25
2011
Oh, What A Night – October 25, 1986

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been 25 years…
I was at home that night watching the game with my family. Me and my dad were the only two that were mentally locked and loaded – the rest of my family were die-hard Yankee fans. Nobody ever said it would be easy…
Lets not quibble, fast forward to the top of tenth…
After that Dave Henderson home run, I gotta tell ya, my heart sunk to the ground and depression was quickly setting in. The Marty Barrett single to score Wade Boggs made it worse… the Sox were now up by two runs and on the verge of becoming 1986 World Champions… the walls were closing in… they were hammering in the last few nails to the Mets 1986 season.
NBC started showing live footage of the Red Sox clubhouse, where cases of champagne, mountains of ice, and piles of towels were being arranged by team attendants on long tables that were lined around the walls…. Dear God, was this how it was going to end?
I remember getting up and pacing between the kitchen and living room… I remember cursing out Rick Aguilera… My father begged me to come back and sit down. “There’s still a half inning to go,” he said.
My mother was already heading toward the kitchen where she had a fresh batch of espresso brewing… An Italian cheesecake that was originally intended for Sunday dinner the next day, was now perfectly centered on our dining room table next to a half-full bottle of Sambuca… As if any of that was going to make me feel better or something…
After two quick flyouts by Backman and Hernandez, a feeling of sheer horror began to envelope me… It felt worse than my first viewing of The Exorcist. We were down to our last out in the form of Gary Carter, and that bottle of Sambuca on the dining room table was starting to call out to me.

Then it happened… Carter did it… A sharp single from The Kid who had no intention of being the final out… I think I let out this crazy sounding yelp – it didn’t sound human at all. I remember my father grabbed and clenched my wrist – I was losing blood and oxygen to my fingers – I pulled away – I had to reengage…
“Oh crap!”, I thought as Kevin Mitchell walked up to the plate. It just dawned on me that Darryl Strawberry had been taken out of the game an inning earlier and was replaced by Aguilera during a double switch… %$#@&%$#@ Damn you, Davey Johnson… Our whole season now rests on the shoulder of a rookie who never knew his place…
Ahhhhh… Another single… The tying runs are now on base… I quickly grabbed the remote control and turned the volume up as loud as it could go… Is this really happening???
My nerves are shot… I can’t sit still… I think I’m shaking… Ray Knight is up and we’re not dead yet… This is so improbable… This is so Mets…
OMG, ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!!!!!
KNIGHT HITS A LOOPER INTO CENTER FOR ANOTHER SINGLE!!!! – CARTER SCORES!!!! – MITCHELL STOPS AT THIRD!!! – I’M LITERALLY FREAKING OUT!!!!
Even my father screamed along with me that time as the run scored and the adrenalin coursed through our veins. With his hands shaking, he attempted to fill two shot glasses for us, but spilled half of our precious Sambuca all over the table in the process. “Don’t worry, there’s a sealed bottle of Asti-Spumante in the fridge”, he said. “If this happens, we’re celebrating tonight!” I had no problem with that…
Oh no… A damn pitching change… Bob Stanley was coming in to replace my new best friend Calvin Schiraldi… This sucks… Dead silence…
There’s just a lot of quiet tension in the room as Stanley takes his warm-up pitches and gets ready to deliver his first pitch… You could literally hear a pin drop… All thoughts are on Mookie… Come on Mookie – You can do it…
IT’S A WILD PITCH!!! MITCHELL SCORES!!! THE GAME IS TIED!!! RAY KNIGHT GOES TO SECOND BASE!!!!
I’m now caught up in one of the most surreal moments of my life. I’m no longer in my living room – I’ve become one with the moment before me. I can hear the crowd at Shea and all the sounds of the game… It sounds so distinctly clear and feels like it’s in slow-motion. I can even pick out the individual voices screaming Mooooo-kie… It was an out of body experience…. Then…

SCREAMS OF JUBILATION!
It was the most exhilarating feeling I ever had in my life… What happened next was a complete blur… The phone kept ringing… Friends kept calling me just to scream on the phone…. It was wild…
Me and my dad toasted with Asti-Spumante and we each dove into a big wedge of that Italian cheesecake. After that we took off in his 1983 Thunderbird and decided to take our celebration outside where we could hear a loud commotion. It was late, but it felt and sounded like the Fourth of July and New Years Eve rolled into one. As we cruised the streets of Brooklyn and headed to his favorite bar, all the cars were honking their horns and we saw people shooting off fireworks and mortars as thousands packed the streets in joyous celebration. We still had another game to play, but on this cold October 25th night in 1986, we were all in Heaven. I’ll never forget it…

About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
11 Comments + Add Comment


Recent Comments
- Dave In Spain: on Wheeler Pitches Five Innings, Shakes Off Some Rust: Interesting observations. It´ll be interesting to see...
- Al: on Mets Need More Time To Get Better Understanding Of Ike Davis?: He should just go away
- Metsie: on Mets Need More Time To Get Better Understanding Of Ike Davis?: If the answer to every player's struggles...
- Hotstreak: on Mets Need More Time To Get Better Understanding Of Ike Davis?: Its no longer a rescue its now...
- XtreemIcon: on Logan Verrett Talks About His Road To The Show With MMO: In Jack's last 8.2 IP, he's walked...

An article by




i was in DR, working with my father in his foundation, then we went to watch it at the colmado by the house, i was mad as hell too, then…. ….. …… …… ……..
Mets WIN!!! talk about freaking out and yelling like a f’ing lunatic on the streets, ppl thought i was fighting with someone with all the yelling “TU ERE LOCO CONO, VAMO CONO!!!!”
ahhh, memories!!
I was too young and not a baseball fan yet, but the way you told the story I felt like I was there celebrating with you! Awesome post!
What I always found interesting was the way people reacted and still do. Was your celebration for Game 6 equal, less than or greater than Game 7?
I remember when Endy made his catch against the Cardinals. And looking back on it, I doubt if the Mets won that series I would have had a greater feeling than when Endy made the catch. For some reason that catch let out years of frustration… but there was obviously still baseball to be played.
The best way I can explain it for myself is that after game six, I knew we were going to win game seven. I think most Mets fans felt that way. It was as if the fate of the series was no longer in the hands of the Mets or the Red Sox, and that the stars already decided the Mets would be World Champs. After game seven, sure we celebrated, but it wasn’t the same as the night before. I think we were all worn out and it was a feeling of satisfaction and relief, while game six was more like shock and awe.
I knew they’d win Game 7 after Endy’s catch too. I mean if you look back, how could they not? What team realistically has the most memorable moment of a Game 7 LCS and then lose the series?
October 25th 1986 fell on a Saturday and I remember going to my soon to be wife at the time niece’s birthday party. We couldn’t watch the game cause the only tv happened to be in the living room so I forget who at the time but someone got their hands on a radio and we had to step outside from time to time to hear how the game was going. I remember the party breaking up before the bottom of the 9th cause i recall being sad as
My bad i hit submit accidentally.
To finish, I remember the party breaking up before the bottom of the 9th cause i recall being sad as I got home that the Mets were losing as I listened on the radio to the bottom of the 9th as i sat in my living room with the lights off. All I remember after that was running out the house toward my best friends house after hearing the call as the ball rolled under Buckner’s legs and the Mets winning the ballgame.
Game 7 I watched where I saw all the prior games other than game 6. At the neighborhood hangout the local grocery store on a 13inch black and white tv with about 7 or 8 of us from the area gathered as the Mets won the W.S.
The tv was black n white but it’s funny cause my memories of that game are all in color.
Nothing I think can ever match that W.S. for me.
My wife made dinner plans with friends and of course I did not want to go unless they were going to have the game on. Thank goodness they did. We watched the game and it was great watching it with other Mets fans. Only thing better, would have to be there at the Stadium for the end.
I was 31 at the time and was at my Mom’s house in Glen Cove. I have never experienced such a low – the top of the 10th – followed by such a high! When the error happened I lifted my mom in the air!
There was no doubt that the Mets would win the 7th game.
The day after the game I started a new job – news editor of a new TV show on an upstart network that had only two stations at the time. The network was FOX and the show was A Current Affair with Maury Povitch. I remember arriving at work still glowing about the game and wanting to talk about it. I saw a couple of cameramen and said “how about that game?” they looked confused and said “What game?”.
I agree with those who say that Buckner took the full load of the blame unfairly. Stanley was indeed let off the hook. In a post-game interview he said something like “ya gotta make that play”. What a jerk!
Good debate on whether Mookie could have beaten Buckner to the bag.
Just an aside – my step-father actually left the game in the top of the 10th when the Mets fell behind. (No blood relation there).
i was 9 years old, and my mother made me go to bed and wouldn’t let me stay up to watch the end of the game.the next day i heard about what happened and threw a fit cause i missed it.my mom felt bad about it, so i got to watch the whole game 7.i still have the 7th game on VHS.
Since everyone’s giving their age, I was 56 at the time and had been a lifetime Dodgers and then Mets fan. I think the Mets had won 108 games that year and we all thought they would win the Series. (Unlike 2006) So it was shocking when they came to their last at-bat trailing by two on the brink of elimination. My feelings during the bottom of the 10th match those of everyone else here so I won’t bother recounting them. But Game 7 did seem like an anti-climax. Pops