(Having finished my 2005 - 2021 draft retrospective series at the end of 2021, and with Max Scherzer and Starling Marte and others here to absolutely bring us back into the World Series, I thought I'd slightly update and republish another retrospective this week.
One (republished in late January) addressed the exploits of one Rocky Swoboda in 1969. This one is about the strong headwinds that the awesome Mets faced in 1986, especially a fierce gale named Mike Scott. Enjoy.)
Back in 1986, the Mets, hands down, had the best team in baseball.
Which, being the best, never guarantees you a World Series win.
Just ask the 1969 Orioles about that. They found the journey a little too Rocky.
Some guy named David (a/k/a the Mets) slayed their Goliath.
Some guy named David (a/k/a the Mets) slayed their Goliath.
Anyway, in 1986, the Mets had to play the Houston Astros and face killer Astros pitching.
A guy named Nolan Ryan - maybe you heard of him. He made his Mets debut in 1966, and 21 years later, was a Houston pitching legend still going extremely strong. So strong, in fact, that he went 7 more killer seasons after 1986.
Let's continue. Lefty Bob Knepper had been tough on them. He had 41 career regular season outings against the Mets, with a 2.94 ERA, including 6 shutouts. T..O..U..G..H.
And then, there was the Beast of 1986:
Cy Young Mike Scott.
Mike was a so-so pitcher during his tenure with the Mets. 14-27, 4.54 ERA, a bad record...but partially the result of incredibly weak Mets hitting at the time, Jake deGrom just reminded me. He should know from weak hitter support, right?
And astoundingly, considering Scott's 1986 season to come, just 151 Ks in 365 innings (4.6 per 9 IP) through 1982.
In 1986, Scott started off the season kind of like Zack Wheeler, circa early 2019, in his first 7 starts:
45 IP, 43 Ks, 20 earned runs, ERA slightly north of 4.00. Same old Scott. But...
Then the next 31 incredible starts came:
230 IP, 263 Ks, 1.88 ERA.
306 Ks over the entire season.
And he was even tougher down the stretch:
In his last 14 regular season starts, in 8 of them he had 10 or more Ks: 10 Ks twice, 11 twice, 12 once, 13 twice, and 14 once.
The 14 starts also included 3 shutouts, one of them a no hitter, and in FIVE of the 14 starts, he allowed 3 hits or less.
The 14 starts also included 3 shutouts, one of them a no hitter, and in FIVE of the 14 starts, he allowed 3 hits or less.
BEAST.
BUT IT GOT WORSE...
In playoff game # 1 against the 108-win Mets, he threw a complete game shutout and fanned 14.
In game 4, he threw a another complete game, a one run, 3 hit win.
Simply....a righty Koufax.
And the Mets were slated to face him in game 7, if there was a game 7.
That caused dread in Mets' fans hearts, because this fireballing, split fingering BEAST was making the very best team, the 1986 Mets, look feeble.
Of course, most of us know what happened in game 6. Bobby Knepper had the Mets shut out through 8, and the Mets trailed 3-0 heading to the 9th.
The Shadow of Scott the Beast loomed ever larger.
But the amazing, highly resilient 1986 Mets squad came miraculously alive, tied it at 3 with 3 runs in the 9th, and then won several innings later in one of the greatest baseball games ever played.
They figured out how to beat Mike Scott.
Simple.
Never let him pitch that game 7.
NOPE!
GO HOME, BEAST!
The Beast remained in its cage. The Mets were safe.
It, of course. also took an amazing World Series win over the Red Sox to not allow this to be the crowning moment of the Mets' World Series run. An incredible playoff round, and an incredibly thrilling World Series, overcoming many obstacles in eluding the "Son of a Beast", Roger Clemens.
1986 was some treat for Mets fans. So was 1969. Miracle years.
We need to have another great treat, having gone 35 years since that World Series without winning it all again.
All I can say is...GREAT SCOTT!!
We have TWO Beasts now, ourselves.
deGrom, and now Max.
9 comments:
With all due respect...
The guy had one too many drinks and police wanted to test him.
Have you ever has one too many drinks and weren't stopped?
Does this make you better than Mike Scott?
Err...
Oh... MIKE Scott...
Never mind.
To our knowledge neither deGrom nor Scherzer spent their career circumventing the rules. Scott had his 1986 Cy Young Award stunner but for his career finished a good but hardly great 124-108 record with a 3.54 ERA while striking out less than 7 per 9 IP. Yes, seeing him succeed for a short interval was painful but I'll take well earned victories ahead of the scuffed ball type.
We all have our own memories and thoughts of Mike Scott.
My thoughts, at the time, were that the Mets had an unimaginably great baseball team, a better team than I ever expected, and I was TERRIFIED that this scuffer was going to knock them out of the playoffs. He was more than just a scuffer - I remember him blow away Keith on a high unstuffed fastball that had Ryan velocity. If anyone is so inclined, they ought to watch that at bat again. When Scott threw that pitch, I was thinking - the Mets have no chance against this guy.
In that 6th game, when they trailed 3-0 going into the 9th, I felt sick thinking that the Mets would have to face Scott in game 7.
I had just left work for a 20 minute drive home - had the radio on - the Mets got the rally going - I picked up speed, and thankfully did not get a ticket - saw the tying hit in the 9th - watched the rest of one of the greatest playoff games ever - and breathed a huge sigh of relief that we had dodged the bullet known as Mike Scott.
I would have said greatest playoff game ever - but World Series game 6 was neck-and-neck with it - and game 7 was almost as momentous.
To have 3 insanely incredible games like that in one World Series run? That will never happen again.
The Mets could win a WS this year - but we won't see that again. Impossible.
Interestingly, Roger Craig, the super-losing Mets early 1960s starter, was a key factor in Scott's success - per Wikipedia:
The turning point in Scott's career came in 1985, when he became a student of pitching coach Roger Craig. Craig taught Scott the split-finger fastball, a pitch he had made famous while coaching the pitchers of the 1984 World Series champion Detroit Tigers.
I recall the Knepper game and wonder how far into left center the centerfielder was playing that Hernandez’s fly ball wasn’t caught and landed for a triple. My next moment that I remember was Kevin Bass’ homerun. I remember nothing of the sixteenth inning except a vague recollection of Hernandez visiting Orosco on the mound and that was probably because in his book, “If At First” Hernandez writes that he knew Orosco was burned up and he told Carter that if he called another fastball they would fight right there on the field. I guess I was just so spent emotionally.
Gus, I missed that while driving, but when I saw the Hatcher HR off Orosco, I almost fell over.
I do recall that confrontation from Keith - that was true leadership. It was a war out there, and he was our general. He likely knew a "go get 'em" and a pat on the butt for Orosco wasn't enough - he KNEW the guy - and he woke Jesse up. It worked. Kind of like watching Jack Bauer on 24 - he was a lot tougher than most people were ready for, but he simply would not accept defeat.
Gus, I went on You.Tube and watched Orosco in that 16th inning - Carter and Knight were also talking to Orosco with urgency. WHAT PRESSURE! Jesse withstood the storm. Wow, was that half inning something else. Great curves to Bass to strike him out.
It was do or die - MacDowell faced 15 batters, Orosco faced 14. I can only guess that Orosco must have been up around 60 pitches (wasn't in box score).
Great game . .October 15, 1986. The day my daughter was born. We had gone to the hospital the night before and my wife was in labor all night and most of the day. I turned the game on in the hospital room for a while. She was born sometime during the game - about 1:40 p.m. (imagine a playoff day game!) and I stayed there for a couple more hours before I went home 'to get some sleep'. I turned the game on on the radio on the way home (I think it was on my drive home that they tied it up), then flipped on the TV when I got home. Six or seven innings later the Mets won! I then stayed up and watched the Red Sox finish up their series against the Angels.
Bill, some great day.
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