I remember when I first became a baseball fan, my dad bought two copies of the 1986 Mets Yearbook at Shoprite. One copy was for me and the other was his. By the end of the '86 season, his copy was pristine and mine was falling apart from overuse. When I got it, I went through it and chose my favorite players. Darryl Strawberry was my main man based on his stats and his powerful arms. Gary Carter was number two, and also my mom's favorite Met. Dwight Gooden and Keith Hernandez were high on my list of favorites at the beginning of the year.And then there was Danny Heep. Even as an 8 year old who had seen minimum baseball up to that point, I knew Danny was an underdog, and that made him one of my favorites. I also remember seeing his minor league stats with over 20 home runs per year and thinking he could be a star if he could just get a chance. The yearbook talked about what a great pinch hitter he was and so I thought of him as clutch. An invaluable piece of the puzzle. Looking back to his play during 1986 I can only remember one at bat in the post season against the Astros in game 6 of the NLCS. He came to bat in the bottom of the ninth inning, pinch hitting with the score tied 3-3 and the bases loaded. He took the count full and then struck out swinging at ball four, an eyeball-level fastball that if taken, would have given the Mets the lead. The Mets still won that game, but that strikeout was still huge because it led to 6 more innings of baseball. Danny could have been the hero just by taking a walk but I guess as a Houston resident, he really wanted to sock it to the Astros with his bat.
Danny wasn't around in '87 and at the time I didn't understand why, but now I realize he was made redundant by Lee Mazzilli, which is too bad, because I'm pretty sure my main man hated Lee "Meatball" Mazzilli (as I imagine Darryl called him behind his back).
Looking back at Darryl's struggles after 1986, it might be argued that replacing Danny with Mazzilli contributed to the hardships the Mets had after '86.
As for Danny, after starting the year as one of my favorite 1986 Mets, Danny was replaced in my heart by Kevin Mitchell because Kevin hit a home run in the first game I went to at Shea. As luck would have it, neither of my "underdog" Mets favorites from 1986 were around to start 1987.
At least they got something for Mitchell, but letting Danny Heep (as well as World Series MVP Ray Knight) walk away for nothing was just asking for a 30+ year World Series Championship curse.
The curse of Danny Heep.
That said, Mets should seriously think about bringing him (and Kevin Mitchell) back into the organization in order to bring a long-overdue championship back to Queens.
