Saturday Seasons 1989 Mets : Good, Not Great, and the Last Flicker of ’80s Dominance

If you’re a Mets fan of a certain age (translation: you still have VHS tapes labeled “Family BBQ” that are actually Game 6 of the ’86 Series), you probably remember 1989 as the year the Mets went from dynasty-in-the-making to “wait… is this thing over already?”

By the time the Shea Stadium lights flickered off in October, the Mets were 87–75. Not terrible. In fact, a lot of franchises would have framed that record, polished it, and carried it around like it was the Hope Diamond. But for us? oming off the glory years of the mid-80s, when the Mets were serving Ruth’s Chris-level baseball, it suddenly felt like steak night had turned into Beefsteak Charlie’s Salisbury steak night. After all, from 1984 through 1988, the Mets piled up 488 wins against just 320 losses, five straight seasons of at least 90 victories, two division titles, and that little thing in ’86 when a slow roller trickled down the first base line and got by Buckner. So yes, 87 wins in 1989 wasn’t “bad”… it was just the lowest total since 1984, a clear sign the Mets dynasty was going the way of New Coke.

The Mets of the ’80s were built on pitching. Cone, Darling, Ojeda, and El Sid were workhorses, all making 30+ starts. Sid was a flat-out beast — a 2.53 ERA, striking out batters like Mike Tyson knocking out Glass Joe on the first Nintendo Entertainment System. Cone was Cone, flashing brilliance one start and giving you indigestion the next. Darling and Ojeda? Professional as ever, though Darling’s ERA was stuck at 3.52, which in those days felt like being stuck behind a Yugo on the LIE.

Then there was Doc. Dwight Gooden still had magic in that arm, posting a 2.89 ERA. But injuries capped him at 17 starts. Seventeen. Without Doc anchoring things, the rotation slipped from ‘best in baseball’ to just ‘really good.’ It was like picking the wrong movie sequel in ’89 instead of catching Back to the Future Part II or Lethal Weapon 2, you ended up in Police Academy 6: City Under Siege.

That hole sent the Mets scrambling to Minnesota for Frank Viola , fresh off a Cy Young and a World Series MVP. We gave up Rick Aguilera and a bunch of kids who’d later become pretty good (oops). Viola came in with fanfare but went just 5–5 with a 3.38 ERA in 12 starts. Not bad, but not the season changer Mets fans were promised.

If you’re looking for a bright spot in ’89, it’s Howard Johnson. HoJo didn’t just play third base ,he owned it. Thirty-six bombs, 41 steals, 101 RBIs, over 100 runs scored. He was the Swiss Army knife of baseball: power, speed, patience, defense. He even finished 5th in MVP voting, which was at least three spots too low. (No disrespect to Kevin Mitchell, who deserved to win , putting HoJo behind Will Clark and Lonnie Smith? Please. That’s like handing Married… with Children the Emmy over Cheers, obviously the voters weren’t paying attention.

Meanwhile, Darryl Strawberry proved that baseball isn’t as predictable as the stats on the back of your baseball card. After his monster ’88, Straw slumped. He still hit 29 homers, but his OBP fell to .312 — not great for a guy who was supposed to be the centerpiece of the lineup.

Elsewhere, Dave Magadan quietly became the lineup’s on-base machine (.374 OBP), proving you don’t have to hit 30 homers to matter. And Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter? Legends, yes, but fading. Hernandez hit .233 with four homers. Carter hit .183 in 50 games. By year’s end, it felt like Shea was lowering the curtain on their Mets chapters.

If there’s one thing Mets fans still wince about from 1989, it’s the trades.

Lenny Dykstra and Roger McDowell to Philly for Juan Samuel. Look, Juan was a nice player once upon a time. But in Queens, he hit .228 and looked lost in the outfield. Meanwhile, Dykstra put on a Phillies uniform, swallowed steroids like Flintstones chewable vitamins, and became MVP-runner-up in ’93. McDowell? He just kept being McDowell , rubber-armed and reliable.

And then, at the deadline, we traded away Mookie Wilson. Mookie. The heart and soul of the 1986 team. Sure, he wasn’t the same player anymore, but trading him to Toronto felt like putting your childhood dog on a plane to Canada. Wrong on so many levels.

Despite it all the Mets hung around most of the summer. At the break, they were just 2 ½ games back of the Cubs. By Labor Day, they were three and a half back. Still in it. And then came ,you guessed it , Wrigley Field.

Chicago was the house of horrors that season. In June, the Mets gave up 26 runs in a three-game set and lost all three including a walk off home run. In September, they met 4 times, and the Mets came away with a split. If you had hopes for 1989, those seven games killed the Mets, deader than disco.

The Mets limped home in second place, six games behind the Cubs. Not awful. But for the first time in the Davey Johnson era, they didn’t hit 90 wins. And for the first time since 1987, there was no October baseball in Queens.

The ’89 Mets were still good. Still competitive. Still winning more than they lost. But the dynasty? The walls were starting to wobble like the Berlin Wall would just a month later. The pitching was mortal. The lineup was aging. The front office was making trades that looked like panic instead of patience.

Davey Johnson would be gone by mid-1990. Keith and Gary were basically finished. Strawberry was struggling to live up to the hype. Dykstra and Mookie were gone. And by ’91, the Mets were a memory, not a menace.

But in ’89, you could still squint and see it at times, the swagger, the talent, the Shea magic. The Mets weren’t done yet. They just weren’t that team anymore.

⚾ Next Saturday: 1990 — when Davey’s reign ended, Bud Harrelson stepped in, and the Mets kept winning 90 games but couldn’t catch the Pirates.