I purchased a copy of the 1989 Mets yearbook last week. While reading it, I began to wonder what happened to this team.
The 1989 Mets were stacked. They were a team which had achieved World Series glory three years earlier and were returning from a dramatic and heart-breaking loss to the Dodgers the previous year.
They were a power-house. But they lost. They didn’t even win the division. What happened?
There were names in the yearbook which read like a who’s who of Mets History. The players on the major league roster appearing in the yearbook are:
Mookie Wilson
Mackey Sasser
Lenny Dykstra
Gary Carter
Gregg Jefferies
Tim Teufel
Ron Darling
Lee Mazzilli
Dwight Gooden
Keith Hernandez
Darryl Strawberry
Bob Ojeda
Howard Johnson
Kevin Elster
Kevin McReynolds
Keith Miller
Terry Leach
Dave Magadan
Barry Lyons
Rick Aguilera
Roger McDowell
David Cone
Randy Myers
Sid Fernandez
The team was managed by Davey Johnson. Frank Cashen was Executive Vice President. Fred Wilpon was President and CEO. Nelson Doubleday was Chairman of the Board.
Rising prospects within the organization were:
Don Aase
Edwin Nunez
Phil Lombardi
Darren Reed
Mark Carreon
Dave West
Jack Savage
Craig Shipley
Steve Frey
Jeff Innis
Tim Drummond
John Mitchell
Blaine Beatty
Terry Bross
Chris Jelic
Dave Liddell
Kevin Brown
Brian Givens
Kevin Tapani
Wally Whitehurst
Even before the season started, problems did. In Spring Training, right before the team picture’s were taken, Strawberry and Hernandez got into an altercation allegedly over Strawberry’s contract status. Wilson and Dykstra were not happy over their continuing platoon-status. Wally Backman was gone; he had been traded to Minnesota for prospects. Jefferies was handed the second base job but Jefferies had to learn the position and he didn’t hit in spring training. At least not the way he had hit at the end of 1988 season.
In May, both Carter and Hernandez went on the Disabled List with knee injuries. Carter had arthroscopic surgery and didn’t return until the end of July. Hernandez fractured his right knee cap and didn’t return until mid-July.
Towards the end of May, the Mets made a West Coast trip and dropped six of nine games. This included four losses in a row with two of those going to the San Francisco Giants (including ex-Met Kevin Mitchell who would become the season’s MVP).
Howard Johnson was an offensive bright spot during the month of June hitting 11 HRs, accumulating 24 RBIs, and scoring 25 runs. In mid-June, the Mets made another personnel shift; they dealt Dykstra and McDowell to the Phillies for Juan Samuel. Samuel went on to steal 31 bases for the team but only hit .228.
On July 1st, in the third inning of a game against Cincinnati, Gooden (who had accumulated a 9-3 record) left a game with a tear in the muscle in the back of his shoulder and missed the rest of the season. Between July 25th and July 31st, the team dropped seven straight games. On that date, during the last minutes of the trading deadline, the Mets arranged a deal with the Minnesota Twins and sent Aguilera, West, and Tapani to them in exchange for Frank Viola. Viola went 5-5 for the Mets. The team also dealt Mookie Wilson to the Toronto Blue Jays for Jeff Musselman.
For the next three weeks, the Mets played winning baseball accruing 15 wins in 19 games. Then on August 20th, Don Aase allowed a homerun to Willie Randolph which cost them a game to the Dodgers. The Mets went on to play .500 baseball for the rest of the season.
As the season wound to a close, FAN AM radio began taking calls from Mets fans calling for the removal of Davey Johnson. Johnson fined Strawberry and McReynolds for not being present in the dugout during a failed ninth-inning rally against the Cubs. Hernandez was quoted as saying that the 1989 Mets team didn’t deserve to win.
The Chicago Cubs won the division with a 93-69 record; they were led by Ryne Sandberg, Mark Grace, Greg Maddux, and Rick Sutcliffe, The Mets finished the 1989 season in second place at 87-75. Hernandez and Carter both left New York after season. Davey Johnson would start the 1990 season as the Manager of the Mets but would only last 42 games (and be replaced by Buddy Harrelson). The Mets would improve to 91-71 in 1990 but again finish second (this time to the Pittsburgh Pirates).
I have a 1989 yearbook I bought at Shea but it is the revised addition from after the Dykstra deal.Different cover as well,orange with a #1 representing the Mets having the #1 record from 1984 thru ’88(won 90 games every year,a streak that ended in 89 as well).I was in favor of the trade for Samuel because I felt Dykstra was regressing from what he needed to do as a lead off man,not taking walks,looking to hit HR’s etc.I thought Samuel might recapture his offensive form.McDowell turned out to be a big loss as well.The system wasn’t exactly producing stars as you can see from that “prospect” list.Even Keith Hernandez admits that Jefferies was treated unfairly by the veterans.Of course we know now what was wrong with Daryl and Doc.The Mets traded Mitchell to SD who than traded him to SF if you recall,at the time Cashen apparently thought trading Mitch would begood for Doc and Daryl.
I was at that Willie Randolph/Don Aase game. You never heard She Stadium get so quiet so fast. Faster even than game 7 of the 2006 NLCS.
Shea Stadium, of course…
Just came across this article from baseball-reference. Good read. One note, Don Aase was anything but a prospect in 1989. Guy had been pitching in the big since I believe 1977 or 1978.