Mets greats Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden see plenty of similarities between 1986 champions and this year's playoff team
Mets legends Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden threw out ceremonial first pitch before Game 3 on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
There were no purple mascots in 1986.
Wally Backman had plenty to say, but it didn’t come in the form of a Latin pop song. Keith Hernandez didn’t lovingly cradle a small playoff pumpkin in his arms on the way into the stadium, like Pete Alonso did ahead of the Mets’ NLCS Game 3 against the Dodgers at Citi Field Wednesday night. The 1986 rotation did not bond over whimsical eye black, like this team does. It bonded over . . . other stuff.
“We were crazy,” Darryl Strawberry said Wednesday. “We didn’t care what people thought about us. You didn’t like us? Oh well.”
On the surface, these two iterations of Mets couldn’t be more dissimilar. But The Bad Guys — that’s what the ’86 team was called — hardly think that way about The Good Guys: a current group that coalesced around accountability and, per their own account, the power of friendship. Like the championship crew, this team also doesn’t care what people think. Quote J.D. Martinez in a recent viral interview: “You know what? They say we suck? We suck. Let’s suck. Let’s go suck together. Let’s go have fun sucking.”
You see, Strawberry noted, there are different ways to be tough.
. The current Mets have shown that ability thus far, though their 1-2 hole against the mighty Dodgers is going to test their ability to finish the job the way the '86 team did.
“They’re fun to watch,” Strawberry said ahead of his ceremonial first pitch with Dwight Gooden. “That’s the most important thing about them. They’re not afraid of the moment. They’ve learned the moment and they learned how to be in it and they’ve learned how to make the best out of it. And when you get to that place, you’re going to be good.”
There are 162 games to prove that you’re talented enough to get into the playoffs. Once the weather turns cold and legacy is on the line, it’s about more than that. Want proof? Look at the 1988 Mets team that lost to the Dodgers in the NLCS, Gooden and Strawberry said.
“The ’88 on paper was probably better than the ’86 team on paper,” Gooden said. “I think the ’86 team, we had chemistry, we had heart.”
They also had “a different breed of players” with “more guts,” Strawberry added. They had “Ray Knight, Kevin Mitchell — players that didn’t fear the situation and the opportunity.”
Strawberry then went down the current list:
• Francisco Lindor: “[He’s] come up with some big hits for them in crucial situations. That's what it takes.”
• Alonso: “I think Pete, with his big home run in Milwaukee, was really a turning point for them as a group. Because it takes all your guys to be able to perform in those particular situations and they all did.”
• Mark Vientos: “He's not afraid. He's not trying to do too much. Just trying to put the ball in play. He's strong. He can hit the ball to the opposite field like he did. He hit the grand slam the other day. And big home runs in the series against Philly.”
None of those three were alive the last time the Mets won the World Series. Strawberry and Gooden were just kids when the Mets won their other championship in 1969. They know what it’s like to see a famished fan base feast.
“For the Mets to do that and to break the drought I think it would be big for the city, big for the fans, and obviously for the organization,” Gooden said.
Added Strawberry: “We never had to pay for anything . . . When you win in a place like New York City, you are bigger than life because this is a tough place to play and the expectations are real. And once you get a hold of that and you’re the champions of the city, the city will embrace you.”
Of course, no one knows if and when this pixie dust will run out — if there will be a modern Calvin Schiraldi throwing a wild pitch, or if a ball will metaphorically get by Bill Buckner. But the Mets of old believe the Mets of now have some practical magic in them.
“They do the little things,” Strawberry said. “They do it just like we did.”
Just like they did . . . but differently.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
