The 1986 Mets Rewatch Newsletter is a newsletter for Mets fans who like fireworks of all kinds.
And yes … you get 2 of these this week. I accidentally sent next week’s today. Enjoy them both!
I had the chance to talk to the executive producer of Once Upon A Time In Queens, Nick Davis when the documentary series about the 1986 Mets was in production several years ago. I connected him with some footage that a former Shea Stadium tour guide colleague of mine, Lane Luckert, shot from the stands of the division clinching game and Len Dykstra's walk-off home run in Game 3 of the NLCS.
One of the things I said to him was that I hoped that someone making a documentary about the 1986 Mets would treat the July 3, 1986 game against the Astros with the reverence it deserves.
To their credit they very much did, syncing it up with a speech that Ronald Reagan gave to commemorate independence day in the United States and comments from Bob Ojeda and Faith and Fear in Flushing writer Greg Prince. It is by far my favorite part of the documentary.
My reverence for that game goes one step beyond most people. Many years ago (probably about 20) the vice-president of our department at ESPN offered a holiday gift to all of us – we could pick one game from ESPN's library and a DVD would be burned for us.
So my list consisted of two games in the hope that by some miracle I'd get one. The 1997 comeback from 6-0 down in the 9th in which Carl Everett hit a game-tying grand slam (I was on a train to New York and missed it). And Mets vs Astros on July 3, 1986.
And ESPN somehow had the July 3, 1986 game in its library.
Amazin!!!
I recently rewatched the DVD. It admittedly wasn't a high-quality dub and little bits and pieces are missing but it was so great to relive that game.
It began with Ralph Kiner reading the famous poem, The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses …" which is engraved on a plaque inside the Statue of Liberty.
He then segued to the baseball business of the day. A viewer in Brooklyn named Bob Smith convinced Ralph that he needed to call the split-fingered fastball a splitter because it wasn't actually a fastball. It was a change of pace. Ralph obliged. Take note, 2026 MLB broadcasters.
The Astros scored two batters into the game on Ty Gainey's RBI hit. Tim McCarver noted that Ed Hearn was blocking the plate like the Statue of Liberty with his arms up (there were no other such comparisons, thankfully).
Yogi Berra had plans to leave the game immediately after it ended so as to beat the post-game fireworks show. But Yogi in the case of this game, “It’ ain’t over till it’s over.”
When the half-inning ended, WOR launched into something it kept up the entire game, playing excerpts of the national anthems of other countries heading into commercial break. Over the course of the game I heard Austria, Bulgaria, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Noway, Poland Spain, Sweden, the U.S.S.R., the U.K., and the United States.
The game had a large crowd (48,839) and Kiner took a moment to criticize attendance at the Astrodome as "deplorable," likely a reference to games with listed attendances as low as just below 5,000 early that season.
The comparisons to the Statue of Liberty stopped but when Hearn homered to cut the Astros lead to 2-1, McCarver said "That's a Ralph Kiner swing right there. Short and sweet.”
Ron Darling pitched very well for the Mets in this one. He threw 121 pitches in all and went nine innings, allowing 3 runs and striking out 9. Davey Johnson was so confident in Darling that he left him in after allowing a leadoff double in a tie game in the top of the ninth. Darling escaped the jam by getting through the 3-4-5 portion of the Astros lineup.
Darling's opponent was rookie lefty Jim Deshaies, who went after Mets hitters with high fastballs. Darryl Strawberry parked one for a game-time two-run home run in the fifth inning after Deshaies walked red-hot Kevin Mitchell (who entered batting .402 in his last 30 games).
The hitter that Deshaies most had ownage on was Ray Knight, whom he struck out three times. "I don't remember the last time Knight struck out three times in a ball game, let alone twice," said Steve Zabriskie (sorry Steve, he struck out twice a week ago!).
When Knight came up for the fourth time against the pride of Knob Noster Missouri, Charlie Kerfeld, Zabriskie said "Fireworks are yet to come, perhaps in more than one way." Knight struck out for the fourth time, but Zabriskie's comments were foreshadowing (as was Wally Backman's failed drag bunt in the ninth inning, though that wouldn't be until three months hence).
The thing that I like so much about this game is how it ended. The Astros scored twice in the top of the 10th inning on Phil Garner's home run off Jesse Orosco to take a 5-3 lead. With two lefties due up in the bottom of the 10th, Astros manager Hal Lanier went with Frank Dipino instead of his closer Dave Smith. That didn't work. Dipino walked Len Dykstra and then Strawberry hit another home run over the center field fence to tie the game.
Lanier kicked a helmet and Zabriskie noted "The fireworks have indeed started early."
This seems a bit out of character for Mets broadcasts, but apparently it was a thing for a little while.
The next two batters made out but Knight came up again and got ahead in the count 2-0. He reached down and lofted a fly ball over the left field fence for a walk-off home run.
One thing we need to address is Ray Knight's clutch hitting all season.
FanGraphs has a measure that compares hitting in high-leverage situations (the most important plate appearances) to hitting in other situations. By their measures, the three most clutch hitters in 1986 were Wally Joyner, Ray Knight, and Marty Barrett.
Knight had a team-high 10 go-ahead or game-tying plate appearances in the 7th inning or later in the regular season (plus two in Game 6 of the NLCS and one in Game 7 of the World Series). This was the best one of those 10.
A 6-5 final score. Ray Knight scoring the winning run. More foreshadowing for things three months in the future.
The anthem playing over Shea Stadium's loudspeakers wasn't a national one but a local one, Frank Sinatra's New York, New York.
“They are spreading the news that they are right now the dominant team in this game. In either league,” McCarver said.
Today's game brought to you by: WOR's upcoming programming included the movie 1776 and Laraine Newman hosting The Canned Film Festival, a tribute to the worst movies of all-time.
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.