June 8 marks the 40th anniversary of one of Kevin Mitchell's best games as a Met.
Mitchell went 3-for-5 with 3 RBI in a 4-3 win over the Pirates that improved the Mets record to 37-15. This one's a bit of an oddity because he did it as a right fielder.
Mitchell was starting in place of Darryl Strawberry, who had gone 0-for-3 with 2 strikeouts earlier in the season against the Pirates lefty starter, Larry McWilliams.
Mitchell would make 21 starts in right field in 1986. If you're old enough to remember Mitchell you know that he was overwhelmingly a left fielder. Those 21 starts in right field accounted for half of his career starts there.
The Mets actually started eight right-handed or switch-hitters in this game meaning that Keith Hernandez wasn't playing either. Gary Carter was filling in at first base.
Some of the highlights from the rewatch:
Hello, Barry – The Pirates leadoff hitter in the first inning was "newcomer" Barry Bonds, also playing a position we don't remember him for, center field. The 1986 Bonds was 6-foot-1, 185 pounds. He'd draw a walk from Sid Fernandez but be left on base.
Quote of the Game – "When the going gets tough, the Teufel get going." This phrase was coined by friend of Ralph Kiner and former mayor of Pittsburgh Pete Flaherty, who apparently enjoyed watching Mets broadcasts via satellite dish (pre-MLB TB of course).
Though this wasn't necessarily an accurate pun, bringing it up that day was somewhat prophetic. Teufel had a hit and two runs scored in this game. Two days later he'd hit a pinch-hit walk-off grand slam to beat the Phillies.
Hot Hitter – Mitchell doubled in his first at-bat and Kiner and Rusty Staub (filling in for Tim McCarver, who was at his daughter's high school graduation) made note that he'd again hit a ball hard.
There were signs throughout the season that Mitchell was the first-class hitter we'd see after he was traded away by the Mets. This game was part of a 32-game stretch running from May 18 to July in which Mitchell hit .413 with an 1.149 OPS. If MLB had a 10th Man of the Year Award (akin to the NBA's 6th Man) for best substitute player, Mitchell would have had a strong case for winning. Ya know, that's not a bad idea. MLB should do that.
Weird Play- Bonds doubled in the third inning then stole 3rd with 2 outs. Ed Hearn made a perfect throw to Ray Knight's glove but Bonds was safe. Ralph Kiner was taken aback that Bonds tried to steal third with two outs, as it was "not recommended." Bonds didn't score.
Mitchell's second hit – Mitchell's second hit was his third career home run, with all three coming against left-handed pitching. This was a two-run shot that broke the scoreless tie. Mitchell hit .307 against left-handed pitching in 1986 and made Davey Johnson look smart for starting him.
As they pointed out on the broadcast, "Mitchell showing signs of being a strong hitter. He gets the backspin on the ball that makes it carry."
Today's game brought to you by …
I want to vent about something that has bugged me for years. I don't know anything about supply chains and distribution, but it always bugs me when teams limit the number of giveaway items to the first 12,000 or first 15,000 or even first 25,000. The Mets do this a lot.
One of the commercials on this broadcast was for R.C. Cola Sportsbag Day on Sunday June 14 and the promise is made that the Mets would give one out to every fan in attendance. I looked it up. More than 47,000 fans attended that game.
If the 1986 Mets could give out 47,000 sports bags, the 2026 Mets should be able to give out more than 12,000 or 15,000 or whatever they give out these days (End of vent).
By the way: I have a Sharp Sportsbag and a MetLife Sportsbag, but don't have the R.C. Cola one.
Mess around why don'tcha – The Mets threatened in the sixth inning with Teufel doubling and Gary Carter getting hit by a pitch.
The latter was scary. Carter got hit in the upper arm and his helmet came flying off. Carter was fortunate. He wasn't wearing one of the new protective earflaps that were mandated for any player debuting in 1986 or later. As Kiner pointed out in a manner that would have impressed Alanis Morrissette: Carter was playing first base to avoid getting beat up as a catcher. Instead, he got hit as a batter.
The new pitcher was Jim Winn, whose entrance music was Jim Croce's "You Don't Mess Around with Jim."
George Foster wasn't intimidated. He singled Teufel in to make it 3-0. Foster was one of the Mets hottest hitters at the time, the RBI being his 8th in the last 7 games and 24th in his last 26 games. It's hard to imagine then that two months later he'd get released while in a 3-for-39 slump.
Artificial Turf Hits – With so few teams playing on turf these days, the artificial turf hit is a thing of the past. Mitchell got one to make it 4-0, a chopper over the pitcher's head.
You always remember your first The Pirates got on the board in the bottom of the 7th inning when Mike Diaz hit his first career home run, a three-run shot that cut the Mets lead to 4-3. Rusty Staub shares that his first home run came in 1963 against Don Drysdale and Rusty still has the ball.
I went and looked up the game story from the Houston Post from that game in 1963. It was described as a "man-sized wallop." This was Rusty's quote
"I hit that ball as hard as I know how. If it hadn't gone out, I would have had my doubts about ever hitting a homer in the big leagues."
Umpire alert- Bonds walked again his next time up and Johnson replaced Sid Fernandez with Roger McDowell.
McDowell struck out R.J. Reynolds and then Bonds got caught stealing to end the inning.
I want to praise the second base umpire, Steve Rippley, for making sure to get a close-up view of Teufel tagging out Bonds.
You gotta have hearts- The Mets hung on in the bottom of the ninth. McDowell got the three outs in the eighth and then the first two in the ninth. Mitchell hustled to cut off Tony Pena's single, preventing Pena from taking second base to start the inning. Former Mets catcher Junior Ortiz popped out with a man on base against Jesse Orosco to end the game.
We were left with a bit of a cliffhanger though. Kiner and Staub were talking about Ortiz being a fun dude, especially to play hearts with. There was apparently more to the story but the YouTube video ends before we can hear it. Further googling led me to notes about Ortiz having a good sense of humor (he apparently named his son Junior, making him Junior Jr.) and, as Scott Erickson said, "a joyful personality." Not bad.
One more thing- It was noted on the Mets broadcast that their starting pitcher for the next game was not known.
That pitcher turned out to be another of the forgotten 1986 Mets, Rick Anderson. This game isn't in the YouTube archives but the 29-year-old Anderson pitched great in his MLB debut, allowing 1 run in 7 innings only to have his lead blown by Orosco and Doug Sisk.
Anderson would get his first MLB win a little less than two months later and his first career save a little after that. His second and last Mets win came the day after the Mets clinched the NL East. He was subsequently traded with Ed Hearn to the Royals in the trade that netted the Mets David Cone and pitched two seasons for Kansas City.
If you remember back to the Opening Day article we did, we mentioned that Ron Gardenhire was a 1986 Met for one day before being sent to the minors. Gardenhire and Anderson were longtime minor league teammates and many years later, when Gardenhire managed the Twins, he named Rick as his pitching coach. A connection no doubt strengthened in 1986.
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