Mets honor ‘special’ 1986 World Series team that lived up to lofty expectations in ‘unusual’ way

Mookie Wilson called the 1986 Mets squad “a special team.”

It’s an easy thing to say about a group of players that won 108 games in the regular season and the team’s second championship.

But given that four decades have passed and the Mets are still looking for their third title, it still rings true.

“The personalities were so different [and] the cultures were so different,’’ Wilson said Saturday at Citi Field. “It’s unusual to find that many different personalities come together and play in harmony. … We found a way to win. We all wanted to win. Teams and players in general are defined by their expectations and people expected us to win. And we expected us to win.”

Forty years later, as the organization celebrated the anniversary of its last World Series-winning team, the Mets are finding out again how hard it is to win a title, no matter how high the expectations may have been.

But in 1986, after winning 98 games the year prior, manager Davey Johnson told the team in spring training they would “dominate. We’re going to blow the rest of the division away.”

“I thought he was crazy,” Wilson said Saturday of the proclamation. “I knew we had a good club. I thought it was odd Davey would say it in that manner: ‘Man, you put your foot in it.’”

Johnson proved to be right and he was remembered fondly at Saturday’s ceremony after passing away in September.

“That was Davey,’’ Wilson said of Johnson’s public confidence. “I don’t think any other manager could have handled this club. Davey was one of us. He was willing to go out on a limb. We were willing to be ourselves.”

Roger McDowell was in his second season in the majors in 1986 and also credited Johnson for being a vital part of winning it all.

“I don’t think anybody knew the players like Davey did,’’ McDowell said. “We had platoons [and] not everybody was probably as happy as could be, but when we started the year, our ultimate goal was to win a world championship and when you’re the last one standing, it’s the best feeling in the world.”

It didn’t come easily, and Wilson and McDowell both pointed to Gary Carter’s two-out single in the bottom of the ninth in Game 6.

“I thought it was over,” McDowell said of the Mets’ predicament at the time. “I thought it was done. After Gary gets a hit, there was a belief. There was a belief there.”

Wilson said he thought to himself, “We’re about to blow this.”

“Then Gary gets a hit,’’ Wilson said.

As the current team stumbles toward Monday’s trade deadline, seemingly as far away as possible from snapping the championship drought, Wilson said those “expectations” for players aren’t the same as during his generation.

“Players will do what you demand them to do,’’ Wilson said. “When expectations are low, you get what you get. There’s a little less expected of them. Sometimes you have to be uncomfortable, and that’s where I think we are.”