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More "Mets Yearbook" enthusiasm

I’ve been very enthusiastic about Mets Yearbook on SNY….

Mets Yearbook 1971
Mets Yearbook 1984
Mets Yearbook 1975

…and I’ve been a slacker and not watech ’68 or ’63 yet (because when I watch one I get sucked into blogging for an hour)….but Faith and Fear in Flushing has an excellent excellent discussion of the series.   I’ll give you a taste, then you go visit them.

Yes, Banner Day was quite the constant in these things, making one wonder why, for the umpteenth time, why the Mets abandoned what Dick Young (who, before turning evil, was quite a nifty conflict-of-interest script writer) called their “soul promotion” — and we’re not accepting “because there are no more scheduled doubleheaders” as an excuse. I can’t get enough of those placards. I can’t get enough of Old Timers Days and Helmet Days. I can’t get enough of Lindsey Nelson narrating. I can’t get enough of the incidental footage, like how the people filling the box seats looked so different from ‘63 to ‘68 and again from ‘68 to ‘71. I can’t get enough of the ballpark advertising, especially the outfield wall of the Polo Grounds where Hebrew National was, in 1963, introducing Delicious STUFFED CABBAGE IN JARS. I can’t get enough of watching the Mets at home in the Polo Grounds and marveling at Shea Stadium being built. I can’t get enough of the innocence and implicit honesty of these films, particularly 1963 when they made losing 111 games somehow sound like brand equity. None of the years above resulted in more than a second-place finish, yet I felt like a champ just for being a Mets fan listening to the Mets tell me how much I meant to them.
The stream of Met consciousness is unbelievable. Doesn’t matter if they’re focusing on Seaver and Stengel or Staiger and Stearns or Singleton and Schiraldi. It’s the Mets video family album. It’s about why we became Mets fans, whenever we became Mets fans, certainly if we hopped on board between 1962 and 1988, the years thatMets Yearbook will eventually cover in twenty-seven Amazin’ chapters.

More on Faith and Fear where they interview Gary Morgenstern from SNY who ecplains how the series came to be, where the tapes were, how they have been re-edited, and some other shows SNY is working on.   Sounds like this Gary fellow gets it.   Great stuff.

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Great photo of 1962 Mets uniform with Mets underlined

Once again it’s time for “honor among bloggers.”

First check out Uni Watch from where I found this link.

Then go to the link to view Casey Stengel holding up the Mets uniform in January 1962 – except note the underline (or “swoosh” as Osh41 calls it).  Who knew?  Maybe if we had known we wouldn’t have hated on the swoosh jerseys so much in the 1990s.

Here’s the modernish version.  

Question for the (other) black haters – would you trade underlines (and use the Casey rationalization) for no black?  I would.   Given how awful the team looks these days, this doesn’t look so bad now.  At least it’s blue.

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Tom Seaver phone cards?

Mets Guy In Michigan got a set of Mets phone cards that he tells us all about in the link….there’s a Seaver card too but “honor among bloggers” compels me to make you click the link to see that one.

Sure in quiet in Queens.  Don’t worry, I have tons of stuff saved for rainy days.  

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The new Inter-American circuit – 06.04.79 – SI Vault

Anyone remember this? I sure don’t.

Such troubles are not wholly unexpected considering that the infant IAL was hastily put together over the winter. It is the brainchild of Bobby Maduro, who owned the Sugar Kings in pre-Castro Cuba and from 1967 to ’78 was Bowie Kuhn’s assistant for inter-American baseball. To get the new league under way, Maduro had to overcome strong opposition from the Caribbean winter leagues, which view the Inter-American as a competitor for Latin players’ services and Latin fans’ affections, and from several major league owners, who felt they had a corner on baseball talent in the Caribbean.


Unlike teams in Triple A leagues based solely in the U.S. and Canada, those in the IAL are not affiliated with big league organizations. As a result, Inter-American rosters are composed almost entirely of players who have been released or overlooked by major league teams. And that’s precisely what Maduro wanted.


“This league was desperately needed,” he says, “and I wrote a letter to the commissioner 10 years ago telling him so. When I started in baseball, there were 56 minor leagues. Now there are only 18. Today, if you’re not good enough to make it to the majors in three years, you’re eliminated from consideration.”


Miami Manager and sometime player Dave Johnson, a three-time Gold Glove winner with Baltimore and a .262 lifetime hitter, sees a need for a league that welcomes older players.


“The system isn’t conducive to breeding talent anymore,” he says. “The real problem is that, as a rule, scouts and minor league managers are incompetent judges of ability. Usually they were .220 hitters who couldn’t get jobs outside of baseball.

More below.

The new Inter-American circuit, which has franchises from – 06.04.79 – SI Vault

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