Are we fighting hard enough?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Ed Leyro reminds us that yesterday was the 21st anniversary of a strange on-field fight that took place after the final out when Gregg Jefferies went after Roger McDowell. It was also the final game at Shea for co-captains Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter. Both appeared as pinch hitters, Carter successfully.

http://www.leaptoad.com/mets/gamedetail.php?gameno=4509&tabno=B

Tabloids were quick with the snark that the Mets weren't sure whether they were on Jefferies' side or McDowell's, but Darryl Strawberry --- who one might speculate, as a former tortured wunderkind himself, might have been more sympathetic to Jefferies than the standard Met --- was an active participant.

The Johnson era wound down more slowly as eras do in reality, but this --- the last home game of the eighties --- might be seen in retrospect as the curtain on his epoch, with his co-captains bowing out as sentimentally appreciated but ineffective bench players and his maladjusted star of tomorrow charging haphazardly into manhood with a spirit that wasn't catching on.

[MFS62]

I would prefer that the team channel any aggressive tendencies they have toward the opposition, as in some payback for cheap shots like the Utley slide.

Edgy, that was a great last sentence. It would earn you an A in any Creative Writing class I can imagine. Well done.

Later

[ashie62]

I always thought Jefferies was unfairly bullied by some teammates on a team in decline.

and yes Edgy, that was well written.

[Frayed Knot]

IIRC the club released a statement that day - either prior to the game or at some point during the early innings - that neither Hernandez nor Carter would be offered contracts that winter.
Not that that had anything to do with the fight and I'm sure the statement was not news to either Keith or Gary, but it must have made for an interesting last day.