The Scum Bunch?!

They partied like they played baseball; hard, fast, and with power. It took me a while to come up with a topic for my latest article. At first I was going to write a column chronicling the minutiae of my hits and misses with chicks in a self effacing way, but then I finally decided to check out Iss’s column and realized that job was already taken...and then some. So it was back to the drawing board for a bit until I stumbled across an article on EPSN.com’s Page 2 (one of 1 Tuff’s fiercest competitors). The "literary" piece was an excerpt from Jeff Pearlman’s new non-fiction book entitled "The Bad Guys Won" which chronicles the trials and tribulations of the ‘86 Mets. Pearlman attempts to portray the Mets in a negative light through endless tales of hard living. The excerpt I read detailed the Mets’ celebration after clinching the NLCS against the Houston Astros. After downing beers and champagne in the locker room, the players moved the after-party to the team’s chartered flight where they were joined by their wives. (No truth to the rumor that Keith Hernandez was joined by his mistress, Senorita Ye-Yo). Once on the plane the biggest of big drinking ensued, as did throwing celebratory cake throughout the cabin. The drinking took its toll on the wives as many puked in the seat pockets. Coke was done in the bathroom and Darryl broke a few seats, trying to somehow convert them into a couch. The excerpt ended when manager Davey Johnson confronted the players about paying for the $7,500 worth of damage to the plane. The reaction? A collective "FUCK THEM!!! We’re the fucking Mets!" This was supposed to be a negative story?! Is this the kind of world we are living in? A world where big drinking and partying is condemned? If it is then maybe I’ll go and buy a nice piece of real estate on Uranus.

Allow me to level with you, I am extremely biased towards the ‘86 Mets. They’re the only team I have rooted for that has won a championship in my lifetime. Mookie Wilson is my favorite baseball player of all time. And I’m currently contemplating writing an off-Broadway play entitled "Doc and Darryl: The Original Odd Couple." There was and still is a certain aura surrounding that squad, thanks in large part to their dominance despite their partying ways. The team would win drunk, win high, and win often (110 wins!). They played with a brash and cocky bravado that has not since resurfaced in another champion (the Bash Brother A’s were probably the last such team) and certainly not seen in those bland Yankee teams of the mid to late 1990's.

From 1986-1990 NYC was a Mets town. They captured the attention and imagination of millions of people. Every guy in the city (including a few in the Bronx) wanted to be them and every woman in the city wanted to do them. Georgie Steinbrenner had such a hard-on for the team and the Mets of that era that he systematically acquired many of them. (See Gooden, Strawberry, Santana, El Sid, Cone). Word has it that Steinbrenner is still trying to coax Kevin Elster out of retirement.

Many naysayers will point to the excessive drinking and drugs as to why those Mets never became the dynasty which seemed to be their divine right, but that is too easy a generalization to make. They had 90 wins or more in 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, and 1990. In 1988 they had 100 wins and were a Mike Scioscia 9 th inning homerun off of Doc away from winning that series. Unfortunately, there was a great Cardinals team in the NL East which proved as foil to the Mets. Also, if we all take a ride in the way back machine, we will see that there was no wildcard back then. If there were, the Mets would’ve been in the playoffs every year in that stretch. Also, if the divisions were aligned as they are currently, the Mets would’ve been in first place by wide margins every year! Doc’s injuries caused decreased ineffectiveness, not the cocaine. Carter and Hernandez got old fast. Some of the youngsters never panned out for them (paging Shawn Abner and Greg Jefferies). And they made some bad trades (I think Juan Samuel fixed my toilet yesterday). Kevin Mitchell was the goddamn MVP in 1989.

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