#19- 1986 Mets Rewatch: Braves Fall Down, Mets Go Boom

The 1986 Mets Rewatch Newsletter is a newsletter for Mets fans who like

On July 11, 1986, Mike Tyson knocked out Lorenzo Boyd at 1:43 of the second round to improve to 24-0. This was Tyson's third knockout win in the last month, the combined time of fights coming out to about nine minutes.

It took the Mets about that long to knock out the Atlanta Braves at Shea Stadium that same night. You can see another Tyson reference on the back page of the Daily News the next day, though of a different nature.

Amazin'ly for the second time this season a fight overshadowed a great pitching performance (see our previous post about Ron Darling vs the Dodgers) and also one of the biggest days of Gary Carter's career.

For some reason the NBC Game of the Week was on a Friday night and thus the July 11 game (and fight) would be broadcast by Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola.

Joe touted the Mets starter that night, Sid Fernandez, as "the biggest surprise in baseball" and Scully noted "he's the biggest thing in Hawaii since Jack Lord."

As I've already noted once, Jack was the star of Sid's favorite show, Hawaii 5-0. Sid was one of the stars of this game. As we've written before, Sid's approach made him one of the most difficult pitchers to hit in baseball history.

"As he delivers to the plate, he bends almost in half. He gets as low as any pitcher I've seen" Scully said (he's clearly talking about non-submariners).

Not all of the lights were working at Shea Stadium that night and maybe that made things even more difficult for the opposing hitters. Here's Braves slugger Bob Horner whiffing on a high fastball. Scully's reaction: "Whoa!"

The Braves hit in this game like they couldn't see. Sid pitched a two-hit shutout with nine strikeouts.

In the bottom of the first inning, Lenny Dykstra walked and then Wally Backman beat out a drag bunt. This image looks familiar if you change the Braves first baseman to Astros first baseman Glenn Davis.

Two batters later, Gary Carter hit a three-run homer on a cutter that stayed up. Carter entered the day three RBI behind Mike Schmidt for the NL lead and caught him with one swing.

"Gary would probably win the most valuable player award right now, among the Mets," Vin and Joe said.

That gets at something worth noting about the Mets. They've never had an MVP. They did have six players receive an MVP vote in 1986. Gary Carter came in third behind Mike Schmidt and Glenn Davis. Keith Hernandez was just behind Carter. Ray Knight (14th), Roger McDowell (17th), Len Dykstra (19th) and Bob Ojeda (21st) all had at least one person think they were Top 10 worthy.

Looking at it through a 2026 lens, I don't like it, but I get it. Schmidt has the Mets players beat by the old school stats (he led the NL in home runs and RBI) and the new school ones. Here are the NL leaderboards in Wins Above Replacement (combining offense, defense, baserunning), and Win Probability Added (measures the value of your plate appearances).

 Anyway, here's how Gary Carter reacted to hitting the home run.

And here's how David Palmer reacted.

Given the emotion of the moment, I suppose it's not surprising that Palmer then hit Darryl Strawberry. Nor is it surprising that Strawberry dropped his bat and charged the mound. Palmer, considerably shorter and lighter than Strawberry, decided to throw his glove at Strawberry.

And with that chucking of the glove not slowing Strawberry down, Palmer ran away as Ozzie Virgil tackled Strawberry.

Home plate umpire Jerry Crawford grabbed Palmer. Keith Hernandez tried to reach Palmer but to no avail.

Because this was 1986 and a different time, no one was ejected. Palmer and Strawberry exchanged pleasantries at the end of the inning.

Strawberry and Palmer did not face each other again in 1986 and Palmer never came to bat in this game (you'll see why in a second).

Strawberry did face Palmer again early in the 1987 season. He flied out in his first at-bat of that one but homered in his next one. The Mets trailed in that game but Straw's 3-run shot tied it and they would beat Palmer that day 6-3. That's a good way to avenge a hit by pitch.

Back to this game …

In the second inning Fernandez gets the Mets going with his 6th base hit of the year. We learn from Scully that Sid has a running bet with bullpen coach Vern Hoscheit. If Sid gets a hit, scores a run, drives in a run or has a successful bunt, Hoscheit buys Fernandez dinner. If Fernandez doesn't do so, he buys for Hoscheit. Apparently Hoscheit entered the day six dinners ahead. Scully took a kinda mean dig at Fernandez's physique saying "It looks like the other way around when you look at Sid."

As Scully noted, Hoscheit can always cheat on the dinners, as he's the steward of the Mets bullpen garden in which they're growing zucchini, cabbage, and tomatoes.

Side note: When I worked at Shea Stadium as a tour guide in 1994, I think we got more questions from visitors about the bullpen garden than anything else. Everyone wanted to know what they grew. I'm a city kid who doesn't like veggies so I never really cared, but for those of you who are interested, read about it here.

 Palmer was one out away from getting out of the second unscored upon, but he couldn't get the third out.

Check this out: Scully points out that Keith Hernandez would stand with Wally Backman in the on-deck circle even when he's not on deck. "Now everyone's doing it because they see him getting away with it."  I don't remember this being a thing.

We're enjoying the visuals in this essay. Here's another. Joe Garagiola starts talking about Braves manager Chuck Tanner's 16 notebooks that he keeps over the course of the season.

"For certain things he has little stick figures," Garagiola said. "It looks like he's on Sesame Street."

You won't be shocked to find out that Scully had a fun story to counter Joe's.

In a Cubs Dodgers game, Frankie Frisch, then a coach, threw a hardback book out of the dugout at the umpire. The book was called Quiet Street and presumably Frisch got ejected.

"He was on his way to New Rochelle to check on his roses," Garagiola said, and I had no idea what he was talking about until I looked in Frisch's biography (SABR), which noted that he too was an avid gardener.

Anyways, on Backman's single Fernandez went first to third ("Sid got on his surfboard" said Scully) and Hernandez, who was hitting below .200 for the month walked. Up came Carter again with the bases loaded.

Palmer got two strikes on Carter with a pair of breaking balls, the second of which resulted in an ugly swing. The next swing on a hanging breaking ball was much better, as Carter clubbed a grand slam.

That gave Carter a career-high 7 RBI. As Garagiola noted, the pitches that Carter homered on didn't break. "They rolled."

There's not much else to see here, as the Mets ended up romping, 11-0. One entertaining play came in the 6th inning when Kevin Mitchell fell over making a catch on Ken Griffey Sr. in shallow left field.

"We all fall down and go boom," Scully said. That was basically the story of this one.

The game was like a boxing match. The Braves fell down. The Mets went boom.

Brought to you by: Two days later the Mets honored one of their all-time greats with Rusty Staub Day. You can watch the ceremony here.

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.