You know what they say about taking lemons and making lemonade? Or whatever it is chickens leave behind and turning it into chicken salad? Well, I’m guessing you’ll know exactly what that’s all about tonight at 6:30 when SNY debuts Mets Yearbook: 1978, wherein a two-game improvement from 1977’s 64-98 disaster will likely be hailed as earthshaking progress, and Willie Montañez’s prancing around the bases will be framed as more entertaining than Grease, Animal House and The Eyes of Laura Mars combined.
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I haven’t seen the ’78 highlight film since ’79, but if I’m not mistaken, the San Diego Chicken’s visit to Shea is featured prominently. Chicken salad all around! If you can’t scoop up your serving tonight, set your contraptions to record it Tuesday afternoon at 1:00.
By the way, 1978 was also the year the phrase “drink the Kool-Aid [2]” came to be. I mention that because I believed the 66-96 Mets were indeed an avatar of earthshaking progress, at least for the first couple of months of that eventually depressing season. Kool-Aid, lemonade…when you’re 15 years old and the Mets are flirting with .500 on Memorial Day, you’ll drink anything and swear it’s refreshing.
Image courtesy of “Mario Mendoza…HOF lock” at Baseball-Fever [3].