Title/Author:
“The Bad Guys Won!” by Jeff Pearlman
Tags:
Baseball, professional,
history, Mets, championship
Publish date:
October 13, 2009
Length:
304 pages
Rating:
5 of 5 stars
(outstanding)
Review:
Plenty has been written
about the 1986 New York Mets, one of the most colorful teams to win a World Series
in the past few decades. Just HOW colorful
they were is captured in this terrific book by award winning author Jeff Pearlman.
Because that particular
team had so much talent, the belief was that they were going to win many championships. Why they failed to do so as been discussed in
many of the aforementioned books, but instead, Pearlman writes about the
character (and characters) of the team instead of analyzing them. This is what
sets this book apart from other books about this team.
It didn’t matter whether
a player was a tough guy from a rough place (Kevin Mitchell) or a nice guy
(Mookie Wilson), a superstar (Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden) or a bench
player (Ed Hearn, Tim Teufel), no Mets player goes unnoticed by Pearlman. While the title may seem to imply that there
will be a lot of critical stories about the players and the team, the material
is presented in a fair manner to all mentioned.
This material is also very entertaining and that makes the book a joy to
read.
Whether the topic is
the “Scum Bunch” of Jessie Orosco, Doug Sisk and Danny Heep having drinking
contests, manager Davey Johnson running the team as he sees fit no matter what
General Manager Frank Cashen and the press think, or George Foster becoming an
outcast (something that wasn’t easy to do on that team, according to the
author), the reader will either learn something new about this team or be thoroughly
entertained by the story.
The baseball sections
are written just as well. The National
League Championship Series against the Houston Astros is covered in great depth,
with a lot of space devoted to the Mets’ fear of facing Astros ace Mike Scott. Many times, teams will psych themselves out
of a win when doing that, but the Mets were able to avoid facing Scott for a
game 7 in that series. Then the writing
about the World Series against the Boston Red Sox is just as good. Everything from Jim Rice NOT scoring on a double
in the first inning of the fateful game 6 to the elation when Orosco threw his
glove in the air after the final out of game 7, the Series is covered in great
detail. The culmination of all those drunken
parties and incidents is reached with a championship for the Mets and the
reader feels like he or she is there in person.
Mets fans will
especially enjoy this account of that magical season, but readers who are
interested in learning about that team and its place in history will also want
to add this book to their reading collection.
Book Format Read:
E-book (Kindle)
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