Dipping Into The Archives Vol. 33

2004

It’s been a longstanding Mets tradition that when the team gets bad, they stay bad for a long time. The early aughts were an exception. True, they went from National League champions to last place in only 3 seasons. True, the 2004 season was another dreary one - 91 losses and a 4th place finish in the NL East. But, it would be only 2 seasons until they came so agonizingly close to reaching another World Series.

The organization could see the promising future with their two prominent prospects, so they accelerated the process by moving aggressively in the offseason. The most significant transaction came with the signing of Japanese star Kaz Matsui. He came with a great deal of hype, but he did not transition well to America. He made an immediate splash, hitting a home run & 2 doubles on opening day, but he was a major disappointment overall. Moreover, he was a shortstop & his arrival forced the Mets to move Jose Reyes to second base. That didn’t work out very well, and Reyes in fact missed a huge chunk of the year with injuries. The following season the team properly kept Reyes at short, moving Matsui to second. Matsui did not succeed very well at that position either.

That was not the only awkward position change; in 2004 Mike Piazza spent the majority of his playing time at first base. He never seemed comfortable at the position, and at the age of 35 his production was starting to dip as well. To split some time at first base with Piazza (Piazza still caught semi-regularly) Todd Zeile was brought back for what would be his final major league season. It was a fairly nondescript year, but he did have his Ted Williams moment, hitting a home run in his final at bat.

There were 2 other big free agent signings this year, one worked out reasonably well & the other not so much. Mike Cameron came aboard & was exactly the type of player he had always been - a streaky power hitter who provided exceptional center field defense. Braden Looper was your standard run of the mill relief pitcher who had a bit of a halo effect from serving as the closer for the 2003 champion Marlins. His time with the Mets demonstrated why it is so risky to give a big contract to a reliever. It’s not that he was bad per se, he was just overvalued. In addition, the 2004 Mets had an odd fixation on former Yankee spare parts. Shane Spencer, Karim Garcia, and Gerald Williams all appeared this year.

Although the team finished well below .500, they were in that danger zone around the time of the trading deadline. They were in a position where it was unclear if they needed to be buyers or sellers. The front office ultimately decided they were close enough to go all-in. They traded for outfielder Richard Hidalgo, who was a few years removed from his great year in Houston, and made little impact with the Mets. Kris Benson was a little better. A former #1 overall draft pick, he looked like a Tom Glavine Mini-Me and was essentially a league average starter during his season & a half at Shea. The reason that he is remembered to this day is due to the presence of his wife Anna. Let’s just say that she enjoyed the New York spotlight. The Mets hold an annual Christmas party for public schools. One running gag concerned the so-called Curse Of Santa Claus; whichever player dressed up as Kringle went on to have a terrible season the following year. That year it was Benson’s turn, but all that anyone remembers is that Anna showed up as a scantily clad Mrs. Claus. Did I mention that this was a children’s party?

The more controversial move would come in a trade with Tampa Bay. The Mets shipped Scott Kazmir, at the time their top minor league pitching prospect, for Victor Zambrano. Now, trading Kazmir was not in and of itself indefensible. Most prospects don’t pan out; that’s why they are so often used as trade pieces. The problem is that this particular trade was such an imbalance in value. If you are trading the crown jewel of your organization, the return should be much higher than Zambrano, a pitcher whose ceiling was that of a #3 starter. It didn’t help that pitching coach Rick Peterson made his infamous “I can fix him in 5 minutes” statement when team brass was internally discussing Zambrano. Even worse, the stated reason for giving up on Kazmir was that his relatively small size raised concerns about his durability. To be fair, those were not misplaced fears. He did make 2 All-Star teams with Tampa Bay, but he also frequently wore out by the time each season ended. The durability question blew up in the Mets’ faces, however. Zambrano himself broke down after only 2 starts. One must wonder how differently things would have worked out if the club had held onto Kazmir until they could have gotten a better return for him.

I’ll end 2004 on a more positive note. This was also the year in which David Wright made his major league debut. He showed few growing pains, and even though Reyes was injured for a good chunk of the year the left side of the infield was now set in place. The team had 2 future stars in the lineup and enough solid veterans that there was a foundation in place. The 2004/05 free agency shopping spree would prove to be very fruitful.

The Glory Days Of Trash Sports

Back in the days of the 3-channel universe, the networks had to scramble to find enough programming to fill airtime on weekend afternoons. Remember, at this time basketball still had a fairly small national presence, so the networks aired few games. One of the more reliable schedule fillers was what would come to be known as trash sports. Simply put, they were low stakes events, usually placing athletes outside of their comfort zones. It’s little surprise that ABC Sports, which at the time set the gold standard for sports programming, introduced the program that made the biggest impact of them all.

I had once seen a quote from Roone Arledge in which he said that he was always embarrassed by The Superstars, even though it was a huge success. Fair enough, but there’s no denying that as lowbrow as it was, it was entertaining. The concept was simple - it was an attempt to determine the world’s greatest athlete, or as a subquestion, which sport produces the best all-around athletes. So, in 1973 ABC aired a special in which an assortment of top athletes competed in a 10-event competition. The format was simple, each athlete competed in 7 of those events of their own choosing, they just couldn’t participate in one that was their own specialty. Points were distributed in a 10-7-5-3-1 basis, and whoever accumulated the most would be your Superstars champion.

For the record, Olympic pole vaulter Bob Seagren was the inaugural winner, but that’s not what everyone remembers from the initial edition. The lasting memory came when Joe Frazier began to sink in the swimming race, and show producers had their “eureka!” moment. Bloopers would be as much of a feature in promoting the show as the actual competition would be.

After that first year, ABC expanded it into a series. There would be 4 preliminary rounds with the top 3 from each qualifying for the final. Scheduling was of course an issue. In the early 70’s the biggest headliners were baseball and football stars, so in order to guarantee availability of big stars the finals would be staged in that period between the Super Bowl and spring training. That meant that it was not possible for basketball or hockey players to vie for the big prize. A few would compete in the preliminary round but would need to give up their positions in the finals if they had qualified.

The exact program of events would vary; some such as bowling, tennis, or a closest to the pin golf competition would come and go, but there were a handful of constants. Swimming, bicycle racing, rowing, a 100 yard dash, a half mile run, and weightlifting were standard, as was the centerpiece of the show, the obstacle course. THAT’S where the producers really played up the blooper element of the show. They would rerun footage of athletes stumbling through the obstacles over and over again.

Actually the event that amused me more consistently was weightlifting. This was the 1970’s; weight training wasn’t standard yet for most athletes. So, it was amusing to see professional athletes struggle to lift the bar when it reached weights that were not all that outrageous. That doubled with athletes from sports that you would think required strength. I distinctly remember heavyweight champion Ken Norton look foolish in this event. On the other side, Olympic shot putter Brian Oldfield would toy with the rest of the field. After watching his competitors strain themselves, he would calmly walk to the bar and start doing reps as if he were lifting a matchstick. It was as if he was doing a mic drop with a barbell.

One thing that differentiated ABC’s take on trash sports from the other networks is that even though they understood it was all a show it was still presented seriously. The intro used the score from Jesus Christ Superstar as the announcer (most often either Keith Jackson or Frank Gifford) introducing the competitors. The dramatic music was so stirring that it made the event seem like a big deal. And plenty of major sports stars from the era did participate. As the clip below shows, there were also Veterans Superstars and Celebrity Superstars competitions held. That year’s celebrity champ might blow your mind.

It was actually the competitors from lower profile sports, however, that made it all work. Even in an era before sports salaries really exploded, the prize money was essentially pocket change for the big stars. So for athletes of that level, the goal was to spend an enjoyable few days without embarrassing themselves. Their natural competitive juices would kick in, but only so much. For athletes from sports without a large spotlight, on the other hand, that prize money could make a huge difference in their lives so they would compete with a ferocious intensity, and that helped briefly make household names out of people who would otherwise lie in obscurity. Few people can name a single professional water skier, but those of a certain age remember Wayne Grimditch. And there was a prolonged period in which Kyle Rote Jr. was America’s most famous soccer player.

The show was a significant success for ABC and for years was a staple of wintertime Sunday afternoons. I’m going a little long today, so I’ll save for next week some of the spin-offs that the network introduced.

David Soul

David Soul passed away late last week. He was best known for his co-starring role in 1970’s cop drama Starsky & Hutch, as well as his #1 hit single Don’t Give Up On Us at the height of his TV fame. What interests me more is one of his post-Hutch roles.

A chief benefit of TV & movies is that most of the great productions & performances are preserved for future generations to sample. There are stray films from the early years that have been lost, and many tapes from the infant years of television were simply recorded over, but other than that virtually everything that hasn’t been sent to David Zaslov’s private vault is accessible. With few exceptions that’s not the case with stage performances.

What that means of course is that there are no limits to the number of times and ways in which stage plays can be revived. There wasn’t some grouchy old man in the 1640’s complaining about a new production of Hamlet, claiming that no one can ever portray the role as well Nigel Ian Trevor had. Any time a classic film is remade, however, there is an immediate pushback of people asking “why?” To be fair, there has been no shortage of unnecessary remakes. On the other hand, is it reasonable to forever retire a work of art? Isn’t it worthwhile to see how different generations can reinterpret a character?

It may seem like I have gone off on a major tangent, but I do have a point. Later in his career David Soul proved himself to be either the ballsiest or the most foolhardy actor in Hollywood. In the early 80’s NBC actually aired a weekly Casablanca TV series, starring Soul as Rick Blaine. Now, I never saw the show so I have no idea if it was any good. It was cancelled after only 5 episodes, but I don’t know how much of that was due to poor quality and how much was due to national “how dare they!” foot stomping.

This is why this particular instance has always fascinated me. The character of Rick Blaine was so complex that I would imagine any skilled actor would relish the chance to sink his teeth into that one. He had so many layers that one could find a way to interpret the character without aping Humphrey Bogart. Yet, I can’t imagine a viewer watching a different take on Rick without thinking to themselves “you’re no Bogart.” And not to be disrespectful, but David Soul was no Bogart.

I guess what I’m saying in a very roundabout way is that an unfortunate ramification of an actor making such an indelible portrait of a character is that in many eyes that character is now retired forever. So, I admire David Soul’s bravery. BTW, in case you were wondering, the NBC series was a prequel, so there was no Ilsa. But it did include Hector Elizondo as Renault, and Scatman Crothers as Sam.

Father Time, Still Undefeated

After sitting out basically all of 2023 due to injury, Rafael Nadal came into the new year rested, recovered, and poised to make one final run through the tennis tour, at the very least to say goodbye at the 4 majors & the Olympics. He looked like his old self at his first few matches in Brisbane as he prepped for next week’s Australian Open. Alas, the realities of attempting to compete at the age of 37 quickly caught up to him. He suffered a small muscle tear and was forced to withdraw from the Australian Open.

He states that it’s only a small tear & that he hopes to return relatively shortly, but the fact that he suffered a physical setback so soon after his return to competition can’t be very encouraging. If I had to hazard a guess I would say he will concentrate on recovering for the clay tournaments and attempt one last run at the French Open & then make his final farewell at the Olympics. Wimbledon & the U.S. Open both seem very unlikely. It would have been wonderful to see him exit on his own terms, but us Roger Federer demonstrated earlier, even the very greatest can only cheat the aging process for so long.

Cooperstown Bound?

This article from Mike Petriello fits right into my wheelhouse. The gist of it is that in any normal MLB season there are an average of around 40 future Hall of Famers that are active. His annual exercise is to try to guess who they are. It’s a fun little attempt. It’s a no-brainer to say that Mike Trout and Justin Verlander have done what they need to do, or that Juan Soto and Ronald Acuna Jr. are well on their way, but which veterans who are on the cusp will eventually seal the deal? Which young stars will continue their march to greatness? Or what about the rookies and second year players?

Don’t forget that things can change rapidly due to injury or to other factors. A year ago Wander Franco sure looked like a potential Hall of Famer. Now, there is a strong possibility that he never plays in the major leagues again. And there have been countless great young pitchers who looked to be on the correct path until their elbows or shoulders told them otherwise. Bottom line, it ain’t easy to make it to the Hall. Time will tell how many of these 40 predictions will prove to be correct.

Closing Laughs

Thoughts and prayers for Wayne LaPierre. Thanks for reading as always, and let’s talk again on Wednesday.