Editor's note: This is a preview for an off-season series that I am planning for my blog which covers my 25 years as a Mets fan (exactly half of their existence). This preview blog entry is meant to coincide with my first game.
I have exactly 3 memories from the Mets 1986 World Championship season. I will post about 2 of them later, maybe in late October. But my first memory of the Mets, a beginning of sorts, occured on this date 25 years ago (September 18, 1986). My father had actually pulled me out of school to take me to a Thursday afternoon game just a week or so after I had started the 3rd grade. I have no idea why he picked this game (and why not a weekend game or a summer game). I probably knew the basics of baseball from playing kickball in gym class and during recess at school. But I didn't know Major League Baseball or the New York Mets. I don't think I had any concept of what a magical season it had been or what "A September To Remember" was all about. And I don't think I had any knowledge or interest in the game the night before (at that madhouse called Shea). I really had a clean slate.
I don't remember much about this game. Rick Anderson pitched for the Mets (I had to look it up, years later, after the internet had been invented and populated with mass amounts of data that he went 5 innings to get the win, and a rookie pitcher by the name of Greg Maddux went 4 to take the loss). Howard Johnson hit a HR. 5 years ago, the great writer/blogger Greg Prince wrote about it as part of his Flashback Friday series that looked back on the 1986 season. He's older than I, has a better memory (certainly not the memory of an 8 1/2 year old from that season), and writes much better than I do, so please go read his recap of the game.
And the field looked like patch-work. Or as my dad called it, "green band-aids". I don't have pictures of this. I've seen the video highlight of HoJo's HR, and I honestly don't remember if my memory of the game is from the Mezzanine level near 1B because that's where I sat, or because that's which TV camera shot that HR in the lone highlight I've seen thus far.
I did find the video on YouTube this morning, as part of a larger collection of 1986 footage, and saw a few other highlights of the game. I really can say that I don't remember much about the game other than Anderson getting the win, HoJo hitting a HR, and the 5-0 score over the Cubs. And it was the day after they had clinched the division, which made it easy for me to find the game in the archives later on.
Just like in my new offseason series looking back at 25 years as a Mets fan, this game was sort of a start for me. I don't remember anything else from September. It's not like I recall watching the next game in which the Mets played. I don't remember any of NLCS against Houston as it happened. I have seen some of those games on DVD, Mets Classics, ESPN Classic, and MLB Network over the years. I don't remember most of the World Series either. None of the hype, nor watching any of the games. Until one Saturday night in late October...but that's for next time.
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Sunday, September 18, 2011
5 years ago tonight
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Monday, September 5, 2011
Wake me up when September ends
I think I've reached the point in the season in which I can no longer make sense of the Mets. Actually, I think I passed that point a few weeks ago. I still think they will be a .500 team when it's all said and done...give or take only 1 or 2 games. But I've completely flip-flopped on an earlier assessment in which I likened this year's club to the 1997 team that was on its way up under a new regime. I no longer think that. I do, however, stand by my opinion (going on about 2 1/2 seasons now) that the Mets need to clean house and rebuild. I know I've said this before, but it means getting rid of anyone left over from the playoff bust of 2006, the collapses of 2007 and 2008, and the abysmal seasons of 2009, 2010, and 2011. Especially those with longer tenures with the Mets. Beltran was traded, as we expected he would be, and the team seemed to fall down. That shows me that there is no other clear leader on the club...definitely not David Wright. He needs to go. Jose Reyes is too injury-prone for a long-term deal. I wouldn't break the bank to re-sign him. I'm also thinking that a lot of prospects from the Mets farm system are turning into busts, or at least not living up to expectations. Pelfrey and Parnell are two that come to mind, who need to play very big roles on the Mets.
Whatever the case with how I would gut the team, Sandy Alderson is the GM and he and his staff will figure something out. I have faith in them, going to their first offseason after their first season (in some ways, I don't count last offseason when the first arrived from outside the organization). But it will take time. Even more key to the rebuilding of the Mets is the need for Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz and Jeff Wilpon to sell their entire collective holdings in the club. They are toxic owners and executives, even without their financial issues. The deal with David Einhorn fell through. I was hopeful that he would come rescue us, but somehow, I'm not surprised that the Wilpons were going to be stubborn about what they would give up in exchange for cheap cash.
At this point, just enjoy watching baseball for the sake of watching baseball because there's only a couple weeks of it left. And don't try to over-analyze it, because it will only frustrate whatever baseball we all have left. Let's wait until next year...again.
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Whatever the case with how I would gut the team, Sandy Alderson is the GM and he and his staff will figure something out. I have faith in them, going to their first offseason after their first season (in some ways, I don't count last offseason when the first arrived from outside the organization). But it will take time. Even more key to the rebuilding of the Mets is the need for Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz and Jeff Wilpon to sell their entire collective holdings in the club. They are toxic owners and executives, even without their financial issues. The deal with David Einhorn fell through. I was hopeful that he would come rescue us, but somehow, I'm not surprised that the Wilpons were going to be stubborn about what they would give up in exchange for cheap cash.
At this point, just enjoy watching baseball for the sake of watching baseball because there's only a couple weeks of it left. And don't try to over-analyze it, because it will only frustrate whatever baseball we all have left. Let's wait until next year...again.
Leave a comment or drop me a line at DyHrdMET [at] gmail [dot] com. Your comments will fall into a moderation queue.
"Like" RememberingShea on Facebook (the function formerly known as "Becoming a Fan").
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