1986 World Series
The 1986 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1986 season. The 83rd edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the National League (NL) champion New York Mets and the American League (AL) champion Boston Red Sox. The Mets won the series four games to three to claim their second World Series title and first since 1969.
| 1986 World Series | ||||||||||
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| Dates | October 18–27 | |||||||||
| Venue | Shea Stadium (New York) Fenway Park (Boston) | |||||||||
| MVP | Ray Knight (New York) | |||||||||
| Umpires | John Kibler (NL), Jim Evans (AL), Harry Wendelstedt (NL), Joe Brinkman (AL), Ed Montague (NL), Dale Ford (AL) | |||||||||
| Hall of Famers | Mets: Gary Carter Red Sox: Wade Boggs Jim Rice Tom Seaver (DNP) | |||||||||
| Broadcast | ||||||||||
| Television | NBC | |||||||||
| TV announcers | Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola | |||||||||
| Radio | CBS WHN (NYM) WPLM (BOS) | |||||||||
| Radio announcers | Jack Buck and Sparky Anderson (CBS) Bob Murphy and Gary Thorne (WHN) Ken Coleman and Joe Castiglione (WPLM) | |||||||||
| ALCS | Boston Red Sox over California Angels (4–3) | |||||||||
| NLCS | New York Mets over Houston Astros (4–2) | |||||||||
| World Series program | ||||||||||
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The series is best remembered for its Game 6, which saw the Mets rally from a two-run deficit in the bottom of the 10th inning, despite having two outs and no one on base. The Red Sox, who held a 3–2 series lead, were twice one strike away from securing the championship, but failed to close out the inning as the Mets won off an error by Boston first baseman Bill Buckner. Due to the Mets claiming the series in Game 7, the Game 6 collapse entered baseball lore as part of the Curse of the Bambino superstition used to explain the Red Sox's championship drought between 1918 and 2004.
The 1986 World Series marked the second time, after the previous year's series, in which the winning team lost the first two games of the series at home. It was also the first World Series to use the designated hitter only in games played at the American League representative's stadium, a policy that was maintained until the National League's adoption of the DH in 2022.