Davey Johnson, who managed the legendary 1986 New York Mets to a World Series championship and later managed the Los Angeles Dodgers for two seasons, has died at the age of 82.
Johnson died Friday at a hospital in Sarasota, Florida, after a long illness, ESPN reported.
“The Los Angeles Dodgers are saddened by the passing of Davey Johnson, who managed the team from 1999-2000. We offer our condolences to his family and friends,” the Dodgers posted Saturday morning on X.
As a second baseman, Johnson enjoyed a solid if unspectacular 14-year career, mostly playing for the Baltimore Orioles from 1965 to 1972 and the Atlanta Braves from 1973 through 1975. The exception was 1973, when the Florida native belted 43 home runs — 25 more than his next-highest total.
He was a member of the Orioles’ 1966 and 1970 World Series champions, and made four all-star teams during his career.
Johnson is best remembered for his managerial career, however, mainly his raucous tenure at the helm of the Mets from 1984 to 1990. That team was loaded with talent — and in the words of many sportswriters of the time and a few of the players themselves, sometimes just plain loaded.
The Mets were led by charismatic, polarizing personalities including Darryl Strawberry, Gary Carter, Keith Hernandez, Ray Knight and Dwight Gooden. They frequently clashed in the clubhouse and caroused in the New York City party scene, and it fell to Johnson to keep them in line and focused on winning.
Those Mets won at least 90 games in each of Johnson’s first five seasons. After narrowly missing the playoffs in 1985, the Mets took the National League by storm in 1986, winning 108 games. They eliminated the Houston Astros in a memorable six-game series in the National League Championship Series, flashing the flare for drama that would emerge again in one of the greatest World Series ever.
After losing the first two games at home to the Boston Red Sox, the Mets won two of three at Fenway Park, returning to Shea Stadium for Game 6 with their backs to the wall. They fell behind 5-3 in the top of the 10th inning, and after their first two batters were retried in the bottom of the 10th, they were one out away from defeat with no one on base and the champagne on ice in Boston’s locker room.
What happened next is the stuff of legend, as the Mets staged a rally for the ages, scoring three runs to win the game. The tying run came on a wild pitch by Bob Stanley, and the winning run came home when a grounder by Mets outfielder Mookie Wilson went between Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner’s legs.
The Mets won Game 7 the following night to clinch the championship.
They returned to the playoffs in 1988 and were heavy favorites against Los Angeles in the NLCS, but lost a seven-game series to the eventual World Series-winning Dodgers.
After leaving the Mets during the 1990 season amid a dispute with General Manager frank Cashen, Johnson managed the Cincinnati Reds from 1993-95 and the Orioles from 1996-97.
The Dodgers hired him in 1999 after Bill Russell was fired the previous season. He won his 1,000th game as a Major League manager with Los Angeles on May 3, 1999, but the team underperformed, winning just 77 games despite high-priced acquisitions Gary Sheffield and Kevin Brown.
They did slightly better in 2000, winning 86 games, but their second-place finish in the National League West wasn’t enough to save Johnson’s job, and he was fired after the season and replaced by Jim Tracy.
Johnson’s final managerial stint came in 2011-13 with the Washington Nationals. He finished with a career record of 1,372-1,071, his .562 winning percentage good enough for sixth among managers with at least 1,300 wins.