How do you treat a player who shines and is
the fighting spirit of a championship team personified?
He batted .391 in the ’86 World Series. He scored
the winning run in Game 6 after carrying his team
to a tenth-inning comeback, and he hit the vital go-ahead homer
in the final game of the match against the Bosox. He symbolized
the team’s never-quit mystique that year. Earlier in the season,
this ultra-talented collection of individuals … Gooden, Strawberry,
Carter, Hernandez, Fernandez, Darling, Wilson, Johnson, Orosco,
McDowell … melded into one rough yet smooth machine when this
semi-star and the Reds’ Eric Davis began a brawl at third base. The
benches cleared and the Mets’ machine never looked back.
Ray Knight, hero of the day, the Series and the season,
was named MVP of that year’s Fall Classic —– and Mets management
rewarded him in his free agency by not fighting for him as he had fought
for them. Ray Knight, 1986 World Series Most Valuable Player and
the straw that stirred the champagne in ’86, played for the Orioles in’87.
He was missed in Queens in the heart of every championship fan. But
As they keep reminding us, it’s, in the end, a business. Emotions do not
enter into business decisions. Why, then, did it hurt so much?
By the way, 2026 marks 40 years since the Mets last won the World Series.
So, how’s business?