1986 Mets retrospective on the MSG Network really sucked

buy the DVD set of the full Series.I have to tell you, I was rather excited when I first heard about the 4-part series about the 1986 Mets that was going to air on the MSG Network from March 1st to the 4th.  I was 15 years old in that magic summer of '86, and the Mets meant the whole world to me.  And that was one of the most amazing seasons any team has ever had, in any sport.  To this day, I can still do about 5 full minutes of Vin Scully's play-by-play, from memory.  Though, to this day, I never fully understood why he put the most emphasis on ".....behind the BAG!".  (Kind of like Danny Concannon being his most haughty on the "Dallas Morning News").

Anyway, the show turned out to be horrible.  As if we should be surprised that anything that that asshole James Dolan had the remotest hand in should suck.  It started before the show even came on.  They had been plugging this thing for weeks, everyone was looking forward to it, and when the hour finally came, they pushed it back while wasting 45 minutes on a Knicks postgame that ran late.

It became obvious rather quickly.  And we should have seen it coming.  MSG own no rights to any of the video footage of the Mets.  Consequently, there were ZERO highlights.  How can you have a highlight show and not show any highlights?

Secondly, most of the interviews were rather lame.  Yeah, they had Strawberry, Davey Johnson, and even Gooden (who I didn't even realize wasn't still in jail).  Plus a few others.  But this was like '86 Mets for Dummies.  Did you know they were a wild bunch?  Wow, what a freakin' revalation!  There were one or two good stories about how Darryl and Doc would get drunk on the back of the plane, but really, for anyone who was alive back then, there was almost no new information in any of these interviews.  Unless you really cared about how Baba Booey felt about the '86 Mets.  (I didn't.)

Even these relatively lame interviews weren't enough.  The show was produced with so much filler, repeating the same interview clips over and over.  There was probably about 10 minutes of actual "show" in each half-hour episode.  In other words, they spread 40 minutes of not very enlightening interviews, and no video highlights, over 2 hours, over 4 nights.  At least, I'm told they did.  I stopped watching after the first 2 episodes.

Mets fans looking to re-live the glory days should dig out their VHS of "1986 Mets -- a Year to Remember".  Or, buy the DVD set of the full Series.  It still holds up better than this new crap.