The 1988 Mets were the baseball equivalent of the financial advertising disclaimer that past performance is not a guarantee of future success. Or of the baseball maxim that momentum carries only as far as the next day’s starting pitcher.

               The Mets began the season with the expectation that they would bounce back from what was – for them – a disappointing 1987, a year in which they regressed from their championship year to win “only” 92 games and miss the chance for a repeat.

               As Newsday’s Steve Marcus wrote in his story advancing the team’s season: “Of course, manager Davey Jotnson will return next year. He wants to pick up his 1988 World Series ring. Johnson knows his team is ready, willing and able. Let the domination begin.”

               “We’re going to get off to a good start, like in 1986, and go from there,” catcher and co-captain Gary Carter was quoted in the story as saying. “We have that will to want to excel, exceed all expectations.”

               But when October came, they failed their Orel exam. That’s Orel, as in Hershiser.

               Getting, there, however, was quite a thrill ride. The team would win 100 games, clinch the division on September 21 (a date that shall also live in Mets infamy, but we’ll deal with that later), and end the season 15 games ahead of their closest rival, the Pittsburgh Pirates. They got out of the gate fast, just like they predicted: by the end of May, their record stood at 34-15.

               Mainstay Darryl Strawberry would hit 39 home runs and drive in 101. Kevin McReynolds, acquired before the 1987 season, settled in in New York, smashing 27 home runs and driving in 99. Howard Johnso had 24 taters and 68 RBI.

               As for the rotation: Dwight Gooden, Ron Darling, Bob Ojeda, Sid Fernandez and Rick Aguilera were a solid quintet – Gooden would go on to win 18 games, three more than in 1987; Darling, 17; Fernandez 12. Ojeda pitched to a 2.88 ERA.

               As for Aguilera, he sprained ligaments in his (right) pitching elbow in early May, requiring surgery that kept him out for several months. But instead of being a crushing blow to the team’s fortunes, it proved to be a blessing in disguise. On May 3, David Cone was taken out of the bullpen and sent to the mound for a start against the Atlanta Braves. He scattered eight hits in a complete game shutout (remember those?) and never looked back. Cone won 20 games, struck out 213 and had a rotation-leading 2.22 ERA. Randy Myers took over from the traded Jesse Orosco as the primary closer; he saved 26 and Roger McDowell, the right-handed half of the tandem, saved 16.

               The other co-captain, Keith Hernandez, was off to another solid year, on pace for a .295 batting average and 105 RBI until he made what he would years later characterize as a foolish decision in a June 6 game against his former team, the St. Louis Cardinals, trying to go from first to third on a single to center. The centerfielder was Willie McGee, a Hernandez friend who, Hernandez knew, had a suspect arm. “Against any other team, no way I do that,” Hernandez reminisced to the New York Post’s Mike Vaccaro a couple of years ago. “But it was St. Louis. And it was Willie McGee, a good friend of mine who I knew I could run against. It was stupid.”

               Hernandez collapsed with what was initially called a hamstring cramp, and manager Johnson hoped it would only keep his first baseman out a couple of days. “A cramp can be a forerunner to a pull,” Johnson noted at the time, in what could be termed a prophetic quote. After hesitating for a few day and even sending him to the on-deck circle to pinch hit, the Mets placed Hernandez on the 15-day disabled list (as it was called at the time). Hernandez, on the DL for the first time in his career, couldn’t wait for the 15 days to elapse so he could get back into action.

               But in hindsight, he came back too soon. Two days after returning to the lineup, he was in crutches, the cramp having developed into a pull. This time, he’d be out for 43 days – 38 games – and while Dave Magadan filled in ably at first, the team missed the spark its field general provided. A team that was off to a flying start over the first two months played the next two at barely over .500: 15-13 in June and 14-12 in July.

               Co-captain Carter, meanwhile, was having issues of his own. Carter hit his 299thj career home run on May 16. His 300th? It didn’t come until 87 days, 64 games and 246 plate appearances later.

               Some people were starting to whisper that maybe the two co-captains were nearing their expiration dates.

               To add spark to the team, at the end of August, the Mets recalled hot prospect Gregg Jefferies and installed him as the regular third baseman. Jefferies responded by hitting .321 over the last 21games of the season. And the team for hot again. Their September record would be 20-6 as they sailed toward the playoffs.

               Everything was looking good. But then……

               At 11:15 on the morning of September 21, Bob Ojeda decided to trim the hedges at his Roslyn home. According to the New York Times’ account, Ojeda was reaching to turn off the power on the electric clipper when it stuck a branch and clipped off part of  the middle finger on his pitching hand. Ojeda, hand and finger part were taken to St. Francis Hospital, where the finger was stabilized and preparations were made to rush him to Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan for Mets orthopedist Dr. James Parkes and hand specialist Dr. Richard Eaton to rebuild the finger.

               Ojeda’s teammates rallied to his defense. “A lot of people will say, ‘What’s he doing using hedge cutters?’” second baseman Wally Backman was quoted as saying in Newsday. “I have someone do my stuff. But, God, there’s a fine line there. It’s probably a lot safer trimming your hedges than driving on the Expressway. What does it mean, because you’re a pitcher, when you go out to dinner, does someone else have to cut your meat?”

               “You can’t just sit around your house and do nothing,” Gooden was quoted as saying. “This was just a terrible freak accident.”

               Predictably, the sportswriters were less understanding. Newsday’s Joe Gergen wrote a column that noted activities pitchers traditionally eschewed to protect their hands and arms: not sleeping with air conditioning, not driving a car with a pitching hand out the window, not reaching into a shaving kit with your pitching hand. The column’s headline? “You Must Take Care of What Feeds You.”

               The Mets made it to the postseason without any further injury drama, and, if anything, they might have been looking past the NLCS to a return to the World Series. After all, over the course of the regular season, they had beaten the Los Angeles Dodgers ten times in 11 games, outscoring them 49-18. Even accounting for the law of averages, the Dodgers should get, what, two wins at most in a seven-game series, right?

               Wrong.

               Because after the Mets had last faced the Dodgers on Sept. 3 – a 2-1 victory at Shea Stadium – Dodger ace Hershiser, already on his way to a Cy Young season, got even hotter.  After the Sept. 4 game at Shea was rained out, Hershiser took the mound in Atlanta and tossed nine shutout innings. Five days later, nine more scoreless frames against the Reds. Four games after that, another shutout nine, again against the Braves.

               Hershiser would put together 59 consecutive scoreless innings, breaking Don Drysdale’s 58 – and Drysdale set his record in 1968, the Year of the Pitcher, before they lowered the mound.

               Hershiser was the Great Equalizer, the Dodgers’ Secret Weapon, who would quiet the Mets’ active bats and send them to the World Series.

               If anything, he exceeded expectations. And the Mets almost thwarted that as they took the series to seven games. Amazingly, Hershiser played a role in four of them.

               Game One: A shutout into the ninth, until Darryl Strawberry finally doubled in Jefferies for the Mets’ first run. Hershiser would give way to Jay Howell, and the Mets scored two more times for a 3-2 win.

               Game Three: Six innings, three runs, one earned, a five-run eighth-inning explosion by the Mets off Dodger relievers to take an 8-4 win.

               Game Four: The final out, for a save on zero days rest, in a ninth inning that had two former Mets, Tim Leary and Jesse Orosco, get the other two outs.

               Which brings us to game seven. Hershiser on the mound against Ron Darling. And while Hershiser shut out the Mets, an argument could be made that to a large extent, the Mets beat themselves with shoddy defense that let the Dodgers score five runs in the second inning (the final score was 6-0).

Keith Hernandez, perhaps still not 100 percent from his hamstring issues earlier in the season, didn’t get to a popped up sacrifice bunt, loading the bases instead of perhaps getting a double play. “I should have been in. It was my fault, my stupidity,” Hernandez was quoted after the game.

               Jefferies, not noted for his defense, misplayed Hershiser’s ground ball, losing the chance for either a force at home or an out at first. Steve Sax, the next batter, singled to drive in two, sending Darling to the showers and putting Gooden on the mound. Gooden got Mickey Hatcher to ground out, advancing Hershiser and Sax to third and second, respectively. Kirk Gibson was intentionally walked. Mike Marshall hit what should have been an inning-ending double play, but Backman slipped and threw wide to shortstop Kevin Elster. Everyone safe. Another run scored. Next, a sacrifice fly. Another intentional walk. And finally, a strikeout to end the inning.

               Said manager Johnson, “We gave them about four extra outs.”

               Season over. Hershiser was named the NLCS MVP and would go on to be named the World Series MVP, too. But that feat was overshadowed by a certain Kirk Gibson home run. We’re sure you remember that one.