The Dodgers may be long gone from New York City, but the remnants of the franchise remain. Not only does the primary color, but also the Jackie Robinson Rotunda at Citi Field as a tribute to Ebbet’s Field as well as the continuous memorials around the borough of Brooklyn. Two of the biggest markets in the country have been welcome attractions for many players. Here are a few. Duke Snider...
It seemed like the baseball gods intended for the Mets to win it all and the Red Sox curse to continue. But the postscript to Game 6’s epic theater was anything but a formality. Sunday rain let Boston manager John McNamara give Bruce Hurst the starting nod. Hurst proceeded to reinforce his credentials for series MVP — an award all but in possession before the Mets’ epic comeback two nights...
Game 6 of the 1986 World Series resonates strongly with Mets fans. Even with its dramatic ending and what it meant for its fortunes, that may not even be the best postseason game the franchise ever played. It may not even be the best Game 6 of that remarkable October of ’86 if you ask some. The contest that put the Mets into the Fall Classic that year speaks more to the team’s...
There were two themes to Mets’ regular season of 1986. Total dominance was one. The National League East was all but secured by early summer. They held a vice-grip-like 13-game lead, and had the skipper of the defending NL champs, the Cards’ Whitey Herzog, waving the white flag in surrender. They didn’t just beat the opposition, they beat them down. Which gets us to the other...
There are two extraordinary connections which tie the 1969 and 1986 World Series together. One is Davey Johnson, the manager of the ’86 Mets, making the final out as a member of the Baltimore Orioles in ’69. The other centers around the pitchers who were on the mound at end of each series. Jerry Koosman’s 11 years with the Mets firmly established him as the best left-hander in...
On October 27, 1986, the Mets defeated the Boston Red Sox to win their second world championship. They were coming off a dramatic win in Game Six, as recapped here by MMO’s Brian Wright. Most Mets fans are well aware of how things went down on those two October nights in Queens. I am among the lucky, in that I was able to attend both of those games. I’d like to share the emotional...
How ironic, right? The Mets and Reds had a strange game on Monday night in Cincinnati, just days short of the anniversary of one of most unusual games in New York Mets’ franchise history, July 22, 1986. Let’s set the stage as we take a look back at the game played in Riverfront Stadium 36 years ago today. The Mets were having an epic season, entering the contest with a 60-28...
“Losing,” Ray Knight said following his walk-off home run against Houston, “is a word we don’t think of.” It was rarely needed in 1986. And whenever these Mets were on the precipice of defeat, it was a mistake to count them out. Such was the case on July 3 at Shea Stadium, even when Phil Garner muscled a home run off Jesse Orosco to give the Astros a two-run tenth-inning lead and put New York’s...
On February 7, 1979, the Mets completed a trade that had sent pitcher Jerry Koosman to the Minnesota Twins two months prior. They received a young pitcher to go with Greg Field, a hurler they received when the trade was originally made. The young pitcher who came to the Mets to finalize the deal was Jesse Orosco. Orosco would go on to pitch in the major leagues for 24 seasons, eight of which...
On October 27, 1986, the Mets defeated the Boston Red Sox to win their second world championship. Most Mets fans are well aware of that, so the point here isn’t to recap games six and seven and the play-by-play road to victory. Rather, it’s to take a look at the emotional rollercoaster that defined those games, and provide a forum for others to share their stories. Game Six...
The 1986 Mets dominated the National League. They won 108 games during the regular season, and seemed destined to steamroll any opponent that stood between them and a championship. The Houston Astros did not sign onto that plan. The Mets and Astros clashed in the 1986 NLCS, after Houston won the National League’s western division with a 96-66 record. The Astros, behind the pitching...
The Mets of 1987 discovered that defending a championship isn’t nearly as easy as pursuing one. Injuries and infighting were the main cause for New York having to play catch-up with the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL East for most of the year. The starting pitching — so strong in ’86 — was decimated in ’87. Dwight Gooden missed the first two months due to drug...
