20 Years Ago: A Look Back at the 1988 Mets

Source: Hot Stove New York.

The year was 1988. Bill Cosby’s sweaters hypnotized us into buying Jell-O Pudding Pops. The nation was swept up in the controversy of the day: Which one of the Golden Girls was Axl Rose singing about in “Sweet Child o’ Mine” (Of course it turned out to be Bea Arthur)? And the movie Cocktail inspired a generation of children to quit playing Go Fish, drop out of elementary school and become bartenders. And 1988 was the year the Mets should have won their second World Series in three years.

After winning 92 games and finishing three games behind the Cardinals the year before, the Mets steamrolled over the rest of the National League East, finishing with a 100-60 record and beating the second-place Pirates by 15 games. In 1987, injuries ripped apart the starting rotation, but in ’88 their five-man rotation started all but four games. The team finished with a Major League best 2.91 ERA. And the offense led the league in runs scored and home runs. The Davey Johnson–led squad was poised to take on the star-powered (or steroid-powered?) Oakland A’s in what could have been the matchup of the decade. But a funny thing happened on the way to the World Series―the Los Angeles Dodgers.

After winning the first game, the Mets lost in game two when David Cone gave up five runs in only two innings pitched. But he was most remembered for firing up the Dodgers by saying Jay Howell had a “high school curveball” while being a guest columnist for one of the local papers. The Mets bounced back in game three to take the series lead but game four was a nightmare as Mike Scioscia hit a two-run homer off Dwight Gooden in the ninth inning, and Kirk Gibson homered off Roger McDowell in the 12^th

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