Oh yes, I am going to watch “The Last Dance,” starting Sunday night on ESPN, the 71-part (actually 10), 213-hour (again, actually, 10) documentary that will chronicle the 1997-98 Bulls and is expected to be among the most detailed, incisive and fascinating sports documentaries of all time.
I am quite sure many sports fans in New York will do the same because, look, much as we love old baseball games and old basketball games and old hockey games — I mean, let’s be honest, you have to ingest them in small quantities. Old games are like the greatest hot-fudge sundaes — have them once in a while, you savor them, never want them to end.
Have three a day? You’ll get sick of them. And you’ll also start to look like Jon Brower Minnoch, a guy that anyone who’s ever skimmed “The Guinness Book of World Records” knows well (if not, kids, check out the Google machine).
So, sure, I’ll bite, because it’s new, because it’s fresh, because it’s something different. But really, all this is going to be is a 10-part reminder to New York City that we are the home office for heartbreak lately when it comes to sports. Not that we ever really forgot that, because you can suspend sports for weeks and month on end, but there is no suspending the fact we’ve been running on empty around here for years.
So sure, why not, show us night after night of the Jordan Bulls, who faced the Knicks five times in the playoffs from 1989-96 and specialized in kicking New York basketball in the stomach. Sometimes they were the better team (1991, when they swept the Knicks barely breaking a sweat, and 1996, when they were a 72-win juggernaut) and sometimes they weren’t (1989 still haunts Knicks fans of a certain age, and 1993 makes those fans go into spasm) and then there was 1992, the year New York truly fell back in love with Pat Riley’s rough-and-tumble Knicks, and they scared the hell out of the Bulls … but still lost to them.
(And, yes, the Knicks did beat the Bulls in the 1994 Eastern Conference semifinals, but that series contains more asterisks than any random quorum of Houston Astros thanks to Jordan’s absence due to his baseball pursuits and Hue Hollins, who blew the friendliest whistle in the history of Madison Square Garden, any version of the Garden.)
Hey, while they’re at it, maybe ESPN can occupy our endless idle hours with a few more very special documentaries:
“Maz, Gonzo and Altuve: A Love Story” — An in-depth, 17-part series in which every Yankees hater in the world is afforded two minutes to tell of the glorious way the 1960 and 2001 World Series and 2019 ALCS ended. The director’s cut features nothing but theories as to what, exactly, was under Jose Altuve’s shirt.
“Sixty Days in September: A Day-By-Day Journey with the 2007 and 2008 Mets” — A boxed set, perfect for the Mets fan in your life who still exhibits facial tics as a result of watching the Mets blow impossible-to-blow leads in back-to-back seasons. Includes a collector’s-item bonus of the Shea Stadium Farewell Ceremony after the last game in ’08, starring 55,000 people tumbling into deep, dark simultaneous depression.
“O.J.: Made in America” — Oh, wait. Right. This already happened. Sorry.
“Is There a Draft in Here? A Decade of Fun First Rounds in Florham Park” — Narrated by John Idzik and Mike Maccagnan; the producers are waiting to see if they should include Joe Douglas. Extra-Special Feature: “Where are they now … and where were they then?” with Dee Milliner and Calvin Pryor.
“You Call It a Miracle, We Call It The Fumble” — A 32-hour series in which Herman Edwards talks for all 32 hours about scooping up the ball after Joe Pisarcik fumbled it handing off to Larry Csonka on Nov. 19, 1978. Includes never-before-seen footage of each of the 70,318 in attendance at the Meadowlands that day.
Order your copies now!
Vac’s Whacks
Godspeed to Brian Dennehy, a fellow son of both Long Island and Chaminade High. In 1999, I was lucky enough to see him on Broadway as Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman,” and it was the single most spectacular thing I’ve ever seen live. What a thunderous talent. I have never heard a theater so completely mesmerized in a moment. It was chilling, and it haunted me for days afterward.
Kudos to the Mets and their business partners for teaming up to help feed the front-line workers at hospitals and making numerous food bank donations among other things. They’ve helped provide 4,500 meals and 400 cases of water, Gatorade to food pantries and 2,000 plastic and canvas bags to assist at local food banks.
Topps, meanwhile, has found a way to reinvent itself: Their new 2020 series has taken many of the top street artists of today and given them the ability to recreate some of the iconic cards of the past — ranging from Jackie Robinson to Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter. Included in the artists are Brooklyn’s Sophia Chang, Tyson Beck (who redrew the NBA logo as an homage to the late Kobe Bryant) and New Yorker JK5, working on the latest Jeter card.
I can’t be the only one to notice that the Liberty, new home of Sabrina Ionescu, sure has seemed to have changed their luck by relocating full-time to Brooklyn.
Whack Back at Vac
Guy Miller: While there’s still a lot of runway left before the NFL starts, I don’t see how you play games with spectators without either a vaccine or an effective treatment. As a season-ticket holder, I’m not prepared to subject myself, and certainly not my two young boys, to a stadium of 80,000 people. Frankly, the only way I see the NFL operating in the absence of significant progress on the treatment front is a sequestered league like MLB is considering.
Vac: I’m not sure we’ll see 80,000 people gathering in one place for a long, long time to come.
Jerry Jacobs: Something about Dr. Fauci’s voice reminds me of Phil Rizzuto. And in times like these that’s a good thing.
Vac: Holy cow, you’re right … and you’re right!
@RobertGunther3: Thanks for Friday’s column on anniversary of the death of college boxer Charlie Mohr. I had never heard this story and was not even aware that there used to be collegiate boxing. Such a sad way for it to end.
@MikeVacc: The history of college boxing is actually a rich and colorful one. For years after the NCAA shut it down, Wisconsin still hung its championship banners in the field house.
AJ Inserillo: What beautiful tributes to Anthony Causi in The Post. I didn’t know him, I’m just a fan. But he must have been an exceptional human being. I’m sure I enjoyed his action photos many times as I browsed through the Post’s sports pages over the years. Kudos to you for remembering him the way you did. Very, very nice!
Vac: He really was an original a one-of-a-kind, a quintessential New Yorker and a quintessential Post-ie. We will be hurting around here for a long time.
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