Mets' popular 'Kiner's Korner' show reinvented online by superfan Mark Rosenman of Long Island

The Mets recently announced they will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 1986 World Series championship team on Aug. 1.

But on one korner of the internet, that team is being celebrated all season long.

Yes, that's korner with a "K" — as in “Kiner's Korner,” the late, beloved Mets postgame interview show hosted by Ralph Kiner, the spirit of which has been kept alive since 2014 by Melville resident Mark Rosenman.

Rosenman, on his website KinersKorner.com, in February launched a weekly podcast called “Howard Johnson’s 1986 Time Machine.”

Johnson, the former Mets third baseman, reminisces with Rosenman about one of the most famous and infamous teams in baseball history. Special guests have included ’86 Mets Mookie Wilson, Dave Magadan and Barry Lyons.

The podcast episodes will keep dropping all season long with future confirmed guests to include Wally Backman, Lenny Dykstra, Roger McDowell and Bobby Ojeda.

There is a lot to talk about when it comes to the 1986 Mets.

“Yes, there's a lot of content there,” Johnson told Newsday recently in a Zoom call with Rosenman. “It's one of the greatest years in baseball history, the ’86 Mets team. It's hard to even describe it.”

Now what does this all have to do with “Kiner’s Korner” other than the website name? A lot.

Rosenman, 65, a veteran author and talk-show host, is the co-author with Howie Karpin of the 2016 book, “Down on the Korner,” which was about Kiner’s charming postgame show.

Rosenman came up with the book idea shortly after Kiner died in 2014. Rosenman was having a wall unit removed in his then-Commack home when a pile of Betamax tapes from the 1980s spilled out onto the floor with a thud.

They were tapes of “Kiner’s Korner” that Rosenman had forgotten he had saved. From just a floorful, Rosenman has been able to locate and digitize 55 episodes of the colorful and low-tech postgame show.

Johnson remembers being a guest on the Korner “more than a dozen times.” He would get a tap on the shoulder from then-public relations director Jay Horwitz and, still in uniform, be ushered into a small studio at Shea Stadium.

“It was fun,” Johnson said. “I liked it. Jay would come get you and say, ‘Hey, Ralph wants you.’ So you'd go into that little set they had and you did it. It was kind of nice. Ralph was doing his thing. He’d slur his words here and there, but he was always a character. Just they’d go over all the highlights and stuff and show things. It was pretty cool. I really enjoyed it.”

And many of the appearances by HoJo and his teammates are now all available to view in one place, thanks to Rosenman.

“When that book came out, I tried to secure the domain KinersKorner.com,” Rosenman told Newsday. “But it was already taken. I set an alert and forgot about it until February of 2023, when I received an email saying the domain had finally become available. I jumped at it.”

The website bills itself as “your one-stop multimedia source for all things Mets.” It isn’t just a look into the history books. It includes content about the 2026 Mets, too, and for the third season in a row will feature postgame recaps after every single Mets game.

In Kiner’s Korner style.

“Every Mets game,” Rosenman said, “we award a virtual seat next to Ralph to the player of the game, along with a full recap in the style of the old postgame show.”

The postgame “Seat on the Korner” recaps will, for the first time, have a sponsor.

No, not Rheingold beer, which will always be associated with the original “Kiner’s Korner.”

“I saw that Rheingold beer had come back for a little while,” Rosenman said. “So I really tried to get them, and I couldn’t.”

The sponsor will be The Main Event restaurant and sports bar, which has locations in Farmingdale and Plainview.

Also, this year Rosenman is taking the website’s “Down on the Korner” Zoom interview show on the road. Past guests have included ’86 Mets such as Wilson, McDowell and Backman and 1969 Mets Art Shamsky and Ron Swoboda.

On April 8, fans can come to Half Hollow Hills Community Library in Kings Park for the first installment of 2026. The guests, who will appear on Zoom in a town hall-style setting, will be Horwitz and fellow former Mets public relations officials Matt Winick and Harold Kaufman. Future dates and guests will be announced.