1986 World Series
The 1986 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1986 season. The 83rd edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the National League (NL) champion New York Mets and the American League (AL) champion Boston Red Sox. The Mets won the series four games to three to claim their second World Series title and first since 1969.
1986 World Series
October 18–27
Shea Stadium (New York)
Fenway Park (Boston)
Ray Knight (New York)
John Kibler (NL), Jim Evans (AL), Harry Wendelstedt (NL), Joe Brinkman (AL), Ed Montague (NL), Dale Ford (AL)
Mets:
Gary Carter
Red Sox:
Wade Boggs
Jim Rice
Tom Seaver (DNP)
Jack Buck and Sparky Anderson (CBS)
Bob Murphy and Gary Thorne (WHN)
Ken Coleman and Joe Castiglione (WPLM)
Boston Red Sox over California Angels (4–3)
New York Mets over Houston Astros (4–2)
The series is best remembered for its Game 6, which saw the Mets rally from a two-run deficit in the bottom of the 10th inning, despite having two outs and no one on base. The Red Sox, who held a 3–2 series lead, were twice one strike away from securing the championship, but failed to close out the inning as the Mets won off an error by Boston first baseman Bill Buckner. Due to the Mets claiming the series in Game 7, the Game 6 collapse entered baseball lore as part of the Curse of the Bambino superstition used to explain the Red Sox's championship drought between 1918 and 2004.[1][2][3]
The 1986 World Series marked the second time, after the previous year's series, in which the winning team lost the first two games of the series at home. It was also the first World Series to use the designated hitter only in games played at the American League representative's stadium, a policy that was maintained until the National League's adoption of the DH in 2022.[a][4]
Awards and statistical summary[edit]
The World Series MVP was awarded to Ray Knight, who led the Mets' regulars with nine hits and a .393 average in the series. He also recorded five runs batted in, second to Gary Carter's nine.
Marty Barrett, in a losing effort, recorded 13 hits — tying the single World Series record[27] — and a .433 average. Dave Henderson recorded ten hits and a .400 average, while Jim Rice and Wade Boggs each had nine hits.
Despite the struggles both pitchers faced in Game 7, both Bruce Hurst and Ron Darling were the best starting pitchers on their respective staffs during the World Series. Both finished with 2–0 records and sub-2.00 ERAs, with Darling's 1.35 ERA topping Hurst's 1.96 although Hurst issued fewer walks and struck out more batters.
The only other starter to win a decision was Bob Ojeda. Steve Crawford won Game 2 for the Red Sox while Rick Aguilera and Roger McDowell won Games 6 and 7 for the Mets. In fact, the record for the starting pitchers for both teams outside of Darling and Hurst was 1–4, with two of those losses recorded by Mets ace Dwight Gooden. His counterpart on the Red Sox, eventual Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, did not record a decision in either of his starts.
Postscript[edit]
Both the Mets and Red Sox would go without reaching the World Series for some time. The Red Sox would not return until 2004, where they would finally break through and win their first title since 1918. They have gone on to win three additional world championships, most recently in 2018.
The Mets have returned to the World Series twice since 1986. In 2000, the first time since 1956 that two teams from the same city faced each other in the World Series, the Mets lost to the New York Yankees. The Mets returned in 2015, only to lose again to the Kansas City Royals.
Neither Davey Johnson nor John McNamara would manage in another World Series. Johnson stayed on with the Mets until 1990, leading them to another postseason berth in 1988 that ended with a loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. He was fired early in the 1990 season. Johnson would later lead the Cincinnati Reds to the playoffs in 1995, then followed that with two more playoff runs with the Baltimore Orioles in 1996 and 1997. He finished his managerial career in 2013 with the Washington Nationals.
McNamara returned for 1987 with the Red Sox, but the team regressed significantly, finishing with only 78 wins. He would be fired the next year with the Red Sox barely above .500 at the All-Star break, and his successor Joe Morgan led the team to a comeback and division title. He would take over the Cleveland Indians in 1990, but was fired midway through 1991 with the team at 25–52. He would only manage once more after that, an interim position with the California Angels in 1996, before retiring. He died in July 2020 at the age of 88.
Bill Buckner never did win that elusive World Series ring. He would be released by the Red Sox during the 1987 season, then spend the rest of the year with the California Angels. In 1988, he signed with the Kansas City Royals and played more of a reserve role for the last three years of his career, which ended in 1990 after a second stint with the Red Sox. Buckner's error made him a scapegoat in Red Sox fans' eyes for some time afterward, but following their world championship victory in 2004 the fanbase began to embrace him again. In his later years, Buckner developed Lewy body dementia, and he died from complications at the age of 69 in May 2019.
Hedge fund manager and current Mets owner, Steven A. Cohen, revealed in an interview that he currently owns the Buckner ball from Game 6. He has stated that he would donate the ball to the Mets Museum at Citi Field.[28]
In 2020, ESPN named the 1986 World Series the fourth greatest of all-time.[29]
On September 14 and 15, 2021, ESPN premiered Once Upon a Time in Queens, its four-part 30 for 30 documentary about the 1986 World Series, the Mets' seasons leading up to it and the aftermath.[30] The film is directed by Nick Davis.[31]
Because of the involvement of both of the Yankees' rivals (both their traditional one and their cross-city counterparts), this World Series was called "(George) Steinbrenner's nightmare".[32] As a result, then-Yankee owner George Steinbrenner wrote articles in the New York Post during this Series.[33][34]
After seven years, this would be the final World Series to use the logo introduced in the 1980 series. Beginning the next year, a new logo in the style of a baseball diamond was introduced. The logo itself would receive minor updates throughout the years. In 1992, gold lettering was added which would remain for the rest of its tenure until it was retired altogether after the 1997 series.
Broadcast[edit]
Game 6 did not end until 12:32 a.m. Eastern, causing the first cancellation of an episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live in the show's history. The episode, hosted by Rosanna Arquette and scheduled to air live at 11:30 p.m. Eastern, was instead recorded for the studio audience beginning at 1:30 a.m., and aired November 8 with a comedic apology from Ron Darling.[36] (NBC generally no longer schedules first-run SNL episodes on the same night as sports coverage.)
NBC's broadcast of Game 7 (which went up against a Monday Night Football game between the Washington Redskins and New York Giants held at nearby Giants Stadium on ABC) garnered a Nielsen rating of 38.9 and a 55 share, making it the highest-rated single World Series game to date.
In popular culture[edit]
In the 1998 film Rounders, Matt Damon's character (Mike McDermott) references Game 6 while returning into Teddy KGB's place in the final scene. "I feel like Buckner walking back into Shea."
In the 2005 film Fever Pitch, the main character played by Jimmy Fallon, a die hard Red Sox fan, watches a tape of the ending to Game 6 to get over what looks to be his break up with his girlfriend.
The collapse of the Boston Red Sox in Game 6 and Game 7 prompted a series of articles by George Vecsey of The New York Times, in which he mentions a "Babe Ruth Curse."[37][38] Although it had long been noted that the selling of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees had marked the beginning of a down period in the Red Sox's fortunes, this was one of the first instances, if not the first, in which mention of a "curse" was made.[39][40] The term "Curse of the Bambino" was not in common use by the press during the 1920s, nor can it be found through the 1970s, as a search of historical newspapers will illustrate.[41] In fact, even though Vecsey's articles mention a "Babe Ruth Curse", the New York Times did not use the phrase "Curse of the Bambino" until 1990,[42] the year that Dan Shaughnessy's book of the same name and a Boston Globe article about it were published.[43] Shaughnessy's book The Curse of the Bambino helped that phrase become a key part of the Red Sox lore in the media thereafter.[41][44]
The dramatic sixth game was the subject of Game 6, a 2005 independent film starring Michael Keaton, based on a 1991 screenplay by novelist Don DeLillo.
Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman included Game 6 in his list of the top ten films of 1986.[45]
In his song "Faith and Fear in Flushing Meadows", twee/folk artist Harry Breitner makes mention of Ray Knight and Mookie Wilson.
The game, or more specifically an infamous jeer that was issued in the game against Darryl Strawberry, was referenced in The Simpsons episode "Homer at the Bat" where Bart and Lisa jeer Strawberry the exact same way due to being sore over his forcing Homer to remain on the bench.
NBC's telecast of the Series ended with the song "Limelight" from Stereotomy, a penultimate album of The Alan Parsons Project.
The Series, and especially Game 6, were referenced in the Seinfeld episode "The Boyfriend", which also guest starred former Mets player Keith Hernandez. Hernandez being referred to Game 6 in the episode suggested that he was part of the winning rally, even though he was the 2nd (and final) out of the inning, though Hernandez was a big part of the prior round's Game 6 rally in the 9th inning.
In a 1999 episode of The King of Queens ("Rayny Day"), Doug Heffernan promises Richie Ianucci that they will watch the Series that is being rerun on TV, only to abandon him for Ray Barone, who invites him to play golf (with Arthur Spooner tagging along) until a rainstorm ends their plans. In another episode from the same year ("Where's Poppa?"), Doug and his cousin Danny bring up the Series while revisiting their high school years.
In the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode "Mister Softee", Bill Buckner appears as a guest star and mocks his famous 1986 mishap by missing a crucial catch of a Mookie Wilson-signed baseball. As the episode concludes, he redeems himself by catching a baby thrown from a burning building.
In 2001, playwright David Kruh had his play Curse of the Bambino premiere at the Boston Lyric Stage.[46] After the 2004 World Series it was rewritten with a happier ending.
In Ron Darling's book, 108 Stitches, he claims that during Game 3. Lenny Dykstra used racial epithets toward Oil Can Boyd. Dykstra sued Darling over this.[47] The case was later dismissed.[48]
In the 2005 film Bewitched starring Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman, there's a scene in which Jack (Ferrell) asks Isabel (Kidman) if her parents were in the witch business, Isabel answered that both her parents are and that her mother fixed the 1986 World Series.
In the Boy Meets World episode "Career Day" Cory is embarrassed by his dad Allen's presentation of his career as a grocer in front of the class. When he talks to Shawn about this in the lunchroom, he references the Bill Buckner play. "Do you remember that uh, that World Series game where the first baseman let that EASY ground ball go under his legs and his team lost and he was humiliated in front of the entire world? (Shawn replies "Yeah?") I envy his son." Later in the episode, Allen uses the same analogy while talking to his wife at home. "Do you remember the World Series where that first baseman let that grounder dribble through his uh, legs? (Yeah?) I envy him."