Jersey Joe
August 22, 2001
Oh boy, where do I start ?

First of all, I had just graduated college in May and I was unemployed and living at home. My friend Ed had two tickets to this afternoon game which he would sell me for $ 40. I bought both tickets but had no one to go to the game with.

It was a rainy afternoon, but I went out to Shea and tried to unload the extra ticket. No luck, there were very few people there at game time and I didn't want to miss a pitch. I can remember sitting through the first 4 innings praying for rain, so that I wouldn't end up eating the extra ticket.

Well, the sun came out, more and more people began to arrive at the stadium. Although, I don't believe that Shea was anything close to being full (maybe 40 - 45,000 ??), the crowd that afternoon was frantic. It was NOT that corporate crowd that you get nowadays for the big games.

I think that I stood for the last 4 innings and by the 12th, I was exhausted. Thank you Charlie Kerfeld !!

I took a lot of crap from my mom for spending $ 40 for TWO tickets when I should have been out looking for a job. Too bad.

Ray
December 26, 2001
More than anything, I remember Fred Brocklander calling Craig Reynolds out at 1B on a double-play when Reynolds was clearly safe. Everyone saw it when it happened and then again on the replay but Brocklander stayed in denial about it after the game.

That blown call kept a runner from scoring from third base, and the Astros went on to lose in extra innings.

Brocklander also failed to ring up Ray Knight on a strike three right down the middle of the plate in the 9th inning of Game 6. Knight then hit a sac fly to tie the game and send it into extra innings.

The true NLCS MVP was not Mike Scott, but Fred Brocklander.

Robert
August 10, 2002
The main thing I remember is that I wondered how Fred Brocklander could have been considered to even be a little league umpire much less an umpire during a major league playoff series. I'm an Astros fan who still hasn't forgiven Brocklander for giving New York the pennant in 1986. Everybody who watched the NL series knows it should have been Houston and Boston in the World Series that year. Major League baseball ultimately got rid of Brocklander, but by that time it was too late. New York had already been given the NL pennant by the worst excuse I've ever seen for a major league umpire.

Rock
May 6, 2003
It's been 17 years and I still can't forget how the sorriest umpire ever left baseball without admitting that he robbed the Astros of a World Series. I only hope that when he's gone, if he's not already, his epitaph will read "I should have had the balls to say I blew the call".

Jake
August 5, 2004
I was only 3 years old, but apparently I was on my dad's lap at the game. After watching video highlights years later, I don't know how I kept my ability to use my young ears for hearing again. The one thing I know for sure: Dwight Gooden is my favorite athlete of all time. Bar None.

Astros Fan
September 24, 2007
I hate the NY Mets and I hate Fred Brocklander even more. What a crummy call he made. He wouldn't even admit that he made the wrong call. Calling a base runner safe or out is not like calling balls and strikes. There's no "maybe" about it. Craig Reynolds was either safe or out. And he was definitely safe. He screwed the Astros out of a run. As Nolan Ryan said after his great pitching "If he made the right call, we would have won that game in 9 innings." I hope this S.O.B. (Fred Brocklander) is dead by now. I really do. The 1986 Mets were the luckiest team ever to win the World Series. The Astros should have won this series in 5 games. The only game that the Mets won outright was game 2. I was glad when the Mets lost to L.A. in 1988, then Atlanta in 1999, and finally St. Louis in 2006. I hope the Mets never win a World Series ever again.

David Mo
March 27, 2008
Dear Astros Fans, If Fred Brocklander and his fellow men in blue had been better umpires, Mike Scuff would have been ejected in Game One and/or suspended for the series for doctoring the ball. Chalk it up to baseball karma.

StrosFan
November 3, 2008
Brocklander is the worst excuse for an umpire. I was only 13 at the time but I will never, ever forgive that man for robbing us from the World Series.

David Mo- no evidence against Scott was ever found so get over the "scuff" routine. Plenty of evidence to show Brocklander blew that call.

Wayne
October 23, 2008
To David Mo...We got Mike Scott from the New York Mutts. If in fact he was cheating he probably learned it in the big rotten apple. When it comes to that gutless pig Brocklander, I remember other Astros fans hanging him in effigy at the Dome. Believe me, a lot of us wanted to see him hanging for real. And I've always wondered if Brocklander was a NY Mets fan just wanting his team to win or if he was being paid under the table to make sure the big market Mutts made it to the World Series instead of our team here in Dixie, of if he was just a piss poor excuse of an umpire that somehow or other lucked into the job at the major league level.

Michael
April 20, 2009
Wow... Hey Astros fans... why do you NEVER bring up the fact that you LUCKED into having home field advantage for this series? There was an Oiler game and the first two games had to be played at the Astrodome....so while it was actually supposed to be the Mets home field advantage (due to alternating east and west coast teams during that time I believe...and the west coast Dodgers had home field in 85) you completely lucked into it. And as any player who ever played in that dome can say, that's a HUGE advantage in that place.

On to the game... I remember the fans chanting "Gary, Gary" when he walked up to the plate. Fantastic finish.

Clyde
April 20, 2009
Some things I remember from this game:

Nolan Ryan was virtually unhittable. The Mets, I believe, had a grand total of three baserunners in the first 11 innings.

Darryl Strawberry's game-tying home run was an unusual home run -- a bolt, that barely disappeared over the home run line about two seconds after it hit the bat.

I remember Charlie Kerfeld's behind-the-back snag of Gary Carter's grounder in the eighth inning. He pointed to Carter before throwing to first. I thought it was pretty funny, even though I was rooting for the Mets to win.

Brocklander's call did cost the Astros the game. But I think some Houston fans may need to get a grip . . .

Revinax
June 16, 2009
To summarize:

1) Astros should not have had home field advantage; 2) Scott's "scuffball" was suspicious, but nothing was ever proven; 3) Video DID prove that Fred Brocklander directly cost the Astros at least one game, and possibly the pennant; 4) Fred Brocklander should die a long and agonizing death from testicular cancer, since he never had the balls to own up to his poo umpiring; 5) May the Mets never win another World Series. Amen

Michael
June 16, 2009
Was at this game but was not supposed to be. The game was scheduled for Monday of Columbus day afternoon. It was also Yom Kippur that day, so I gave the tickets to a family friend. Then the game was rained out and the friend could not go that next day, so they gave me back the tickets. Since Yom Kippur was over I was now able to go because of the rain out that day.

And what a duel it was between Gooden and Ryan matching pitch for pitch. Then Carter finally broke out of his slump and drive in the winning run to give the Mets the 3-2 series lead. We might have maybe got a gift from Brocklander but not so sure on that. It could have gone either way. When its a teams year to win, they get calls to go their way and 1986 was ours.

Rob
August 18, 2011
I've hated the New York Mets ever since this series took place 25 years ago. There's no denying the pennant was stolen from the Astros by a pathetic scab of an umpire named Fred Brocklander. In fact he gave two games to New York. First there was the blown call against Craig Reynolds that gave New York a 1-run win. And then there was the game where Ray Knight was obviously struck out, but Brocklander called the pitch a ball. The pennant was given to New York and stolen from the Astros and their fans. On top of that Brocklander was such an arrogant prick that he refused to admit he had cheated in favor of New York, though it was as obvious as day is light and night is dark.

Donnie
August 18, 2011
Michael, You say you "might" have gotten a gift from Brocklander? Try being honest and admitting you got TWO gifts and the N.L. pennant thanks to that no good pile of sh*t Brocklander. He will never be forgiven for stealing the pennant from us in 1986.

George Lea
October 18, 2011
I attended Game 5 of the 86 NLCS. I had a great box seat in the front row of the right field loge next to the foul pole. My cousin Debbie and I traveled out to Shea from Rockland County that Monday only to have the game rained out. I skipped work the next day to come back (I paid $75 each for those seats and I wasn't about to miss out.) By far, this was the greatest baseball game I ever attended. Nolan Ryan was on fire retiring 2 of 3 Met hitters by strikeout in the first 3 innings. He pitched that game with a broken bone in his landing foot. Dwight Gooden pitched 10 innings that day and got a no-decision. Darryl Strawberry's home run virtually landed at my feet as it cleared the wall at the base of the foul pole. On the super slo-mo replay during the broadcast I can see myself jump out of my seat as he hit the ball and follow its trajectory over the wall. Each inning was tension-filled which grew with each passing inning. The errant pickoff from Kerfeld which allowed Wally Backman to advance to 2nd in the 12th inning was the breakthough. It was like two heavyweight fighters gong at it. One of the best days of my life.

Ed K
May 17, 2020
I wonder what all the Astros fans think now about a post-season series being “stolen“ in light of the revelations that have become known in the past six months. As for Astros fans’ hatred of the Mets, at least the Mets did not cheat. At most, the Mets were beneficiaries of some poor umpiring.