Twenty-three years ago…

Twenty-three years ago, 55,032 fans packed into Shea Stadium on an October evening.

Twenty-three years ago, Ron Darling struggled early and was pulled after only 3 2-3 innings.

Twenty-three years ago, Sid Fernandez tossed 2 1-2 shutout innings in relief.

Twenty-three years ago, Ray Knight and Darryl Strawberry homered in the 7th and 8th inning, respectively.

Twenty-three years ago, Jesse Orosco’s glove went up and may have never come down.

Twenty-three years ago, at 11:26 p.m., the Mets and their fans had the ultimate reason to celebrate.

Twenty-three years ago today, the Mets won the 1986 World Series, beating the Boston Red Sox 8-5.

What are some of your memories of the ‘86 World Series?

A look at Citi Field’s new additions [Photos]

I was at Friday night’s Mets game at Citi Field and snapped a few grainy photos of the new additions around Citi Field.  Take a look…

The new video board in the RF corner…

The new banners on the LF wall…

The new photos viewed from the Field Level…That was all I saw as I walked around.  I didn’t get a chance to look at the improved sightlines, but I’m going back Monday, so I will see if I can spot any changes.

Link: Interview with Wally Backman

My friend Josh Levitt recently conducted an interview with Wally Backman, now managing the Joliet Jackhammers.

Here’s an excerpt:

Jorge Says No!: Does your managing style differ from your playing style? 

Wally Backman: No. Not at all. 

Jorge Says No!: Do you still hope to one day have the opportunity to manage in the major leagues? 

Wally Backman: Absolutely. 

Jorge Says No!: Or how about coach in the majors? 

Wally Backman: Nah, I wanna manage. 

Oh, Wally.  Never change.

For the full Q&A, head over to Jorge Says No!

2009 Hall of Fame ballot

Ten new players have been added the the Hall of Fame ballot for the 2009, some of whom logged time with the New York Mets.

The 10 players added, with the ones with Mets games under their belt are in italicized: Rickey Henderson, Jay Bell, David Cone, Ron Gant, Mark Grace, Jesse Orosco, Dan Plesac, Greg Vaughn, Mo Vaughn and Matt Williams.

So half of the new eligible players played with the Mets at some time. Henderson logged 152 games with the Mets in 1999 and 2000, and also served as first base coach for part of a season. Bell played in 72 games in 2003.

Cone pitched from 1987 to 1992 with the Mets, until he was traded to Toronto for Jeff Kent and Ryan Thompson. Vaughn played two seasons with the Mets in '02 and '03. His '03 campaign was cut short by injury. I'll never forget his mammoth home run off the scoreboard at Shea Stadium.

Orosco had the longest tenure with the team, playing from 1979 to 1987. We all remember the fateful glove toss at the end of the '86 World Series. I don't think that glove has come down yet.

It's up to you now, Baseball Writers Association of America. Put some semi-Mets in the hall!

Oct. 25, 1986: Game 6 of the World Series

Twenty-two years ago today...well...we all know what happened.

Happy birthday, Keith Hernandez (with rare poster photo)

A salute to the 'stache. The immortal Keith Hernandez turns 55 years young today.

I thought this would be a good time to unveil to the internet world a poster that has been hanging in my room for as long as I remember. This is a poster that was hanging in a video store to promote the release of the World Series championship VHS, "1986 Mets A Year To Remember."

My dad asked the store owner if he could have it when the promotion was over, and he obliged. He had it framed, and hung it in my room to begin me on the path to Mets-fandom when I was born in 1988.So there it is in all it's glory. Keith, with Mookie Wilson, Darryl Strawberry, Gary Carter and some of the 1986 team.

Happy birthday, Keith. The fans loved you on the field, on Seinfeld, and now in the booth on SNY.

Come on, you won the MVP in '79. You can do anything.

Game 7 against the Red Sox

The Tampa Bay Rays dropped another game to the Boston Red Sox last night, and the teams will head to Game 7 of the ALCS to decide who gets to play the Phillies in the World Series.

That got me thinking, and thanks to the wonders of the internet, I found what I was looking for. Oct. 27, 1986. The Boston Red Sox at the New York Mets. Game 7 of the World Series.

Here's the box score and play-by-play of that game.

Now, I was not alive for this, as I was born two years later, but I thought I knew as much about the series as I could. I was wrong.

I had no idea Jesse Orosco had an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Orosco came in for the bottom of the eighth after Roger McDowell allowed two runs to score. Orosco stranded a runner on second while recording three consecutive outs.

He had to hit in the bottom of the eigth to stay in for the ninth inning, as his spot in the order came up fifth. He singled to center field, driving in Ray Knight.

Interesting. Learn something new every day.

(Go Rays.)

Gary Carter and Darryl Strawberry nearly come to blows on team bus (in 1986)

Back in July, I had a post entitled "Jose Reyes and Keith Hernandez nearly come to blows on team plane."

Via The Final Score, we now know that Gary "Camera" Carter and Darryl Strawberry almost tussled on the bus in St. Louis, and if it wasn't for Ray Knight standing up and calming them down, who knows what would have happened.

Knight:

"So anyway, we were sitting there, oh, it couldn’t have been more than two or three minutes waiting for Gary. Straw yells out of the bus, 'Let’s go Camera Carter. You're holding everything up! Get the blank on the bus!

"And so when Gary got on the bus he started heading to the back of the bus for Straw. They' exchanged words. I stood up between them and they calmed down. There were things like that that happened all the time. The next night if Darryl hit a big home run, or Gary did, they would be high-fiving, hugging, like it never happened."

Ah, chemistry.

This is something I wish the Mets had more of. More attitude, more brash, more character.

The Darryl Strawberry "Chocolate Strawberry" song

Don't mind the video, just listen to the song.



Now I know where Chocolate Rain came from. Tay Zonday, you have some explaining to do!

Buy Dykstra's House

Do you have $25 million laying around? Want a new house...er..."compound"?

Well, you can buy Lenny Dykstra's house, now discounted from $27.5 million!

"It's a compound; it's not a house," said Dykstra, the former All-Star outfielder. "I can go for a couple of days and not see any other family members. I found out I had a tennis court I didn't know I had. And I had to buy it completely furnished. I couldn't afford to buy furniture to fill this place. Are you kidding me?"

Here's the link for the house. Happy bidding.

Oh, and if you do have $25 mil on hand, if you could shoot some my way, that would be awesome.

Could the '86 Mets happen now?

Joe Sports Fan has put together a very cool article seeing if the 1986 Mets team could be put together now with their adjusted salaries.

The '86 team had a payroll of about $12.5 mil.
The team would now cost an estimated $121 mil.

"What does all of that mean? Even with all of the ridiculous contracts being tossed around throughout the league, if you took one of the great teams of the past twenty years and paid them in today�s baseball money, they�d still be a cool $80 million cheaper than the Yankees.

Isn�t baseball great?

...hahahaha. great article. well done. great line at the end there...

holy crap theres alot of recap.

Tom Glavine...ayyy! Feeling coldness in his hand/shoulder. He has had Reynauds Phenomenon since 1991. Is it a blood clot? We don't know. Its not a aneurysm.
NEWS:: The Post (ugh) says he's good to go...

Pedro is on the DL with a strained right calf. Eligible to come off DL Wed.

Castro and Valentin...both looking to come back on Tuesday.

After the near horrendous sweep by the phils. the metties recovered in the final game, and then went on to sweep the Rockies at home...

Mets got Mota. (he's a Oliver Perez-type work in progress...)

The '86 reunion was beautiful. So is Metstradamus's recap...

Bannister and Perez both pitched very good games in AAA. Perez had a no hitter thru 6. (2 WP's and a HBP to go along) And Bannister 6IP, 1 run, 6 hits, 1 walk, 5 Ks.
(so we have options...heh)

Tonight 7:10 SNY Weaver vs. Maine.