Mets Yearbook: 1988

Set your DVRs or just get yourself glued to SNY Friday night at 7:00 for the debut of Mets Yearbook: 1988, the latest installment of the best series on television and the latest one we’ll see in chronological terms. Get ready to revisit the powerhouse Mets who were going to reign for years to come: the 1986 stalwarts plus David Cone, Gregg Jefferies, Dave Magadan, Randy Myers and Kevin McReynolds all in full bloom. I watched this highlight film on VHS about twenty years ago (rented it from a Palmer Video) and by the early ’90s it was already making me nostalgic for the dynasty that never was.

Recently, Bronx Banter ran an eerie series on how the Mets could have been a juggernaut for all time across the ’70s and then some. It was fanciful, but not totally, given that it was based on things the Mets could have done, like draft Reggie Jackson, and didn’t have to do, like not trade Amos Otis and Nolan Ryan. (Read it in three parts here, here and here.) The other night I was watching yet another airing of the 1988 division clincher, and I gotta tell ya, there was nothing fanciful about the concept of a Met dynasty. We were about to wrap up the East, the Dodgers would be easy pickings and then the foreseeable future would fall at our feet. How could it not? Strawberry, Gooden, Darling, McDowell, HoJo, Dykstra, Mookie plus all those aforementioned young fellows. Yes, it was going to be great.

Now that you’re all uplifted, make a note to watch Mets Yearbook: 1988 anyway. And don’t forget ALL TEN episodes, spanning 1963 through 1988, will run on SNY on Memorial Day, beginning at 4:30 PM. If you don’t have a DVR, buy one now.

Image courtesy of “Mario Mendoza…HOF lock” at Baseball-Fever.