Rob
October 18, 2000
I was sitting in the dentist's chair during that incredible 9th inning rally. He had the game on the radio on the old WHN(usually he would be playing that awful dentist music!). He did get me nervous a few times when he would try to cheer while working on my mouth- especially when he was drilling when the Mets tied the game! He did finish in time for me to rush home to catch the eventful extra innings!

Howard Levy
April 13, 2001
The greatest baseball game ever played. Astros leading 3-0 in the ninth. Mets tie it with 3 in ninth. Mets take the lead in the 15th, Astros tie it same inning. Mets had to win that game to win series, because if there would have been a game 7, Mets would've faced that year's Cy Young winner Mike Scott, who dominated Mets all year. I wanted to be a play-by-play broadcaster so I brought my tape recorder to the Astrodome and did my own "radio" version of the game. Actually, I had been "broadcasting" dozens of games into my tape recorder for the last ten years. I have never felt so emotionally exhausted after a game as I was after this one.

Rich
June 3, 2001
I've been a baseball fan and a Mets fan for nearly 25 years, and this is still my favorite game of all time. I was a freshman in college, and with the Mets losing 3-0 and not hitting a lick off Bob Knepper, I decided to attend calculus class. Fortunately, one of my classmates had a walkman, and when the Mets rallied to tie it in the 9th, he was giving everyone pitch-by- pitch updates. I can still feel the tension, especially when Danny Heep was fouling off 3-2 pitches with the bases loaded. We made it back to the dorm to watch from about the 12th inning on. I vividly remember the Hatcher home run, the Strawberry bloop double, and the Astros rally in the bottom of the 16th (the rest is a blur of orange and yellow just like those Astros uniforms). About ten of us celebrated wildly afterwards - we all knew how important it was to win this game and avoid Mike Scott and a game seven.

78741 Astro Forever
August 2, 2001
Every true Houston fan holds this game deep in their heart.

If only we could have pulled it out, we could have put Mike Scott on the mound the next day. The Mets couldn't touch Scotty, and the 'Stros would have faced the Bosox.

Bruce Hurst vs. Scott for game 1. Roger Clemens vs. Nolan Ryan for game 2. This Astros fan weeps at possibilities lost...

1986 was the Alamo to Astros fans.

Christopher
January 15, 2002
Best game in Mets, if not, baseball history! BAR NONE! I worked at a liquor store in Bloomfield, New Jersey at the time. Unfortunately, my shift continued through the tenth inning. But on the radio in the store I listened to the remarkable! Bob Knepper pitching the game of his career. Having only given up 2 hits through 8, needed only 3 outs with a three-run lead to get to Mike Scott for Game 7 who would have, without a doubt, sealed it. After the remarkable had happened and Keith came across with the tying run, one inning later my shift ended. I race home, then to pick up Dad at the train station. We're listening on the radio coming home from the station as the Mets are up 4-3 and about to clinch. Hatcher hits the homer to tie it and we both nearly cry. We get inside to see the Mets blow it open 7-4, only to let 2 more come across in the bottom of the 15th. Then, Orosco throwing only curves to Kevin Bass, gets him swinging on strike 3. Dad and I were jumping in each others arms. Best clutch inning in Mets history, the top of the 9th. Knepper was pitching a helluva ballgame and the Mets knew they faced Scott the next day.

Steve
March 3, 2002
Skipped Hebrew school to watch the game (not realizing that everyone watched it at Hebrew School that night!!!!!) Stayed in my basement throwing a rubber ball against a cement wall all night watchning the game on an old black and white TV knowing that if we lost we'd have to face Scott tomorrow and our chances of making it to the series were as good as done. I kept turning the TV off and on and off and on thinking that it would somehow affect the Mets chances. When they won I just remember feeling exhausted .. Maybe it's because the game took place in Houston, but I don't remember the celebration. My mind was set for Boston .....

BIGSTRO
March 24, 2003
I distinctly remember this game because I literally thought I was going to go into cardiac arrest in the later innings.The ominous spectre of Mike Scott was looming and when Hernandez tripled off of Bob Knepper in the 9th I felt like I just got off of Death Row at San Quentin. I knew that we were destined after winning 108 games but Houston was doing their best to send me into the Psych Ward. I remember questioning Orosco's ancestry when he surrendered the homer to Billy Hatcher and exploding with sheer ecstasy when he struck out the same infernal rascal to mercifully end it. It's been 17 years and my chest still hurts every time I think of that game.

LenDog
August 8, 2004
I worked in an investment bank at the time and it was hard to get time away, so I had to watch this on work on a one-inch portable TV.

Quitting time coincided with all the good stuff starting to happen, so I didn't want to walk to a bar because it would have taken 20 minutes or so and I didn't want to miss anything. (BTW, I worked in the World Financial Center, next to the WTC. In those days, the area had not been built up, so it took forever to walk to shopping, bars, etc.)

So, long story short, I watched the entire 4+ hours or whatever it was on a 1-inch TV. Come to find out, American Express had their big corporate theater tuned to the game just a few floors above me -- so, I could have watched it in a movie theater. Insteady, I nearly went blind watching on a tiny portable.

Who cares!! One of the greatest wins ever!!!!

May be my Dad's all-time favorite Met game, and he is the ultimate Met fan - he has seen all the good and the bad.

LenDog
July 13, 2004
Forgot to mention in a previous post...

After the game, my best friend and I kept calling Cooter's in Houston, TX and shouting "Let's Go Mets" into the phone.

Astute Met fans will recall that Cooters was the Houston bar where Teufel, Darling, et al were arrested in the summer of '86.

I may have the name of the bar wrong...whatever it was called, we gave them a very hard time and they ended up taking the phone off the hook after five or six calls.

Joe Lanzisera
August 5, 2004
All things considered I think this has to be the most thrilling game in Mets history. Even better then Game Six of the 1968 World Series or Game Five of the 1999 NLCS. I remember I skipped two college classes to watch it. It went on all afternoon and into the evening. The tension was unbelievable. We HAD to win because Mike Scott was going the next day and we just weren't going to beat him.

What can you say about this one. Dykstra pinch- hits vs. the lefty in the 9th and gets a huge triple to leadoff. Mookie's liner goes off of the SS glove and we are in business. Hatcher's homer was a killer, especially because he hit one just inches foul on the previous pitch.

This is also supposedly the game where Hernandez came to the mound in the 16th and told Orosco not to throw another fastball. Jesse threw curve after curve and finally struck out Bass swinging to end it.

Fan 5/31/64 - 8/11/94
April 5, 2005
The day NYC stood still. I remember seeing the news that night where people all over the city stood in little groups wherever there were TV's, afraid to get on the train or subway lest they miss the events to come. I played hookey that day (I had a GREAT boss), so I suffered in the comfort of my own living room, but the wife had to go to work.

She had a radio for most of the game, and came home as soon as she could. She tells the story of being on the Riverdale bus when Hatcher hit the tying HR. The radio crapped out soon after. She missed an inning or two, and came bursting into our apartment completely out of breath, not knowing if the game was over or not. In any event, she did get to see the 16th inning.

There was a great story told by Keith Hernandez during that winter's hot stove league dinner on LI. Someone from the audience posed the question about what he told Orosco and Carter when he came to the mound with Bass at bat in the 16th. He said he told Carter that if he called for fastball, that they would have a fight right there. Then he did a great imitiation of Carter saying "No kidding!" to illustrate the reply.

Later that night, it sunk in that the World Series tickets that we had were valid. A great game, a great night, a great time to be a Mets fan.

Professor G
June 10, 2005
The best Mets game ever. Period. End of discussion. I had a real dilemma that day - skip my college class and watch the game in its entirety, or have my conscience nag at me and, I thought, bring bad luck to the Mets. I raced across campus after class and caught the game in the 6th with a group of friends. The sweetest reward ever. Period. End of discussion.

SCOTT R
September 11, 2005
Probably the greatest Mets game ever. I was in college and I watched the entire game on my black and white tv in my dorm room. The game started in the afternoon. I remember missing a class and dinner, may have missed lunch too, wasn't going to leave that set. I remember my dad telling me he went to bar after work and no one leaving until game ended; the entire city was like that. I was home for weekend before that; luckily set VCR up to tape game where Lenny Dykstra wins it, and have last 2 innings of this game.

Joe From Jersey
November 29, 2005
God I remember this game like it was yesterday. The Mets were down 3-0 in the 9th and I sat on the couch with my sister all quiet until my late mom came home from work and told us to wake up the Mets and boy, did it ever. Lenny started it with the triple and we were on one heck of a roller coaster ride. I still remember Hatcher's homer hitting the foul pole and the now-famous "Throw another fastball and we'll fight" meeting and it all ended when Orosco threw the good pitch to strikeout Kevin Bass and I still have Bob Murphy's WHN call on tape all these years later "SWING AND A MISS! SWING AND A MISS! STRUCK HIM OUT! STRUCK HIM OUT! THE METS WIN IT! THE METS HAVE WON IT! THEY'LL BE IN THE WORLD SERIES SATURDAY NIGHT AT SHEA". This woulda been the best Mets game ever in my eyes except for a game that was played 10 days later.

DavidC
April 4, 2008
Both the Mets and Astros fans knew that this game was going to be a clincher for either team, considering if there were the Game 7, the invincible Scott would be on the hill for the 'Stros. Not many people may remember, but the Mets were on the verge of going ahead in that inning, except Danny Heep swung ball four from Dave Smith with 2 outs with based loaded. So after those hours and inning afterwards, I was cursing to myself why Heep swung that stinking pitch. We know what happened from there, with the Mets going ahead, but the Astros would rally back - exchanging blows until Orosco finally shut them down. The Game 6 of the 1986 WS was the "most improbable" game ever played, while this one was the "most nerve racking" game ever played. While anxious moments in the Game 6 of the WS lasted for some 10-20 minutes or so, this one lasted for a couple of hours, however, eons to many fans witnessing. This makes it the most exciting game I have ever watched, including the game played 10 days later.

Brian
October 27, 2007
I'm a life long Red Sox fan but this game is the GREATEST game I've ever seen. I love Bobby Ojeda crediting himself with making the greatest play in the history of baseball when he made a diving tag of Kevin Bass in the top of the first inning to limit the damage to 3. This was essentially game 7 as there was no way anyone was beating Mike Scott in the Astrodome that year. Between games 3, 5 and 6 of the NLCS, games 4 and 5 of the ALCS and game 6 of the WS this was probably the best playoffs from the division (1969-1993) era. Dave Smith somehow flies under the radar whenever anyone talks about the greatest chokes ever. Between the Dykstra walk off home run in game 3 and the 3 run BS in game 6, this was worse than anything Schiraldi ever did.

Astronut
April 12, 2012
I was 10 years old and remember getting in the car after school and listening to this game on the car radio until I was able to get to our tv at home. I watched the 8th inning on....my eyes start to water up every time I see Billy Hatcher hit that home run in the 14th. I just know in my heart if we would have won that game, there was no way the Mets would have beat Mike Scott.

I have been a die-hard Astros fan all my life. As an adult, I am a season ticket holder at Minute Maid Park. Very passionate about the game of baseball. I still remember the 1986 season vividly. The Astrodome was a special place for us to watch baseball. I love the old rainbow orange uniforms, Astroturf, and the Home Run Spectacular scoreboard.

It still hurts thinking about it...the Astros should have won the series. They had the Mets and just couldn't finish them off.

I laugh to myself when I hear talk about the Cubs, Red Sox, and Indians fans having suffered serious heartbreak....try being an Astros fan....or better yet, a Houston sports fan (Astros, Rockets, Oilers, and Cougars). Then, you will know what heartbreak is.

Scoey
March 28, 2022
One moment I recall from this pennant clincher was Lenny Dykstra's triple in the ninth inning that started the three-run rally. Tim McCarver was asking on television how Lenny was able to hit the ball so deep into the pull alley on an outside breaking pitch. He told his partner Keith Jackson that it showed how strong Dykstra was. I wonder if it ever occurred to Tim or anybody else that Lenny might have been experimenting with steroids at that time.