Let's Go to the Videotape: 1986 Potpourri

Last week, we looked at a news report about Giants fans desperately trying to keep up with game 7 of the World Series while also attending Monday Night Football. Today, we get another on-site news report, this one coming from game 3 of the NLCS against the Astros. This feature from ABC-7 (aka Eyewitness News) sounds appalled at the idea of paying $20 for a playoff ticket, especially if it's in the uppermost reaches of Shea Stadium. The clip gives you a glimpse/reminder of just how awful those seats were, and also has a unique glimpse of Lenny Dykstra's walkoff homer in that game, which put the Mets up 2-1 in the series.

Speaking of which, here is a promo for playoffs as featured on ABC. Apart from featuring Doc Gooden in passing fashion, they also give Reggie Jackson some serious screen time. In my mind, Mr. October was almost done by '86, and the numbers seem to bear me out (18 HRs, 58 RBI, 0.1 WAR). You'd think rookie sensation Wally Joyner (Wally World!) would've been a better choice. Obviously, the ABC promo department was looking to hook in people who hadn't watched baseball in several years.

For a more prominent display of Gooden, we turn to the opening credits of NBC's Game of the Week back in the 1986 season. Doc accompanies the narrator's mention of "baseball's majesty," and he certainly did have a majestic delivery in those days. If you stick around after the open, you get a quick glimpse of a Royals-Angels game from that season, and also what it was like when MLB's game of the week was handled by a legend like Vin Scully and not joyless talking heads like Joe Buck. And no, I don't know why the game picked up in the top of the second.