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Happy 30.5th Anniversary, 1986 Mets

G-Fafif Apr 28 2017 08:00 PM

I don't really get the timing, but there was a ceremony on the steps of City Hall today to honor the 1986 Mets. The impetus for doing it now is unclear, but the centerpiece was Mayor de Blasio giving Doc a key to the city in light of his theoretically courageous and indisputably public fight against the addiction that caused him to miss the club's last, much bigger appearance there. The 1986 Mets should be honored daily, but I must admit I rolled my eyes at the beginning of this -- Orosco mispronounced by the PA announcer; Hizzoner not knowing whether Jesse was a righty or lefty; Gooden being credited as the biggest contributor to that championship season; the "Let's Go Mets" record's B-side remix throbbing away -- yet wound up dabbing them after listening to Doc. As with the team HOF ceremonies in 2010, it's clear he's touched by these moments of recognition. Also on hand, Messrs. Ojeda, Strawberry (he and Doc make up again), Orosco and Lyons. Strange that they didn't do this last year (or when the Mets are in town), but today is the 30 1/2th anniversary of the last ticker-tape parade that was worth a damn, so what the hell? https://www.pscp.tv/NYCMayor/1jMKgoVYDjeKL

Benjamin Grimm Apr 28 2017 08:03 PM Re: Happy 30.5th Anniversary, 1986 Mets

Nobody deserves to be there more than Barry Lyons does.

G-Fafif Apr 28 2017 08:07 PM Re: Happy 30.5th Anniversary, 1986 Mets

I guess it was Barry's first appearance at City Hall, too. I think John Gibbons and Rick Anderson made the trip on 10/28/86 despite being left off the WS roster, but not Barry. I got to meet and talk to Lyons a few years ago. When I referred to him as a 1986 Met, he was quick to remind me of what I already knew about the duration of his stay that year. A stand-up guy.

Benjamin Grimm Apr 28 2017 08:09 PM Re: Happy 30.5th Anniversary, 1986 Mets

Did you get a chance to ask him how he pronounces his first name?

G-Fafif Apr 28 2017 08:17 PM Re: Happy 30.5th Anniversary, 1986 Mets

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Did you get a chance to ask him how he pronounces his first name? Bayuhrees, I believe.

Edgy MD Apr 29 2017 02:57 AM Re: Happy 30.5th Anniversary, 1986 Mets

I salute Dwight Gooden daily, but it's almost always way too a high-risk a play to publicly honor a guy for his victory over addiction.

G-Fafif Apr 29 2017 03:52 PM Re: Happy 30.5th Anniversary, 1986 Mets

Context for the occasion here. Still kind of strange. How do you get the mayor and city hall to play themselves? Also, didn't Doc get a key to the city in 1986? They had them made up for every player. I'm assuming somebody brought his back to Shea and gave it to him later. It's nice to have a spare, I suppose. Dwight Gooden stood behind a podium before Mets fans at City Hall on Friday recounting how his battle with addiction caused him to miss the 1986 World Series victory parade down the Canyon of Heroes. He choked up for a moment, then collected himself. As he finished his remarks, he was enveloped in a warm embrace by Darryl Strawberry. The public fracture between the beloved stars of that team is over. It crested last August when Gooden failed to show for an appearance they scheduled and Strawberry went public with fears Gooden had relapsed. Even in March, Gooden said at Mets camp that the two were no longer friends. But they renewed their close bond in a meeting at Delmonico’s restaurant in Manhattan about a month ago. It was brokered by common friend Amy Heart, the host of the “Sports with a Heart’’ podcast, and was filmed for a forthcoming documentary. The film also will include footage from the public ceremony on Friday, when Gooden received a key to the city from Mayor Bill de Blasio in a moment designed to make up for the one he missed back in 1986. Other ’86 Mets — Strawberry, Jesse Orosco, Bobby Ojeda and Barry Lyons — attended. “Things happen and, unfortunately with me and him, everything is publicized,” Gooden said Friday. “A lot of times we said things we really didn’t mean — it went on for a while. We’ve always had something like a love-hate relationship you have with your own brothers. But the thing with your brothers in your own house: Nobody knows but you and your brother and maybe your parents. Unfortunately, with me and him, everybody knows. “It’s good we talked. At the time I was being childish about it because I could have gone to him and told him, ‘My fault.’ He told me he probably should have come to me. We should have handled it differently, but unfortunately we let our emotions got the best of us. “For what he said, he felt he had a right to say that, and I respect that. But we settled that and it just helps our relationship get stronger and grow from that point.” Heart explained that it wasn’t easy to get Gooden to the sit-down. “It was a very difficult thing for Doc,” she said. “He felt betrayed and he felt lost and I saw this from the months after all of this happened. And Darryl felt that. Darryl really wanted to talk to him face-to-face. They wouldn’t talk on the phone and finally I said, ‘You know what, you guys? If I can bring you together in a real setting in a real place and you can talk this out, will you do it?’ They said ‘absolutely’ because deep down inside, they truly do care for each other.” Gooden went on a drug and alcohol binge the night before the ’86 victory parade and ended up watching it on television in a Long Island housing project. He was genuinely touched by Friday’s ceremony. “You have a big hole, no matter how much you’ve accomplished, when you miss something major, something as a kid you dreamed of,” Gooden said. “When you miss something of that magnitude with a team and a city, especially because of addiction — and my addiction had me in a place where I was watching it on TV — it kept me sick for a long time. I was able to learn how to cope with it, but I never got over it. There was always an emptiness there. And now that void has been filled.” Gooden said of Strawberry, “We’ve always been close and, deep down, I know he will always love me and I have always loved him. “At times we didn’t see eye-to-eye and maybe times in the future we might not see eye-to-eye, but we know how to handle that now,” he said. “It’s a good thing because so many people want to see Doc and Darryl.”

G-Fafif Apr 29 2017 03:55 PM Re: Happy 30.5th Anniversary, 1986 Mets

A little more in the way of explanation here: The honor doesn’t coincide with a baseball anniversary — it was put on at the urging of Amy Heart, a sports journalist who is filming a pilot for a sports docu-series. The pilot focuses on Gooden and Strawberry, both of whom have struggled with addiction. Just last year, Strawberry said he believed Gooden was using drugs again — making a public plea for him to get help in a Daily News interview. That led to a rift between the two players, but by March they were spotted together again — with Strawberry posting a picture of them together on Instagram and thanking Heart for bringing them together. The city footed the bill to provide the scene for the documentary, with the Department of Citywide Administrative Services building a stage in front of City Hall yesterday. City Hall spokesman Eric Phillips said the production was put on in-house at “extremely minimal” expense. Take it out of whatever budget they waste on securing the perimeter of MFYS III.

G-Fafif May 01 2017 12:36 PM Re: Happy 30.5th Anniversary, 1986 Mets

A little more background on how Doc got his do-over. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/30/nyre ... lasio.html So how did Ms. Heart get the city not only to pay for the backdrop of a scene in a television pilot but also have the mayor take part? By enlisting the influential lobbying firm of James F. Capalino, a friend and longtime donor to Mr. de Blasio whose business skyrocketed with the mayor’s election.