{"id":4245,"date":"2026-07-11T18:37:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T18:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=4245"},"modified":"2026-07-11T18:37:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T18:37:23","slug":"darryl-strawberry-mookie-wilson-reminisce-to-the-post-about-bad-boys-1986-mets-we-were-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=4245","title":{"rendered":"Darryl Strawberry, Mookie Wilson reminisce to The Post about ‘bad boys’ 1986 Mets: ‘We were different’\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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1986 Amazin\u2019 World Series champions Darryl Strawberry and Mookie Wilson, joined by longtime Mets media exec Jay Horwitz, take a swing at some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby ahead of the Mets\u2019 40-year reunion of the championship team on Aug. 1 at Citi Field.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Q: What did Davey Johnson tell you guys at the first spring training meeting in \u201886?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> He just basically said we\u2019re gonna win it all, we\u2019re gonna dominate.<\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>(Laugh) Well, first of all I thought he was crazy. For him to say things about how bad we were gonna beat people, how we\u2019re gonna dominate and this, that and the other, I\u2019m thinking that this man is completely out of his mind at the time.<\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> I think Davey was one of us.<\/p>\n

Q: Mookie, describe your spring training eye injury during a rundown play.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson:<\/strong> Raffy [Rafael Santana] was the second throw. I accomplished what I wanted was to get the second throw, I didn\u2019t mean to catch it in my eye. There was no pain whatsoever. The only thing I remember is Gary [Carter] over me, screaming. The only thing I heard was Gary\u2019s voice. I didn\u2019t know how bad it was to be honest with you. I really wasn\u2019t worried about playing baseball after that, I was worried about losing my eye. It was a scary time.<\/p>\n

Q: How meaningful was that early four-game sweep in St. Louis?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> I think that was really big for us to send a message to the Cardinals because they had beat us the year before. I think [Cardinals manager] Whitey Herzog said, \u201cNobody\u2019s gonna catch them this year.\u201d We just didn\u2019t look back once we got going.<\/p>\n

Q: Ray Knight punching Eric Davis at third base.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>We were not going to stand for any disrespect or excessive play against us. \u2026 Whether our player was in the wrong or the right, we were going to be there.<\/p>\n

Q: Clinching the NL East at Shea.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> I just remember the fans just going crazy. They hit the field. I ran straight out the bullpen. It was a great experience to be able to feel that because I always wanted to be a part of that. To look out the bullpen and see all the fans on the field and seeing the players later trying to get off the field, people snatching their hats and trying to snatch their jersey, gloves. It was just a crazy moment for all of us, and a scary moment at the same time \u2019cause you never know what could happen, you can get hurt in those particular situations.<\/p>\n

Q: How much fun were all those curtain calls?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>Initially, I wasn\u2019t too keen on the curtain calls, I think it was a little bit excessive showing the other club up. It became part of who we were, and actually it was part of our personalities. Davey never put restrictions on that ballclub. It allowed us to be who we were. I think it helped us to relax against the pressure because remember now, we were supposed to win, and that\u2019s a lot of pressure.<\/p>\n

Q: What\u2019s the longest home run you saw Straw hit?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>The one he hit in Montreal. \u2026 It\u2019s a good thing they had the roof there (laugh), no telling where that thing would have gone!<\/p>\n

Q: What was your slowest home run trot time?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> Probably [World Series] Game 7. I had a little chip on my shoulder about being double-switched in Game 6. Just trying to get back at Davey. It was just childish, 24 years old, you think you\u2019re all that. He never really threw anyone under the bus to the media, and he just allowed us to be players and play. Nothing got under his skin. He was tough as nails, and I respect him for that.<\/p>\n

Q: What do you remember thinking as you ran the bases?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry: <\/strong>This is for you, Davey. \u2026 When I get to home plate, Ray Knight grabs me and tells me, \u201cMake sure you go over there and shake Davey\u2019s hand,\u201d and I told him OK, and I did shake his hand, gave him [a high]-five once I got in the dugout and everything.<\/p>\n

Q: What was it like playing behind Doc Gooden?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>A vacation (laugh). \u2026 Many days I found myself being a spectator. It wasn\u2019t just a game, it was an event.<\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> It was pretty boring standing around in the outfield, you\u2019re looking and you\u2019re watching the excitement of the fans and the excitement of the guy with the K\u2019s up in the corner, and you think about it, 19, 20 years old dominating major league hitters like Mike Schmidt and [Andre] Dawson. \u2026 You just realize that Doc was gonna be pitching, you weren\u2019t gonna have a lot of running to do. It was pretty incredible to watch a guy be so young and have such great command. And the poise that he had on the mound. You\u2019re just like a fan, you\u2019re watching and you can\u2019t believe what you\u2019re seeing.<\/p>\n

Q: Darryl, describe your Game 3 NLCS three-run home run off Bob Knepper.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> I just remember Keith [Hernandez] being on base and telling me to keep my shoulder in more than anything. I got a fastball at the beginning and I just got the head out on it and hit it over the right field fence and tied the ballgame.<\/p>\n

Q: Carter\u2019s walk-off Game 5 single in the 12th.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry: <\/strong>That was really big to get a walk-off like that and give us that feeling that we just didn\u2019t want to get to a Game 7. \u2026 We just didn\u2019t have a chance against [Astros ace] Mike Scott. I don\u2019t care what lineup we put out there, we just were not going to beat him. He got in all the players\u2019 heads with what he was doing and everything.<\/p>\n

Q: How many scuffed balls did you guys collect when Scott pitched?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>I counted a dozen. Straw hit the nail on the head: We faced tough pitchers before, but they weren\u2019t in our heads. It would have been trouble. \u2026 If we could have just gotten over the fact that he was doing something to the ball and just play, we would have been OK. When you got the whole team worried about it, then you got problems. There was no really enforcement of that like they do now. Yeah, we complained \u2014 every day, every pitch \u2014 but it didn\u2019t do any good.<\/p>\n

Q: Top of the ninth, Game 6 of the NLCS, down 3-0, how nerve-wracking was that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> I remember our team that season we never gave up, no matter how many runs we were down. It was a team that would just battle. You gotta get the last out, it\u2019s not over until you get the last out. They had every opportunity, they had every excuse they want to make, but they did not get that last out.<\/p>\n

Q: What were your emotions when Billy Hatcher hit the game-tying home run in the 14th?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson:<\/strong> It was stressful, man. That is the one game that I wanted to end so we could start fresh another day. I was exhausted. Mentally, I had nothing left. At that point, I was willing to take my chances with Mike Scott \u2019cause I had nothing left in that game.<\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> I said \u201cOh my god, this is gonna be some kind of ballgame here,\u201d because we thought we had it there. We were completely drained. It was just heartbreaking when you saw it. I still didn\u2019t want to face Scott the next day. I wanted to win that game, I can tell you that right there.<\/p>\n

Q: Before that Game 6, did you guys check out of your hotel?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Horwitz:<\/strong> I think we did check out.<\/p>\n

Q: That would tell me the Mets expected to win that game.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson:<\/strong> Yeah.<\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> Yeah, we kind of expected to win that game. But we didn\u2019t think it would be that long (laugh).<\/p>\n

Q: What were your emotions when Jesse Orosco struck out Kevin Bass in the 16th and threw his glove in the air?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson:<\/strong> Relief. That was the Game of the Century. I still say that was probably the greatest game I\u2019ve ever been a part of.<\/p>\n

Q: What were your emotions when you realized you were going to the World Series?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry: <\/strong>To have that moment with the group that we had was very special. It was a team of destiny, it was a team of whatever craziness you want to call, but we had a lot of dawgs on that team that would fight and do everything to protect what our team was about, and when you get to that final moment of that last out and you know that you\u2019re going to the Series now, that was big for us. But we were completely drained, and I think that\u2019s why we went down 0-2 when we got to the Series \u2019cause we had nothing left after that Astro series.<\/p>\n

Q: How crazy was that flight back home?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> We made it back.<\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>I will say this: Whatever celebrations we had on that plane, we deserved it.<\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> Right.<\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>That team did not disappoint the fans, did not disappoint Major League Baseball, and no matter whatever city you went to, people wanted to see us play.<\/p>\n

Strawberry: <\/strong>We were like rock stars, it was like a rock band coming into town. Everybody wanted to see the Mets, the bad boys. Some of \u2019em think they\u2019re pretty over there and too cute, some of \u2019em are showboat \u2026 it was just a team that was different. You\u2019ll never see a team that good that played the game the way we played. We played the game well, we played it hard \u2026 and we would put our knuckles on you, too. We just didn\u2019t play around, you just didn\u2019t want to play around with us.<\/p>\n

Q: What was the craziest thing you saw on that flight home?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> I saw food fights. I saw a little bit of everything. \u2026 You had a bunch of scumbags on the team that were just drinking and throwing stuff at each other. You didn\u2019t want to come to the back of the plane, just put it like that. It was a different breed of players back then when you come back there. But we deserved it. We finally got to this place that we thought we were supposed to get to, and it wasn\u2019t easy, it was a dogfight.<\/p>\n

Wilson:<\/strong> I think people fail to realize that there was a lot of family on that plane. You had the coaches, you had the family section and you had the scumbutts.<\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> They had their wives, too. They were in the food fight, too.<\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>(laughing) A great time.<\/p>\n

Q: But then you lost the first two games to the Red Sox at Shea.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson:<\/strong> Straw said it perfectly, that we had nothing left. And I\u2019ll go a bit farther: I think we took Boston for granted. I didn\u2019t think Boston could even be on the same field as us, to be honest with you, I thought when we beat Houston, we beat the team that we needed to beat.<\/p>\n

Q: Game 3 with Bobby Ojeda on the mound.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry: <\/strong>We were supposed to have a workout and we didn\u2019t have a workout. I think Davey realized that we were drained and were down 0-2. I don\u2019t think we were really worried, we were ready to play. Bobby O. always was a big-game pitcher, going against his old team, and he shoved it down their throat.<\/p>\n

Q: You heard taunts in right field in Game 5 at Fenway Park.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry: <\/strong>That\u2019s a terrible place to play. Their fans got a lot to say about you when you\u2019re out there, it\u2019s a different breed. It\u2019s kind of like Philly when you\u2019re playing in Philly. \u2026 You can hear the conversations of people saying a lot of things, and flipping me off and grabbing their you-know-what and telling me how much I suck. People say, \u201cWhat did you think about it?\u201d I say, \u201cWell, at least they know I\u2019m in the ballpark.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: Game 6, what did you think when the guy parachuted onto the field?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson:<\/strong> I said, \u201cThat\u2019s so New York (laugh).\u201d Something crazy was going to happen. And I thought it was funny. Anything that happened at the ballpark was a reflection of who we were. Lenny [Dykstra] might have parachuted in (laugh). It didn\u2019t bother us. I don\u2019t think anything distracted us at all because we were such a free-spirited ballclub and we took things in stride.<\/p>\n

Q: You were one out from losing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> It was hard to beat us, it was hard to end the game. We hated losing. I was out of the game and I was in Davey\u2019s office with Keith and we\u2019re sitting there watching the game unfold and Keith was like, \u201cOK, nobody move.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: When you came to the plate before the wild pitch that tied the game, what do you remember thinking?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Wilson: <\/strong>I remember just going to home plate and I just blocked everything out. The good thing about it is, I knew Bob Stanley, I faced him before, so I knew what he was going to try to do. I didn\u2019t put any pressure on myself saying I had to get a hit, I had to do this. It was just, do your best, put your best out there. I was determined to put that ball in play. I was not gonna give the umpire an opportunity to call anything close to a strike. I was just battling, man. I didn\u2019t hear anything, I didn\u2019t see anything. It was just me and the pitcher, that was it.<\/p>\n

Q: The wild pitch that brought Kevin Mitchell home with the tying run.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>I was telling him to slide, not realizing that he could see the ball.<\/p>\n

Q: What are you thinking when you hit the ground ball that got by first baseman Bill Buckner?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>I can\u2019t tell you what I said (laugh). I was really upset because he really threw me a good pitch to hit. That\u2019s the best pitch I had to hit the whole at-bat, and I rolled over it, man. That should have been a hook down the line down that corner for a triple, and I rolled over it, man. Now I gotta run. And I remember watching the ball bounce, this slow roller, I probably coulda beat the ball to first base, to be honest with you. And I\u2019m just running hard, and then when the ball went between his legs, the same thing I said when I hit it, I said it again. \u2026 I was just in shock that he actually missed that. My focus was beating Buckner to the bag. I knew it wasn\u2019t the last out of the whole series because the score was tied. So in other words, I was playing with house money.<\/p>\n

Q: Paint the scene for me in the manager\u2019s office with you, Keith and coach\/scout Darrell Johnson.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry<\/strong>: We kind of knew the kind of team that we had that could come back and do something like this. And that fight was in \u2019em, you could see that fight in everybody battling. And Mook battling that at-bat was big before that ground ball to even happen. When you see the ground ball and you see how far he\u2019s playing back, and Mook\u2019s getting down that line, and you don\u2019t see a pitcher covering, you could think to yourself that he knew inside of himself it\u2019s gonna be a battle for him to get to first base because he\u2019s had bad knees and he\u2019s got bad hips, and people thought he should have been out of the ballgame, but I\u2019m quite sure he wanted to be a part of the celebration, and he felt like he was gonna be able to beat Mook to the bag, which I didn\u2019t think he would, and he came up before he even got the ball trying to get to the bag, and that was it. It was a celebration, it was a shock, it was a miracle, and we knew right then we still had life, we still had another chance, another day to come back and try to finish off what we started.<\/p>\n

Q: Then came the rain delay.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson:<\/strong> I was disappointed because we had momentum and I thought the rain delay was going to calm the excitement down and then we might lose that game. Boston was defeated. They were done dealing, and I thought the rain delay would give them a chance to regroup. But even after the rain delay, in all honesty, I knew that we were gonna win Game 7. There was no way we were gonna lose Game 7. No way.<\/p>\n

Strawberry: <\/strong>I felt it took away from what we had just accomplished the night before. I felt like we still were gonna win that game. We had that intensity level ready to be ready for it no matter what. We had been through this long season, and realized that we have gotten this far to one game left, and we just gotta make the best out of it, we gotta go out there and we gotta play just like any other game.<\/p>\n

Q: You fell behind 3-0.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson:<\/strong> At no point in that game did I ever say that we weren\u2019t gonna win. And when I looked into the Boston dugout, they\u2019re waiting for something crazy (laugh). \u2026 They were never celebrating over there! I remember looking at them, I\u2019m saying, \u201cThey\u2019re done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> We\u2019d been down many times in the course of that season, and it\u2019s just a group of guys that really know how to play baseball, and really know how to come back and win. \u2026 And it\u2019s probably the best team I\u2019ve ever played on that actually knew how to come back and win ballgames. Being down 3-0 was no big thing to us.<\/p>\n

Q: Ray Knight hits the go-ahead home run.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson:<\/strong> It wasn\u2019t surprising that Ray hit the home run. Whenever we did something, it wasn\u2019t a surprise to me, it was expected. Somebody was going to do it.<\/p>\n

Q: What did you think of Straw\u2019s slow home run trot in the eighth inning?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mookie:<\/strong> He hit many home runs that year, but that one was special, man.<\/p>\n

Q: To this day Doc regrets missing the parade, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson:<\/strong> That\u2019s the one regret he regrets. That\u2019s not me putting words in his mouth, that\u2019s him speaking to me about it.<\/p>\n

Q: What was that parade like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> Special. Something that you couldn\u2019t imagine. But just so unreal, so many fans come out on that day and celebrate us. It was a wonderful time for us to be celebrated. They embraced what the New York Mets were. We were really the back page over the Yankees in the town. We came out of nowhere and all these people embraced the Mets, and it was really cool.<\/p>\n

Q: Whatever comes to mind: Len Dykstra.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> Everything (laugh). Just crazy as ever. Would do anything to win.<\/p>\n

Q: Wally Backman.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>You want him in your corner. Little man with a big attitude. Him and Lenny were pretty much two of the same guys. You wanted those two guys at the top of your lineup.<\/p>\n

Q: Keith Hernandez.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry: <\/strong>Mr. Clutch. He would come through big-time in big situations.<\/p>\n

Q: Gary Carter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>Gary was the ultimate optimist. No matter how bad things were going, he always had a smile, which was the one thing that we as ballplayers resented Gary about when he was with the Expos. But then when he came to us we learned to appreciate. \u2026 You\u2019re never gonna meet anybody that\u2019s more positive than Gary Carter. Nobody.<\/p>\n

Q: The 1986 Jay Horwitz.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry: <\/strong>I would have to say he\u2019s probably the most special person that we had in the organization. He took care of everybody. Whatever occurred, he protected the players. You have nothing but total respect for him. Just a class act all the way around. When you didn\u2019t want to come out and talk to the press, he made me come out.<\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>Jay was a guy that you knew as a player that he always had your interest at heart. Always. He knew what was good for you when you didn\u2019t know what was good for yourself when it came to the PR part of the game. He had a balancing act that he had to worry about what was good for the players and good for the club, and he was always able to walk that line \u2026 integrity was unmatched.<\/p>\n

Q: Mookie, you have a book \u201cFaith\u201d coming out.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson:<\/strong> It\u2019s gonna be kind of mixing gospel with baseball, my experiences in both areas of my life.<\/p>\n

Q: Darryl, for your book \u2018Another Life,\u2019 what was it like speaking to Death Row convicts?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> It was pretty cool. We don\u2019t know what happened to \u2019em. It\u2019s not my job to go in there to try change them, it\u2019s my job to go in there and love on them to encourage them, more than anything. They have done some heinous crimes, and they are supposed to be there, but at the same time, we have a gift that\u2019s been given to us to go back and love people, care for people right where they\u2019re at.<\/p>\n

Q: Mookie, how proud of Legacy Catering are you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson:<\/strong> Of all the things that I\u2019ve done in my life, Legacy Catering is something that was created through my family. It was things I\u2019ve learned from my parents, and I just know that there\u2019s not many ways that you can honor your parents other than having their name, but Legacy goes a little bit farther than just having the Wilsons\u2019 name, it\u2019s part of who we are as a family and what kept us together, and believe it or not, food is something that kept us together. My mother found a way to produce foods out of nothing and made it taste good (laugh). She passed that same gift to all her kids, and we decided that we wanted to keep it going.<\/p>\n

Q: What made the \u201986 Mets the \u201986 Mets?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry: <\/strong>I would sum that up as the great chemistry that we had together. You didn\u2019t always have to get along. We stepped on the field, you didn\u2019t want to mess with us. We were a different breed of players. When you did something to one of us, you did it to all of us, that\u2019s just the way we felt. We were gonna make you pay for it. You could feel the fact that this is a group here where you just don\u2019t want to play around with because they\u2019re serious about their business, they\u2019re serious about winning, and they\u2019re serious about their teammates, and they have each other\u2019s back on every situation. I think that\u2019s what made us so special more than anything.<\/p>\n

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Wilson:<\/strong> Twenty-five personalities. One goal. We didn\u2019t have to always get along, and we had a few little scuffles and confrontations in the clubhouse \u2014 but that was in the clubhouse. When we stepped on the field, it was everybody for one. To this very day, every one of \u2019em is a very, very close friend because of that togetherness that we had. I would go on the road and I took my son with me a lot. I never had to worry about babysitting because he was always with somebody. They had a genuine love for each other, man.<\/p>\n

Q: Where do the \u201986 Mets rank in Major League Baseball history?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> At the top. Nobody would have wanted to play us. We were different. I played on the \u201998 Yankees. There was no weakness on the \u201986 Mets, I can tell you that right now. It was gonna be tough to beat us. We\u2019re right at the top of what a championship team looks like \u2014 a team that had more fight in it than I ever been on before. These are the guys that had the fight in \u2019em, the grit in \u2019em, the grind in \u2019em, and it was special to be a part of that.<\/p>\n

Q: So you think the \u201986 Mets would have beaten the \u201998 Yankees.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> Of course. A lot of guys over there were great, and a lot of friends over there. But I just think we had a different type of focus of what we were when we hit the field \u2014 we were bad, man. We were some bad boys, I can tell you that.<\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>This team was probably one of the most complete teams. We had starters on the bench. How many teams were predicted to win it all and dominate and do it? Not many. The top three.<\/p>\n

Q: That team exemplified New York, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>We definitely had the New York personality. New York is a blue-collar, fight-to-the-end city. They don\u2019t give in, they will fight for what they think they deserve. A player comes in, there\u2019s certain things you had to do when you come in this clubhouse, you don\u2019t come in here thinking you own the world.<\/p>\n

Q: Mike Tyson was a big \u201986 Mets fan, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Horwitz:<\/strong> He called one day and he said every time he turned on the TV, one of the guys was in a fight. He admired our style of play, he wanted to meet the guys. Mike was officiating behind home plate between Darryl and Doc, we had the boxing gloves.<\/p>\n

Wilson:<\/strong> We were different, man, That\u2019s what I\u2019m proud of, that we left a mark on MLB.<\/p>\n

Q: When will the Mets win another championship?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> I think they are in transition. I think they are in the rebuilding phase for themself, and sometimes that has to happen before you can win again.<\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>I think it\u2019s about identity. You have to have an identity to have a cohesive group. That \u201986 team, we\u2019d been together for a couple of years before we won in \u201986. The Mets are in transition right now, and it\u2019s gonna take a little time. It takes more than one great ballplayer to win.<\/p>\n

Q: Hard to believe it\u2019s been 40 years, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> Yeah, 40 years and they still haven\u2019t won anything, right?<\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>Still trying (laugh).<\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> (laughing) They\u2019re still trying. Yeah, it\u2019s hard to believe it\u2019s been 40 years. We were a family, and you just don\u2019t see that with every team, though. It\u2019s special when you see the guys because you remember what we all went through together. You never forget that. To accomplish a championship, it\u2019s very hard to get into the winning circle, and we were able to do that.<\/p>\n

Q: Over 40 years, you learn a lot of life lessons.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Strawberry:<\/strong> Never give up. Never quit. No matter what has been said or done in your life, it\u2019s part of your journey, and it\u2019s part of your story. It doesn\u2019t mean you quit and give up just because you went through some trials and tribulations in life. It means that you get up and if you don\u2019t quit, you don\u2019t know what\u2019s on the other side. That\u2019s what happens to most people, they give up too soon and they miss out that there\u2019s another side of life. And not just being a baseball player, being a man, I think, more than anything. You have to learn these things in life and you take \u2019em with you and you use every part of it to become the man that when your career\u2019s over you can look back and you can say, \u201cI\u2019m really blessed and I\u2019m really thankful that I went through everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson: <\/strong>Never abandon or deny who you are. When you start doing those type of things, you don\u2019t learn, you don\u2019t grow. You stay true to yourself, you can\u2019t go wrong.<\/p>\n

1986 Amazin\u2019 World Series champions Darryl Strawberry and Mookie Wilson, joined by longtime Mets media exec Jay Horwitz, take a swing at some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby ahead of the Mets\u2019 40-year reunion of the championship team on Aug. 1 at Citi Field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nDarryl Strawberry, Mookie Wilson reminisce to The Post about 'bad boys' 1986 Mets: 'We were different'\u00a0 - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=4245\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Darryl Strawberry, Mookie Wilson reminisce to The Post about 'bad boys' 1986 Mets: 'We were different'\u00a0 - 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