1986 Mets Favorite Long Island Spot: Finn MacCools Port Washington

This weekend, the New York Mets will honor its iconic 1986 World Series championship team, during a three-game set against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The highlight of the festivities will be an on field gathering of most of the ’86 roster, Saturday night at Citi Field. 

Looking back 30 long years, the ’86 Mets personified the 1980’s perhaps more than any other team of the era. Brashness, excess and flamboyance are words that can easily describe both the decade and this team. Whether it was winning 108 regular season games, getting into altercations with everyone from opposing teams to off duty Houston police, to partying their way though New York and every other National League city they visited, this group of players relished their role of being the biggest men in the biggest city.

Despite the 1986 Mets affinity for late nights, combined with its proximity to the crazy world of the 1980’s New York City night scene, the team’s signature watering hole was an Irish pub, situated on a quaint suburban downtown street, fittingly named Main Street.

Finn MacCools’s is restaurant/bar located in Port Washington, New York, a quiet Long Island enclave, 12 miles east of Shea Stadium, the Mets Queens home from 1964-2008 (Citi Field sits in the Shea Stadium parking lot). Along with serving as the club’s main postgame hangout, Finn MacCool’s was where the ’86 Mets celebrated winning both the NL East title in September and their World Series victory over the Red Sox, one month later.

It is unbelievable to consider that this raucous and wild team, based in New York City of all places, celebrated such epic triumphs in a Long Island bedroom community, 24 miles outside of Manhattan. But, it absolutely was the case.

The main reason the team held such an attachment to Finn MacCool’s was because nearly half the team, including big names like Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry and Lenny Dykstra called Port Washington home during the baseball season. This town and bar, along with Shea Stadium, very much represented the center of the Mets universe back then, at least for a good chunk of the people so closely associated with the memorable team. 

While much of this weekend’s festivities will pay tribute to the 1986 Mets players and coaches, as well as the franchise’s infamous former ballpark, a local bar in a quiet town also deserves some reverence for the place it holds in the history of this once-in-a-lifetime baseball team.