Mookie Wilson

It was the hit that lifted the Mets to world fame. But its the man that went on to be loved by millions around the world. Baseball was huge but Mookie has a mission now destine to make him more famous. From the iHeart Radio Studio I'm Unplugged and Totally Uncut with NY Met Mookie Wilson Mookie Wilson already had a successful baseball career before Game Six of the 1986 Mets-Red Sox World Series made him one of the most iconic figures in baseball. The ball that went between Bill Buckner’s legs at first base was the play that turned the series – and team morale – around for the Mets. The ’86 Mets have forever been loved and loathed for their swagger, their attitude, and their aptitude on the field; they won a record 108 games that year, in addition to taking home the trophy. In a team of larger-than-life characters like Keith Hernandez, Doc Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, and Lenny Dykstra, Mookie is one of the most beloved and revered Mets to this day. In MOOKIE: Life, Baseball, and the ’86 Mets (Berkley Trade Paperback; March 31, 2015; $17.00), with Erik Sherman, Mookie shares stories of that triumphant year from the dugout, as well as his early life as a sharecropper’s son in the rural south, his time in the minor leagues, being called up to play as a Met, and his bittersweet feelings about finishing his professional career in Toronto as a Blue Jay. When Mookie landed in Shea Stadium in 1980, the Mets were a perennial cellar-dweller, overshadowed by the crosstown Yankees. But in 1986 they inspired the city of New York with a record-winning season and a grueling 16-inning game against the Houston Astros that won them the National League Championship Pennant. In the World Series against the Red Sox (where the curse of the Bambino would be Boston’s for another two decades), an epic at-bat led to the Buckner error at First, and Mookie’s speed, heart, and love of the game would ignite a fire under the Mets that forced a game Seven at Shea where they went on to become World Champions, and legendary heroes. For Mookie, Game Six was a defining moment in his career as well as for the Mets franchise, and will forever be the moment fans remember with elation, that they show to their kids on video, and the play that inspired subsequent generations of fans who continue to believe in the Amazin’ Mets. But should it have been? Mookie explains what led to that moment, and what might have happened if the events had unfolded differently. And what happened next for the Mets and Mookie? MOOKIE is the inside story behind the man, the franchise, and a golden age of a sport; a story that can only be told by Mookie Wilson himself. In this stunningly honest memoir, Mookie provides insight into the minds of other players both on his team and elsewhere that season; his feeling about the decisions of the franchise regarding his career and the careers of Mets veterans over the past few decades; his time in Toronto and with the Mets as a coach and Ambassador; and the current state of Major League Baseball. In the brand-new afterword, Mookie reflects on the writing process and the response from media, fans, and the Mets surrounding the hardcover release. In an era when role models in sports were hard to come by, some tarnished by their own hubris and greed, Mookie Wilson remained the exception: a man of humility and honor, who knew hustle, teamwork, and loved the game of baseball.