The Mets are off to a 29-22 start and currently sit in second place in the National League East. They have one of the better starting rotations in baseball and are fresh off their first postseason appearance since 2006. However, if they want to build on the success of a year ago, a member of the franchise’s last World Series-winning team says an intangible is missing.
A few members of the 1986 Mets were recently in New York to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their championship. Among them was Darryl Strawberry, who feels this year’s edition of the Mets needs to play with more of an edge. And what better way to find out who’s tough than by getting into some fights.
“I don’t know, maybe they need to get into a couple of fights,” Strawberry said via the New York Post. “You find out then who’s tough and who’s not,” he continued. “Maybe they need to go to the bar and drink and get into a couple of fights like we did. Then you realize what you really have.”
Manager Terry Collins would surely be all for duplicating what the ’86 Mets did on the field. The off-the-field escapades, though, he and the organization could obviously do without.
During last Saturday’s game between the Mets and Dodgers, Noah Syndergaard was ejected for throwing behind Chase Utley, which could have led to tempers flaring, a subsequent fight, and Strawberry’s approval for mixing it up a little. Instead, cooler heads prevailed.
