If you were a hockey fan, that was also the year the Montreal Canadiens, led by rookies and youth like Patrick Roy and Claude Lemieux went on a shocking run to win the Stanley Cup. It was the year Calgary took out Gretzky and the Oilers.
Edmonton won four Cups in five years, but Calgary was no match for hockey's cardiac, overtime kids in the Finals
Roger Craig taught Mike Scott the split finger and then became one of the managers asking the umps to check for emery boards. I remember a game I was at where Craig was adamant that Scott was scuffing the ball.
Wonderful!! I was 16/17 in 1986. I have been reading Joe for well over 10 years but I never saw this one. It is a gem.
Johnny Mac was my favorite but I greatly admired Lendl. He represented pure hard work to me. He was great on clay but knew Wimbledon was the best slam so he worked so hard to try to win there. Even skipped the French 1 or more times when he probably would have been a/the favorite. Heroic in several losses at Wimbledon, at least in my memory.
What I remember most vividly about those ALCS and NLCS games is them running into each other because of extra innings so we had baseball from when I got home from school until late. A great day of baseball!!
I agree with some others - I don’t think the Sox were going to get the out even if it doesn’t go through Buckner. But the Mets don’t score on the play if he stops it, right?
Somehow I missed this one in the archives. What a wonderful recounting of an important year in sports.
I was 11 going on 12 but it was the year my baseball fantasy dreams emerged (Squish the Fish Patriots, Clemens Ks 20 and starts the year 14-0, Celtics win their 16th title) and promptly came crashing down with a "life ain't fair, kid" reality check I never asked for (Bears demolish Pars, Bias dies, Red Sox... )
From anything is possible to life breaks your heart. All in one calendar year.
For me, 1986 was all about Steve Smith's own goal in Game 7 of the Division Finals between the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames. The Oilers had the potential to win 5 or 6 Stanley Cups in a row, instead they had to settle for 5 in 7 years.
Just when I thought I had already read your best piece, you blow the dust off of this one. It doesn't matter if you wrote it last night or in 1987 ... this one brought back a tidal wave of my own memories of life-altering events from throughout 1986. Simply awesome, Joe! Thank you.
What a fantastic essay, thanks so much. Your story about Crockett Park reminded me of the time I went to old Comiskey Park. It was the last year of the old Park, either 1989 or 1990, and I’d never been there before (I’m from Detroit). Tiger stadium was old, I mean the day it opened was the date the Titanic sank, but when you got inside it looked like a beautiful baseball stadium. Old Comiskey Park was OLD - it was truly a ballpark. I turned to the guy next to me and said “This place is so old the grass should be black and white”. Still one of my best lines...
Killer stuff! I was 23 in 1986, in the first year of my Too Cool for School era. Still, I remember many of these moments, even as I was doing my best to ignore the success the stinking Mets were having. Your closing insight was spot on!
I am the same age as Joe, within days, and 1986 was an absolute disaster of a debacle of a fiasco for me. I guess I was Elaine and Joe was George. Things balance out.
• 10,715 words - My Favorite Year (1986)
• 5,969 words - No. 3, Barry Bonds, the longest essay in The Baseball 100
I graduated high school in 1986 and my only daughter just started college. I just read this article while drinking a couple glasses of wine (it was long!) and I must admit that it brought more than one tear to my eyes. I remember every one of these events vividly from my youth and that, along with my daughter starting college, just brings home the fact that time is fleeting and things pass so quickly. Thanks! (I think)
(Ernie Camacho had a fastball and nothing else for the Indians. Manager Pat Corrales used to stand on the top step of the dugout and yell, "No tricks!")
If you were a hockey fan, that was also the year the Montreal Canadiens, led by rookies and youth like Patrick Roy and Claude Lemieux went on a shocking run to win the Stanley Cup. It was the year Calgary took out Gretzky and the Oilers.
Edmonton won four Cups in five years, but Calgary was no match for hockey's cardiac, overtime kids in the Finals
1986. You don't get years like that anymore.
On St. Patrick's Day my son was born. So there's that.
And St. Patrick won his team an unlikely Stanley Cup that year. There's also that 🙂
Roger Craig taught Mike Scott the split finger and then became one of the managers asking the umps to check for emery boards. I remember a game I was at where Craig was adamant that Scott was scuffing the ball.
Wonderful!! I was 16/17 in 1986. I have been reading Joe for well over 10 years but I never saw this one. It is a gem.
Johnny Mac was my favorite but I greatly admired Lendl. He represented pure hard work to me. He was great on clay but knew Wimbledon was the best slam so he worked so hard to try to win there. Even skipped the French 1 or more times when he probably would have been a/the favorite. Heroic in several losses at Wimbledon, at least in my memory.
What I remember most vividly about those ALCS and NLCS games is them running into each other because of extra innings so we had baseball from when I got home from school until late. A great day of baseball!!
I agree with some others - I don’t think the Sox were going to get the out even if it doesn’t go through Buckner. But the Mets don’t score on the play if he stops it, right?
I wonder if I have that issue of Beckett Baseball Magazine in my house. I bet I do: score one for the packrat! Gonna dig that out this weekend.
Somehow I missed this one in the archives. What a wonderful recounting of an important year in sports.
I was 11 going on 12 but it was the year my baseball fantasy dreams emerged (Squish the Fish Patriots, Clemens Ks 20 and starts the year 14-0, Celtics win their 16th title) and promptly came crashing down with a "life ain't fair, kid" reality check I never asked for (Bears demolish Pars, Bias dies, Red Sox... )
From anything is possible to life breaks your heart. All in one calendar year.
Great essay, Joe. Thanks.
Awesome!!!!!!
For me, 1986 was all about Steve Smith's own goal in Game 7 of the Division Finals between the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames. The Oilers had the potential to win 5 or 6 Stanley Cups in a row, instead they had to settle for 5 in 7 years.
Just perfect. Great writing here, Joe, and great memories as well. Thank you for this.
Just when I thought I had already read your best piece, you blow the dust off of this one. It doesn't matter if you wrote it last night or in 1987 ... this one brought back a tidal wave of my own memories of life-altering events from throughout 1986. Simply awesome, Joe! Thank you.
What a fantastic essay, thanks so much. Your story about Crockett Park reminded me of the time I went to old Comiskey Park. It was the last year of the old Park, either 1989 or 1990, and I’d never been there before (I’m from Detroit). Tiger stadium was old, I mean the day it opened was the date the Titanic sank, but when you got inside it looked like a beautiful baseball stadium. Old Comiskey Park was OLD - it was truly a ballpark. I turned to the guy next to me and said “This place is so old the grass should be black and white”. Still one of my best lines...
Killer stuff! I was 23 in 1986, in the first year of my Too Cool for School era. Still, I remember many of these moments, even as I was doing my best to ignore the success the stinking Mets were having. Your closing insight was spot on!
I am the same age as Joe, within days, and 1986 was an absolute disaster of a debacle of a fiasco for me. I guess I was Elaine and Joe was George. Things balance out.
• 10,715 words - My Favorite Year (1986)
• 5,969 words - No. 3, Barry Bonds, the longest essay in The Baseball 100
[Results have not been audited]
I graduated high school in 1986 and my only daughter just started college. I just read this article while drinking a couple glasses of wine (it was long!) and I must admit that it brought more than one tear to my eyes. I remember every one of these events vividly from my youth and that, along with my daughter starting college, just brings home the fact that time is fleeting and things pass so quickly. Thanks! (I think)
Wow - fantastic.
(Ernie Camacho had a fastball and nothing else for the Indians. Manager Pat Corrales used to stand on the top step of the dugout and yell, "No tricks!")