Dipping Into The Archives Vol. 6

1976

In 1976 the country was gripped by Bicentennial Fever, and Mr. Met joined in on the fun. Little did we know that the team would soon start to phase out Mr. Met. What were they thinking when they distanced themselves from one of the greatest mascots in sports? Unfortunately, he would not be the only franchise icon that the team would cut ties with, but that’s a story for the following year.

1976 was a crucial year in team history. Founding owner Joan Payson had died in the offseason, and although her daughter Lorinda de Roulet was the titular team president, the team was run by M. Donald Grant, and he was more responsible than anyone for the downfall of the team as the decade progressed. This was the year the paths of the two New York franchises dramatically converged. The Yankees won the AL pennant that year; earlier in the 70s it was possible to have legitimate playground arguments over which team was better. After 1976 those days were gone.

The roster was relatively stable this year. The season began with the last 6 remaining members of the ‘69 champs still around, but that changed midseason as Wayne Garrett was traded to the Expos. Garrett is a much beloved figure among fans of a certain age, but it’s also true that the team’s constant need to make an upgrade at third base led to many of the most ill considered and ill fated trades they ever made. This season at least they promoted from within rather than trade for another aging veteran, as Roy Staiger was the regular third baseman for much of ‘76, but his time as a major leaguer was short lived.

The remaining ‘69 Miracles may have still been kept around, but a key component of the 1973 team was inexplicably sent packing. The Mets traded Rusty Staub to Detroit; that one hurt because he was one of the true heart and soul guys. And worse, he was traded for an aging Mickey Lolich. In retrospect Lolich wasn’t quite as bad in that one Mets season as his reputation suggests, but contrasting his league average pitching with the fact that Staub was an all-star in Detroit was rough.

1976 was Dave Kingman’s second season in his initial goaround with the Mets. He was an unusual Met for the time. With its deep fences and swirling winds, Shea Stadium was always a tough home run park. Until Kingman hit 36 homers in 1975, the team’s single season record was still the 34 that Frank Thomas hit in 1962 when the team was playing at the Polo Grounds. In ‘76 Kingman broke his own record with 37. Kingman was a tough guy to like; read Jeff Pearlman’s Kingman story in the intro to his book The Bad Guys Won for further proof. But his at bats were must watch events. He didn’t draw many walks so he wasn’t a Three True Outcomes player. He would either whiff or hit a massive home run; no in between.

One generally underlooked player from this era was Skip Lockwood. I don’t want to over exaggerate his accomplishments, but he was a solidly above average closer during his time at Shea.

Mike Vail will go down in history as one of the team’s most prominent prospects that did not pan out. He had a splashy debut in 1975 with a 23 game hitting streak. He went on to suffer a broken foot in the offseason and hit very poorly when he finally rejoined the lineup in 1976. We’ll never know if that injury ruined his career, or if he wasn’t that good to begin with and simply had the one hot streak in him.

In the end, 1976 ended like most Mets seasons did in that era, with a third place finish. None of us were aware that it would take almost a full decade to reach those heights again. Several fun players would wear the orange and blue over the next several seasons, but victories would be few and far between. The darkest era in team history is imminent.

SNL Season 6 Recap

Episode #10 was hosted by Debbie Harry, one of the few instances that season in which the timeliness of the hosting choice made sense. Harry was a megastar at the time, with Blondie still in the midst of their run of chart dominance. The Tide Is High was the #1 song on Billboard’s Hot 100 only a week before this episode first aired. As was often the case, however, she didn’t appear in many sketches, so it’s hard to gauge how strong of a host she was.

The more episodes of season 6 that I’ve watched, the more I’ve grown to loathe Charles Rocket. He wasn’t bad in sketches, which is why he became a fairly effective character actor after he left SNL. But when he appeared as himself? Ouch. He made for an insufferable Update anchor, and the weekly Rocket Report segments were painful. This week it spoofed Central Park’s dangerous reputation at the time by following ordinary park goers doing mundane things, implying that they’re putting their lives in their hands by doing so.

One new twist was that in addition to Update, there was an intermittent Newsbreak segment hosted by a still underutilized Eddie Murphy. It eventually led to a recurring bit about a supposed Polish invasion of the Soviet Union. If you assumed that it would climax with a lame Polish joke, congratulations. You would be correct.

As a sign of how low the bar was set this season, I actually found a sketch that mildly amused me, even though it would only be the 5th or 6th funniest bit in today’s era of the show. Rocket and Gail Matthius portrayed a game show host and his wife at home, as they tried to determine if her father (voiced offscreen by Don Pardo) needs to go into a rest home, complete with a visit by a representative from the home. They did a good job of replicating the cadence of host & sidekick in an everyday situation.

The only other noteworthy moment came in the cold open as Joe Piscopo introduced his Sinatra impression in a bit in which he attempts to assure President Reagan that he has no ties to organized crime. It was a one-joke premise that went nowhere, but Piscopo did do a very good Sinatra. Next week’s host is Charlene Tilton. As many of you may know, Things Happened in that one.

Russia

It was a surreal 12 hours or so as there was a real chance of a coup taking place in Russia. There’s only so much I can add to the discourse; I don’t want to step too much outside of my lane while discussing such a serious topic. But for a while there we all had genuine reason to speculate about Putin’s future. I hate to use the “devil you know” argument, but instability in Russia comes with grave danger. As the story developed we all had fun making the Mike Ehrmantraut references to Yevgeny Prigozhin, but the fact remains that he is an awful guy and no improvement on Putin.

The developments on Saturday morning were quite odd. Essentially, it came down to this:

Prigozhin - “Never mind”

Putin - “Bygones”

Strange. This doesn’t sound like the Vladimir Putin I know.

Whatever happens over the next several weeks, on the surface it seems that Putin is significantly weakened. We can only hope this will result in a major withdrawal of forces from Ukraine.

Final Thoughts On The Titan Submersible

The part of the story that’s truly heartbreaking is the 18 year old kid that perished. His aunt mentioned that he was terrified about getting in that sub, he only went through with it to please his father. Simply an awful story all around.

This is what interests me. Even if you don’t care about the story, often seemingly non-important news items can mean something more significant. Following the sub’s initial disappearance multiple anecdotes have come out discussing how frequently Stockton Rush scoffed at safety protocols. Perhaps with a little more oversight the catastrophe could have been averted. In certain circles “regulation” has turned into the dirtiest word in the English language. Admittedly regulation can sometimes be a little unnecessarily onerous, but they are too important to ignore, particularly when they are connected to safety. I clearly recall Rick Perry constantly repeating that Texas is a good place for businesses to relocate to, because there are no “job killing regulations.” He sure clammed up when there was a people-killing explosion at a fertilizer plant. There’s no guarantee that it could have been prevented with more frequent inspections, but the lack of oversight was a clear factor.

It was simply irresponsible to attempt to explore the ocean depths in such a shoddy vessel. In a sane society, this would be an impetus to crack down on the industry, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Get Your Kicks On I-95

It took almost no time to reopen the damaged portion of I-95 in Philadelphia following the tanker fire. Kudos to all for getting the repair done weeks ahead of schedule. The rapidity will prove to be a major asset on Governor Josh Shapiro’s resume if he seeks higher office come 2028. Showing that you can get stuff done is a compelling argument.

This also proves that we can do great things when we have the will and need to do so. The thought of such an important section of I-95 closed for months was very worrisome. How badly would it hold up the supply chain, how awful would traffic become, etc. Because it was so crucial to complete the project this quickly, everyone worked their butts off to get it done. Let this be an example. It’s human nature to procrastinate and to wait until deadlines approach to kick things into high gear. We now know with certainty that infrastructure projects need not take as long as they do.

Time To Get A Head Start On October?

I got home yesterday afternoon just in time to watch what might have been the absolute worst single inning in a Mets season that has sadly been filled with many such low points. It was hide the children level - a failed double play attempt, a bases loaded walk, two (two!) based loaded hit by pitches. Yeah, I’m starting to think this might not be our year.

If this continues, I’ll have plenty of time to work on a what went wrong? postmortem to the season. For now, it might already be time to start working on what seems to be an annual exercise. Who will be my October bandwagon team to root for now that the Mets are not in the postseason? My more reliable rooting interests either lie with a team suffering through a lengthy championship drought or with a long respected veteran chasing his first title. Right now, the Reds and Joey Votto cover both of those categories, but there’s still plenty of baseball to be played.

Be Kind, Give A Mets Fan The Hug That He Or She Needs

With that, time to close the book for today. Thanks for reading, and see you all again on Wednesday.