Mets Baseball Movie

[Valadius]

Wouldn't it be nice if a big movie studio were to make a movie out of one of the Mets' seasons? Let's discuss potential Met movies.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

1969. The good guys won. Plus it was an interesting moment in history, coinciding with the first moon landing as well as the Vietnam era. It's the natural choice, IMO.

[Valadius]

1969 was what I was thinking too... it's been 36 years, which is long enough to wait for one of the biggest stories in baseball history to come to the big screen. However, 1986 would probably make a good movie too.

[metirish]

1999 could be a Drama, that season had it all, Ed Harris as Bobby V, Dennis Quaid as Al Leiter pitching the one game playoff, Vic Sage could direct.

[Elster88]

They're making a movie about Game Six.

[Guest Edgy DC]

It's been made and played the festivals, but it's more of an outsider's story. The protagonist is a Sox man.

Game Six.

Music by Yo La Tengo.

[Lundy]

The 1969 World Series (the shoe polish incident specifically) was featured prominently in Frequency.

[MFS62]

ScarletKnight41 wrote: 1969. The good guys won. Plus it was an interesting moment in history, coinciding with the first moon landing as well as the Vietnam era. It's the natural choice, IMO.

And let's not forget the birth of our first child. But for some strange reason, she's a hockey fan. (Colorado Avalanche, no less).

Where did I go wrong?

Yep, I voted for '69 too.

Later

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

The Amazin' Mets of 1969 were real life Cinderellas pitted against the mighty Baltimore Orioles and their vaunted pitching staff. Perfect scenario for a feel good movie in my opinion.

[Theoldmole]

I picked 62, just out of perversity.

[Zvon]

I voted more than one cuz I would write a movie that starts in 62 and ends in 69, following someone who was there thru those yrs.
Either a fan, someone who worked for the club like an equiptment manager or something, or a player (that would have to be Kranepool, I suppose).
That story would have everything that makes baseball the game it is.
And I wouldnt have to embellish a thing.

[Mex17]

I have actually thought about this in the past.

Serioulsy, if Billy Crystal can make a movie about the '61 Yankees, why can;t someone like Tim Robbins make one about the '69 Mets??

A movie about that team with the Seaver-Hodges relationship as a subplot could work. What do you think about Josh Hartnett as a young Seaver?

[Guest Edgy DC]

We actually did this at the MOFo, scripting various scenes of a 1969 movie as directed by Jerry Seinfeld.

"Is that...?"

"It couldn't be."

"It's a cat!"

"No."

"It is. It's a black cat."

"No, I mean, it's more than a cat."

"It is?"

"It's an omen. It's like cat-plus."

"It's an omen?"

"Yup."

"OK, fine, it's an ominous kitty. You heard it here first."

"It's a pussy with portent."

[Valadius]

I'm sure Todd Zeile would enjoy picking this up.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

The correct answer is 1979.

It's a tragicomic farce with potentially happy ending.

[Valadius]

It's too bad the name "Miracle" has been taken already for '69.

That leaves "Amazin'" as the best choice, in my opinion.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

I could definitely see ESPN picking up the rights to 'The Bad Guys Won' for one of their made-for-TV flix.

But to me a truly Met-tastic movie wouldn't end so triumphantly. That's why I'd take 1979 ('The Year Nobody Saw the Mets') or maybe 1962 'Can't Anybody Here Play This Game'), though I'm afraid the latter would be overdone with the 'Bad News Bears' ripoffs.

I'd pay to see a documentary on Bobby V and the 1999 team.

Basically you want plenty of drama, heroes, villians and whacky characters in a story that arcs to an uncertain conslusion: What will happen to these guys next? That's what being a Met fan is all about.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I can't imagine a Bad Guys Won movie being anything other than awful.

Has a movie ever been made about Casey Stengel? A well-done bio-pic of Casey would be fun, although the Mets would only appear near the end.

[Valadius]

1999 would make a GREAT movie. What a cast of characters.

I've already got the perfect Armando Benitez:

Djimon Hounsou.

[metirish]

Bolo Yeung could play Benny Agbayani.

[Guest KC]

I took 'none of them' because no one but us compulsive Mets' fans would
give a hoot. Then I re-read the first post and V said, "wouldn't it be nice if"
so I guess I'd take the early 70's. Post 1969 and then the team that made
me a fan - 1973 - only to fall a little short.

Whole lotta story lines to finish up with for 1973. They could get all whack
and have Bud beat the crap out of Pete! I'd pay nine bucks to see that.

[Guest sharpie]

It'll cost you $10.50, though.

[metirish]

Nah sharpie I think it would go straight to DVD..

[Valadius]

We wouldn't care, though, we'd rent out a movie theater ourselves to go watch it.

[Valadius]

Anyways... BUMP.

[MFS62]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: I can't imagine a Bad Guys Won movie being anything other than awful. Has a movie ever been made about Casey Stengel? A well-done bio-pic of Casey would be fun, although the Mets would only appear near the end.

Ok, now for the big question.
Who would you cast as Casey?

Later

[Valadius]

That may be one of the toughest casting calls one could think of.

William H. Macy can play anybody, why not him?

I don't know.

[Guest Matt Murdock, Esq.]

1962

as Widey said, a Mets movie cannot end with them winning "the big game".

It would have to be about the birth of the franchise, out of the ashes of the giants and dodgers, in the shadow of Mantle's Yanks. A pathetic conglomeration of has-beens, neverwases, castoffs, fringe players and kids, led by Casey... former Yankee great, now a baffoon. They set the all-time losers record.

And yet they were embraced by NY fans hungry for an NL team. And, in the end, its a story about hope. its about the price paid for the coming miracle of `69, given to Mets fans as divine compensation for bearing the unprecedented season of 62

Funny, filled with quirky characters, with a NORTH DALLAS 40 insight into the politics of MLB and NYC, with small triumphs interrupting the baseball agony, and finally a poignant hope for the future.

Its not a story we've seen a hundred times, like the "winning the big game" stories about winners who overcame the odds. I'd rather see a story about losers and the people that love them... and, as reward for loving the unloveable, receive ultimate redemption.

[Valadius]

Do you start with 1957-58 for a '62 movie? If so, I would open up with a montage of great Giants and Dodgers moments, and in the first scene a newsflash that the teams moved. Cut to reaction of New Yorkers.

[Valadius]

I don't think we should have O'Malley and Stoneham portrayed in a '62 film, though - someone will be upset by it. The only way we could use them is in radio broadcasts or newspapers.