‘Mad Men’ Inside Baseball
Posted: May 5, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: AMC, Baltimore Orioles, Don Draper, Jon Hamm, Mad Men, New York City, New York Mets, Roger Sterling, Wall Street Journal 3 CommentsLawyer, Supreme Court advocate, and Mad Men aficianado Walter Dellinger decodes some hidden meaning in Sunday night’s episode. Not being a sports fan, I didn’t catch it.
It involves a critical moment in sports history in New York in 1969. Only fairly dedicated baseball fans, or those familiar with the history of New York, would ever make the connection. it’s unimportant to the story, except as a background detail. But it’s the kind of clue that’s meant to reward an observant viewer, like Walter Dellinger, who sees a link between the New York Mets and Don Draper‘s future.
Season 7, Episode 4, ‘The Monolith’
For WSJ’s Speakeasy, Walter Dellinger writes:
“..the metaphor for his (coming) revival is not the new computer, but the 1969 New York Mets. At his lowest point, Don finds a discarded Mets banner under his file cabinet. He drops in the waste basket. But the next time we see Don, he has retrieved the classic orange banner and hung it on the wall.
When he awakes from a drunken stupor, he sees it from upside down and stares at it. And he calls Freddy to take the day off (from doing no work, anyway) to see a Mets game.
And so all you Don Draper fans who don’t follow baseball need to know that there is indeed hope for Don this season, at least if this deliberate invocation of the Mets has any meaning (and what on this show doesn’t?). The New York Mets were relatively new to baseball and in their eighth season in 1969. They had never had a winning season, and were at that point a metaphor for futility. But in that year they became the “Miracle Mets” winning 100 games and upsetting the great Baltimore Orioles team to win the World Series…”
If Dellinger is right, and Don Draper’s fortunes are finally about to turn, it couldn’t come a moment too soon. After a nearly unbearable string of misfortunes, a downward spiral lasting throughout season 6, unwinding into season 7, Don self-destructive personality has worn out its welcome, for his partners and coworkers, but also for the viewers. I wonder how many of Mad Men’s original fans are still along for the ride.
Related articles
- In Defense of Don Draper: How “Mad Men” Will End (rogerebert.com)
- TV Club: Mad Men: “Field Trip” (avclub.com)
- Don Draper & Bill W: Mad Men’s Open Secret (refinery29.com)
- WQXR Dabbled in Rock Music in 1969 (wqxr.org)
- Mad Men Returns to Lowest Premiere in Years (punditfromanotherplanet.com)
- [REWIND] Julia Yost on Mad Men’s Megan (punditfromanotherplanet.com)
- ‘Mad Men’ recap: ‘This is the beginning of something’ (dailycaller.com)
- All of Don Draper’s many, MANY women [SLIDESHOW] (dailycaller.com)
- Mad Men creator: Don’t hate Don Draper (punditfromanotherplanet.com)

[…] Pundit from another Planet Lawyer, Supreme Court advocate, and Mad Men aficianado Walter Dellinger decodes some hidden meaning […]
[…] ‘Mad Men’ Inside Baseball (punditfromanotherplanet.com) […]
[…] ‘Mad Men’ Inside Baseball (punditfromanotherplanet.com) […]