1985 TOPPS KEITH HERNANDEZ
La Bonne Vie, they called it. The good life.
That was the name of the apartment complex in East Patchogue where I spent my 1985.
I discovered panic attacks, the Pogues, and the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins that summer. I also had a brief existential crisis regarding my love of baseball.
The previous year had been a reawakening for the Mets, as they logged 90 wins and finished second to Jim Frey‘s Cubs.
But midway through 1985, as the team made it clear that they were genuine contenders, I was struck suddenly by the simple absurdity of expending my passion on the exploits of a bunch of strangers.
It was a brief epiphanic moment– probably lasted no more than a week– and ultimately I made my peace with the arrangement and got back to the art of being a fan.
The Mets spent half of August at the top of the standings and five days in September as well, before falling 4.5 games back of the Cardinals by September 27.
That very same day, a storm that had begun life as a tropical wave in the eastern Atlantic made landfall on the south shore of Long Island. Hurricane Gloria knocked out power in my apartment complex for 10 days.
As a result, I consumed the end of the 1985 pennant race on the radio, most often sitting in the driver’s seat of a 1983 Corolla in the La Bonne Vie parking lot, a flashlight on the passenger’s seat and a hard pack of Marlboro Lights on the dash.
The Mets began a big three-game series in St. Louis on October 1 with an exhausting 1-0 win, secured when Darryl Strawberry homered off Ken Dayley in the 11th inning. The next day, they moved within one game of first place when Dwight Gooden outpitched the late Joaquin Andujar for a 5-2 win. This set up a showdown on October 3– if the Mets won, they would be tied for the lead, with three games remaining at Shea against the Expos.
But alas, Rick Aguilera was not up to the task, and the Mets were held in check by Danny Cox and a small parade of relievers. Keith Hernandez, the soul of that 1985 team, went 5-5 with two doubles and drove in two of the three runs the Mets scored in the 4-3 loss.
LILCO finally restored power to East Patchogue on October 6, the day the 1985 regular season ended with the Mets in second place, three games behind the Cardinals.
I walked my dog that night by the amber glow of electric lamplights. I looked beyond the broken branches, bent tree limbs, and turning leaves and saw the good life right there on the horizon…
98 wins and no trip to the postseason.That was the way it was,and we liked it!
I was at NC State and had just met Bob, a Mets from NJ and the two of us were in my dorm room where we picked up a signal where we could almost kind of hear the game through the static. We listened to that 1-0 game and I remember it like it was yesterday.
My roommate was a hick from Eastern NC who didn’t like me to begin with and that day pushed him over the edge. I haven’t seen him in nearly 30 years and have no desire to ever see him again.
Meanwhile, Bob and I were groomsmen in each others weddings and we just took part in a fantasy football draft and we’re making plans to see each other in October.
That series in St. Louis was electric. Remember it well.
Another nice essay, Doug.
LILCO!
Grew up in Wantagh, flipped burgers at Jones Beach, etc.
What memories! I was a young teenager in 1985. It was only my 2nd year as a baseball fan. My parents took us to a game at Shea that season (we lived in western NY) and we got to see Dwight Gooden pitch in his Cy Young season. Keith Hernandez was my favorite player.
I recall the agonizing yet thrilling tension of that final 3-game series with St. Louis almost like it was yesterday. What made it even more heartbreaking was that the Mets almost certainly would have tied the game at 4-4 if Mookie Wilson had not stumbled rounding 3rd base in the 8th inning (I forget now whether he got thrown out at the plate, or had to hold up… I think the latter – I seem to recall him scrambling back to the bag). In any case, he never scored that tying run). I cried myself to sleep that night after they were all but eliminated (not technically eliminated, but 2 games out with only 3 to play).
Grew up in Massapequa. Was working at Simon and Schuster in NYC by ’85. Went to a game mid-summer, mid-week. Gooden pitched; sat in the bleachers. Nobody said a word cause everyone was listening to Carter’s mitt pop after every K. Now that was electricity.
Oh…also worked at Jones Beach too at the toll booth in ’81. The Wantagh tolls were easier than working the Meadowbrook tolls. They weren’t as hot and had about 25% less car fumes.
I think of Cubs and Royals manager Jim Frey when the criticism of Terry Collins takes a certain turn. If you think Collins exasperates you with some of his in-game decisions, you shoulda been around to witness Jim Frey. As Bill James said it, his teams eventually lost confidence in him, as they came to realize that whatever might happen next in a game would come as a complete surprise to Jim Frey.
But then, he won Division Championships with two teams. There is that to consider.
Last year at this time, I’d say that the consensus MLB “idiot” manager was considered to be Ned Yost.
The Royals seem to be doing okay.
My memories of that series is the broken clock from the Stawberry homerun that the broadcast opened the next game with (and the homerun itself because Dayley was a lefty and was expected to neutralize Stawberry), the opening of Game 3 on TV with scenes from the previous two games and Billy Joel’s “Pressure” playing loudly while the slideshow was happening, and Vince Coleman’s single that fell int LF driving in the winning run. I never got over that moment and hated that the Mets had brought him in later in his career.