Looking for help from true diehard Mets fans

[Guest mario25]

After searching the internet, contacting WWOR-TV and the Mets themselves I am referring to a source where I probably should have started first of all. I am looking for any copies of Mets games from the 1978-1979 seasons. I know they were awful years but I am fond of those years because that was when I first became a Mets/baseball fan/addict. Any help would be greatly appreciated and I just wanted to say this is the best forum for the Mets hands down...thanks Mario

[Guest AG/DC]

It's tough. The mets or WOR or SNY is sitting on that stuff. You assume a lot of it is in a vault somwhere, but who knows for sure what is lost.

A few months back, we had a thread about a YouTube usere named JPhillips who was posting video footage from that glorious era of no glory. Maybe you can find him out and write him.

http://cranepoolforum.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=8517

[Guest mario25]

I appreciate the tip, I will try to send him a note. I was hoping maybe someone had some old Mets vhs tapes laying around or in storage etc.... thanks

[Guest Kong76]

All my tapes from those years are on betamax.

Just kidding.

I'm a little fuzzy, but weren't video machines kinda high end toys back in 1978
and most people didn't have them? I don't think I got my first vcr until about 1984
or so but I could be wrong. I'm wrong about a lot of details of the early 80's.

[Guest themetfairy]

Wikipedia's History of the VCR

[Guest Kong76]

I actually looked at that before I posted, just because JVC invented it some
year doesn't mean they were in everyone's tv rooms. I don't recall VHS or
beta being main stream in the late 70's.

[Guest themetfairy]

My parents got their first VCR around the time I went to college, which was 1979. IIRC they weren't the first on the block to get one, but it was fairly new technology at the time.

They also got Wometco Home Theater (WHC) around that time, which allowed them to see two movies a night. I know that HBO existed at that time, but this was before Cablevision made its way to Long island.

[Guest Kong76]

[Benjamin Grimm]

We got our first VCR for Christmas in 1981. (Just about five weeks before David Letterman debuted. Very providential timing!) We were the first family we knew who had one. At that time, it was a major investment; ours cost almost $1,000! I still have that VCR. It's been a long time since it's been used, of course, but I'm keeping it as a novelty/collectible.

[Guest themetfairy]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: We got our first VCR for Christmas in 1981. (Just about five weeks before David Letterman debuted. Very providential timing!) We were the first family we knew who had one. At that time, it was a major investment; ours cost almost $1,000! I still have that VCR. It's been a long time since it's been used, of course, but I'm keeping it as a novelty/collectible.

Top loading, of course.

Hold onto it. There's a collectible market for that kind of thing.

On a semi-related note (since this thread is already far flung from Mario's original request), in Switzerland last summer we visited the Museum of Games (my apologies - I can't get the English version of the site to work), and my older son was absolutely thrilled with the display of old video games. They had Atari games like Pong on display, and he was in heaven!

[DocTee]

The Museum of Television and Radio has thousands of shows, sporting events, etc-- but only those that are historically or culturally significant. There are lots of old super bowls, playoff games, etc- but I doubt the 78-79 Mets would qualify- the best thing about those tapes is that many of them include vintage commercials, including ones touting tobacco products.

[Willets Point]

My family didn't have a VCR until 1984 (we were always late adapters). I think I taped only two games: Game 7 of the 1986 WS and Tom Seaver Day in 1988. I think they're both long gone.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

DocTee wrote: The Museum of Television and Radio has thousands of shows, sporting events, etc-- but only those that are historically or culturally significant. There are lots of old super bowls, playoff games, etc- but I doubt the 78-79 Mets would qualify- the best thing about those tapes is that many of them include vintage commercials, including ones touting tobacco products.

Already looked there. Zip.

I had the same request -- unremarkable games from the past. They looked at me like I was crazy.

[stevejrogers]

My family had a VCR right around the early 1980s, but it wasn't the best quality. I tried to tape 1986 postseason games, but nothing came out. I was successful in recording a 1987 ST game off of SportsChannel, but that must have been long since taped over.

I do have the Seaver ceremony, not live (I was at Shea that day), but taped from that winter off of SportsChannel. Same night as NFL postseason action on Christmas Eve.

Watching the tape now actually, I threw in the tape to record 6 hours straight at 5:24 to go to my Grandmother's house in Throgs Neck (still a habit of mine to go some time earlier, even in the DVDR age). So I caught a good portion of what was then UA Columbia Cablevision's (Southern Westchester County) cable sports tracker which gives updates of the NFL action, and the Sun Bowl, as well as some Vegas odds maker's lines for the next couple of days while playing some Christmas music as it's bed.

Very riveting stuff! Especially considering there were only TWO events, and both were final (Alabama beat Army in the Sun Bowl, and the Oilers topped the Browns (two franchises no longer in those cities oddly enough) and they were using two different "cards" for each. One just a simple score, and the line score.

And at 6:14 we are presented with the switch over and a title card for that night's SportsChannel programming!

6:30 Thoroughbred Action (Surprised Jody McDonald wasn't the host of the show at this point)
7:00 Tom Seaver Day Remembered (just the ceremony, not the game. I wonder if Tom was in the booth with Ralph, Fran and Rusty that day)
8:00 Nabisco Masters World Doubles Tennis Championship Finals
11:00 Rerun of the Thoroughbred Action.

And the lineup card stays on for the next 15 minutes! Thats it, I'm never going to complain about SNY's production values again!

Hey neat, just before the show starts they run Gary Thorne (then with the Devils) wishing holiday greetings!

YIKES, a very young Mike Breen at the update desk!

Yup, this program needs to get on a DVD, STAT!

[stevejrogers]

Back on topic, sort of, the oldest Met game I have on tape is the 1999 Wild Card Play-In and since I've only recorded postseason action. The only Met postseason game since that I don't have on tape is Game 6 of the 2006 NLCS.

[stevejrogers]

FWIW, despite Breenie saying the ceremony would be shown "in it's entirety" it was definitely chopped up to fit the one hour block. Annoying cuts include cutting Murph off as he was going on about someone who was sending well wishes to Tom despite not being there at Shea (no recall of who it was, Ryan?). They did get Seaver's speech and the tribute song in though.

So they chopped it up to fit the hour block so they could show a TAPED doubles tennis match from London? Then again, this was 1988 and local cable programming, so I shouldn't be so surprised.

[Guest AG/DC]

SteveJRogers wrote: Nabisco Masters World Doubles Tennis

Czech Mercir and Smid were the winners. We were just coming off a decade of absolutely ridiculous dominance of McEnroe and Fleming in the doubles, that pretty much helped us dominated Davis Cup also.

When Arthur Ashe chose buddies and fellow old guys Stan Smith and Bob Lutz (also a successful, highly ranked team) to play Davis Cup doubles, he confessed to Smith that folks thought he was crazy.

"You are," Smith replied.

"But I thought this way we can keep him fresh for second singles."

"You wouldn't need him for second singles. Listen, Arthur, who's the best doubles team in the world?"

"McEnroe and Fleming."

"Who's the second-best?"

"You and Bob?"

"No. McEnroe and anybody else."

[stevejrogers]

SteveJRogers wrote: So they chopped it up to fit the hour block so they could show a TAPED doubles tennis match from London? Then again, this was 1988 and local cable programming, so I shouldn't be so surprised.

What I mean is, that they probably only were allotted to go to 11:30 that particular evening, with no live action (Edgy, you recall what the date was for that match?) they had to get the tennis stuff in that 2 hour prime-time block, throw the rebroadcast of the horse racing show and call it a night. So they just couldn't get the actual full length Seaver ceremony without going long on their broadcast evening.

[stevejrogers]

Speaking of which, I did manage to get that entire night's programing on this tape (they had a card listing the next evening's programing which included the '88 NL East Clincher, so I'm thinking I may have that somewhere as well) and at promptly 11:34 the Sports Tracker returns, and it appears some college hoop action has been added to the rotation!

And the tape cuts off at 11:35. Still good quality for a 20 year old cassette!

Wasn't that supposedly why Betamax was superior though, that they'd be longer lasting than VHS, or am I getting as fuzzy on the 80s as Kase is?