Dipping Into The Archives Vol. 37

As promised I’ll have my full Grammy wrap up on Wednesday. For now, I’ll simply say - damn, Tracy Chapman sounded great!

2008

The 2008 Mets season disproved the old cliche about lightning never striking twice in the same spot. It wasn’t the near wire to wire run in first place followed by an epic collapse as the previous year was. After all, the team languished around .500 for much of the first half, leading to Willie Randolph’s firing. But even when the team got hot and spent weeks in first place, we were all bracing ourselves for the inevitable. Once again, the team was in first place with 17 games to go, this time by 3 1/2 games. Once again, the team staggered down the stretch. This was no way to close the doors on Shea Stadium.

The yearbook devoted long sections to both the old park & the new one. The section focusing on Shea Stadium’s history - not just the Mets, but the Jets, the Beatles, and special events of all types - ran for more than 30 pages. And there was also a photo spread showing the status of CitiField construction. I’ll save thoughts on the farewell ceremony for Shea until Wednesday. That merits its own segment.

Before delving into the season ending gloom, why not look at happier topics. The organization recognized that lack of depth in the starting rotation was a major weakness, so when Johan Santana, the best starter in the game, was available, the Mets swooped in and traded for him. He wasn’t quite as good as a Met as he was as a Twin, but here was an ace-level starter in his prime. You can’t blame the collapse on him. The core of Beltran/Wright/Reyes/Delgado all had strong seasons as well. The problem is that this was a terribly top heavy roster. The 2006 team was so strong from 1-25; that wasn’t the case in 2008, and a crucial late season injury exposed that problem.

One of the recurring aggravating aspects of late Wilpon-era Mets was the inability to properly treat injuries, and one of the worst instances took place in 2008. It started with a mild concussion that Ryan Church suffered in spring training. He was recovered by the time the regular season started, and he was having a solid year before incurring a second concussion during a game in Atlanta. Astonishingly, the team didn’t disable him & had him travel with the team to the next stop on the road trip - to Denver! Now, teams weren’t as cautious about head injuries as they are now, but the thought of putting a man with a concussion on a cross country flight, and to a high altitude destination at that, is beyond belief. Church was never really the same after that. But there would be another poorly handled road trip to come.

The Mets played uninspired ball for much of the first half, so Willie Randolph’s job security was very much in question. It was only a matter of time before he would be fired and replaced by bench coach Jerry Manuel. It was the manner in which it was done that was indefensible. Randolph was let go after the first game of a west coast road trip. Why did they not make that move BEFORE leaving on the trip? It seemed cruel to cut him loose like that. The team did respond to the change in leadership and played much better under Manuel, but things took a bad turn once Billy Wagner tore his elbow, knocking him out for the last month. As the season hit its closing stretch the bullpen was a lot less impressive with Bobby Ayala as closer.

For the second consecutive season the year ended with a home series against the Marlins. The difference from the previous season is that the Mets went into that final weekend 2 games behind the Phillies, so their chances were already slim. My final visit to Shea was at the Friday night game, which they lost, but the Phillies lost as well, so the Mets were still alive. In the Saturday game Santana threw what may have been his greatest game as a Met, and yes I am including his no-hitter. Santana threw a 3-hit shutout. Not only that, but it was later learned that he pitched with a torn meniscus. (Pause to acknowledge that it’s quite possible that compensating to overcome whatever pain he may have felt led to the shoulder injury that harmed his later career so.)

That led to game #162, the final game at Shea unless they somehow made it to the postseason. They entered the day 2 games back, so they needed a win plus a Phillies loss to tie for the division, or a win plus a Brewers loss to tie for the wild card. Unlike the final game of 2007, which was an immediate blowout, this one was more of a slow torture. It was a scoreless duel through 5, before the Marlins broke through by scoring 2 in the 6th. The Mets responded in the bottom of the inning with a 2-run homer by Carlos Beltran, but that would be it. The Mets only managed 4 hits in the game, and it was just a matter of time. The Marlins hit back to back home runs in the 8th to break the tie and seal the win. The Mets had somehow blown big September leads in consecutive seasons and Shea Stadium would close without seeing any more postseason baseball. But there was still one order of business to go after the final out. The Shea Goodbye ceremony needed to go on as scheduled. I’ll discuss that on Wednesday.

That’s That For That

This seems like a natural end point for this particular segment. The closing of an old ballpark and opening of a new one marks a transition into a new era, and let’s be honest about a few things. We’re about to enter the period in which examples of every valid criticism of the Wilpons increased exponentially. Not only are these going to be events that are too recent to have nostalgic feelings over, but there will also be things that I’m not all that eager to revisit. The fallout from the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme is about to come down, after which the Wilpons actually tried to assure fans that it would not affect spending at all while proceeding to gut the payroll. There’s a good reason why Mets fans were so gleeful when Steve Cohen purchased the club.

But just because I will no longer dive into Mets yearbooks, that does not mean that I will stop satisfying my Baseball Nostalgia Jones. You may recall that when I found old Mets yearbooks as part of a storage clearance I also found a box of old issues of Baseball Digest from the mid-70’s-mid-80’s. Each Monday I will grab a random issue from that box and let the memories fly. I won’t do it chronologically like I did with the Mets yearbooks, I’ll just reach into the box and see what unexpected treasures await. This should be fun.

SNL Recap

I was very much looking forward to Ayo Edebiri’s hosting stint, and she did not disappoint. In addition to being exceptionally talented, she is a ray of sunshine. Watching her leap into the arms of assorted cast members in the closing goodbye was a delight. Not even the unfortunate cameo or the announcement of the next host spoiled things too much.

Getting Nikki Haley out of the way first, I won’t condemn her visit as much as other people have done. SNL appearances have almost become part of presidential campaigns these days, and to be fair she did a much better job reading her lines than we usually see from moonlighting politicians. But the joking “I should have had a better answer for the Civil War question” didn’t sit well. That’s nothing compared to the news that Shane Gillis will host when the show returns on February 24. He’s the guy who was fired before ever appearing on the show due to terrible anti-Asian and homophobic jokes he has made. Does the show really need to call on him?

Back to happier stuff. In a sign of just how good Edebiri was, the show featured not just 1, but 2 game show parodies, and they both hit. It was a coin flip for me to decide which was the top sketch of the week, but I couldn’t decide so they will share the honors. Too many game show sketches are based on the premise that the contestants are terribly stupid. That wasn’t the case in either one here, and Edebiri’s strong characterizations added bonus points.

All in all, there were few clunkers here, which was a welcome change from the weak episodes we just sat through. The filmed piece concerning the um, interestingly designed Dune popcorn buckets was a keeper, as was the college-set sketch in which Andrew had just microdosed mushrooms to the horror of two extremely uptight classmates. And what the heck, I’m feeling generous. I’ll give an honorable mention to the People’s Court sketch. No SNL People’s Court parody can ever match Jon Lovitz as the devil, but the sight gag in this one paid off.

Wrapping things up, there was only 1 correspondent piece in Update. Sarah continues to mock Jost, this time acting as a lottery winner for SNL tickets who comes to the desk wearing a suit identical to Jost’s. It is quickly revealed that she is portraying Jost’s long lost illegitimate son. I loved the mother’s description of him as El Diablo De Los Hamptons. I was surprised that musical guest Jennifer Lopez did not appear in any sketches, not even in any prerecorded bit.

This was a strong enough episode that there were multiple candidates for Employee Of the Week. I’ll award it to Ego, her chemistry with Edebiri was evident. I’m already looking forward to her inevitable second hosting stint. I’m NOT looking forward to the next episode; I have to imagine there are going to be some uncomfortable conversations in the show’s offices in the meantime.

Baby, You’ve Got A Stew Going

One of the many reasons why the original Rocky is such an enduring classic is that it’s a perfectly cast movie. It is impossible to picture anyone else inhabiting the roles of the core characters, and Carl Weathers as Apollo Creed is just one example. Despite his braggadocio and the fact that he was the chief antagonist, Weathers made Creed a sympathetic character. I love that moment in the fight when he dejectedly hangs his head upon realizing that Rocky was not going to stay down.

Weathers of course had one hell of a career beyond the Rocky series. He was a reliable action hero during that era, and found a great niche of poking fun at himself in comedies. His recurring role as himself in Arrested Development was pure gold. And he has been one of the highlights in The Mandolorian.

And yet, at times I place him in the “what if?” category. By that I mean I can’t help but wonder how much better his career would have been had he been born say 20 years later. In the wake of his passing I saw many people say that Action Jackson should have turned into a franchise. At the time I don’t think movie audiences were quite ready for an African-American action star.

No sense dwelling on that too much, however. He was one of those actors for whom you could always count on seeing a job well done, no matter if the project was lowbrow. Rest in power.

All-Star Snubs

The reserves for the NBA All-Star Game were announced on Thursday. As I had mentioned, this is a difficult choice to make. The Eastern Conference is not as tough, but in the West there are easily 20 players who could make legitimate cases to be included, but alas, there are only 12 slots. So, as much as I would love to see Victor Wembanyama make the game, the coaches who selected the backups understandably are making him wait until the Spurs escape from the cellar.

With that in mind, who has a legitimate beef? To me Domantas Sabonis is the biggest snub, especially considering that the Kings are sitting in 5th in the conference & are the best team without a representative. I’d take him over Karl-Anthony Towns. In the East I would have liked to have seen Scottie Barnes make the team, but the again, the Raptors are only 12th in the East, so once again it comes down to prioritizing players from contending teams. I’m not sure who I would knock off the team to make space for Barnes. Adam Silver will need to name roster replacements for Joel Embiid and Julius Randle, so we’ll have to see what happens.

Closing Laughs

Late last week MLB teams posted their videos of equipment trucks beginning their journeys south. Spring training is nigh! See you all again on Wednesday.