If you follow the Mets on Twitter, you probably caught a glance of a photo taken from behind of Duke Snider, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, and Mickey Mantle walking in from center field at Shea Stadium shown on Thursday. That picture of baseball royalty took place some 43 years ago during a once-annual Mets event in which they honored National League greats and New York notables alike.

The 1977 version may have been the most start-studded of them all. And the Mets were well-served to offer their fans a touch of goodwill on this hot July afternoon.

Yes, the New York City blackout which occurred just three days ago (and happened in the middle of a Mets game at Shea) was no fault of theirs. But the trading of Tom Seaver and Dave Kingman a month before certainly was.

There stood little to no reason to support the team other than for ceremonial events like this. If the Mets weren’t good at holding on to their superstars, at least they were excellent in paying tribute to legends of the past.

https://youtu.be/Rq3Sxaw-bYU?list=FLSOVqh6cJCMpJB2Bbbt3pGw

If you’re a nostalgic buff, there are tons of content. But here are a few things of note:

  • To those that miss hearing the voices of Bob Murphy and Lindsey Nelson, you get an added treat of seeing them too. Bob introduces the broadcast (and you might need sunglasses before staring at his attire). Lindsey, as he was known to do, appears at 7:17 wearing a suit probably made of the same material from my grandmother’s curtains.
  • The theme of the afternoon is “Memorable Moments from World Series Play.” As you might imagine, it has a strong Big Apple flavor — with Brooklyn Dodgers like Carl Erskine (wearing a Mets jersey even though he was never a Met) and Roy Campanella, New York Giants like Monte Irvin, and even Yankees such as Bobby Richarson and Whitey Ford.
  • Of course, plenty of Mets from 1969 are on hand — Ron Swoboda, Al Weis, and Gary Gentry among them.
  • The ceremony makes room for Joe Torre (at 38:56), recently tabbed Mets manager, despite never having been to a Fall Classic. “We are confident and hopeful that one day in the not too distant future, he will be managing in one,” Lindsey Nelson says. If by “not too distant future,” he meant 19 years later and doing so wearing Yankee pinstripes, this was spot-on.
  • Then comes the climactic moment (starting at 39:27). Nelson introduces Snider, Mantle, Mays, and DiMaggio individually and each member of the immortal New York center field quartet emerges, appropriately enough, from the center field gate before walking down together to join the rest of the players.
  • Longtime Shea organist Jane Jarvis plays Auld Lang Syne and then the national anthem starting at 43:50.
  • The shortened “game” begins at about the 53:00 mark, and is a definitely a come down from the high just felt moments earlier.