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Mets' 1986 World Series Win Celebrated in Movie by Brooklyn Filmmaker

 Filmmaker and Brooklyn Heights resident Heather Quinlan is making a film to celebrate the team's 1986 World Series win.
'86 Mets: The Movie
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BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — When the Mets were close to losing against the Red Sox during Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, Heather Quinlan, then 12 years old and heartbroken, went to sleep.

“When the Red Sox went ahead, I went to bed,” she said.

It was only when Quinlan, a lifelong Mets fan, heard her mother screaming did she realize her beloved team had achieved one of the most memorable victories in baseball history, she said.

Decades after that iconic season — so far, the Mets' last championship win — Quinlan, a filmmaker, is revisiting the ’86 team to document and celebrate their 30th anniversary.

“That was the one time where the Mets really owned the city,” said Quinlan, 39, who lives in Brooklyn Heights. “They really captured the hearts of New Yorkers.”

The documentary, “’86 Mets: The Movie,” is about baseball’s “most loved and hated team” — one that was admired by diehard fans but abhorred by others for its arrogance, rowdy antics and brawls on the field — according to the film's website. It's also about “what made the team so great, the year so memorable, the story so New York and why it couldn’t last.”

“You literally do live and die by that team,” said Quinlan, who hopes to release the film in fall 2015. 

So far, Quinlan has interviewed a number of former players from the team, including Kevin Mitchell, Lenny "Nails" Dykstra and Darryl Strawberry, who publicly struggled with alcohol and drug abuse at the time and is now a preacher in Missouri.

The film also features an interview with Mookie Wilson and Bill Buckner, who famously let the ball roll right through his legs during Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.

Quinlan is hoping to speak to celebrity Mets fans Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld, as well as Red Sox fans Denis Leary and Matt Damon.

The film’s team has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $50,000 for the project that will go toward travel, equipment, filming costs and acquiring rights to old game footage from the Major League Baseball Association.

Quinlan made sure she stayed awake for Game 7 in 1986 and even went to a ticker tape parade on Oct. 28 of that year to celebrate the team’s World Series win.

“That was the best day of my life,” she said. “Your whole world is that team.”