Strawberry says the 86' Mets would have beat the 96' Yankees

"There’s no question. You cannot beat the ’86 Mets. The Yankees teams I played on were great teams with great personalities, but they were good guys. The ’86 Mets would’ve been drilling those guys; I just know how our pitching staff was: hit this guy, hit that guy. And those were the kind of guys we were. We were mad, we wanted them to get outside themselves. That’s the kind of group we had that year, so the ’86 Mets were a very difficult team to play against.” - Darryl Strawberry 

1986 Mets Starting Rotation:

Dwight Gooden 17-6, 2.84 ERA
Ron Darling 15-6, 2.81 ERA
Bob Ojeda 18-5, 2.57 ERA
Sid Fernandez 16-6, 3.52 ERA
Rick Aguilera 10-7, 3.88 ERA

1996 Yankees Starting Rotation:

Andy Pettitte 21-8, 3.87 ERA
Kenny Rogers 12-8, 4.68 ERA
Dwight Gooden 11-7, 5.01 ERA
Jimmy Key 12-11, 4.68 ERA
David Cone 7-2, 2.88 ERA
Ramiro Mendoza 4-5, 6.79 ERA


The 1986 New York Mets won 108 games that year and went on to win there second World Series in franchise history. The 86' team had it all, swag, attitude, team chemistry and the will to win it all. As for the 1996 New York Yankees, who won 92 games that year, won there franchise's 22nd World Series titile, the most in Major League History. Giving the fact that both the 86' Mets and 96' Yankees won the World Series respectively in those years makes you wonder who had the better team. If you look solely on Starting pitching, you'd have to give it to the Mets. No one in that starting rotation had an ERA over 4 and the Yankees had three pitchers over 4 ERA. Not only does the 86' team win in starting rotation but they also get the edge in line-up as well. The 1986 Mets won 16 more games then the 1996 Yankees and played a remarkable fall classic against the Boston Red Sox, a series to be remember forever.

Some people might disagree with the fact that the 1996 Yankees are better then the 1986 Mets but judging solely on stats between both ball clubs, is there really an argument? I think the 86' Mets had better pitching, better line-up and had the determination to show the world that the New York Mets were capable of being anyone that stepped in there way, especially the Boston Red Sox.