1986 HOUSTON ASTROS ROSTER

POS PLAYER No. POS PLAYER No.

C Ashby, Alan 14 RHP Andersen, Larry 47
C Bailey, Mark 6 LHP Calhoun, Jeff 49
OF Bass, Kevin 17 RHP Darwin, Danny 44
OF Bullock, Eric 9 LHP Deshaies, Jim 43
OF Cruz, Jose 25 LHP DiPino, Frank 11
IF Davis, Glenn 27 LHP Funk, Tom 42
IF Doran, Bill 19 RHP Hernandez, Manny 38
IF Driessen, Dan 23 RHP Keough, Matt 46
IF Gainey, Ty 24 RHP Kerfeld, Charlie 37
IF Garner, Phil 3 LHP Knepper, Bob 39
OF Hatcher, Billy 28 RHP Knudson, Mark 41
UT Lopes, Dave 11 RHP Lopez, Aurelio 35
OF Meadows, Louie 26 LHP Madden, Mike 53
C Mizerock, John 4 RHP Montalvo, Rafael 51
IF Pankovits, Jim 20 RHP Ryan, Nolan 34
IF Pena, Bert 1 RHP Scott, Mike 33
OF Puhl, Terry 21 RHP Smith, Dave 45
IF Reynolds, Craig 12 RHP Solano, Julio 52
IF Thon, Dickie 10
OF Walker, Tony 30
IF Walling, Denny 29

COACHING STAFF
(22) Lanier, Hal (MGR) (8) Yogi Bera (48) Galante, Matt
(15) Menke, Denis (55) Moss, Les
(18) Tenace, Gene
 THE STORY OF THE 1986 ASTROS
Thirty years after the teams unforgettable ride to 96 wins and one of the most iconic postseason runs in
franchise history, teammates from the 86 club look back on the season with similar perspectives and memo-
ries. There was chemistry, cohesion and camaraderie. There was plenty of veteran leadership. But more than
anything, the 86 club was a unit, a whole greater than the sum of its parts. And that club knew how to bring
home a W.

We werent picked to do a whole lot, said 1986 NL Cy Young Award winner Mike Scott. We didnt really
have big name players other than Nolan Ryan. But we had guys that wanted to win games.

The men came in every day wanting to win and, more

importantly, knowing how to win. They played with heart
and grit. Glenn Davis, the first baseman who hit 31 home
runs and tallied 101 RBI that season, holds a sharp memo-
ry of what made the club so remarkable.

The thing I remember the most about the 1986 team,

which is probably the greatest attribute of the club, is the
way we approached the game. Number one, we were win-
ners; number two, we were very resilient; number three,
we were steadfast, meaning we never gave up. We had
the right attitude.

Coupled with that attitude was an intensely competitive

spirit, one that drove the team to an extraordinary post-
season and cemented them as one of the best clubs in
Astros history. Teammates greet Davis in dugout

I dont recall us having any doubts about whether we were

fit to compete or not, Phil Garner said. I dont think the Astros in 85 or 86 were wired that way.

Outsiders held the group to low expectations entering the 1986 season starting in Spring Training, but the
players always had confidence in their ability to win.

I dont remember anyone feeling defeated entering the season, said Garner, I think everyone felt reason-
ably optimistic and thats the great thing about baseball - you get to start new every year at Spring Training
and get a fresh start.

The Astros finished the first half of the season 47-41, the
winning record largely a product of the dominant pitching
staff. The rotation was highlighted by veterans Nolan Ryan
(12-8, 3.34 ERA) and Bob Knepper (17-12, 3.14 ERA) and
also included newcomer Jim Deshaies (12-5, 3.25). Despite
being a rookie among veteran elites, Deshaies owned the
then-rookie record for wins and an impressively low ERA.
He was viewed as an equal and a true competitor, which is
something his teammates appreciated and still remember.

I remember Jimmy Deshaies had an incredibly good start

to his rookie season, Garner said. Ended up with 12 wins I
believe to break the Astros rookie record.

Deshaies went 5-2 through the end of June and ended up

breaking the Astros rookie record with 12 wins and a 3.25
ERA on the season, becoming a critical part of the teams
success in the first half. Garners memory of Deshaies was
just one of many stories that revolved around other players
on the team. In fact, every teammate that talked about the
1986 season had plenty to say about everyone but himself.

The guys played with minimal focus on individual accom-

plishments and instead devoted their attention on how they
could help the team win in any way possible.
LHP Jim Deshaies
 THE STORY OF THE 1986 ASTROS
Wed have guys go 0-5 in a game, but still be the hap-
piest guys in the clubhouse if we won, Scott said. I
can remember a game where Billy Doran went some-
thing like 4-5, hit two home runs and had one of his best
games ever. But we lost and he was upset. Couldnt care
less about his game because we didnt win.
Perhaps the best example in baseball of putting team
before self is the bullpen. While starting pitchers tend
to get the glory, it is often the relief corp that become
the unsung heroes of a successful season.
I think Dave Smith was saving a bunch of games for us
then and I just recall the bullpen being pretty doggone
good, Garner said.
The Astros bullpen was critical to avoiding long losing
streaks, and played an invaluable role in the teams con-
tinued success during the second half. Relief pitchers
went 30-16 in 1986 and were led by Dave Smith (2.73
ERA), Larry Andersen (2.78 ERA), Aurelio Lopez (3.46
ERA) and Charlie Kerfeld (2.59 ERA).

Kerfeld, one of the only rookies on the team, had a

breakout first season and was incredibly important to
the team, evidenced by his 0.00 ERA through his first six
starts and 11-2 record on the season.

We had Charlie Kerfeld pitching for us that year, and

Jim Deshaies and Mike Scott
he was exciting, Garner said. He was full of life. One of
those guys who was big and brash and just kind of did
his own thing.

Garner enjoyed having a few rookies on the predominantly veteran team.

[Rookies] can get a little cocky in games and forget what theyre supposed to do, he said. We had a situa-
tion with Darryl Strawberry batting for the Mets in the playoffs. It was a tight situation with a few men on base
and I believe we were holding onto a thin lead. So I went out to the mound from third base to tell Charlie, a
right-handed pitcher, how we were going to pitch to Strawberry, a left-handed batter.

Boy Ill never forget it. He was squinting at me, wearing his big glasses and all can hardly see me. But
looked me right in the eye and said, Get off my mound. I got this guy. And sure enough, he did. It was refresh-
ing you like confidence and you like brashness, but you love when they back it up.
We had unbelievably good and underrated late relief, Scott said. Smitty [Dave Smith] was great, but also
our 7th and 8th inning guys were fantastic. They didnt get many wins or many saves, but basically won ball-
games by holding the other guys down in the late innings.

I think that part of our team was really underrated. Not

by us, but by people who didnt really pay close atten-
tion. Because if you dont pay attention, its hard to see
how much of a part of the puzzle they really were.
There was no denying the clubs determination, as the
gritty group worked as a unit to get through the long sea-
son.

We had solid players who grinded every day, Garner

said. Thats just what we did: we kept grinding until we
ended up in the playoffs.
Running on confidence and adrenaline, the men put forth
their strongest competitive effort in the postseason after Mike Scott and teammates celebrate his no-hitter to clinch the NL West
clinching the NL West Division on a Mike Scott no-hitter.
 THE STORY OF THE 1986 ASTROS
[The pressure] is intense, Scott said. It goes up a notch or
two from the regular season. Not that guys arent putting their
full effort in the regular season, but there are 162 games and
thats a lot to be hyped up for 100% of the time. But in the play-
offs, its just there.

The team would face the New York Mets for a seven-game se-
ries, opening within the familiar confines of the Astrodome.
The Astros won Game One, 1-0, over the Mets thanks to an un-
hittable Mike Scott and a Davis solo home run. The Mets tied
the series with a victory in Game Two before the two teams
traveled to New York to play Game Three, where the Mets
fought to a 6-5 victory and took the series lead, 2-1.

The intensity continued to heat up as Scott took the mound for

Game Four, tossing a three-hit complete game to secure a 3-1
Astros victory and tie the series at two apiece.

We felt good, knew Scott would slam them again if he got

the chance because he was in their heads, Garner said. The
Mets did things to try to get in his head, but theres no getting
in his head. It didnt bother him. Scott was a cool cookie.

With the series tied 2-2, Nolan Ryan faced off against righty
Dwight Gooden in a hard-fought Game Five, one of the most
controversial in Astros history. The Astros fell, 2-1, after bat-
tling for 12 innings. In the 2nd inning, shortstop Craig Reyn-
olds was called out at first base by umpire Fred Brocklander
for what was ruled an inning-ending double play. Needless
to say, the out call was wholeheartedly met with frustration.
RHP Nolan Ryan

It doesnt mean were going to win the game if that call

didnt happen, but that was not a good call, Scott said.
They said it was a double play, and we scored a run,
but obviously the run didnt count - even though he was
clearly safe at first.

Garner remembered the call similarly.

Freds a good guy, a conscientious umpire and he had

no malicious intent there, Garner said. And though
nobody knows what would have happened over the
course of the game, that call could have yielded a dif-
ferent outcome. I dont look back and think coulda,
shoulda, woulda.
As if the drama of Game Five wasnt enough, Game Six
ended up a 16-inning marathon influenced yet again
by Brocklander.

The Astros needed two wins to avoid elimination. Knep-

per showed poise under pressure and was incredible
as he took a two-hitter and a 3-0 lead into the 9th in-
ning. However, the Mets cut their deficit to 3-2 in the 9th
and Brocklander called what would have been strike
three by Dave Smith to batter Ray Knight, a ball.
Knight capitalized on the bad call and hit a sacrifice-fly
to score the game-tying run from third. The Mets took a
one-run lead in the 14th, but Billy Hatcher hit one of the
most memorable home runs in team history to keep the
Astros hopes alive and re-tie the game. OF Billy Hatcher
 THE STORY OF THE 1986 ASTROS
I remember feeling euphoric when
that thing went out of the park, Garner
said.

The Mets went on to score three runs

and take a 7-4 advantage in the 16th,
and though the Astros persisted and
put up two runs in the frame, it was not
enough. The Mets defeated the Astros,
7-6, in what many today call The Great-
est Game Ever Played.

While the [bad calls] may have hurt

Post NL West Division clinch - Larry Dierker, Hal
Lanier, Dick Wagner and Milo Hamilton
us, they didnt define that series, Gar-
ner said. It was a well-played series,
with two games decided in extra in-
nings. They were all good games, well-
fought.

Though the series did not go the way the Astros would have liked, the players reflect with pride about their
daily fight. The just refused to quit.

Larry Andersen, a relatively new addition to the club, remembered the small moments that made the club-
house chemistry so special.

After games, a group of us would sit around in a circle and talk about the game we just played, Andersen
recalled. It was the way you thought it was supposed to be all along. I just never really experienced that type
of closeness amongst a group of guys who cared so much about the game until I got to Houston.
It was fun, it was enjoyable, but you also learned. You learned a lot. It was just a great team, a great group of
guys to be with.

The 1986 club was more than a teamit was a brotherhood. The fraternity of Astros had a competitive drive
that pushed them beyond what any of them could have achieved as individuals.

The time we spent together brought us closer and I think instilled in us the fact that hey, if we stay together,
we can do this. We can win this thing, Andersen said. I think it was the attitude of the guys we had, the close-
ness, the chemistry, the camaraderie.

Sometimes the sum of the parts is better than the parts broken apart, and I think that would best describe
the 86 team, Garner said. If you broke the team up and you put any one of those players on a different team,
it didnt make them a winner. I think put together, we played well as a unit. We were a close knit team. Obvi-
ously that showed up in the record.
It was fun and games in the clubhouse, but at the end of the day, when we walked out that door and onto the
field, it was serious time to get down to business, Davis remembered. We would all go out there and battle
to win. And whats great about that was, after the game, we all went back into the clubhouse just hugging and
laughing.

We had a mission, we had a goal. We were all on the same page, and we just worked together to make it
happen.

The teams makeup put them on the fast track to a then club-record 96 wins, a marked improvement from
their 83 wins in 1985. And while what they accomplished was important, how they got there and who they got
there with is what endures in their memories.
 MEMORIES OF 86

MIKE SCOTT
MEMORABLE MOMENT:

My no-hitter was kind of a weird game because

it was in the middle of the day, but it was a game
where we could clinch, so there were more peo-
ple there than usual. I started off a bit over-amped.
The first pitch I threw hit the guy square in the
numbers. Sometimes pitchers can lose some of
their control if they get that way, so I just told my-
self to calm down, take a deep breath and not go
crazy. I just wanted to pitch a decent game.

It all kind of came together in the 7th or 8th inning

when I realized [the no-hitter] was something I could
start thinking about. You cant think about it before
then - thats a long way to the finish line. It was a 2-0
game, so it was still in question, but I remember Alan
Ashby came out to the mound and said something
along the lines of, Were going to win this. And you
need to throw a no-hitter. I couldnt afford to get any
of the guys on base, because all it would take is a
walk and a home run to tie the game.

I think the talk with Ashby helped. It was funny because I knew exactly what he meant when he said, Lets not
lose focus here. Normally it wouldnt have come up had it not been a must-win last game of the season. But I
got what he meant, and we just worked really well together. He can attest to this. I rarely ever shook him off,
we just always seemed to be in sync. It makes it a lot easier to pitch that way.

LARRY ANDERSEN
MEMORABLE MOMENT:

I think the most memorable story I have from 86 came during the playoff
run against the Mets. In the Astrodome, there were no bullpen benches. You
just sat on the team bench and ran down to the bullpen down the right or left
field line. Mike Scott was pitching the first game, and I believe Lenny Dykstra
was leading off for the Mets. During his second at-bat, he hit a ground ball
to Billy Doran, who kind of clanked it at second but picked it up and threw to
first in time. But Glenn Davis dropped the ball at first and Dykstra was safe.
When he crossed the base, he turned to our dugout down the first base line
and was intentionally clapping his hands and pumping his fists in our direc-
tion.

I was sitting right next to Nolan Ryan when this happened. Nolan tapped me
on my thigh, so I turned and looked at him. With his thick Texas accent he
said, That boy just asked for a bow tie. A bow tie is a fastball up and inside,
close to the batters neck or head. Let me tell you, Nolan wasnt one who
would say he was going to drill a guy just because he liked to hear himself
speak. When he said it, you knew he meant it.

The next day, Ryan was pitching. During Lennys second time at the plate, Nolan threw a fastball right at Dyk-
stras head. It was like when Charlie Brown goes to kick a football and Lucy pulls it away; his feet went up, his
bat went flying in the air and he ended up landing on his stomach facing the pitchers mound. I mean truly he
was so close to death. But in those days thats how it was - the pitchers were meaner and threw inside, knock-
ing guys down more. But there was something about him telling me that and then watching him throw it the
next day - it was like watching his prediction unfold in real life. That was just incredible. When Nolan Ryan
said he said he was going to do something, he did it. The way he said it, slowly with that Texas drawl - man,
that is just one of my best memories of being a teammate with Nolan Ryan. Thats something Ill never forget.
 MEMORIES OF 86

PHIL GARNER
MEMORABLE MOMENT:

I remember seeing the ball that Billy Hatcher hit in the sixth
game of the playoffs with the Mets to tie it in the 14th inning.
I was out of the game at that time, but I was standing in the
dugout watching. I believe it went over the flag pole and I
thought they were going to call it a foul - at first they couldnt
determine if it was fair or foul because it went so high!

Boy, the euphoria we felt when that thing went out of the
park...You dream about situations like that. You dream about
being in situations like that, and then when it happens, its
stunning. Theres no feeling quite like it. You actually feel
bulletproof, and in that particular situation, its like youre
Captain America, thanks to Billy Hatcher.

GLENN DAVIS
MEMORABLE MOMENT:
One day, I got to the clubhouse early and decided to play a prank on
a teammate. I was sitting there looking at the hooks next to our lockers
where they used to hang our undershorts. I got this crazy idea to play the
gerbil-in-the-jock trick. Thats what we called it. Kevin Bass and I devised
a plan, we just needed to pick somebody in the clubhouse to be the sub-
ject of our prank, and Alan Ashby hadnt shown up yet.

So I look at Kevin and I say, Why dont we set Alan up? I figured Ashby
would be great because when he was running late, he always showed up
incredibly flustered. We had been around each other a long enough time,
we knew Alan was probably stuck in traffic and was going to be thinking
Oh man, I have to get ready, Ive got to get on the field! So I figured we
would do something to get his mind off those worries. We put the hamster
in his undershorts then just sat back and relaxed. The hamster kind of just
went to sleep in the hanging undershorts - and sure enough we pegged
it right.

Alan comes running in the clubhouse extremely flustered, throwing things everywhere and talking to himself
saying Man I cant believe Im so late! Hes agitated and frenetic, cant decide what to do first. Hes sighing,
throwing his things around and working up a sweat. Keep in mind, Alan was a veteran at the time. He was a
leader on the team who wanted to set a good tone, so the first thing he decides to do is start undressing and
get his uniform together. Kevin and I are just sitting back with smiles on our faces waiting to see what hap-
pens next. Alans getting dressed, not talking to anybody. This guy has his uniform on and the hamster is in his
underpants - were just thinking this is going to be such a classic. All of a sudden, Ashbys dressed and ready
to get going, and this hamster just comes to life. The thing comes running out of Alans underpants and up his
chest and Ashby starts jumping up and down, screaming and yelling like crazy. He was in such shock that he
couldnt even speak just yelling sounds, waving his arms in the air, trying to figure out how to get rid of this
thing. We had no idea that he was kind of petrified of these little creatures!

The first person he goes to is the clubhouse manager, and he starts yelling things like, I cant believe you
have rats in the clubhouse! This is crazy! He turns red and starts breaking out in hives. Kevin and I look at
each other thinking that this man is fixin to have a heart attack! We dont know what to do so we start panick-
ing, asking who knows CPR in the clubhouse? Alans freaking out. I mean, hes over there and we think hes
fixin to have a major coronary or something. Everybody in the clubhouse is trying to figure out whats going
on. Finally, Alans over there with his heart beating 100 mph, trying to get some water to cool down, and Kevin
and I realized hes okay. Once we knew he was going to make it, the two of us and everybody else started
busted up laughing about what just happened.