Friday, July 17, 2009

Fantasy Baseball?

Quick, who played in the 1984 World Series?

How about the 1974 World Series?

Some of our favorite classic Sci-Fi / Fantasy TV shows thought they had the answer!

The 1967 LOST IN SPACE episode “The Haunted Lighthouse” revealed that the 1984 World Series was fought between the New York Mets and (what was then) the California Angels… with the Mets having scored at least 22 runs in one game!

1984, at it was seen from times past – thanks to George Orwell, was considered to be a scary year in which many strange and bizarre things would happen. A memorable World Series between 1967’s doormats of the National and American League would have seemed just another “walk-in-the-1984-(ball)-park” for the citizens of that “future year”.

…And, LIS was only TWO YEARS OFF, as the Mets actually DID compete in the 1986 WS – more about which below.


1974’s KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER episode “U.F.O.” had that year’s World Series going to the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs!

It seems very fitting that (what were at the time) the two “CURSED” teams would one-day meet for the championship of Major League Baseball – especially within the context of Kolchak!

Oddly, KOLCHAK, too, missed it by only ONE year, as the Red Sox went to the 1975 WS against the Cincinnati Reds. But, they lost that one – and lost the 1986 Series to the Mets on one of the All-Time Bad Breaks In Baseball History – continuing their “cursed” status until 2004.

Alas, the Cubs (at .500 at the mid-point of the 2009 MLB Season) remain “cursed” to this day – an unexplained phenomenon that even intrepid reporter and supernatural investigator Carl Kolchak couldn’t crack!
Look-out, Carl! That old "Cubs Curse" is once again stalking your city of Chicago!

5 comments:

Chris Barat said...

Joe,

Actually, the 1967 Angels weren't a "doormat" or anything close to it. They finished fifth and had a winning record. It would've been more appropriate to have had the Mets playing the K.C. Athletics or... ahem... the Yankees, the two tail-enders that year.

Chris

Joe Torcivia said...

Chris:

And let’s not forget the Washington Senators – though placing them in 1984 might have done irreparable damage to the time stream, so let’s table that notion.

Okay, the Angels may not have been “doormats”, as the Mets, Yankees (Groan!), and K.C. A’s might have been but, at the time, they were also considered very unlikely to participate in a World Series – and that was the joke LIS was going for.

…That, and the utter improbability of the Mets scoring 22 or more runs in one of those mythical World Series games. Or, the Mets scoring 22 or more runs TODAY!

Besides, who knows WHAT Irwin Allen’s vision of 1984 would have been like! One can only marvel (or shudder) at the possibilities – and a Mets / Angels World Series would have only been the very least of it!

Joe.

Chris Barat said...

Joe,

Given that the Angels finished THIRD in only their second season (1962), they weren't THAT long of a shot even at the time. I figure that Allen wanted to set up a New York-LA world series (even then, the coasties disdained the heartland) and just picked the teams "opposite" from those that already existed.

Chris

Chris Barat said...

Joe,

I meant to say, "existed AS MAJOR CONTENDERS" (Yankees and Dodgers). My bad.

Joe Torcivia said...

Chris:

Ya, know… that COULD have been Irwin Allen’s (or writer Jackson Gillis’) intention for all we know! (A funhouse mirror image of all those Yankees / Dodgers World Series of years past! By their version of 1984, the Mets and Angels could have ruled over the Yankees and Dodgers! And the Mets soon WOULD!)

That’s the fun of even THINKING about this stuff to the level of detail that we do!

Joe.