Those Amazing Mets Trivia Quiz

Answer: Montreal Expos

Gary Carter was actually drafted by the Expos as a shortstop in 1972. He was converted to a catcher in the minors and, ironically, made his Major League debut against the Mets in the 1974 season. The Mets signed their taisman #8 in the 1984-85 offseason and he began his Mets career with a game-winning 10th-inning homer on the Opening Day of the 1985 season. He stayed with the Mets until the end of the 1989 season. He hit 89 of his 324 career HRs for New York, including 24 in the 1986 season.
Carter played for both the Giants and Dodgers before returning to Montreal for a final MLB season in 1992. Gary Carter is the only member of the 1986 Mets who has been inducted into Cooperstown -- he received 78.02% of the votes in the 2003 Hall of Fame ballot and the Expos retired his number that same year.
Carter was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2011 and died nine months later in February 2012 aged 57.

Answer: Keith Hernandez

Keith Hernandez led the 1986 Mets in games played (149), at bats (551) and hits (171). He was also third in RBIs with 83, behind Gary Carter's 105 and Darryl Strawberry's 93.
Hernandez, who joined the Mets in 1983 after a decade with the Cardinals, batted over .300 seven times and won 11 gold gloves, a MLB record for a first baseman that still stood 20 years after his retirement. He was inducted into the Mets' Hall of Fame in 1997 and was voted the Mets' All-Time first baseman by fans in 2002.

Answer: Sid Fernandez

Doc Gooden and Sid Fernandez jointly led the 1986 Mets in the strikeout department, each recording 200. What is remarkable, though, is that Gooden achieved his 200 Ks in 250.0 innings whereas Big Sid did it pitching only 204.1. Ron Darling was third with 184 Ks and Roger McDowell led the relivers with 65 Ks.

Answer: Lenny Dykstra

A 13th-round pick in the 1981 draft, CF Lenny Dystra aka "Nails" had only made his MLB debut in 1985. He played 147 regular-season games in 1986 (just two fewer than Hernandez) and batted .295. His 31 stolen bases led the team, just ahead of Strawberry's 28 and Mookie Wilson's 25. It was in the 1986 post-season that Dykstra firmly established himself in Mets folklore.

He won Game 3 of the NLCS against the Astros with a walk-off home run. With the Mets having lost the opening two games of the World Series at home, it was Dykstra who jump-started the comeback with a lead-off homer in Game 3 in Boston

Answer: Roger McDowell

Cincinnati-native Roger McDowell, like Dykstra another sophmore, led all Mets pitchers in games played (75 against 58 by Orosco) and saves (22 against Orosco's 21). His 14-9 record also meant that he had almost twice as many wins as any of the other relievers (Orosco finished the season with an 8-6 record).

However, it also left him with the unwanted record of the most losses on the team, since none of the starting pitchers lost more than seven times (of the starters, Rick Aguillera finished with a 10-7 record). McDowell was the Mets' brightest star in the NLCS against Houston, allowing just one hite in seven innings pitched.

He picthed an amazing five scoreless innnings in the famous Game 6 16-inning marathon. McDowell has been a pitching coach with Atlanta Braves since 2006.

Answer: Mookie Wilson

Mookie Wilson came to the plate in the bottom of the 10th inning with the Mets 2-3 down in the series, trailing 4-5 with two outs, but with runners on first and third. On the seventh pitch of the at bat, with the Mets one strike from defeat, Wilson managed to avoid a wild pitch at his knees that also got past the Red Sox catcher, thus allowing the tying run to score.

After fouling off two more pitches, Wilson then hit the famous dribbler towards first base, and when Buckner failed to collect the ball, Wilson was safe on first and Ray Knight came home from second base with the winning run.

The Mets went on to win the deciding game two days later (the game was rained off the next evening)to claim the second World Series title in franchise history. (Nearly 30 years later, we're still waiting for their third.)

Answer: Ray Knight

Third baseman Ray Knight's 145 hits in the 1986 regular season was second only to Keith Hernandez's 171 and his .298 batting average was third on the team (behind Wally Bachman's .320 and .310 from Hernandez). A Georgia native, Knight had started his MLB career in 1974 with the Reds and spent three years with the Astros before joining the Mets in 1984.

A career .271 hitter, Knight played the 1987 season with the Orioles and finished his playing career a year later in Detroit. He later returned to the Majors with two spells as manager of the Cincinnati Reds. Knight is married to LPGA golfer Nancy Lopez.

Answer: Doc Gooden

The Mets started the NLCS with their ace, Dwight 'Doc' Gooden on the mound, but a solo home run by the Astros' Glenn Davis in the second was the only run of the game -- Gooden 0-1. The Mets took the lad with a 5-1 victory over Nolan Ryan and a thrilling 6-5 come-from-behind win for reliever Jesse Orosco in Game 3. Sid Fernandez lost 3-1 in Game 4 and then came the Gooden vs Ryan pitching duel that was Game 5. Doc left after 10 innings with the scores tied 1-1 and the Mets won in 12 -- another Orosco victory. Jesse Orosco took his record in the series to 3-0 when he earned the win in the famous 16-inning marathon that was Game 6 by a score of 7-6. Ron Darling started Game 1 of the World Series and was the unlucky loser, conceding a unearned run in the 7th inning of a 0-1 defeat. Game 2 was a classic pitching matchup -- Dwight Gooden vs Roger Clemens. Both pitchers departed early, Gooden conceding six runs in five innings to earn the loss. Ojeda and Darling pitched brilliantly in 7-1 and 6-2 Mets wins to tie the series and Gooden returned for Game 5.

This time, he lasted just four innings, giving up four runs on nine hits to take his record to 0-3 for the post season.

Answer: Darryl Strawberry

RF Darryl Strawberry led the 1986 Mets with 27 HRs, just ahead of C Gary Carter, who hit 24. Keith Hernandez and George Foster were tied for third with just 13, although Foster his his in only 72 games. Strawberry, who had made his MLB debut for the Mets in 1983, winning the MLB Rookie of the Year honours, was just coming into his prime in 1986.

He would go on to hit 39 homers in both 1987 and 1988. He left the Mets after the 1990 season having hit 252 HRs by the age of 28. He would play for another decade, with the Dodgers, Giants and Yankees, but only added a further 83 HRs to his tally to finish his career with 335.

Answer: Baltimore Orioles

Florida-native Davey Johnson began his MLB playing career as a second baseman with the Orioles in 1965. A 4-time All-Star, Johnson was a member of the Baltimore team that won the World Series in both 1966 and 1970. Ironically, he was also a member of the losing Oriole team in 1969, when the "Miracle Mets" won the first ever title in franchise history. After a 14-year playing career ended with the Cubs in 1978, Johnson returned to baseball as manager of the 1984 Mets.

He left the Mets in 1990 and later managed the Reds, Orioles, Dodgers and Nationals.

He won the 1997 AL Manager of the Year with Baltimore and the 2012 NL Manager of the Year with Washington.