Those Mets still can’t believe what happened.
There were 54,014 people inside Shea Stadium, that night — Oct. 9, 1988 — and they were on their feet, of course, because for five seasons now that had been the preferred perspective whenever Dwight Gooden — Dr. K, to one and all — was on the mound. They were in full voice, too, given the opponent.This was a different breed of Mets fan, too, filling old Shea with a raging ferocity that they believed — they — would pierce the skin of the Dodgers.
Ron Darling remembers the perks that came rolling in once the Mets started winning regularly in ’84. Mostly, he remembers the crowds. Says Hernandez, who was in his fifth year as a Met and his second as the franchise’s first on-field captain: “Our offense was beyond belief. It was just ridiculous how good we were. And every day teams had to try to outscore us knowing we had Doc, Ronnie, Bobby O, Sid [Fernandez] and Coney — with Randy Myers waiting to close. A complete team.”
Hernandez face-planted between second and third. He was taken out of the game. Afterward, he announced it was just a cramp in his hamstring. Strawberry crowed, “Of course it is. You don’t run fast enough to tear a hammy.” And the Mets cooled off. From July 4 through July 27, they went 8-11 and the upstart Pirates of Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla won 12 out of 13 at one stretch to creep within two games of the Mets, setting up a vital four-game series at Shea beginning July 29.The Mets beat the Pirates the first three games, and over 200,000 people came out for the four-game set, all of them expecting — and mostly getting — good things.
He’d been a nice surprise in ’87, despite spending time on the DL with a broken finger. He started ’88 in the bullpen. But on May 3, he joined the rotation, and he was brilliant, finishing 20-3 with a 2.22 ERA, inspiring thousands of Mets fans to wear coneheads at Shea. On a staff of stars, he fit right in.“He didn’t seem scared to me,” Ojeda says. “From Day 1, he believed he belonged.”
“I’ve seen a lot of kids through the years,” Johnson says. “I’ve never seen one more ready to hit big-league pitching than Jefferies.”
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