The Curse of Kevin Mitchell: Now 40 Years

Kevin Mitchell, 1986

October 27, 1986, 40 years ago: The New York Mets win the World Series. I was not happy about this.

They have not done so since. I am very happy about that.

After Game 7 was pushed back a day by rain, the Boston Red Sox actually seem to be shaking off the historical, hysterical Game 6 loss. They lead the Mets, 3-0 in the bottom of the 6th inning. Bruce Hurst, with an extra day's rest, is doing just fine. The Sox have chased Ron Darling. Sid Fernandez has relieved him. The Sox are just 12 outs away from their 1st World Championship in 68 years after all.

Can they hold it? These are the pre-steroid Boston Red Sox, what do you think? The Mets tie it up in the 6th. The idiot manager John McNamara brings in Calvin Schiraldi, who choked in the 10th the night before, to pitch the 7th, and Ray Knight leads off with a home run.  he Mets make it 6-3 by the inning's end.

The Sox make it 6-5 in the top of the 8th, so there's still hope, but then Al Nipper serves one up to Darryl Strawberry, and he hits one out, and takes a leisurely stroll around the bases, allowing NBC to run about a dozen commercials.

The Mets let reliever Jesse Orosco bat for himself, and he drives in another run, and he gets the last out by striking out Marty Barrett. Mets 8, Red Sox 5. Orosco hurls his glove high into the Flushing air.

The Mets won their 1st World Championship on October 16, 1969. It took them 17 years and 11 days, but they had now won their 2nd World Championship.

Anyone then thinking that they wouldn't win their 3rd World Championship for at least another 40 years would have been asked what he was smoking.

*

But, tonight, exactly 40 years later, the Mets are still looking for that 3rd World Championship. They've won just 2 more Pennants and just 2 more World Series games since that night -- 1 in 2000, and 1 in 2015. To make matters worse, following the 1st of those Pennants, they went on to lose to the Yankees in the World Series, 1 of 5 the Yankees have won since 1986.

Indeed, since October 27, 1986, the Mets have reached the Playoffs 8 times, which is not a bad total at all. But the Yankees have done it 27 times, including 8 Pennants and 5 World Championships. As late as 1992, before the Yankees started contending again, it could be argued that the Mets were the top baseball team in New York. It has never been true again -- it wasn't even true in 2015.

World Series wins since 1986? The Yankees 5, the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers 4, the San Francisco Giants 3; 2 each for the Minnesota Twins, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Florida (now Miami) Marlins, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros; and 1 each for the Oakland Athletics, the Cincinnati Reds, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Anaheim (now named Los Angeles, through they're still in Anaheim) Angels, the Chicago White Sox, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Kansas City Royals, the Chicago Cubs, the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals, and the Texas Rangers.

This gets even more embarrassing when you look at some of the droughts that ended: The Cubs 108 years without a World Championship, the White Sox 88, the Red Sox 86, the Twins 63 (they had never won since moving from being "the old Washington Senators"), the Rangers 63 (they had never won as either the Rangers or "the new Washington Senators"), the Giants 56 (they had never won since moving from New York to San Francisco), the Astros 56 (their 1st ever), the Expos/Nats 51 (their 1st ever), the Angels 42 (their 1st ever), the Dodgers 32, the Royals 30, the Braves 28 (they had never won since moving from Milwaukee to Atlanta), the Phillies 28.

Also, the last time the Mets won a World Series, these teams did not yet exist: The Marlins, the Rays, the Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies. The Marlins, Rays and D-backs have matched the Mets with 2 Pennants, each; the Rox, 1.

And I'll bring up the Yankees again: They've won as many World Series since the Mets' last title as the Mets have won Pennants in their entire history. So the old "How many were you alive for?" argument doesn't work.

On the other hand, if a Mets fan followed my path (aside from choosing the Yankees, of course), and watched his 1st game on television at age 7, and that was in 1987, that would mean we now have Met fans in their late 40s who cannot remember their team winning the World Series. It would be like me with the pre-renovation Yankee Stadium, the Yankees playing at Shea, the Chris Chambliss home run, and the Mets' Pennant of 1973: They would know it happened within their lifetime, but not within their memory.

Or, to put it another way: The youngest player on the '86 Mets was John Mitchell, a pitcher who appeared in 4 games that season, and he's 61 years old, a year younger than Dwight Gooden, who turns 62 next month. The oldest? George Foster, about to turn 78. (He was gone by the time the reached the postseason. The oldest player on the postseason roster was Ray Knight, who is about to turn 74.)

Gary Carter is dead. That's as much of a shock as the fact that Gooden, Darryl Strawberry and Lenny Dykstra are still alive, after all they've done to themselves (and others). Darryl, Doc and "Nails" -- or "Dude," as he's known to his teammates on another bunch of ne'er-do-wells, the 1993 Philadelphia Phillies -- all now seem to be repentant. Darryl and Nails, apparently, needed religion to get there.

Looking at the clips from 1986, they're in color, and they look like they could have happened yesterday. The world has changed so much since. We've had retrospectives like Jeff Pearlman's book The Bad Guys Won! ESPN has done 2 30 for 30 documentaries on the 1980s Mets: Doc & Darryl in 2016, and Once Upon a Time in Queens in 2021.

What the hell happened? Well, when something goes wrong, people like to look for scapegoats. Someone frustrated with the Red Sox' inability to win a World Series since 1918 thought he found a reason: They hadn't won since they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919, and the phrase "The Curse of the Bambino" was born. The phrase was popularized by Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy, and became the title of his 1990 book about the history of that franchise.

*

December 11, 1986, a date which lives in Flushing infamy: The Mets sent Kevin Mitchell, Shawn Abner, Stan Jefferson, Kevin Armstrong and Kevin Brown (no, not that Kevin Brown, though he did also pitch for the Padres later) to Mitchell's hometown, San Diego, for Kevin McReynolds, Gene Walter and Adam Ging. Forget everyone else, if you hadn't already: The keys to this trade were Mitchell and McReynolds.

McReynolds was a good player, but he was not a member of the glorious '86 team that went all the way. When the Mets didn't go all the way again, he became a scapegoat, and got the hell booed out of him. Fair? Of course not.

But it wouldn't have mattered so much if Mitchell hadn't panned out. And, as far as his hometown Padres were concerned, he didn't: On July 5, 1987, not even at the All-Star Break of his 1st season with them, he was batting just .245 in 62 games, so they sent him, and pitchers Dave Dravecky and Craig Lefferts, up the coast to the San Francisco Giants, getting back 3rd baseman Chris Brown, reliever Mark Davis (both of whom became All-Stars but never helped the team into the Playoffs) and 2 guys you don't need to remember. So Mitchell-for-McReynolds didn't help the Mets or the Padres.

These two Mitchell trades, however, helped the Giants tremendously. Before the trade, they had been in San Francisco for 29 years and had reached the postseason exactly twice, the last time, 16 years earlier. In 1987, the Giants won the NL West, as Mitchell responded to the change of scenery by hitting .306 with 15 homers and 44 RBIs in just 69 games for them.

In 1988, Mitchell tailed off a little, and the Giants tailed off a lot. But in 1989, he hit 47 home runs, had 125 RBIs, put up a sick OPS+ of 192, and made one of the great catches of all time, a running barehanded catch in St. Louis -- off the bat of defensive "Wizard" Ozzie Smith, no less -- that almost sent him barreling into the stands. Not since the salad days of Willie Mays had the Giants seen that kind of outfield defense.

He won the NL's Most Valuable Player award, and helped the Giants win only their 2nd Pennant in 35 years, while the Mets finished 2nd in the NL East for the 5th of 6 times in a span of 8 years – the others being the '86 crown and the '88 Division title. (Funny, but nobody ever talks about how bad trading Mitchell away was for the Padres.)

Problems with his weight and other disciplinary issues led to Mitchell being traded several times. But he did help the Cincinnati Reds into 1st place in the NL Central Division when the Strike of '94 hit, and still had an OPS+ of 138 as late as 1996.

But he played his last big-league game in 1998 at age 36, and after bouncing around the independent minors, including stints in New Jersey with the Newark Bears and the Atlantic City Surf, he called it a career. Sort of: He went back to his native San Diego, playing in an "adult baseball league" (no, no porn stars involved – that I know of), and won a title with his team in 2009.

At 64, he is now an instructor for youth baseball teams, and recently recovered from a nasty neck injury that put him in the hospital for a month. By the time he returned to Shea for the celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the title in the Summer of 2016, he was walking on his own again, and hoping to go back to his passion for motorcycles. He belongs to a motorcycle club (not a "biker gang" -- he calls it "Just a bunch of old guys having fun") called the Hood Beasts.

Mitchell in 2016, at the title team's

30th Anniversary reunion at Citi Field.

He attended the 40th Anniversary reunion this year,

but I couldn't find a picture of it.

Mitchell had an adolescence connected to gangs in San Diego. He has been arrested for assault twice since his last major league game, although on neither occasion did the case go to trial. He was once listed as a tax delinquent to the tune of over $5 million. And then there's the shocking story that Dwight Gooden told, in his first memoir, of an act of animal cruelty -- a story which Doc, in a later memoir, admitted that he made up, and Mitchell has called "wildly untrue."

It seems silly to suggest that he was angry about being traded by the Mets so soon after winning the Series, certainly not so angry that he would place a "curse" on them. After all, he went to his hometown, the team he grew up rooting for. They soon traded him, but that worked out really well for him. Perhaps not in terms of team success, but, in terms of fame and fortune, getting away from the Mets was the best thing that could have happened to him.

Still, the fact remains that the Mets won a World Series, and were expected to win more; then, just 45 days after they won said Series, they traded Mitchell away, and they haven't won one since.

Are the Mets cursed? Or have they just been hit with a 4-decade-long combination of good competition and their own incompetence -- on the field, in the dugout, and in the boardroom?

Other teams have waited longer. Some, a lot longer. Some of those teams have had bizarre moments and crashes-and-burns that suggest being cursed. Some haven't, and have just... not... gotten it done.

The Mets?

* 1987: They finished 3 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Eastern Division. Only 2 Divisions then, and no Wild Card Playoff berths.

* 1988: They won the NL East title, and led the NL Championship Series against the Dodgers, 2-1 and led Game 4, 4-2 in the 9th inning. They were 3 outs away from being up 3-1 with Game 5 at home. But Gooden gave up a home run to Mike Scioscia, not exactly a big boomer. They lost the game, 5-4 in 12 innings, and lost the series in Game 7.

* 1989: They finished 6 games behind the Chicago Cubs.

* 1990: They finished 4 games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates.

* 1993: The Year of Living Dangerously. A bunch of delinquents, threatening reporters, throwing bleach on people, setting off firecrackers that injured people. And being awful on the field, despite having one of the biggest payrolls in baseball. A 5-game winning streak to close the season, and they still ended up 59-103, their worst season since 1965.

* 1995, 1996 and 1997: These were supposed to be the years that started "Generation K": Three good young starting pitchers that would anchor the team for a decade. Instead, Jason Isringhausen, Bill Pulsipher and Paul Wilson all sustained crippling arm injuries. Only Isringhausen amounted to anything, and that was as a reliever, after they traded him away.

* 1998: They needed to win 1 of their last 5 games to win the only NL Wild Card berth then available. They won none of them, and were out.

* 1999: They had a great run, to and into the NLCS against the Atlanta Braves. They had their chances to win Game 6 and send it to a Game 7, but they blew it.

* 2000: They won the Pennant, but lost the World Series -- to the Yankees. All 5 games ended up being close, but they choked in Games 1 and 5, and let the team their fans hate the most clinch the title at Shea Stadium, with 25,000 fans chanting, "Thank you, George!" as Steinbrenner came onto the field. A humiliation from which the only recovery will be to beat the Yankees in a World Series.

* 2001: They finished 6 games behind the Braves, and 11 out of the Wild Card. In the end, that Mike Piazza home run meant nothing as far as the Playoff race was concerned.

* 2002: An injury-riddled season ended their brief run of not-much-glory.

* 2006: They won the Division, which they did not do in either 1999 or 2000 (they were Wild Cards both times), and were tied 1-1 going into the 9th of NLCS Game 7 against the Cardinals. But Yadier Molina hit a home ran, and with the tying and winning runs on base, Carlos Beltrán took a called 3rd strike to end the season.

* 2007: They led the Division by 7 games with 17 to play, and missed the Playoffs completely, including losing 6 of their last 7, and that including a 1st-inning meltdown in the last game. It was the team that should have always been their geographic rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies, that won the Division.

* 2008: They led the Division by 3 1/2 games with 17 to play, and missed the Playoffs completely, including losing the last game at Shea Stadium. Again, the Phillies won the NL East, and went on to win the World Series. Then came a down period, thanks to team owner Fred Wilpon having invested a lot of his money with fraudster Bernie Madoff.

* 2015: They won the Pennant, and weren't seriously challenged all season long. But when they got to the World Series against the Kansas City Royals, they did something never done before, nor since: They blew leads in 5 games in a single World Series, including the 1 game they ended up winning, anyway.

* 2016: I'm not sure this counts as either a "choke" or "curse material," but it's still bad. They played the San Francisco Giants in the Wild Card round, and it was 0-0 after 8 innings, but the Giants scored 3 in the 9th to win it.

* 2019: They fell 3 games short of the NL's 5th (and, at the time, last) Playoff slot.

* 2020: Even in a season shortened by COVID restrictions, with expanded Playoffs, they finished 5 games out of the NL's 6th and last Playoffs slot.

* 2021: They were in 1st place from May 8 to August 5, and they were no worse than 2 1/2 games out from Opening Day on April 5 to August 16. Then they crashed, finishing 11 1/2 games out of the Division, and 13 out of the 5th and last NL Playoff slot.

* 2022: They had home-field advantage for all 3 games of the NL Wild Card Series against the Padres, but lost the deciding Game 3, then complained that Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove was cheating. The umpires checked him, and determined that he wasn't.

* 2024: They were the NL's 6th and last seed, but they got all the way to the NLCS, against the Dodgers. They won Games 2 and 5, but got clobbered in Games 1, 3, 4 and 6.

* And losses to teams they considered rivals in 1987 (Cardinals), 1989 (Cubs), 1998 and 1999 (Braves), 2000 (Yankees), 2001 (Braves again), 2006 (Cardinals again), and 2007 and 2008 (Phillies both times).

Depending on how you want to define it, that's at least 15, and possibly as many as 23, out of 40 seasons with possible "Curse Material."

And they can't even blame the Wilpons and their insufficient spending anymore: Steve Cohen has spent more than the Steinbrenners ever have, and it hasn't worked. Bobby Bonilla, meet Juan Soto.

And now, it's been a full 40 years. Even the ancient Israelites reached the Promised Land after 40 years. Not the Mets.

True, other Major League Baseball teams have waited longer. The Cubs went 108 years between titles. The other Chicago team, the White Sox, 88 years. The Red Sox, 86 years. The Cleveland Indians/Guardians, 78 years and counting. The Milwaukee Brewers, never in their 57 seasons, although they can end that drought tonight, or at least this week. The Seattle Mariners, never in their 50 seasons. The Pirates, 48 years and counting. The Baltimore Orioles, 43 years and counting. The Detroit Tigers, 42 years and counting.

The Brooklyn Dodgers, before moving to Los Angeles, had the World Series available to them for 52 years before they finally won one; the St. Louis Browns became the Orioles, and had to wait 63 years; the Phillies won their 1st World Championship in their 98 season, the 77th with the title "The World Series" available.

The baseball version of the New York Giants moved to San Francisco, and waited 56 years to do it. The Philadelphia Athletics moved to Kansas City, and then to Oakland, and took 42 years to win another; now, in Sacramento, with Las Vegas on the horizon, they are on a 37-year drought.

The problem is, those teams don't play in the same metropolitan area as, and in the shadow of, a team with far more success. The Cubs and the White Sox have never been especially successful, the former at least not since 1945, and the latter since 1919. The Giants and the A's took turns being better, but neither held a clear edge until the A's moved out of Oakland.

The Mets are doing what they do in the same City, in the same metropolitan area, in front of the same available people, as the Yankees, and remain in their shadow.

Other New York Tri-State Area teams have gone longer without winning a World Championship: The Islanders, 43 years and counting; the Nets, 50 since their ABA title, and never in the NBA; the Knicks, just ended at 53; the Rangers, 54, and now 1 in 86, so Howie Rose was right: This one has lasted a lifetime; and the Jets, 57 years and counting. In addition, the MetroStars/Red Bulls are in their 31st season, and have never won an MLS Cup.

In the 40 years since the Mets' last World Series win, the Yankees have won 5 World Series, the Giants have won 4 Super Bowls, the Devils have won 3 Stanley Cups, the Rangers have won 1, the Knicks have won an NBA Championship, the Liberty have won a WNBA Championship, and New York City FC have won an MLS Cup, and the women's soccer team now known as Gotham FC has won its league 4 times.

After the Mets' disaster in Game 2 of the 2015 World Series, I wrote on Facebook, "On October 27, 2036, when (God willing, I'll still be around for it) I do my 50th Anniversary blog post for the Curse of Kevin Mitchell, you can bet a World Series share that this game will be mentioned."

I'm still here. So is the Curse of Kevin Mitchell. Just 10 years to go.

13 years to match the Knicks' drought. 14 years to match the Rangers' drought.

Think about this: A child born on June 15, 1994, the day after the Rangers won the Cup, who decided when old enough to root for the Mets, the Jets, the Nets and the Islanders would, in 32 years, have seen his 4 teams reach only 4 Finals, and lose them all.

While one born the same day, who decide when old enough to root for the Yankees, the Giants, the Knicks and the Devils would in 32 years, have seen his teams reach 18 Finals, winning 11 of them.

The Curse of Kevin Mitchell? Do you believe?

Met fans like to use the old line of 1965-74 relief pitcher Tug McGraw: YA GOTTA BELIEVE!

I'd rather believe in the curse on the Mets than believe in the Mets themselves.