From Newsday…I had never pondered who would have been the face of the 1986 Disaster.
Weisman, who grew up in Douglaston, started at NBC Sports as a 22-year-old in 1972. He was in the truck for iconic moments such as Hank Aaron’s 715th career homer in ’74 and Carlton Fisk’s World Series Game 6-winning shot in ’75. He produced his first World Series in 1978 and his last in 2003, for Fox.
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Boston took a 5-3 lead into the bottom of the 10th in Game 6 and was three outs from its first world championship since 1918, by which point Weisman had left the game largely in the hands of Vin Scully and Coyle. He turned to planning what figured to be a chaotic postgame show from the visiting clubhouse.
He was pondering everything from which Met would be the best camera target “for the forlorn shot in the dugout” to when to deploy a vintage image of Babe Ruth winking as his curse comes to an end.
It should have been Gooden. He made two horrible World Series starts that put us in a huge hole. His infamy would have been further compounded the next spring when he went into rehab. As I have stated before, if he was not on drugs in 1986, the Mets would have won close to 115 games and had a much easier time in the World Series. Could better oversight by Davey and management and club veterans have kept Doc on the right path? Did they look the other way, because getting Doc into rehab sooner could have totally ruined 1986.
Have to agree w Steve D.
i read some where,george foster bought it to mets management that gooden may have a problem.
i remember the close up shots of him during his series starts…a few people said “he looks like he is out of it.”
wow i dont recall that. I was quite surprised when the news came out.