1986 New York Mets: 25 Years Later, Not so Amazin' After All?

Lenny Dykstra has done it again. Of late, it seems the man can't help but sink to new depths with each passing day.  

Coupled with Roger McDowell being accused and then suspended by the Braves organization for lewd comments and gestures toward fans, you have to wonder, who or what is next? 

They say you should never meet your heroes. In the case of this crew, you wonder if you should run the other way. It's so bad, even former long-time equipment manager Charlie Samuels can't stay out of trouble. Unlike other legendary teams that quietly go gray and perhaps gain a few pounds, the '86 Mets continue to be an endless soap opera. 

In a perfect world, the '86 championship should be a truly bright moment for a large portion of the fanbase to celebrate. Yet as each year passes, that moment becomes all the more confusing and conflicting. 

Oddly, as this crew becomes more and more unlikable, its place in team history becomes all the more significant given the organization's continued incompetence from top to bottom.  

Let's face it, the '69 Miracle Mets are simply urban legends at this point. If you are under the age of 50 and grew up rooting for the Mets, the '86 team is all you've got. If you're under 30, you've got little to nothing. 

As fans, how are we supposed to celebrate this team and to share the stories with the next generation?

Sadly, ballplayers are all too human and have failed marriages, bad business ventures and arrests. For years now, Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden have made back-page headlines for their transgressions. But we knew of their flaws from early on and have tried to accept them, warts and all. Perhaps we can forgive them, but can we forget the otherworldly talent they threw away? 

If it seems unfair to single out a few bad apples from this squad, you may be right, but the incidents from this crew never seem to die down and have become all the more bizarre.  It hurts to see the arrogance that made this team so dominant has seemingly stunted so many of them with the passage of time. 

It would be easy to say, "Lenny Dykstra was a great ballplayer that never grew up." But for those of us that did grow up, the details beyond that statement aren't really easy to explain to our children or, perhaps more importantly, to ourselves. 

With the Mets in the midst of finishing yet another disappointing season both on and off the field, and with no hope on the horizon given the current ownership, it's an unhealthy situation that leaves this fan to question his faith in the past, present, and future of the franchise. 

We've suffered through so much mediocrity and disappointment over the years. Meanwhile, one of the few bright moments continues to show a dark side far more disturbing than ever imagined. 

Yes the bad guys won, but are they winners or even heroes anymore to those of us who cheered them on? I suppose only time will tell.