ESPN's '30 for 30' on '86 Mets brings a strong dose of nostalgia for fans of old
Mets' Lee Mazzilli, Ron Darling, center, Keith Hernandez, left of Darling, and teammates pile onto each other to celebrate their World Series win over the Boston Red Sox in Game 7 of the World Series baseball game on Monday, Oct. 27, 1986 at Shea Stadium. Credit: Associated Press/Kathy Kmonicek
The 1986 Mets have been as well-documented as any team in baseball history, but that did not stop ESPN Films from doing another deep dive, coming to a video screen near you next month.
The network confirmed on Tuesday that its four-hour "30 for 30" documentary chronicling those famously rascally Mets, "Once Upon a Time in Queens," will premiere over two nights, on Sept. 14 and 15.
"They were wildly talented, and equally entertaining," director Nick Davis said in a news release. "They were like a bunch of raffish rogues who come together for one great score, like the characters in a heist movie.
"Love them or hate them, you could not avoid the 1986 Mets, and for one year, they blazed like a comet across the New York City landscape, the trail still visible all these years later."
Added one of the executive producers, comedian and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel: "The characters and events captured in this documentary are so outlandish it is hard to believe this documentary isn’t a work of 80’s-era fiction.
"Whether you are a New Yorker, a Mets fan or even a fan of baseball makes no difference. This is the definitive, must-see story of a team and a time whose antics and even existence now seem unimaginable."
All true, but the challenge for Davis was saying something new – or at least interesting – about the World Series champions of that season.
The "new" part is almost impossible, given how much has been written and said about those Mets, who survived classic series against the Astros and Red Sox en route to the franchise’s second world championship.
So, no, there are not any major news bombshells here.
But that does not mean the series is not interesting. It certainly is that, thanks to plenty of Grade A video – MLB partnered on the project – and a comprehensive collection of quotable talking heads.
Most memorable among them is Lenny Dykstra, a complicated character who provides many of the series’ best lines, almost all of them profanity-laced.
Keith Hernandez, now a longtime Mets analyst for SNY, also stars, alongside his cat, Hadji, who joins him on camera much of the time.
We knew his leadership bona fides already, but hearing again from teammates how important a role he played on that team further burnishes his legacy.
Among others, the series also includes Davey Johnson, Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, Ron Darling, Roger McDowell, Sid Fernandez, Wally Backman, Mookie Wilson and Kevin Mitchell.
There are other voices, too, from Mets fan and novelist George R. R. Martin to a feisty, defiant Calvin Schiraldi.
If there is a villain, it is the late general manager Frank Cashen.
Much like the late Bulls GM Jerry Krause in last year’s "The Last Dance," Cashen gets deserved credit for building that team but comes off as a curmudgeonly party pooper out of touch with his players and manager.
How will all this play in Peoria? That is unclear. Avid baseball fans outside New York might give it a try, but they also might wonder why their local heroes don’t get this sort of treatment.
But for Mets fans, especially those old enough to remember what life was like when that team ruled the city, this is a warm, irresistible nostalgia bath.
That goes for chronicling the era itself beyond the Mets. Davis works hard to capture the mood and vibe of 1980s New York. He does not sugarcoat that or the ups and downs of the Mets themselves.
It is a loving but honest look back at a time when those Mets and some of the rest of us were young, and at just the right time in their lives.
Remember two years ago when the Mets and their fans paid tribute to the 1969 champs? Many members of that team were infirm or gone by then, which left a handful of them to recall those glory days for public consumption.
Gary Carter died in 2012, but most of his teammates remain active and vibrant and able to tell their stories and tell them well. That might not be the case 10 or 20 years hence.
Now it all is on video, ready to be archived on ESPN+ and available to future generations, who might otherwise not have believed it all really happened.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
