The 1986 Mets Rewatch Newsletter is a newsletter for Mets fans who also like the Lord. And by that, I’m referring to former TV star Jack Lord.
I applaud what the Mets did this winter in making their Hall of Fame a little bigger by adding Carlos Beltran, Bobby Valentine, and Lee Mazzilli. Mazzilli and Valentine were inducted on Saturday at Citi Field. Beltran will have his own ceremony and number retirement later this season
Beltran was a deserving superstar. Valentine was a colorful personality who managed the Mets to an NLCS and a World Series in back-to-back years, then led the charge as a volunteer after the September 11 attacks. Mazzilli was a fan favorite who was at his best when the Mets were at their worst, then had a second life as an ace pinch-hitter who was a key figure in the Mets' comebacks in Game 6 and 7 of the World Series.
If we’re looking at the Mets Hall through a bigger, more inclusive lens, I'd like to make a pitch for someone else's inclusion: Sid Fernandez.
This isn’t a great watch for rewatch games. There are in fact no 1986 Mets games from this week on YouTube. So I’m taking something that I’ve been meaning to address and sharing my thoughts here.
The statistical case for Sid and the Mets Hall of Fame is actually a pretty easy one.
He has longevity and quality.
Sid was a Met for 10 seasons, one of only seven pitchers to last that long with the franchise. He's 4th in team history with 250 starts. The three pitchers ahead of him are Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, and Dwight Gooden. Sid is also 5th in innings pitched.
He's 5th in Mets history with 98 wins (one behind Ron Darling) and 6th among pitchers in Wins Above Replacement (sandwiched between recent Mets Hall inductees Al Leiter and Jon Matlack), so he's both an old-school stats and new-school stats fit.
He's also 2nd in hits allowed per 9 innings (behind only Nolan Ryan) and 4th in WHIP.
And when considering his overall career, how about this stat?
Lowest Opponents' Batting Average
Retired Pitchers, Minimum 1,200 innings
Pitcher | Opp BA |
Nolan Ryan | .204 |
Sandy Koufax | .205 |
Sid Fernandez | .209<< |
Clayton Kershaw | .211 |
Mariano Rivera | .211 |
>> 1,866 2/3 innings pitched
Sid's a good story too in that he came from Hawaii and is loyal to his birth state. He and Ron Darling were the 15th and 16th Hawaii'an-born major leaguers when they each debuted in 1983. Sid used to warm up to the theme song from Hawaii Five-O.
Hawaiian (pitching) punch
Additionally, Sid has an iconic moment: his 2 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of Darling in Game 7 of the 1986 World Series. Keith Hernandez told Sid as he took the mound that if he kept the Mets in the game, they'd find a way to win it. Sid did. And they did.
Keith Hernandez waiting to deliver his message.
Marty Barrett hit .433 with a World Series record-tying 13 hits in the seven games for the Red Sox. But with runners on first and second and two outs in the 4th inning, with Boston up 3-0, Sid got Barrett to fly to right to end the inning. Sid got the Mete through the 5th and 6th when they rallied to tie (and it was Mazzilli, pinch-hitting for Fernandez, who started the rally with a single).
"Fernandez has to be the unsung hero," said Vin Scully in the 9th inning after the Mets had come back to take an 8-5 lead. Added Joe Garagiola "No question. He's the one that gave them the momentum."
In fact, one pitch before the Mets won the World Series, NBC gave Sid the Miller Lite Player of the Game (and made a donation to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in his name).
The unsung hero of the 1986 Mets belongs in the team's Hall of Fame. We hope the Mets do right by Sid and honor him in the coming seasons.
You can contact me on Bluesky or via e-mail ([email protected]). You can find my other newsletter, which summarizes interviews I do with journalists, here.