Once Upon a Time in Queens Part 4

S1, E4: The Mets went to Boston for Game 3 of the 1986 World Series with their backs firmly against the wall after their lackluster play in New York. Manager Davey Johnson’s response: give his players a day off. The bold move paid off when the team broke out of a slump to win two straight. Alas, a Game 5 loss put the Mets heading back to New York the same way they’d left it: their backs to the wall. Game 6 of the 1986 World Series was an electric night from the start – with a parachutist carrying a “Let’s Go Mets” banner landing on the field in the first inning. Just another New York moment. Still, soon after, the Mets found themselves trailing again, and they had to come back twice to send the game into extra innings. But in the top of the tenth, the Sox went ahead again with two runs. Boston was up 5-3, three outs from a World Series championship. What happened next will live in baseball lore forever. With two outs and nobody on, and the scoreboard even mistakenly flashing a congratulatory message to the Red Sox, it was all but over. Until Gary Carter, Kevin Mitchell, and Ray Knight all singled—and then Mookie Wilson fouled off pitch after pitch after pitch, until a wild pitch scored Mitchell from third and tied the game. A few more foul balls later, Mookie dribbled a ball up the first-base line, and it went right through Bill Buckner’s legs. Impossibly, unbelievably, the Mets had won, and they were still alive. Two nights later, Game 7 was another epic battle, with the Mets once again coming from behind to win the game late. The Mets were the World Series champions. New York was on top of the baseball world. The next day, a ticker-tape parade brought an estimated 2.2 million people to the Canyon of Heroes. It was a wild celebration. Dwight Gooden watched it from a drug house, too high to make it. Even as the Mets seemed poised to start a dynasty, management immediately began breaking up the team, uncomfortable with the mixture of volatility – unable to reckon with the idea that it was the team’s chemistry that made them so resilient, and so unbeatable. The franchise hasn’t won a World Series title since.