These Mets hope to play — and not party — like '86 Mets

NEW YORK — The New York Mets trail the Kansas City Royals two games to none, but they’re coming home. They hope that’ll jumpstart a run to their first World Series title since — well, they know.

That’s because the 1986 Mets are never far away. These Mets see those Mets everywhere.

Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling broadcast their games. Tim Teufel is their third base coach. Wally Backman manages their top farm team. Sometimes it can seem as if the ’86 Mets are forever peering over the shoulders of their less worthy successors through three decades of overpaying free agents and squandering late-season leads.

These Mets, though, are the ones who can break that spell. To do it, they’ll need to win four of the last five Series games. No worries: That’s what the ’86 Mets did. They trailed the Boston Red Sox two games to none — losing both at home, no less — and came back to win in seven games, including that little roller down the first-base line in Game 6 that got by Bill Buckner and made Mookie Wilson a patron saint of comebacks.

And so now, just as these Mets are called on to make miracles of their own, that Greek chorus cheering them from the wings includes many of the legendary 86ers, who were as well known for breaking curfew as breaking records (franchise-best 108 wins). The 2015 Mets reached the World Series winning 90 games — and without nearly as much living it up in the city that never sleeps.