The Parachuter

Between dropping hip-hop tracks, going to jail, and absolutely destroying a plane - the Mets had a helluva year in ’86. 

It was only right that a few more crazy things would happen in the World Series.

On October 25th, more than 55,000 fans showed up to Shea Stadium to watch Game 6, and it was electric from the beginning. 

Enter Michael Sergio. 

In the top of the first inning, with one man on and one out, Sergio sailed through the sky with a parachute on his back and a homemade sign that said, “Let’s Go Mets.” 

Honestly, it’s probably the most epic entrance anyone has ever made onto a baseball field. 

The fun only lasted a couple minutes though, as Sergio was almost immediately nabbed by the police and escorted off the field. 

Mets fans absolutely loved it, but the prosecutors in Queens weren’t as stoked. 

They claimed that Sergio could’ve injured a player or a fan, and that his stunt could’ve interrupted air traffic from LaGuardia Airport. 

He was charged with reckless endangerment and criminal trespassing, along with spending a night in jail. 

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Of course, the Mets went on to come from behind and win it all a few days later. 

According to Sergio, a few of the players pitched in to help him get a lawyer, and in December, he pled guilty to a criminal trespass charge in exchange for getting the more serious charges dropped. 

He was fined $500 and sentenced to 100 hours of community service. 

But then they sentenced him to six months in federal jail the next year for refusing to give up the pilot that helped him pull off the stunt.

Looking back, one of the weirdest things about this whole incident is that Bill Buckner was the batter when the whole thing went down. 

I’m not saying it had anything to do with his fateful mistake later that night, but you gotta admit, baseball is a weird game, man.