Posted on 09/06/2025 8:13:45 AM PDT by DFG
Davey Johnson, who made the final out of the 1969 World Series as the Mets won their first world championship and who guided the franchise to its second and most recent World Series title as the team’s manager 17 seasons later, died on Friday, per team historian Jay Horwitz.
He was 82.
A second baseman with the Baltimore Orioles on that October afternoon, Johnson launched a fly ball just in front of the warning track in left field where a genuflecting Cleon Jones made the catch, setting off a raucous celebration that saw thousands of Mets fans stream onto what would become a ravaged Shea Stadium field.
After a successful 13-year major league playing career, Johnson managed the Mets from 1984-90. He also managed the Reds, Orioles, Dodgers and Nationals during a 17-season managerial career, compiling a record of 1,372-1,071.
He was twice named manager of the year, winning the honor in the American League with the Baltimore Orioles in 1997 and in 2012 with the National League’s Washington Nationals.
Johnson was the manager of the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate in Tidewater, Va. when he was tapped to manage the big-league club in 1984, taking over a team that had won just 68 games the previous season.
The 1984 Mets would go on to win 90 games, no doubt helped immeasurably by the arrival of 19-year-old Dwight Gooden, who would win 17 games in his rookie season and the continued blossoming of 22-year-old Darryl Strawberry.
It would be the first of five consecutive seasons of 90 or more wins for the Mets under Johnson as he became the only manager in major league history to win 90 or more games in each of his first five seasons.
Johnson’s Mets would twice win 100 games or more (1986, 1988).
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Under George ‘Sparky’ Anderson....
Of course it didn’t hurt to have Lance Parrish, Alan Trammel, Lou Whitaker, Kirk Gibson, Jack Morris... and Willie Hernandez!
Game 7 against the Dodgers was a disaster- swing at the first pitch EVERY time....i was getting furious...they never took a first pitch.
I remember the Dodgers scoring three or four runs in one inning of that game… Without hitting the ball out of the infield!
Davey Johnson managed according to strange baseball superstitions. He was lucky to have a bunch of players who could win on their own.
Maybe. But they won nonetheless.
As a long-suffering Red Sox fan, my favorite bumper sticker of all time (pre-2004):
“The Red Sox killed my father, and now they’re coming after me!”
Classic…..
I agree with you on that one. The 86 Mets were a bunch of thugs to boot. Dykstra Goode. Strawberry.
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