Hamptons Doc Fest, Southampton Arts Center Host Two-Part Premiere Of ESPNs Latest 30 For 30 Docuseries "Once Upon A Time In Queens"

New York Mets fans got a first-hand look at the first two episodes of ESPNs next “30 For 30” docuseries, “Once Upon A Time In Queens,” a four-part film chronicling the 1986 Mets, which won the franchise’s second World Series title over the Boston Red Sox.

The series, which debuted nationally this past Tuesday and Wednesday on ESPN and all of its platforms, was co-presented by Hamptons Doc Fest and the Southampton Arts Center, which hosted Friday night’s premiere.

“Nostalgia for the good ole days lived again at our screening of the ESPN film on the 1986 Mets win,” Hamptons Doc Fest Jacqui Lofari said. “Fans came in Mets hats and shirts and shared stories of when ‘they were there.’ What a treat to rekindle those exciting memories. It all made for a very special evening."

Judging from the ovation of the crowd after the showing of each part, the film should find a lot of positive reviews.

“I was always going to be a very tough grader of this film but I can say to you, already after one episode, the highest compliment which is applied to all documentaries like this — ‘Why didn’t somebody do this before,’” sportswriter Mike Lupica said to the film’s director/producer Nick Davis. “This story has been sitting here for 35 years and now you’re doing it justice.”

In between the showing of parts one and two, Lupica led a three-person panel discussion of the film and the Mets. The panel included Davis and famed Mets pitcher from that era, Dwight “Doc” Gooden, who was a central figure to the film, among others. Davis admitted he is an avid Mets fan and that creating this film “was obviously a dream come true.”

“What we hope we did is bring all of these characters back and introduce these personalities one after the other and the coming together that [1986] team,” he said. “What really surprised me, Doc, was obviously I idolized you guys as a kid but what I didn't realize was how smart they all were about baseball. Lenny Dykstra ... he’s a baseball savant. All of you talking about baseball, strategy, pitching, I was fascinated by their baseball intelligence because as a kid you just think they’re great athletes and that you just showed up with your mitt and were ready to play, but I was really impressed by how smart they all were.”

“Our team just loved baseball,” Gooden replied. “We’d sit for hours in the clubhouse, train rides, bus rides and just talk baseball.”

Although centered largely around the game of baseball, the film dives into a number of different elements, starting with the inception of the Mets in 1962, from how bad the franchise started off to when it won its first championship in 1969, up through the 1980s, and the correlation of what it was like in New York City at that time and how both the city and team seemed to be connected to both its rise and fall.

“I can’t wait to see the other three episodes because what he’s done is, I say this all the time about the ’86 Mets, you had to be there to appreciate the hold they had on New York City,” Lupica, who covered the Mets in the 80s, said. “And as great as the Yankees were in the 90s, there was never a bigger baseball show ever, ever in New York. You had to be there.”