The Bad Guys Won!

To use a Mets phrase, "It's amazing" that Jeff Pearlman can make a living focusing on the dark side of people. Baseball players are people - period. They have talent to swing a bat, run, throw a ball, but this does not make them enlighted, beyond temptation or anymore newsworthy than my father, an insurance executive who drank too much, was abusive to his family and as great as he was at work, could have been so much more.

This team is a microcosm of the real world and there are companies out there that make the story of the 1986 Mets pale in comparison.

Yes, Gooden and Strawberry could have been Hall of Famers, but they were strong at baseball and weak at life. This makes them human, not tragic.

We do love to put people at pedestles, simply to knock them off and watch them fall.

The 1986 Mets are my favorite team of all time. They had heart and they went into the season with the highest of expectations for them, and won.

What more did you really want from them?

Spend your money on a book with an ending that you don't already know.

In his finest work since exposing John Rocker for the dope that he is, Jeff Pearlman helps baseball fans recall one of the most entertaining teams (both on and off the field) in baseball history.

1986 Mets were World Series Champions and partying champions. They were as much dirtbag as they were lovable and Pearlman does an excellent job of showing us both sides.

Doc, Darryl, Keith and Gary "Ivory Soap" Carter all comeback to life in this absolutely entertaining stroll down memory lane.

5 Stars for Mets fans, 4 stars for baseball fans.

An enjoyable quick read that brought back memories of a very entertaining talent rich team. At that time the Mets were available in Massachusetts on cable and I watched a lot of their games both because the National League is a better brand of ball and Tim McCarver a top notch analyst. The local Red Sox are something that I try and ignore. Thus the final match-up was a no way can the Mets lose thought. Of course without the interesting umpire calls Houston would have beaten the Mets. Mayber that is a subject for a book as there have been numerous out and out bad calls in all sports.

The sadness of exceptional squandered talent, i.e. Gooden and Strawberry along with the inside perspective on the players with their warts keeps the book both informative and entertaining.

First all, the Mets of '86 did win the WS, but, I don't see them as that great of a team. They barely won the DS and then only won the WS on one of the most famous errors in baseball history. Great teams win on their own and don't need to rely on gifts like Buckners error. I wouldn't see this Mets team beating any of the Rose led teams of the 70's or Yankees teams of the 90's. I'd even put the '95 Braves against them.

I read the book for the purported salicious details listed on the cover and inside jacket. That's about all I found. They drank to excess we are told from first person accounts. The drug use which we pretty much know about already is told about in mostly hearsay. I didn't really get the details I thought I was going to get (sick, yes, but, that is what the book was marketed as). I didn't much care for this team then and I came away caring for them even less. I was most suprised by the picture painted of Gary Carter. If he was half as full of himself as the book says, that is one sad person.

Reading how these guys behaved themselves and how the Mets management allowed it makes me appreciate even more how John Scheurholtz and Bobby Cox run the Braves. Pearlman should write a counter book to this one on the Braves and how they are the anti-thesis of the '86 Mets.

As Dean Wormer said, "Drunk, fat, and stupid is no way to go through life." Are you listening Doc & Straw?

The 1986 Mets won the World Series almost in spite of the themselves. As one revels with the retelling of the thrilling year (for Met fans) of 1986, the beginning of the loss of Gooden and Strawberry and in essence a Met Dynasty also begins to surface before the year has ended. Pearlman deserves credit for reading between the lines and seeing the drug addiction of Doc for what it was. What ever happened to the days (Ball Four) when the worst thing a ballplayer did was drink? Ah, those were the days.

These Mets were nearly all a Wild Bunch, making most fraternities look tame by comparison. Their wildness off the field was matched by a wild abandon to win on the field. This team should be remembered for being able to win the World Series while only barely tapping the potential talent it had. They easily could have had another 3 years of World Series appearances, if not rings, had everyone stayed as level-headed as Tuefel, Carter, and Wilson. Or, if Cashen had just left them alone.
Who knows.

Should you read this book? Yes, if you're a Met fan, or if you hated the Mets. Either way, there is something for you in this book: the thrill of their victory, or the schadenfreude at their undoing from their reckless partying.