The Bad Guys Won! by Jeff Pearlman Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Bad Guys Won!
Book Review: Thanks for the memories. . .
Summary: 5 Stars
In his finest work since exposing John Rocker for the dope that he is, Jeff Pearlman helps baseball fans recall one of the most entertaining teams (both on and off the field) in baseball history.
1986 Mets were World Series Champions and partying champions. They were as much dirtbag as they were lovable and Pearlman does an excellent job of showing us both sides.
Doc, Darryl, Keith and Gary "Ivory Soap" Carter all comeback to life in this absolutely entertaining stroll down memory lane.
5 Stars for Mets fans, 4 stars for baseball fans.
Book Review: These guys weren't robots
Summary: 3 Stars
According to former Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez, who played on the 1986 New York Mets squad, today's baseball players are "robots" who dress nicely and lack emotion. Jeff Pearlman, author of "The Bad Guys Won!", goes even further, claiming athletes in the major leagues these days are mostly dullards who listen to their iPods, play their video games and hole up in their hotel rooms on the road as if the outside world doesn't exist. Though it's probably not as cut and dry as that, it is true that the 1980s and the decades that preceded it were periods when professional athletes were considerably more rough around the edges, less exposed by the media and less influenced by the almighty dollar and the marketing bonanza that follows big-money contracts. To be sure, players like Dwight Gooden and Daryl Strawberry capitalized big-time on the endorsements that came their way, but as Pearlman points out, the `86 Mets symbolize a more free-for-all time period for athletes that is refreshing to recall and all but extinct nowadays.
The `86 Mets might not have been as crazy as, say, 1980s-era Motley Crue, but they were definitely a wild bunch of in-your-face ruffians. During the season team brawls took place on the field and in bars; planes got trashed; ridiculous team rap songs got recorded; peppy drugs erased yesterday's hangover; womanizing took place on the road; crazy, intricate pranks happened during games; and an all-for-one cocky mentality defined this never-say-die team -- those were the things that made this group of Mets so interesting, memorable and despised by many. Amazingly, manager Davey Johnson, himself no teetotaler and a very bright man with a wide range of interests outside of baseball, let his players do their thing off the field. As long as the Mets were winning, which they did with consistency nearly the entire season, Johnson let the "boys will be boys" mentality reign supreme. Undoubtedly, Johnson was the right manager at the right time for the right team.
Some of the players' shenanigans were serious and had consequences, however. The drug use by Gooden, for example, though slyly hidden from the public and even from team members, was very real and a sobering reminder of how the mighty can slowly descend to addict oblivion hell. Yes, Gooden may have had several more solid years with the Mets after `86, but his longevity, star power and overall performance faded bad as his substance abuse problems continued. Unfortunately, Gooden's downward spiral seemed to start in earnest during the `86 season. And Strawberry, Gooden's seemingly on-and-off buddy, was hardly better in the "just say no" department. In fact, he may have been worse.
This was a team of diverse, offbeat characters -- not all of them complete party animals, either -- and Pearlman does a good job of relating what went on during the unforgettable `86 season. Unfortunately, the author inserts his sarcastic opinions and unfunny comments a bit too much, and his overly enthusiastic descriptions of the mayhem at times sound fawning, envious and a bit adolescent, no different from the grown men he's covering. On the field, though, it's great to read about the Mets' willful trek through the playoffs, where the National League Championship Series with the Houston Astros was almost as fascinating to read about as the classic seven-game World Series against the forever cursed Boston Red Sox (at least at the time). All in all, if you want the dishy scoop on this colorful Mets team, Pearlman's book is a great place to find it.
Book Review: WHEN THE METS RULED THE WORLD
Summary: 5 Stars
Ahhh, the afterglow still lingers...
It was a different world in 1986, before that OTHER baseball club in New York started grabbing all the headlines again. Before anyone ever heard of Osama bin Laden. It was good to be a Mets fan back then.
I remember the agonizing extra-innings playoff game against the Houston Astros. New Yorkers of every size, shape and color lined up 10 deep in front of every storefront window in Manhattan, watching that unbelievably suspenseful game, knowing full well the shadow of Met-killer Mike Scott loomed over a dreaded game 7. Even shops that didn't sell TVs put one in the window for the sidewalk crowds that afternoon.
The mood was electric, excited, exhilarating. People just would not tear themselves away and go home. Lifelong friendships were struck as the hours went by and the stalemate continued.
When the Mets finally pulled it out, after 16 excruciating innings (practically a doubleheader!) you could hear the collective howl of relief erupt across all five boroughs, as emotionally-exhausted strangers hugged each other (Yup, in New York! I saw it with my own eyes.)
It would eventually go down as one of the greatest games ever played in the history of baseball. Surely, we thought, after such a historic playoff series, the main event at Fenway would prove anticlimactic. Little did we know...
I remember my wonderful Dad, who's gone now, with the Mets at the very brink of elimination and despair - in what would become the legendary game 6 against Boston. And when Bill Buckner did his famous imitation of a croquet wicket, we both spontaneously shot 6 feet into the air.
I remember our eyes meeting about a foot below the ceiling, in a moment that's forever frozen in time, with a yell that must have woke the dead. The whole block was on fire, like a dozen New Years Eve celebrations in one. It sure woke up the Mets - because there was no stopping them after that.
It all comes rushing back in the pages of this excellent book. I was less interested in what brats the upstart Mets were, which amused New Yorkers and irritated everyone else at the time, and more interested in the fact that, as this book makes clear, it was really the end of an era in baseball.
Ya gotta believe. We believed.
Book Review: Wonderful Read on a Great Team filled with Bad People
Summary: 5 Stars
As a lifelong Cincinnati Reds fan, my hatred of the 1986 Mets began during that season with a game on July 22, which was covered in the book, when then-Mets third baseman Ray Knight sucker punched Eric Davis, after a hard slide into third base. It was clear even then that this was a team you did not want to take to Sunday Mass.
Remarkably, in between the drugs, womanizing, copious consumption of alcohol, animal mutilation, gambling, and barroom brawls, the '86 Mets were able to play good enough baseball to win a World Series championship. And it was not just that they won, but how they won that made this team so memorable. First, by defeating the Houston Astros in dramatic fashion to win the NLCS, and then the Boston Red Sox in what has to be one of the greatest World Series ever played, especially Game 6. When you read Parlman's account, it is amazing this team did not fold under the pressures so many of its players inflicted upon themselves. Of course, they did not collapse, in spite of themselves, and they won simply because they were that good of a team.
You also wonder how great this team could have been had so many of its players not self destructed. It is a question we will never know the answer to, but we know what happened in 1986, and Pearlman's in-depth coverage of the Mets that year gives a baseball fan useful insights into this troubled team's foibles and complexities.