NEW YORK — When the winning run scored in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, the New York Mets melted into a white-and-blue swirl near home plate, celebrating their implausible comeback from the brink of defeat.
Manager Davey Johnson, center, holds the World Series trophy on after the New York Mets defeated the Boston Red Sox in Game 7 at Shea Stadium on Oct. 27, 1986 in New York.
Right in the middle of all that humanity was Davey Johnson, who had arrived at the mob scene before many of his players.
Those '86 Mets — with all their brashness, belligerence and unapologetic brilliance — would not have been the same without their 43-year-old manager.
Johnson died Friday at age 82. Longtime Mets public relations representative Jay Horwitz said Johnson's wife Susan informed him of his death after a long illness. Johnson was at a hospital in Sarasota, Florida.
"His ability to empower players to express themselves while maintaining a strong commitment to excellence was truly inspiring," Darryl Strawberry posted on Instagram with a photo of him, Johnson and Dwight Gooden. "Davey's legacy will forever be etched in the hearts of fans and players alike."
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Strawberry and Gooden were the young stars of that 1986 team, and their talent and off-field troubles came to symbolize an era of Mets baseball. It was Johnson's third World Series title after he won two as a player with the Baltimore Orioles.
A four-time All-Star, Johnson played 13 major league seasons with Baltimore, the Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs from 1965-78 and won three Gold Gloves at second base. He managed the Mets, Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals during a span from 1984-2013.
"Davey was a good man, close friend and a mentor," former Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said in a text message. "A Hall of Fame caliber manager with a baseball mind ahead of his time."
Born Jan. 30, 1943, in Orlando, Florida, Johnson won World Series titles with the Orioles in 1966 and 1970 and also made the final out of the 1969 Fall Classic against the Mets — an irony given his future role with them. In 1973, Johnson hit a career-high 43 home runs with the Braves, joining Darrell Evans (41) and Henry Aaron (40) as part of the first trio of teammates in major league history to reach 40 in the same year.
Johnson's first managerial job was with the Mets when he was in his early 40s. In steering that famously rowdy group to a title in '86, he earned a reputation for giving his players their freedom. When that team began to decline, he was fired in 1990, but his days as a manager were far from over.
Johnson's tenure in Cincinnati ended unusually. He was a lame duck at the start of the 1995 season, with Reds owner Marge Schott prepared to give Ray Knight — the man who scored that winning run in Game 6 for the Mets in '86 — the managing job once that season was over. After guiding Cincinnati to a division title in '95, Johnson went back to Baltimore to manage the Orioles.
"Davey Johnson was one of the best managers I ever had the privilege of working with in my career," Jim Bowden, Cincinnati's general manager that year, said on social media Saturday. "He taught me so much about baseball specifically how to build bullpens, develop young pitchers and put together elite coaching staffs. He was a brilliant, kind leader and teammate."
When Johnson took over the Orioles, he had enough credibility to move Cal Ripken Jr. from shortstop to third base, and Baltimore made the playoffs each of his two seasons at the helm. It was the first time the Orioles had done so since 1983, and they wouldn't qualify again until 2012.
New York Mets Manager Davey Johnson talks with reporters prior to the opening game of the World Series between against the Boston Red Sox at Shea Stadium on Oct. 18, 1958, in New York.
Like in Cincinnati, Johnson won a division title in what turned out to be the last year of his tenure in Baltimore. Amid a feud with owner Peter Angelos, Johnson resigned after the 1997 season — hours after receiving his first Manager of the Year award.
He won it again in 2012, when he led the Nationals to baseball's best regular-season record and the franchise's first postseason spot since moving from Montreal to Washington.
"Davey was a world-class manager," Nationals owner Mark Lerner said in a statement. "I'll always cherish the memories we made together with the Nationals, and I know his legacy will live on in the heads and minds of our fans and those across baseball."
Johnson studied math at Trinity University in Texas, and he had an innovative side. Even when he was a player, he was already using data to try to optimize the Orioles' lineup, although Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver wasn't turning that duty over to his infielder.
But when dealing with his own players as a manager, Johnson had a blunt, old-school manner, according to Mike Bordick, Baltimore's shortstop in 1997.
"He was so easy to play for," Bordick said. "He just knew the right buttons to push."
New York Mets' manager Davey Johnson argues with home plate umpire Jim Quick after the Mets' Keith Hernandez was ejected for arguing over a strike three call during the eighth inning of May 30, 1956, game against the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
Ryan Zimmerman, who played for Johnson with Washington from 2011-13, said Johnson was an even better human than he was a baseball man.
"He knew how to get the best out of everyone — on and off the field," Zimmerman said in a text message. "I learned so much from him, and my career would not have been the same without my years with him. He will be deeply missed by so many people."
New York Mets' manager Davey Johnson argues with home plate umpire Jim Quick after the Mets' Keith Hernandez was ejected for arguing over a strike three call during the eighth inning of May 30, 1956, game against the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
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