#13- 1986 Mets Rewatch: Who Owned The 1986 Mets?
A few players could make the claim that the 1986 Mets were no big deal. And they have the stats to back that up.
The 1986 Mets Rewatch Newsletter is a newsletter for people who know that the 1986 Mets were the biggest of big deals.
If you had watched the ABC Sunday Afternoon Game of the Week on June 1, 1986, you might have thought that you had been time transported back to 1962. I say that because original Met Roger Craig, then manager of the Giants, threw out the first pitch. He may have put some voodoo on them too.
The Mets then played arguably their worst game of the season that day in front of close to 50,000 fans on Cap Day, losing to the Giants, 7-3.
The capper (pardon the pun) on the day was that the Mets made five errors. They were very much in "Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?" mode.
This was a shame because the Mets had their top pitcher to this point on the mound in Ron Darling.
But Darling didn't have a good day. He made an error and allowed five runs in five innings. Most telling was that he got to a two-strike count on 12 batters and struck out only one.
On top of that, the Mets suffered a blow in this game, one that could have been a lot worse. Len Dykstra and Howard Johnson collided on a popup. Dykstra dropped the ball before the collision. Johnson had to leave the game with a fractured forearm that cost him three weeks. Dykstra was somehow unharmed.
A passing airplane may have caused the collision, preventing Dykstra and HoJo from hearing each other.
The winning pitcher for the Giants that day was their now longtime broadcaster, Mike Krukow. It was one of 20 wins that season for Krukow, who somehow went 4-0 against the 1986 Mets.
"The reason Mike Krukow is so effective is that he has a great slow curveball. He also can spot his fastball. The key for him is the curveball. When he gets that over, hitters cannot sit on the fastball. He has a sneaky delivery, a lot of leverage. Reminds me of Don Sutton. Good tight breaking ball, changeup, sneaky fastball."
- Jim Palmer, ABC Sports
Krukow had faced the Mets a little more than a week earlier and dominated them, retiring 23 in a row after a Keith Hernandez home run. It wasn't the first time and it wouldn't be the last.
Krukow was a decent pitcher who had a few good years within a 14-year MLB career. But his 22-7 career record vs the Mets is considerably better than his record against other teams. He had some sort of hex over them. From 1986 to 1989, encompassing the last four years of his career, he went 9-1 against them.
In this game, he was advantaged by the Mets choosing to sit three prominent regulars – Gary Carter, Darryl Strawberry, and George Foster, though I'm not sure their presence would have made a difference. For their careers, Carter and Strawberry hit a combined.160 in 100 at-bats against Krukow.
Krukow had a really good curveball in this game and a changeup on which the bottom dropped out, like the split-fingered pitch that Roger Craig had taught Astros ace Mike Scuff.
Krukow retired the first nine batters, giving him a perfect game plus five outs – 32 straight Mets retired over two games – before allowing a walk in the fourth. He'd get another out before yielding the first Mets hit. He wound up pitching 7 1/3 innings, allowing 3 runs and 7 hits, but he was more in charge than the numbers showed.
Credit to the Mets fans for lightly applauding Krukow when he left the game, and appropriately on Cap Day, Krukow tipped his cap to them.
Krukow's success, particularly against the world champs, had me wondering what the "All-Opponents Team" for the 1986 Mets would look like.
As I did the lookups for this, I'm reminded of something I read about John DeMerit in Janet Paskin's terrific book about the 1962 Mets. John Demerit was a little-used backup who didn't understand what all the fuss about the 1962 was about.
And that's understandable: The 1962 Mets were 11-3 in the 14 games that Demerit played in his final season.
This is a team of players who probably didn't get what all the fuss about the 1986 Mets was about, because they were all very good against those Mets.
Here are the position players.
All-Opponents Team - 1986 Mets
Player | Team | Stats |
C Mike Fitzgerald | Expos | .524 BA, 11 H |
2B Juan Samuel | Phillies | .322 BA, 7 SB, |
2B-LF Davey Lopes | Astros | 7-for-15 in 4 games |
3B Mike Schmidt | Phillies | .373 BA, 15 RBI |
3B Ron Cey | Cubs | .406 BA, 4 HR |
3B Phil Garner | Astros | .370 BA, 10 H |
OF Tony Gwynn | Padres | .404 BA, 19 H |
OF Chili Davis | Giants | .400 BA,.511 OBP |
OF Von Hayes | Phillies | .357 BA, 16 RBI, 25 H |
OF Andre Dawson | Expos | .364 BA, 12 RBI, 11 G |
OF Kevin Bass | Astros | .347 BA, 17 H |
OF Dave Parker | Reds | .326 BA, 3 HR |
OF Mitch Webster | Expos | .324 BA, 23 H |
OF Jerry Mumphrey | Cubs | .324 BA, 3 HR |
What's cool about this list is that it mixes the Hall-of-Famers you'd expect to be on this list – Mike Schmidt, Andre Dawson, Dave Parker, and Tony Gwynn, with some good players, like Ron Cey, Chili Davis, and Von Hayes, and then some players you wouldn't expect to see: Mitch Webster, Jerry Mumphrey, and Mike Fitzgerald.
Here's the pitching staff:
Pitcher | Team | Stats |
Mike Krukow | Giants | 4-0, 2.30 ERA, 2 CG |
Bob Knepper | Astros | 3-1, 1.67 ERA, 2 CG |
Bob Sebra | Expos | 2-1, 1.57 ERA, 2 CG |
Ricky Horton | Cardinals | 1-1, 2.18 ERA, 33 IP |
Tom Browning | Reds | 1-1, 1.64 ERA |
Drew Hall | Cubs | 1 start, CG 6-hitter |
John Franco | Reds | 0.00 ERA, 11 2/3 IP 2 SV |
Don Robinson | Pirates | 0.82 ERA, 11 IP |
Lee Smith | Cubs | 1.69 ERA, 4 saves |
Tim Burke | Expos | 2.38 ERA, 1 SV |
One thing that's a little different here is that I picked 6 starting pitchers, none of them were Hall-of-Famers. We already mentioned that Steve Carlton was on his last legs at that point. He gave up 13 runs in 16 1/3 innings against the Mets. Nolan Ryan had an ERA over 5 in the regular season. Dennis Eckersley made five starts against them, a couple of which were good and a couple were not. Rookie Greg Maddux pitched against the Mets for the first time right after the NL East division clincher and allowed 4 runs in 4 innings.
So instead we have three pitchers who were decent at the time in Krukow, Bob Knepper, and Tom Browning, mixed in with swingman Ricky Horton and two guys who didn't have particularly strong careers, Bob Sebra and Drew Hall.
The lone Hall-of-Famer on this team was Lee Smith, who was always a formidable foe for the Mets. Also, props to John Franco, who had a 0.00 ERA against the 1986 Mets. He had 2 saves and would have had 3 had Dave Parker not dropped a fly ball with two outs in the ninth (we'll be getting to that game eventually).
Brought to you by … Impressive thing within this broadcast. The companies who were the presenting sponsors still exist today- IBM, Chevrolet, Budweiser, and Armor All.
