… Keith Hernandez sat on a chair. Given that the New York Mets, the Major League Baseball team Hernandez was playing for at the time, was still in the process of completing game 6 of the 1986 World Series just a few feet away, it was a rather odd choice of seat.
Having been the Mets’ second out in the 10th inning and down two runs in an elimination game, Hernandez had retreated to the locker room because he “did not want to see the Boston Red Sox having fun on our field.” However, when his teammates started what arguably was the biggest comeback in World Series history, Hernandez found himself trapped in a chair in Manager Davey Johnson’s office, watching what he had presumed to be the end of a painful defeat on TV.
Hernandez was one of the leaders of the team, a five-time All Star and eleven-time Gold Glove award winner, but there he was. Sitting, lamenting. He was not proud to have left the bench, but the situation was highly territorial for the competitive athlete. Trapped in a chair with his eyes glued to the television, Hernandez observed his teammates string together several base hits and and driving in two runs to temporarily tie the game.
I’m not leaving this chair. It’s got hits in it.
Keith Hernandez
The unexpected Seinfeld-star only allowed himself to get off the chair – and hug his manager as well as his teammates – after the ball had infamously gone through the Sox’ Bill Buckner’s legs, snatching a win from the jaws of defeat and tying the series at 3:3. Hernandez would go on to secure immortality through the eventual World Series win, the iconic “I’m Keith Hernandez” meme and his lifetime starting spot on the all mustache team.
Hernandez is just one of the iridescent personalities that made up the infamous ’86 Mets, a championship team known for its off-field issues and on field brawling. An epitome of the crazy microcosm that is late-80s New York, the squad is as famous for destroying an airplane as it is for clinching the World Series in the ensuing game 7.
The exceptional story of the 1986 New York Mets is told in ESPN’s latest 30For30 documentary Once Upon A Time In Queens, executive produced by Jimmy Kimmel. If you ever wondered how a team conquered both the drug-infused party scene of of the Big Apple and the pinnacle of America’s favorite pastime at the same time, this four-part documentary has answers.
