Hot Foot
March 29, 2022
Elaborating on LenDog's memory from 2004, I was also at this doubleheader and for the most part, it was the best of times.
My dad and uncle took me and my 4 year old sister. Even though my mom was sick in the hospital, I look back on this time in October 1986 as the twilight of the glory days of my childhood. In those days, my obsessions included watching the World Wrestling Federation on TV, Transformers toys, the film Jaws (the only non-Disney VHS tape my mom allowed me to watch), Casey Kasem's Top 40 countdown on Sunday mornings, playing shortstop for my little league team, and above all, the 1986 Mets. Bills, taxes, and employment were still far off in the distant future. And if I did ever think of my future job, I was sure I was going to play shortstop for the New York Mets. All of that changed after 1986.
For the final series at Shea that season, my dad bought four tickets to each game. Right after school on Friday, my dad, my sister, and our black labrador retriever Ace left our house in NJ for my uncle's apartment in Flushing, on Colden Street. The game that Friday night was rained out. We could tell the game was rained out because my uncle had a view of Shea from his balcony and we could see that the Shea Stadium lights were off.
The next morning, we left Ace back at the apartment and walked through a sunny Flushing Meadows Park on our way to Shea. I still remember the smell of stale beer after entering the stadium. We sat in the upper deck behind home plate.
The Mets smacked the Pirates around in both games. Bob Ojeda got his 18th win in the first game and Rick Aguilera won his 10th against rookie Bob Patterson in the second game. Between games, the Mets inducted Rusty Staub and Bud Harrelson into the Mets Hall of Fame.
In the combined two games, I got to see all the Mets starters, so I didn't feel deprived of anything. In the second game, Teufel started to my disgust and made an error (of course), but at least Wally had started the first game. Darryl didn't start the second game, but Kevin Mitchell started in his place and got his last RBI as a Met.
Even though they didn't hit any home runs in either game, they got nine hits in the first game and 14 in the second game. Jesse Orosco pitched two scoreless innings for the save in game one and Roger McDowell pitched three scoreless innings for the save in game two.
The Mets' two wins in this doubleheader were their 53rd and 54th home wins of the season, breaking the record of 52 home wins set by the 1969 Mets. However, as LenDog mentioned in his post, as we left Shea happy at the end of the second game, everyone's mind was on the upcoming NLCS vs. the Houston Astros, not on any team records.
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