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Bad Guys Won | 
 enlarge | Author: Jeff Pearlman
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $1.92
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Avg. Customer Rating:  81 reviews
Sales Rank: 60348
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 1
ISBN: 0060507330
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN: 9780060507336
ASIN: 0060507330
Publication Date: May 1, 2005
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Condition: GREAT Bargain Book Deal - like new, some may have small remainder mark - Ships out by NEXT Business Day - Over ONE MILLION Amazon orders filled - 100% Satisfaction Guarantee!
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In The Bad Guys Won, award-winning former Sports Illustrated baseball writer Jeff Pearlman returns to an innocent time when a city worshipped a man named Mookie and the Yankees were the second-best team in New York. It was 1986, and the New York Mets won 108 regular-season games and the World Series, capturing the hearts (and other assorted body parts) of fans everywhere. But their greatness on the field was nearly eclipsed by how bad they were off it. Led by the indomitable Keith Hernandez and the young dynamic duo of Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry, along with the gallant Scum Bunch, the Amazin's left a wide trail of wreckage in their wake -- hotel rooms, charter planes, a bar in Houston, and most famously Bill Buckner and the hated Boston Red Sox. With an unforgettable cast of characters -- including Doc, Straw, the Kid, Nails, Mex, and manager Davey Johnson -- this "affectionate but critical look at this exciting season" (Publishers Weekly) celebrates the last of baseball's arrogant, insane, rock-and-roll-and-party-all-night teams, exploring what could have been, what should have been, and what never was.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 76 more reviews...
 Great Read June 30, 2008
I was only 2 years old when the Mets won it all in 1986, but reading this book made me feel like I lived through it all. Pearlman does a fantastic job bringing the highlights (and lowlights for that matter) of the 1986 season to life in full detail. A must read for any Mets fan or any fan of baseball.
 A Good, Quick Read May 14, 2008
Stylistically, this is pretty conventional sports-writing, with lots of overwrought melodrama and awkward analogies ("The Boston right-hander had as much right pitching in Game 4 of the World Series as Spuds McKenzie [sic] did distributing political advice"). But Pearlman is a decent story-teller, and as a long-time Mets fan, with fond memories of 1986, I found the story compelling. While hardly comprehensive, the book offers interesting behind the scenes perspectives, albeit with a strong emphasis on the most negative aspects. Even more general baseball fans, with no emotional ties to the year or team, should find much of interest here. And, of course, it's endlessly fascinating (and fruitless) to look at the young Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry, and the amazing chemistry of this team, and wonder what might have been.
Great Book February 5, 2008
I'm the type of guy who likes to read only the sports section, but I must admit,that this was one of the most interesting books that I have ever read. It goes into great details and discusses the off field antics that made the 86' Mets so notorious. If you are looking for a great read, pick it up!
Bad Guys? Great Guys! December 29, 2007
Maybe every woman secretly loves the bad boys, but maybe it's because they're fun! 1986 was the most fun I've ever had in my life. That wild ride with that baseball team was the most profoundly satisfying baseball season I've ever experienced, and I'm sure I'm not alone.
Frankly, after years of suffering with the Mets of Grant's Tomb, the Mets and their long-suffering fans were ready to cut loose, to dance and sing and win, win, win. Where others saw obnoxiousness and arrogance, we saw exuberance and cameraderie. We saw teamwork, butt-busting effort, and hard-earned celebrations. The Sox fans often maintain that the 86 Series was lost on an error as if the Mets should NOT have capitalized on their jittery Schiraldi and Stanley, and the tough-but-fragile Bill Buckner (BTW, off Buckner, everybody-- he was a hell of a ball player and a very classy guy, and you guys sure are doing a lot better in the post-season than we are recently!)
It was pure, unadulterated joy, the kind of joy only amazing baseball can afford, and for that, I can never think of those guys as bad. The Mets are a good, contending team now, but when I see the DVDs of the '86 Series, I remember really transcendent baseball played by really vivid personalities. I just loved them.
Overall, sports journalism at its best. December 29, 2007
I loved the book for granting a reader the real behind-the-scenes look at how the 1986 Mets were assembled, how they managed to execute so well for one season, and how it could never last. Really, the epilogue is almost unnecessary since Met fans and most baseball diehards know how it played out in the subsequent years. The beauty and quality of the book is in the background material: it explains what the beat writers have always know, what real insiders just assume as common knowledge amongst themselves, and confirms some of the best and worst suspicions I've always had about the players and management.
See, I loved watching Gooden pitch, I tried to emulate that easy motion as much as I could, but I never had the talent, not even close. I knew something was wrong in 1986 but hey, they won it all... but in 1987, it could no longer be ignored. His waste of talent, the mismanagement of his ability, all there to be seen as early as 1986, 1987. There was enough time to rectify the situations, really, but the sad truth is all too common: many of us lack the kind of courage and will to overcome our problems, much less face them.
As sad as Gooden's decline was, Staweberry's was irrevocably tinged with meanness that almost made it a just outcome. Still, talent wasted is common and always tragic.
What I liked most about the book, then, was the confirmations of my opinions about most the crew that I'd considered, and the revelations I did not. For example, I always admired Keith Hernandez and the book gave him additional depth of character that made him my favorite Met again (Sorry Edgardo Alfonzo). For another example, that Gary Carter was really all about himself was a bit of a surprise to me, because he played a selfless position on-field. I could see it, I admit its truth, but it's still a bit of a dichotomy.
In all, a terrific book and a quick read. I withheld the fifth star because clearly, the author dislikes Strawberry intensely and it showed in the depictions. True or not, I could see the author's contempt and while I agree with it, I tried to view and evaluate the book as a historian might, so I put the ding there.
This is the kind of sports writing I would love to see published daily/ weekly. It's too bad you can only read about what really happened in 1986 in 2007, when enough time has passed to expire the statute of limitations on any kind of material consequence.
-C
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