Beckett and the Mets


"Beckett came to New York—once, in 1964, to work on a short film that he'd written called "Film", starring Buster Keaton, to be distributed by Rosset. He spent a hot summer week at Rosset's Houston Street townhouse, but did catch up with Dick Seaver, who, as it turns out, was second cousin to the future Hall of Fame pitcher for the New York Mets, Tom Seaver. Seaver (Dick, that is) helped Beckett beat the heat by taking him to a Mets doubleheader at Shea Stadium in Queens. "I tried to explain the rudiments of the game to him," says Seaver four decades late. "I also explained that the Mets were at the time a fledging team and pretty terrible." Beckett, known for his kinship to failure ("Try again. Fail again. Fail better."), found the miserable Mets to be perfectly enjoyable, so much so that he insisted they stay for the second game. Unfortunately, the Mets, rather improbably, won both games..."