After a few near misses the Mets finally ran away with their Division in 1986. Now they had to face off with the Houston Astros for the NL pennant. The Astros pitching was led by 2 ex Mets: Nolan Ryan and Mike Scott. The series featured a number of comebacks by the Mets. I was hunting in the Arizona high country but managed to catch most of the game on radio won by a Lenny Dykstra homer in the bottom of the ninth. The weather that day mirrored the weather at Shea: overcast, cool and drizzly. Gary Carter won another game in extra innings with a single. The Mets produced another 9th inning comeback in game 6 led by Dykstra and Keith Hernandez. The score was tied going into extra innings when the Mets took the lead only to have Billy Hatcher (native of Williams, AZ) tie it with a monstrous home run. The Mets went ahead again only to see the Astros mount another comeback which fell short.
The World Series began at Shea against the Boston Red Sox. The Mets dropped the first game 1-0 and were blown out in game 2. The Mets won 2 out of 3 at Fenway led by Dykstra and Carter. The Mets won the last 2 games at Shea again mounting late game comebacks. They won game 6 despite being down 2 runs and down to their last strike thanks to a wild pitch and an improbable error by Bill Buckner. Game 7 was highlighted by home runs from Ray Knight and Darryl Strawberry. It was a bit strange and ironic seeing Tom Seaver sitting in the Red Sox dugout when the Mets won the World Series.
3 comments:
Memories of better times. I still remember the StraWberry laser beam homer down the line at Shea off of Ryan. Good they rallied, since as I recall, the Mets had their "get by Teufel" moment in game 1 of the series.
Those were years of near misses due to the incredible pitching of others: 1984 the Cubs get Rick Sutcliffe, who then goes 16-1. In 1985, as I recall, John Tudor went 19-1 from late May forward. 1986, nearly done in by the surreal Mike Scott and then had to get by Clemens and their tough lefty. 1987, Tudor breaks his leg in dugout, recuperates, and then duplicates 1985. And of course Herscheiser with his unreal run during the season and in the playoffs.
After Game 6 you just knew the Mets were going to come back to win the Series. For perhaps the last time in a long, long time I felt totally confident even though they fell behind in the final game. Nowadays when they're down by just one run I have to ponder whether or not it's worth the time to see the end of the game.
These days, down a run in the first and a feeling of impending doom rolls in.
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