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Let’s Go Mets

September 2, 2021 at 9:52 am
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The year was 1986.

Was that a lifetime ago, or last week?  Sometimes I am not sure.

For me, it was a pretty good year.   I had my first job in television, writing for the CBS revival of THE TWILIGHT ZONE.   I had gone through a very rough time financially the preceding couple of years, but now things were turning around.   In the NFL, the Giants were looking damn good and winning a lot of games.   And in baseball… in baseball, we had the Mets.   After teasing us in 1984 and 1985, the Mets caught fire early in 1986, took charge of the National League from pillar to post, and made it to the World Series against the Boston Red Sox.

In a couple of weeks, ESPN will be bringing back those halcyon days with a four-part two-night documentary about that amazing season.

It should be a cool couple of nights.   And you know the best part?   I’m in the show.   Can’t say how much or how often, but they came up to my cabin a few months back and interviewed me for an hour or so (and never asked once about THE WINDS OF WINTER or the new GAME OF THRONES successor shows I am developing for HBO).   Maybe a couple of minutes of that will make it into the film, but hey, that’s cool… they have a lot of other exciting interviews in there as well.

But why should they interview a fantasy writer at all about the 1986 World Series???

Well, because… Parris and I were at Game Six.

And THAT experience I will remember till my dying day.

Happy Mets fans at the end of game 6.  Find me and Parris (not the best pic of either of us, but we are there).

Somewhere around here I have my Mets cap and a baseball signed by Lenny Dykstra.  Need to find those before showtime…

Current Mood: bouncy bouncy

Thor Joins GAME OF THRONES

March 1, 2017 at 3:46 pm
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By Odin’s Beard! This is too cool.

Thor himself turned up in Spain, to do a cameo on GAME OF THRONES.

http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2017/03/03/217803762/

Loved hearing that he’s a fan of the show. After all, I’ve been a Mets fan since 1962. Hell, one of the highlights was my life was attending Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. We had seats in the fourth row on the first base side, just beyond the dugout, and close enough to the field to count the stitches on the ball as it rolled between Bill Buckner’s legs.

My dream, of course, is that Noah and his teammates will lead the Mets to another series, and give me a memory to go with ’86 and ’69.

(The Mets don’t win often, but when they do, it is glorious).

Cubs Win

November 3, 2016 at 12:48 pm
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The Cubs have won the World Series.

Yes, you read that right. The Cubs have won the World Series, for the first time in one hundred and eight years. They are weeping in Cleveland and dancing in the streets of Chicago.

Surely the end of days is at hand. The seventh seal has broken, some rough beast is slouching toward Bethlehem (or Washington, D.C.), pigs are flying. The Cubs have come back from being down three games to one, and that bleating you hear is the billy goat that cursed them so long ago.

Somewhere Harry Carey is saying “Holy Cow,” and Steve Goodman is singing.

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Truth be told, I’m a Mets fan. We have our own agonies, sharing a city with the Yankees. But it’s nothing like the pain Cubs fans have known. We will always have 1969. A painful memory for Cubs fans, and golden one for Mets fans. And we will always have 1986. Agony for Red Sox fans, magic for Mets fans… and especially for Parris and me, who were actually there for game six, in great seats four rows up on the first base side, so close to the field that we could see the stitches on the ball as it rolled between Bill Buckner’s legs.

But I digress. As I saying, I’m a Mets fan… but I did go to college at Northwestern (1966-1971), and did my VISTA service in Chicago (1971-1973), and lived there in Uptown afterwards (1973-1976), so I have a certain affection for the Cubbies too. I certainly enjoyed many a lazy spring and fall afternoon sitting in the bleachers at Wrigley, both in college and after. (Okay, okay, living in Chicago and being surrounded by Cubs fans as I was, I took a certain cruel pleasure from the Mets classic run in 1969, mea culpa). I’d still prefer the Mets to win it all… but if it can’t be them, I’m glad it was the Cubs. Chicago is a great city, Wrigley is a great field, and Steve Goodman was a great songwriter.

So congratulations to all my friends in the Second City. Enjoy the moment. Let’s hope it isn’t another hundred and eight years before it comes again.

There is one fly in the ointment, though. Last week, when the Cubs were down 3 games to 1, Nate Silver wrote that Trump had as much chance of winning the election as the Cubs did of winning the series.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

The Cubs have won the World Series. The end is nigh.

Pfui

October 6, 2016 at 12:37 pm
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Sports are not bringing me a lot of joy this week.

Not only did the Giants and Jets both suffer painful losses over the weekend, but the Mets are got eliminated in the wild card game in baseball. One and done.

Life is meaningless and full of pain.

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