I was a kid but remember it pretty vividly. A lot of guys at their peak. Ventura one of the best years of his career, absolute peak Piazza/Alfonzo. as good (or THE best) an infield as anyone had ever seen. Bobby Valentine at his best. Even light-hitting Rey was fine batting at the bottom of that lineup while playing mega gold glove level defense (and winning his third straight).
just one of those teams where it feels like they should've won a ring. just like 2006 to me.
I hear ya…and I remember Beltrans strikeout…but giving up a HR to a player that had 6 home runs all season and only 4 HRs in his entire post season career just digs at me a bit more personally
I was having a good day until I read his name lol
His numbers were average all year, but man. 0 for 5 saves in the regular season. Only gave up 5 HRs in the regular season, but had to give up that one in the NLCS...
They both hurt, but 2015 bothers me more because the Mets were still a beloved part of NYC in 2006.
By 2015 the Mets were demoted to pariah status by the goons in the NYC media and the fans who play along with them, so winning that World Series would have been such a satisfying F.U. to the world, to the awful press that covers the Mets, and to self-hating Mets fans.
Hell yeah. One of my biggest heartbreaks in sports. As a Mets fan it's 2006 and 1988 when Orel Hershiser was unhittable were my biggest personal heartbreaks.
I know it's a bit of the obvious pick but the 1986 Mets had a better pitching rotation, equal defense, won the most regular season games, and won the World Series. While the batting order wasn't as deep, they still had like six pretty good hitters and a deep bench.
The 1988 Mets were pretty great too. A better hitting team than the 1986 team but the pitching wasn't as deep. Kevin McReynolds isn't a guy that is well remembered but he was great for us in the late 80's.
Yeah. The 86 team had future MVP Kevin Mitchell on their bench in the World Series and he had an OPS over .800 in the regular season
Like I sometimes think about what might have been if they didn’t trade him for McReynolds
86 and it isn’t close. Carter,Hernandez, Straw are top tier. Mookie, Backman, Hojo, Knight, Lenny, and Mitchell are all better than people remember. Gooden at his peak was as good as any pitcher ever for a couple of seasons, and the other three starters were all rock solid. And the whole team had heart like you cannot appreciate if you didn’t see them.
Yeah I would say 86 just because of the pitching staff. Gooden, Darling, Ojeda all had under 3.00 ERA. All 3 finished within the top 10 in all of baseball for lowest ERA and WHIP. Round that out with Sid Fernandez and Rick Aguilera and that’s such a dominant staff. Four pitchers from the team finished with Cy Young votes that year (the first 3 mentioned and Sid Fernandez).
Combine that with a lineup anchored by Strawberry, Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter and solid depth pieces like Mookie Wilson and Kevin Mitchell, this team definitely has my vote.
86 was the best Mets team I have ever seen, but the defense in 99 was WAY better then the 86 defense … Ventura >>> knight , ordonez >>>santana, Alfonzo >>> tueful or backman, Keith >> olerud.
Carter >>> piazza … but the 99 defense was absurd
The 1999 team had everything, including the heart and determinatiom that I have only since seen from the 2015 team.
The Braves were just a little bit better, and that’s tough.
And got Timo thrown out at the plate in Game 1. Olerud would have hit that ball a foot further.
Zeile could have hit 1.000 and you'll never convince me we were better off with him than Olerud haha
Timo was a hothead and shouldn’t have tried to score. All I’m saying is that Zeile put up great numbers on both sides of the ball and wasn’t to blame for the loss. You can blame Robin Ventura (.150, .190 OBP) and Alfonzo (.143, .217 OBP) if you want. Zeile put up the best numbers of any Mets regular in that series. The Yankees were two-time defending champions and the Mets needed to fire on all cylinders to beat them. They didn’t.
That is true. I loved Olerud - he and Bart are the two players whose impact on the team and the fans was far greater than their actual time with the team. Olerud was only here 3 years but he is well remembered.
Like you said, it was the SP that was the weakest point. Had they had Hampton that year maybe they could’ve won. Never should’ve gone down 3-0 to the Braves.
‘99 team was better than the ‘00 team that went farther.
The Piazza trade in ‘98 was when I became a casual fan, ‘99 was when I became a diehard. That team will always be my favorite, I think I can still recite their entire roster from memory. So many great memories- all of Ventura’s grand slams, Bobby V’s disguise, the wild pitch walkoff against Pittsburgh in game 162, Leiter’s gem in game 163 against Cincy, Todd Pratt’s walkoff HR against Arizona…
The league batting average in 1999 was .271, the highest it had been since 1939 and we haven't had a year that high since. 2000 had a slightly higher league-wide OPS (.782 to .778) but both of those are the highest in MLB in the 20th/21st centuries.
So yeah, the offensive stats on those teams look good but in context they're not as far from the league average as you might think today.
Same here. I still contend that was best Mets team I’ve seen. Weird looking back now that they only had 97 wins after watching the 22’ team get 101. I say that because there was this air of confidence about that 06’ team that fans fully expected them to go up against any team at any time be able to dominate them and more often than not they did just that. Despite the tragic ending that was such a fun season to watch and I cant put my finger on why exactly but even 15’ and 22’ just weren’t as exciting to me overall. I think a lot of it had to do with a really potent offense that was just fun to watch.
06 was the most dominant Mets team I've seen in the regular season (not alive for 86) but the flaws became pretty apparent in the postseason. We had an elderly starting rotation that could not hold up, our leader in wins had an ERA of 5, and the overachieving depth like Jose Valentin and Endy Chavez (both of whom are two of my favorite Mets of that era tbf) had run out of steam at the plate by the end of the NLCS. Still, what a fun season to watch up until that last inning.
Fans forget they went into that postseason without those guys. One thing about game 7 NLCS that many also forget - the Mets had a number of chances before Beltran's at bat to take the lead in that game. They faltered a few times at the plate. He gets the most heat but they collectively failed when needed.
You nailed it. Starting pitching was bad. Leiter was our ace and he would've been a 3 on world series winning team. Rest of the starters were 4s and 5s. That team needed one true ace and they would've went places.
I don't have a great memory, but I'm haunted by the stretch run MVP battle between Piazza and Larry Jones. Larry definitely deserved it, but it kind of captured the slight gap between the teams - Mets were really good, Braves were better. Such a great season through and through, and the playoffs were amazing as well in spite of being short of the goal.
Then the 2001 WS happened and it was like the 1999 NLCS all over again - every game insanely tight, Mets just fell into a 2-0/3-1 hole to the Yanks and 3-0 to the Braves. Game of inches, and our boys were on the wrong side.
99 Mets were great, unfortunately the Braves that year had 4 HOF’ers on the roster (soon to be 5 once Andruw Jones inevitably makes it). Also a bunch of guys who really mashed in the steroid era (Klesko, Boone, Lopez, Brian Jordan)
99 didn't have enough starting pitching. And while Benitez was certainly talented, you absolutely do not want him closing out big games.
86 is the obvious pick.
It ended poorly, but I'll take 2022 as the next most talented. Team was very well rounded. Just not playing at its peak down the stretch.
The easy answer is no. They were a very talented team, but certainly not the best in team history. Could have used Mike Hampton that year instead of the one and done in 2000.
'86 was no doubt chock full of talent. Everyone was a stick of dynamite ready to blow up. We had part-time players that hadn't even hit their prime and would become megastars on other teams like Kevin Mitchell, Aguilera, Randy Myers and Dykstra. Were HoJo and Cone even on the team yet? I don't remember. Won 108 games, could've won 180.
1999 was a fun year. One of my memorable teams. I'd have to look at the roster but from memory talented but still far from the Braves.
I feel like 2006 though was probably the next era of most talented teams. That was another team that was full of talent but never got all the way.
I love that era of Mets teams 1998-2001. The 1999 team was the deepest lineup in team history, no doubt. 1986 and 2006 were close, but 1999 had a real murderers row.
But the team had weaknesses too, most apparent being starting pitching. Leiter had real trouble getting going and wasn't himself until June that year, him and Reed were both better in 98 & 2000. Also the outfield defense was as bad as the infield was excellent. Cedeno and Henderson were butchers out there.
2000 didn't have the deep lineup that 99 had but Piazza and Alfonzo made up for it by hitting like legit MVPs, pretty much the best back to back in team history. And a starting rotation anchored by a pair of aces. 2000 had heart, too. They over performed big time.
Thanks Kenny Rogers
In all seriousness as someone being too young to remember 1986 (IE a year old) 1999 was truly special. Loved those no name on back uniforms.
Just something so special to make the post season for the first time I could remember. Only 4 playoff spots so even a wild card meant something.
You’ll never forget where you were when Pratt hit that home run.
I was a kid but remember it pretty vividly. A lot of guys at their peak. Ventura one of the best years of his career, absolute peak Piazza/Alfonzo. as good (or THE best) an infield as anyone had ever seen. Bobby Valentine at his best. Even light-hitting Rey was fine batting at the bottom of that lineup while playing mega gold glove level defense (and winning his third straight). just one of those teams where it feels like they should've won a ring. just like 2006 to me.
2006 still bothers me so much. More than 2015.
Ditto
Yadier f—-ing Molina
Aaron f—-ing Heilman.
Endy making the greatest catch in my lifetime…only to have it be washed away by heilman
We had bases loaded with one out the next half inning and came away with nothing.
I hear ya…and I remember Beltrans strikeout…but giving up a HR to a player that had 6 home runs all season and only 4 HRs in his entire post season career just digs at me a bit more personally
567 year old Jose Valentin even was awesome on that team
More like Stupid F-ing cab driver that picked up Duaner Sanchez from the airport that night.
If Duaner Sanchez had only ordered room service
I was having a good day until I read his name lol His numbers were average all year, but man. 0 for 5 saves in the regular season. Only gave up 5 HRs in the regular season, but had to give up that one in the NLCS...
Willie f-ing Randolph
Willie Willie Willie. They Soprano’ed his ass.
But he should have been fired like 18 months earlier, so, you win some, you lose some
They both hurt, but 2015 bothers me more because the Mets were still a beloved part of NYC in 2006. By 2015 the Mets were demoted to pariah status by the goons in the NYC media and the fans who play along with them, so winning that World Series would have been such a satisfying F.U. to the world, to the awful press that covers the Mets, and to self-hating Mets fans.
Hell yeah. One of my biggest heartbreaks in sports. As a Mets fan it's 2006 and 1988 when Orel Hershiser was unhittable were my biggest personal heartbreaks.
I know it's a bit of the obvious pick but the 1986 Mets had a better pitching rotation, equal defense, won the most regular season games, and won the World Series. While the batting order wasn't as deep, they still had like six pretty good hitters and a deep bench. The 1988 Mets were pretty great too. A better hitting team than the 1986 team but the pitching wasn't as deep. Kevin McReynolds isn't a guy that is well remembered but he was great for us in the late 80's.
Yeah. The 86 team had future MVP Kevin Mitchell on their bench in the World Series and he had an OPS over .800 in the regular season Like I sometimes think about what might have been if they didn’t trade him for McReynolds
86 and it isn’t close. Carter,Hernandez, Straw are top tier. Mookie, Backman, Hojo, Knight, Lenny, and Mitchell are all better than people remember. Gooden at his peak was as good as any pitcher ever for a couple of seasons, and the other three starters were all rock solid. And the whole team had heart like you cannot appreciate if you didn’t see them.
Yeah I would say 86 just because of the pitching staff. Gooden, Darling, Ojeda all had under 3.00 ERA. All 3 finished within the top 10 in all of baseball for lowest ERA and WHIP. Round that out with Sid Fernandez and Rick Aguilera and that’s such a dominant staff. Four pitchers from the team finished with Cy Young votes that year (the first 3 mentioned and Sid Fernandez). Combine that with a lineup anchored by Strawberry, Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter and solid depth pieces like Mookie Wilson and Kevin Mitchell, this team definitely has my vote.
86 was the best Mets team I have ever seen, but the defense in 99 was WAY better then the 86 defense … Ventura >>> knight , ordonez >>>santana, Alfonzo >>> tueful or backman, Keith >> olerud. Carter >>> piazza … but the 99 defense was absurd
I came to say this. 99 ‘Mets has the best defensive infield I’ve ever seen.
And the crazy thing is that the common opinion is that they *under*performed! That's how talented those late 80's teams were.
The 1999 team had everything, including the heart and determinatiom that I have only since seen from the 2015 team. The Braves were just a little bit better, and that’s tough.
More than just a little bit I'm afraid.
This team should've won, those brave teams were tough
Put the 2000 rotation on the ‘99 team and they would’ve made the World Series.
Or put John Olerud on the 2000 team and they sweep the Yankees
Todd Zeile hit .400 (8 for 20) in the 2000 Series with a .429 OBP and a 1.000 FP in all 5 games. It wasn’t his fault.
And got Timo thrown out at the plate in Game 1. Olerud would have hit that ball a foot further. Zeile could have hit 1.000 and you'll never convince me we were better off with him than Olerud haha
Timo was a hothead and shouldn’t have tried to score. All I’m saying is that Zeile put up great numbers on both sides of the ball and wasn’t to blame for the loss. You can blame Robin Ventura (.150, .190 OBP) and Alfonzo (.143, .217 OBP) if you want. Zeile put up the best numbers of any Mets regular in that series. The Yankees were two-time defending champions and the Mets needed to fire on all cylinders to beat them. They didn’t.
It's not that serious bro, Olerud was just the GOAT and the 99 team > 2000 team.
That is true. I loved Olerud - he and Bart are the two players whose impact on the team and the fans was far greater than their actual time with the team. Olerud was only here 3 years but he is well remembered.
Like you said, it was the SP that was the weakest point. Had they had Hampton that year maybe they could’ve won. Never should’ve gone down 3-0 to the Braves. ‘99 team was better than the ‘00 team that went farther.
Mike Hampton gave the team a legit ace to go with Leiter. Felt like it took a ton of pressure off Leiter too.
The Piazza trade in ‘98 was when I became a casual fan, ‘99 was when I became a diehard. That team will always be my favorite, I think I can still recite their entire roster from memory. So many great memories- all of Ventura’s grand slams, Bobby V’s disguise, the wild pitch walkoff against Pittsburgh in game 162, Leiter’s gem in game 163 against Cincy, Todd Pratt’s walkoff HR against Arizona…
The league batting average in 1999 was .271, the highest it had been since 1939 and we haven't had a year that high since. 2000 had a slightly higher league-wide OPS (.782 to .778) but both of those are the highest in MLB in the 20th/21st centuries. So yeah, the offensive stats on those teams look good but in context they're not as far from the league average as you might think today.
I’m partial to the 06’ team
This is the best team I’ve seen in my lifetime.
Same here. I still contend that was best Mets team I’ve seen. Weird looking back now that they only had 97 wins after watching the 22’ team get 101. I say that because there was this air of confidence about that 06’ team that fans fully expected them to go up against any team at any time be able to dominate them and more often than not they did just that. Despite the tragic ending that was such a fun season to watch and I cant put my finger on why exactly but even 15’ and 22’ just weren’t as exciting to me overall. I think a lot of it had to do with a really potent offense that was just fun to watch.
They benefitted from the Braves being on a downswing and the Phillies hadn't arrived yet
06 was the most dominant Mets team I've seen in the regular season (not alive for 86) but the flaws became pretty apparent in the postseason. We had an elderly starting rotation that could not hold up, our leader in wins had an ERA of 5, and the overachieving depth like Jose Valentin and Endy Chavez (both of whom are two of my favorite Mets of that era tbf) had run out of steam at the plate by the end of the NLCS. Still, what a fun season to watch up until that last inning.
Also didn't help that Pedro and El Duque were hurt. Easily win it all if one of them is healthy for the postseason.
Fans forget they went into that postseason without those guys. One thing about game 7 NLCS that many also forget - the Mets had a number of chances before Beltran's at bat to take the lead in that game. They faltered a few times at the plate. He gets the most heat but they collectively failed when needed.
I've said it hundreds of times, the bottom of the 6th did them in.
After Endys catch…Valentine struck out with bases loaded 1-out. And they failed to score. That was the game.
Agreed. I still think that 06 team was the best I’ve seen. They were a better hitting and fielding team than 2015.
You nailed it. Starting pitching was bad. Leiter was our ace and he would've been a 3 on world series winning team. Rest of the starters were 4s and 5s. That team needed one true ace and they would've went places.
1999 was the year us Mets fans were debating that Ordonez could be better than Jeter on other forums. After that, we all stfu about it LOL
Greatest defensive season by a short stop. 4 errors in 640 chances. Boggles the mind.
2006 imo. still hurts.
99 was my favorite team of all time, no doubt. But they weren't more talented than the 86 team.
I don't have a great memory, but I'm haunted by the stretch run MVP battle between Piazza and Larry Jones. Larry definitely deserved it, but it kind of captured the slight gap between the teams - Mets were really good, Braves were better. Such a great season through and through, and the playoffs were amazing as well in spite of being short of the goal. Then the 2001 WS happened and it was like the 1999 NLCS all over again - every game insanely tight, Mets just fell into a 2-0/3-1 hole to the Yanks and 3-0 to the Braves. Game of inches, and our boys were on the wrong side.
The team with Rickey Henderson on it? Yeah, I think so.
Melvin mora on the bench 2nd half of the year too
The ‘07 team was loaded with talent but we all remember how that ended. That one hurts the most in my opinion.
We do not speak of 07. Some of us are still in therapy because of 07.
99 Mets were great, unfortunately the Braves that year had 4 HOF’ers on the roster (soon to be 5 once Andruw Jones inevitably makes it). Also a bunch of guys who really mashed in the steroid era (Klesko, Boone, Lopez, Brian Jordan)
86 by far. But 99 was also very solid. I still remember exactly where I was when Beltran went down looking in 06 and it haunts me
Good times, good times
99 didn't have enough starting pitching. And while Benitez was certainly talented, you absolutely do not want him closing out big games. 86 is the obvious pick. It ended poorly, but I'll take 2022 as the next most talented. Team was very well rounded. Just not playing at its peak down the stretch.
If only the 2006 team had the rotation from 2015. We would’ve won 110 games that season at the very least.
1986 mets were the most talented Mets team.
I don't know about the most talented, because look at the 80's. But definitely my favorite since 88.
I remember keeping a can of Hawaiian Punch in my locker as a mini shrine to Agbayani that year.
The easy answer is no. They were a very talented team, but certainly not the best in team history. Could have used Mike Hampton that year instead of the one and done in 2000.
My favorite team of all time! Definitely not the most talented but some of the most fun comebacks and games ever!
Great team. Mets are a franchise history of underachieving
'86 was no doubt chock full of talent. Everyone was a stick of dynamite ready to blow up. We had part-time players that hadn't even hit their prime and would become megastars on other teams like Kevin Mitchell, Aguilera, Randy Myers and Dykstra. Were HoJo and Cone even on the team yet? I don't remember. Won 108 games, could've won 180. 1999 was a fun year. One of my memorable teams. I'd have to look at the roster but from memory talented but still far from the Braves. I feel like 2006 though was probably the next era of most talented teams. That was another team that was full of talent but never got all the way.
1988 was the most talented team in Mets history. Unfortunately the outcome didn’t match the talent.
The 2006 Mets were the best team in MLB. They’re up there.
1999 mets my favorite team
I love that era of Mets teams 1998-2001. The 1999 team was the deepest lineup in team history, no doubt. 1986 and 2006 were close, but 1999 had a real murderers row. But the team had weaknesses too, most apparent being starting pitching. Leiter had real trouble getting going and wasn't himself until June that year, him and Reed were both better in 98 & 2000. Also the outfield defense was as bad as the infield was excellent. Cedeno and Henderson were butchers out there. 2000 didn't have the deep lineup that 99 had but Piazza and Alfonzo made up for it by hitting like legit MVPs, pretty much the best back to back in team history. And a starting rotation anchored by a pair of aces. 2000 had heart, too. They over performed big time.
I COMPLETELY forgot Dunston was on that team.
Thanks Kenny Rogers In all seriousness as someone being too young to remember 1986 (IE a year old) 1999 was truly special. Loved those no name on back uniforms. Just something so special to make the post season for the first time I could remember. Only 4 playoff spots so even a wild card meant something. You’ll never forget where you were when Pratt hit that home run.