Brooks on Books: "The Bad Guys Won" by Jeff Pearlman

The Bad Guys Won by Jeff Pearlman: Pearlman tells the story of the world champion 1986 new York Mets, and he tells it with gusto. The Mets were a hard-drinking, hard-partying, even hard-drugging team that spent the whole season backing up its swagger. In other words, yeah, the bad guys won, thanks in part (but by no means BECAUSE of--don't forget the wild pitch, folks, and besides, it was game 6, not game 7) Bill Buckner's infamous mishandling of Mookie Wilson's grounder to first.

There is soooo much more to that '86 season than even that notable World Series, though, like the classic NLCS showdown with the Astros, who featured dominant scuffballer Mike Scott and were really in the Mets' heads. Speaking of Houston, there was a scuffle several players had with cops at an area bar during the season. There was the idiocy of the "Let's Go, Mets Go" video. There were brawls, pranks, home runs, strikeouts, and all kinds of action on and off the field. Pearlman focuses on the off the field stuff, and he produces a wild, often hilarious book.

One thing must be said about the author: He's a complete wise ass, and I don't mean that in a negative way. The whole book is written in a tone that isn't exactly confrontational, but which certainly makes no excuses for this team of characters. Pearlman's prose is biting, and his comments sharp, but he backs up his tone with the incredible stories he offers. If you're expecting a scholarly, detached tome summarizing the '86 Mets, look elsewhere; if you relish the idea of a guy clearly having fun while recounting the wild times of a chaotic club, here you go.

I was a Mets fan back then. In my defense, I grew up on steady helpings of Yankees and Mets games on TV in addition to my beloved Pirates, so I pretty much rooted for the teams I saw all the time (Thank goodness we didn't get TBS in my area until later). Plus this team was exciting, colorful, and fun to watch. Pearlman's account does the '86 Mets justice. He doesn't try to reinvent the slider or anything. His narrative is a fairly straightforward chronological telling of the season, with appropriate sidebars when necessary to fill in some info. Fans will love this book, and by now it's hardly news that the team had some miscreants, so they needn't worry about having their innocence shattered. Non-Mets fans should enjoy laughing with Pearlman unless they hate the team so much they can't stand to even read such a cynical book about them.