It feels like more than ever sports dovetails with Pat Riley’s old credo: “There’s winning, and there’s misery.” And the problem with that equation is that there’s always a lot more misery than winning.
A lot more.
This is why it’s important to hold on to the memory of the 1962 Mets, and to the early years of struggle for that franchise. It was certainly the last time — and maybe the only time — a team wasn’t just forgiven for being historically terrible, but celebrated for it.
It feels impossible. And as it pertains to the Mets — a team whose fan base has mostly made a cottage industry in recent decades waiting for skies to fall and other shoes to drop — it almost feels like science fiction. But it’s not. It wasn’t. It was real. It happened.
We know this because the peerless Jimmy Breslin left behind as one of his lasting treasures the book “Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game?” a memoir of those ’62 Mets and that orchestra of ineptitude, masterfully conducted by Casey Stengel. Every page is gold. My favorite passage has always been this:
“You see, the Mets are losers, just like nearly everybody else in life. This is a team for the cab driver who gets held up and the guy who loses out on a promotion because he didn’t maneuver himself to lunch with the boss enough. It is the team for every guy who has to get out of bed in the morning and go to work for short money on a job he does not like.”
“The people in New York didn’t follow the Mets,” Kevin Breslin says. “They loved them.”
Kevin is Jimmy’s son, and he borrowed that line from his old man — whose career, in many ways, was launched by them. The book became a hit, and Mets owner Joan Payson took a liking to young Jimmy, and her brother, Jock Whitney, owned the old Herald Tribune newspaper. Jock gave Jimmy a job. All Breslin did at the Herald Trib was invent the modern newspaper column.
That, plus the book, was a big deal for the Breslin family.
“Finally,” Kevin recalls with a laugh, “I could get new sneakers.”
All these years later, his father’s words have served as an inspiration for Breslin, an accomplished film director and producer, and two partners to try to bring “Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game?” to life as a limited series. In fact, Breslin, Brad Wyman and Jonathan Fried had just gotten Warren Leight (most famously of “Law & Order: SVU”) to sign on to run the show when, that same day at midnight, the WGA went on strike.
“Is that the most Mets thing ever, or what?” Breslin says, laughing.
His partners have interesting connections to the story, too. Wyman’s mother, Rosalind, first elected to the Los Angeles City Council at 22, was instrumental in bringing the Dodgers to L.A. Her winning pitch to the Dodgers owner was a simple one: “Mr. O’Malley, you won’t have rain-outs.” She also showed him Chavez Ravine.
“I guess,” Wyman says, “I’m the traitor in the group.”
The project was hatched not long after Wyman — who produced 2003’s “Monster,” among many other projects — was watching “Moneyball” with his son, who asked why he’d never done a baseball movie. “They’ve all been made,” was the answer, until not long after his son was playing a baseball video game and Richie Ashburn was included.
A lightbulb popped. Wyman got the book, was reading it in an L.A. cigar bar, talked to an acquaintance, Fried, and not long after Wyman called Breslin — an old friend — to talk about acquiring the book’s rights.
Fried’s connection to the Mets? His son, Max, is a star pitcher for the Braves, against whom the Mets are 2-5 lifetime — a record not all that dissimilar in percentage to the 40-120 ’62 Mets, come to think of it.
It was Fried who came up with the project’s tagline: “Mending broken hearts.”
When the writer’s strike ends, the real work begins. Ed O’Neill has expressed interest in playing Stengel. The producers have a wish list of names — how about Jon Hamm for Bill Shea, how about Catherine O’Hara for Joan Payson? — and are ready to start pitching as soon as they can.
The elevator pitch? “Think ‘Ted Lasso’ meets ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,’ ” Wyman says.
It is a project worth rooting for. And a concept worth cheering for.
“If there’s one thing baseball lacks right now, I think,” Kevin Breslin says, “it could use a little humor.”
Vac Whacks
There are times I hear from so many Yankees fans about the alleged deficiencies of their manager that I need to go back and recheck Aaron Boone’s winning percentage as a manager, which as of Saturday morning was only .574.
The folks at Strat-o-Matic have gamed out the 2023 season for the Jets and the Giants, and here’s what we’ve got: 10-7 for the Jets, with a first-round playoff exit to the Bills. The Giants? They go 8-9, though they do win the Week 6 game with the Jets, 30-24.
The way things have shaken out, Mookie Wilson is probably one of the five or six most beloved Mets ever anyway. This week his family’s company, Legacy Catering, hosted a cookout at Citi Field for more than 200 families, serving chicken, ribs and mac & cheese.
Had the great good fortune to see The Righteous Brothers this week at Bergen PAC in Englewood, and let’s just say that I wish for you, dear reader, to be able to do anything as well at age 82 as Bill Medley does in belting out “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling” in that forever bass-baritone of his night after night.
Whack Back at Vac
Scott Wolinetz: As a Mets fan and a “Seinfeld” fan, I liken Gary Sanchez to Newman, and the most I can say about the Mets recalling him is, “Oh, helllooooo Sanchez!”
Vac: If he doesn’t hit the ground hitting, Mets fans will quickly opt for a different famous “Seinfeld” quote: “I’m out!”
Alan Rudolph: I loved the line for Phillies center fielder Garry Maddox: “Water covers two-thirds of the world, and Garry Maddox covers the rest!” I am looking forward to that type of clever commentary for Harrison “did he just do a kip up?” Bader. He might just have some Mark Fidrych in him! Wouldn’t that be something to watch? That is if he keeps hitting!
Vac: Does everyone still miss Jordan Montgomery?
@knishboy: Out of the five local teams to make the recent playoffs, none made it out of the second round. Was that a good start, or bad finish?
@MikeVacc: Both!
Vince Aversano: The Bellamy-Randle analogy is excellent. Bellamy played his best games against Wilt and Russell (see ’67 and ’68 playoffs), then he would barely show up against Connie Dierking and Walter Dukes. Would love to see Knicks move Randle for another blue-collar guy (like Hart).
Vac: As my dear mother would say, “From your lips to God’s ear, Vincent …”
