It's official: Fans storm field in clincher

BY ANTHONY RIEBER | Newsday Staff Writer

August 17, 2006

There was only one thing left for the 1986 Mets to do as the season headed for the finish line: clinch the franchise's first National League East crown since 1973.

On Sept. 10, the Mets' lead in the division reached 22 games and their magic number was down to two after a 6-1 win over the Expos.

But the Mets then went on a season-high four-game losing streak before winning Sept. 16 in St. Louis to drop the magic number to one.

Maybe the Mets just wanted to clinch at home and enjoy the moment with their fans.

They got to do that.

In a big, dangerous, New York way.

On Sept. 17, Dwight Gooden threw a six-hitter and rookie first baseman Dave Magadan went 3-for-4 with two RBIs in a 4-2 win over the Cubs. Magadan was making his first major-league start in place of Keith Hernandez, who was ill.

Hernandez, though, wanted to be on the field when it ended, so he caught the final out on a grounder to Wally Backman. The celebration was on - and so were the fans.

On the field, that is.

It used to be a quaint custom in baseball that fans would rush the field after a team clinched something. But Shea Stadium was so torn up after Mets fans celebrated with their heroes that the custom soon died out, to be replaced by today's custom of mounted police in riot gear keeping the field free of interlopers.

Once they were free of the field, the Mets went back to the locker room for a raucous champagne celebration. New York City Mayor Ed Koch was among the dignitaries on hand.

"It was very rewarding," manager Davey Johnson said last week in a telephone interview. "It was a long season. Especially from where we came from. When I got there, we weren't playing too good, and then when we did start playing good, we had a couple second-place finishes.

"Finally, in '86, it culminated."

The celebration had to end quickly, though. The Mets and Cubs had a game the next afternoon. With the field patched up by a grounds crew that worked through the night, the Mets fielded a lineup that included rookies Magadan, John Gibbons, Stanley Jefferson and Kevin Elster.

But this was 1986. The Mets weren't done winning.

Rookies Rick Anderson, John Mitchell and Randy Myers six-hit the Cubs, 5-0. The Mets beat another rookie, Greg Maddux.

The Mets finished the regular season with a flourish, winning nine of their last 10 games. Their total of 108 wins shattered the club mark of 100, set in 1969.

Before 1986, that season was the last, and only, time the Mets won the World Series.

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