What you may ask????
SNY runs 'Mets Classics' at night. No problem, show an old game, see old graphics and try to guess what inning, what score, what count etc.
Tonights matchup - Mets-Phils, the night the Mets clinched the 1988 NL Eastern Division.
McCarver, Kiner and Fran Healy manning the booth which means it was a Sportchannel game - they never let Fran over on Channel 9 for games. Which was good news for over the air viewers. Fran is no Vin Scully.
Anyway - why the pain??
Because during the broadcast they mentioned the upcoming matchup between the Mets and the eventual NL West champion Dodgers in the NLCS. And then I was reminded that the Mets won 11 of 12 or something ridiculously one sided that year from LA.
The Mets were by far the best team in baseball that year. They would have beated Oakland or Boston in the Series but they never got that far and let me tell you the gap between 1988 and their next playoff appearance in 1999 was pretty friggin bad. Let Mets Police go on a rant some day about Mike Marshall/Gary Templeton playing first base or them deciding that having a natural centerfielder actually play center would be a good idea. The Mets in that era decided that it was okay to put second basemen, third sackers and even shortstops at the most crucial outfield position on an everyday basis. If you think it was painful watching Roger Cedeno play center you had to get a load of Hojo fighting his way out there for half a year. Just awful.
So thank you SNY for rolling out a barrel of memories of the year the Mets woulda, coulda and shoulda.
Next time, stick with a rerun of 'Beer Money'.
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