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So you’re aware, of the upcoming schedule: I have an interview with noted Mets fan Mike Breen coming later this week.
I’m going to try to do a newsletter for the 40th anniversary of each of the 1986 Mets postseason games. The ones on the losses will be brief (NLCS Game 1 is 350 words). The ones on the wins will go more in-depth. If I skip a game, it will be one of the losses. Hope you enjoy it!
If you couldn't tell that people wanted to get the last regular season game of the 1986 season over with, let's note that home plate umpire Charlie Williams called this pitch a strike on the very first batter of the game.
The Mets 9-0 win over the Pirates did get a little dicey. Mookie Wilson had the right idea, sitting out with a leg strain. He avoided having to deal with the near-miss and hit by pitch in the shoulder that Len Dykstra and Keith Hernandez did with the wild Pirates pitchers.
Most of the broadcast was spent comparing the Mets and their NLCS opponents, the Astros. In the pre-game initial discussion, Mets broadcaster Ralph Kiner got sabermetric (!!). He explained that a win was worth about 10 runs. The Mets have 124 more runs and happen to have 12 wins more than the Astros.
I do want to touch on two Pirates items of note because they're kind of funny to think about now. One was that rookie manager Jim Leyland had his contract extended even though the Pirates went 64-98 in his first year. He was a long way from the Hall of Fame. So was Barry Bonds. Here's a shot of Bonds swinging a sledgehammer in the on-deck circle. There would be better things ahead for Bonds, who hit .207 in his final 75 games (and think about that back then he was swinging a sledgehammer instead of doing … other things).
One more actually: In describing the Pirates, Kiner said what once was a lumber company (the team's former nickname) became a slumber company (Ralph bringing the stats and the wordplay).
"The last day can be very depressing or very contented depending on how you view your season," said Tim McCarver. In the Pirates case, it was very depressing.
As for the game itself, the Mets dominated for the 17th win in 18 games vs the Pirates. Darryl Strawberry hit a grand slam. Gary Carter tied the Mets record for RBI in a season, with a three-run home run, giving him 105 rib-eye steaks and a career-best 13-game hitting streak. Ray Knight homered too.
Ron Darling pitched 5 scoreless innings and Sid Fernandez closed with 4 of his own.
Fernandez struck out 6, which gave him exactly 200 on the season. How great is it that the last one, which ended the game and the season, was future Met (sigh) Bobby Bonilla.
It was evident that 200 strikeouts meant something special to Fernandez. He would never reach 200 strikeouts again.
The 1986 Mets were playing for nothing more than statistical milestones on the final day of the season. The win was the 108th, matching the most by a team at the time since division play began in 1969.
I've always held on to 108 wins when I talk about the 1986 Mets in comparison to other teams that followed. If you didn't win at least 108, you didn't have a case with me for being better than them.
But much more important was what was up next. One hundred eight wins was great, but …This wasn't quite the last word on the broadcast, but Steve Zabriskie had it right as the crew was wrapping up to say "The only problem with it is if the Mets do not win in the playoffs all of this outstanding season will be forgotten and be for naught."
Yep.
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Today's game was brought to you by … Burger King, featuring chicken tenders with real chicken!
The weather outside was a little frightful in that it was 68 degrees (glorious, said Tim McCarver), but with wind gusts of 24 miles per hour. If you ever sat at Shea Stadium when the wind was blowing, you know how unpleasant it was and wish you came as prepared as these folks.
But one young fan was able to handle the elements. Rest up, kid … you’re gonna wanna catch the playoffs!
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.