooden, Strawberry, Hernandez and Carter, the family rebuilt its relationship, and it is still going strong today.
“Ticket Home,” a new E60 reported by Jeremy Schaap, debuts Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and ESPN+. The program will lead into that night’s airing of the new ESPN 30 for 30 film “Once Upon a Time in Queens” about the 1986 New York Mets.
Former Met’s player Mookie Wilson is among the people interviewed in the documentary. Others include Bud Selig, who was owner of the Milwaukee Brewers at the time and recommended to MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn that the hostages receive an award; former ABC News correspondent Sam Donaldson, who covered the Iran hostage crisis; and sportscasters Al Michaels and Bob Costas.
“The center of the piece is the idea of family and how important family is, and for Barry I feel like that’s what got him through the Iran crisis,” said Simon Baumgart, producer of the documentary for E60. “The thought of not coming home to his two very young children and his wife was something he grappled with throughout his experience, and the gift that baseball gave him really did bring that family together.
“And there is the sense of history. I don’t think a lot of younger people know about the Iran hostage crisis and how it impacts the world today and the sacrifices those hostages made. I think baseball realized that and rewarded them and the Rosens benefited greatly from that gift.”
