World Series Memories: Mookie Wilson of the '86 Mets on his hit through Buckner

Eric Hosmer's misplay at first base in Game 1 of the World Series instantly brought back memories of a similar blunder from a past edition of the Fall Classic.

Nearly 29 years earlier to the day, the New York Mets found themselves knotted in a tie when a similar miscue on a grounder to first allowed them to take the lead on baseball's grandest stage.

While New York wasn't able to take advantage Tuesday night, the impact that play had on the organization nearly 30 years ago has secured its place in Mets lore.

1986

The Mets set a franchise record with 108 wins in the 1986 season. After ousting the Houston Astros in six games in the NLCS, the Mets found themselves in prime position to claim the franchise's second World Series crown against a Boston Red Sox team that hadn't won a title since 1918 - a fact New York may have been too well aware of.

"(We felt) a little bit arrogant about the whole thing," Mookie Wilson recently told theScore in an interview coordinated in partnership with Sports Celebrity Marketing. "I think we kind of put everything in cruise once we beat Houston. We thought that was the (team to beat).

"Once we took them down, we underestimated Boston, in all honesty. We either underestimated them or overestimated ourselves," he said with a laugh. "Either way, I think we went into that (series) a little bit fatigued, mentally and physically. But I think our arrogance (played a factor) more than anything. But we just felt it was our series."

The Mets were outscored 10-3 in losing the first two games of the series at Shea Stadium, quickly falling into an 0-2 hole.

"After they won the first two games, I think we had a little touch of reality, and if we wanted it, we were going to have to work for it," Wilson said. "I think that's the first time, or the second time, that we'd been challenged all year, and I didn't know how we were going to react."

Facing the challenge

The way the team reacted was incredibly positive. The Mets went to Fenway and won Games 3 and 4 by a combined score of 13-3 to even the series at two games apiece.

But Game 5 went to the Red Sox, who regained their series lead and moved into position to close things out. With the setting shifting back to Shea, Game 6 went into extra innings, where the Red Sox put the Mets against the ropes by scoring twice in the top of the 10th.

The bottom half of the inning began with back-to-back flyouts, bringing the Mets down to their final out. But from there, three straight singles cut the deficit to 5-4, and brought Wilson up to bat with two men on.

That started what was a roller-coaster at-bat for Wilson, with the game-tying run coming in on a wild pitch and the count eventually running full.

"My attitude changed as the at-bat went along." Wilson said. "There was, 'I'm not going to get a chance to hit' to 'Now I'm going to get a chance to hit' to 'Now I've got two strikes' to 'Now the score's tied' to 'Now just put the ball in play.' All that happened in a period of about five minutes."

Then came the fateful hit.

"It gets through Buckner"

Wilson got a pitch middle-in. All he could do was beat it into the ground on the right side towards Bill Buckner, but that ended up being enough. Buckner, whose fielding percentage that year was .989, whiffed on the ball, which got through his legs for a hit.

"As I was watching the ball, it's like it was in slow motion. It felt like it took forever for that ball to get down," Wilson recalled. "I'm just thinking, 'Just run. You already screwed up the at-bat, so just run.' Then when the ball gets by him, I was actually in shock, because I know Bill. I know the kind of player he was."

At that point there hadn't been a come-from-behind win in the series, but as the ball came to rest in right field, Ray Knight, who had advanced to second on the wild pitch, came around to score and give the Mets a 6-5 victory, tying the series and forcing a deciding Game 7.

"Immediately after the game, we were so surprised, and we were just cheering, and we were all really in awe by what happened," Wilson said. "We had just pulled off, probably, the greatest comeback in baseball history.

"Game 6 was so much of what we were that Game 7 was actually just a formality."

The Mets won Game 7 by a score of 8-5, capturing the second World Series title in franchise history.

"We were on such a high," Wilson said. "I don't think anything could have stopped us."

World Series Memories

Kelly Gruber of the '92 Blue Jays on playing through pain

Jim Leyritz of the '96 Yankees on starting a dynasty

Kevin Millar of the '04 Red Sox on cuing the comeback