1986 World Series

Lore & Background

The series is best remembered for its Game 6, which saw the Mets rally from a two-run deficit in the bottom of the 10th inning, despite having two outs and no one on base. The Red Sox, who held a 3–2 series lead, were twice one strike away from securing the championship, but failed to close out the inning as the Mets won off an error by Boston first baseman Bill Buckner. When the Mets won the series in Game 7, the Game 6 collapse entered baseball lore as part of the Curse of the Bambino superstition used to explain the Red Sox's championship drought between 1918 and 2004.

In Their Own Story

The air inside Shea Stadium crackled with tension as the seventh game reached its final innings. The scoreboard read 2-1 in favor of Houston, their first World Series title within reach. But then, Keith Hernandez's single off Joe Niekro set the stage for a Mets rally that would haunt Astros fans forever. As the crowd roared and the final out was recorded, the silence among the traveling Astros contingent spoke volumes—a dream deferred, but not forgotten.

Reader's Guide

The 1986 World Series marked the second time, after the previous year's series, in which the winning team lost the first two games of the series at home (the Kansas City Royals accomplished this the year prior). It happened again in the 1996 World Series with the New York Yankees, the last such World Series occurrence, but it would happen in the 2025 American League Championship Series with the Toronto Blue Jays. It was also the first World Series to use the designated hitter only in games played at the American League representative's stadium, a policy that was maintained until the National League's adoption of the DH in 2022 (save for 2020, when the DH was used for all World Series games after it was used in the NL during the COVID-19 reduced regular season).

Did You Know?

• This was the fifth meeting between teams from Boston and New York City for a major professional sports championship, previously occurring in two Stanley Cup Finals (1929, 1972) and two previous World Series (1912, 1916).
• The Mets finished the regular season with a franchise-best record of 108–54, winning the National League East division by an unspecified number of games over the Philadelphia Phillies.
• The Red Sox went 95–66 during the season, winning the American League East division by an unspecified number of games over the New York Yankees.
• Game 1 featured a standing ovation at Shea Stadium for Mets' legend Tom Seaver, now a member of the Red Sox, though he did not pitch due to a knee injury.