Down on the Korner

Ryan Kelly celebrates the GOAT postgame show with an archived 1984 episode of Ralph Kiner's extravaganza from the basement of Shea Stadium

Trivia question: It’s possible that the Mets’ single-season hitting record that will stand the longest is Lance Johnson’s 21 triples in 1996. This season, Brandon Nimmo has managed five, putting him on pace to be the first Met with double-digit triples (obviously, “pace” for triples is finicky, but he’s halfway there with more than half a season to go) since 2011, when the since-disgraced shortstop who holds the team’s career triples record posted his sixth such campaign. Angel Pagan also had 10 triples in 2009, but who was the first Mets player to make it all the way to third base on a hit 10 times in a season?

The pillar to the postgame

By Ryan Kelly

I always wanted to know where Kiner’s Korner actually was. Sure, it was a tiny TV set carved out of the probably mildewy bowels of Shea Stadium. But to me, the Mets’ longtime postgame show hosted by Ralph Kiner seemed to spring from some magical man cave at the park, complete with basement wood paneling in its later years; a pocket universe that revealed itself when needed, like Cheers’ back room. It’s dark, there’s tchotchkes. The door makes Ralph look like Sam Spade. I want to believe he peruses his collection of fine books. Join him as he malaprops with baseball’s best.

Back then, a postgame show after a sporting event wasn’t a given; you got maybe a 20-minute Kiner’s Korner – a little more Mets before being thrown into the vast wasteland of other television – news, an old movie… already in progress, of course. Watching one in its entirety today, including commercials, is like stepping into Metsadoon. The past is a different country, not even past, etc., and most importantly, searchable on YouTube. 

One episode I’ve had in my Favorites for a while is the 7/7/84 edition. The Mets are ascendant, in first place. They’ve just beaten the Reds 14-4 on a summer Saturday night at Shea. The ads are cheesy -- back then, it was the Apple ad, United ponying up for Gene Hackman and “Rhapsody in Blue,” 50 feet of crap, then all other commercials (including these). The vibes are, all at once, Mets, local TV, summer, 1984. (The year, not the book).