Dual winners this week!
Laurels and hearty handshakes to Rich and John Philips for their responses to a post about Len Dykstra's post-career business success.
They combined two Mets icons: Dykstra and Ralph Kiner.
Wrote Rich: "I seem to remember he was on Kiner's Korner with his mother (for some reason) and it seemed Ralph was trying to hit on her. Anyone else remember something like that or is it an urban myth or macabre nightmare?"
Wrote John: "Rich, I have that edition of Kiner's Korner on videotape and you are correct. I was at the game that day, taped it, watched it, and decided it was a keeper. Ralph was being Mr. Smooth. He ended the interview by saying something like, 'Well, congratulations on a great game Lenny, and for having a great-looking mom."
Here's something strange and disappointing I just discovered: A search of "Kiner's Korner" on YouTube yielded zero matches.
Comments (2)
I am still looking for the tape. I'll make a transcript when I locate it. I do now remember that Ralph didn't say "great looking" - he used "attractive" instead.
I think that Ralph might have been available at the time. The interview took place in 1986 and if I remember correctly, Ralph might have been in the midst of an unpleasant marriage. He mentioned one particularly unpleasant wife in a book he wrote in the late 80's. I wish I could quote him, but I don't have a copy of the book.
Regardless of what Ralph did, I remember that when they showed Dykstra's mom on the set, I thought "That's some mom!"
As for the availability of Kiners Korner on video, Ralph noted in an interview that most of them were erased by Channel 9 in an effort to save the then very expensive video tape.
There might be some hiding in the Channel 9 vaults. I have actually seen videotape of Gil Hodges hitting his first homerun for the Mets at the Polo Grounds in 1962 and a color videotape of Duke Snider getting his 2000th hit in 1963 against the Reds. So there are a few items out there. Maybe you could ask SNY if they were able to locate any of these items
Good luck asking SNY for anything "old".
Here's is the full, unabridged history of the Mets per SNY:
1962 - They started with casey Stengel
1969 - They won the World Series
1986 - They won the World Series
2001 - Piazza hit a big homerun in the first game after 9/11
NOW - Wright, Reyes, Pedro and Santana are on the team!
That's all folks.
Not that I want them to dwell on the Joe Frazier era, but it would be nice to see some winter programming around other great (and not so great) moments/eras in Met history.