Newsday, Melville, N.Y., Jim Baumbach column: Ray Knight, Mets remain apart

Oct 10, 2008 (Newsday - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- GSK | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- As unbelievable as the Mets' 1986 World Series title was, so is this: 22 years have passed and there's still an uneasy separation between the franchise and Ray Knight, the World Series MVP.

The relationship soured because of their failed negotiations that following off-season, but after all these years there has no been reconciliation, no hug-it-out moment.

Twice, the Mets invited Knight back for events at Shea Stadium.

Twice, Knight declined their invite.

Both times Knight said he had a previously planned engagement. That kept him from attending the 20-year reunion of the '86 Mets two years ago and the final game at Shea Stadium just a few weeks back.

In a telephone interview this week, Knight said he wished he could have attended both ceremonies. There is no grudge, saying he would definitely come back to throw out a first pitch or something of that sort. "To be able to just come back and feel like I'm a part of the organization at any time," he said, "it would be great."

The sadness, from Knight's perspective, is that for the past two decades he said he has not felt like a part of the organization. He insisted he is no longer bitter -- sad, yes, but not bitter -- but, make no mistake, there were definitely hurt feelings when he left the Mets the way he did.

After playing a huge role in the '86 championship, specifically by scoring the winning run in their remarkable Game 6 10th-inning rally and hitting a home run in Game 7, Knight sought a two-year deal. The Mets offered only a one-year, $800,000 contract, which represented a raise over his $600,000 salary.

Knight turned that offer down, intent on a two-year deal. But he found little traction on the open market. Days before spring training he wound up signing a one-year contract with the Orioles that guaranteed him $475,000, but with playing-based incentives that would -- and did -- automatically kick in a second year.

Many years later it's clear to Knight there were other forces at play that winter. He said he received bad advice from his agent. The owners also were later ruled to have colluded against free agents that offseason.

But that didn't take away the sting of having his World Series ring mailed to him when the rest of the team had a pre-game ceremony. "Those type of things hurt when you're not able to share in something you fought for," he said.

That being said, it's easy to argue that he therefore should have made it back to Shea for the 20-year reunion or the final game at Shea. Knight insisted that he would have attended if he was free.

Regarding the reunion in 2006, Knight said when he received the invite two months prior to the date he already had a speaking engagement. He experienced a heart attack in 2003 and had agreed to become a spokesman for GlaxoSmithKline, which produced medicine that helped him control his health.

"I committed to do seven dates as a spokesman for them and we were in Houston on that particular weekend," he said. "I couldn't not fulfil my obligation. It wasn't that I didn't want to come. It was that I had no way to get out of it."

Knight's absence from the Shea good-bye ceremonies is another story.

His bosses at the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, where he has broadcasted Washington Nationals games the past two seasons, gave him the time off. But he said he ultimately chose not to go on principle.

"It was, believe me, much more important to be at Shea than to be at my desk doing commentary for a last place ballclub, but my devotion and loyalty is a part of what I am," Knight said. "I just didn't feel like it was right to not be there for the final three games of the season. I already used my allotted days off."

Mets spokesman Jay Horwitz said he personally tried to change Knight's mind.

"We made every effort to get Ray here for this," Horwitz said. "We made repeated phone calls."

So where does that leave them? Back at square one? Knight hopes not.

"I love the Mets," he said. "I pull for them."

Knight said he still received about 10 letters a week, almost all of which comes from Mets fans in New York or New Jersey with mentions of 1986. "It's almost like I didn't play the other 12 years," he said.

As for the Mets' perspective, they say they've always wanted him back. They're open to ideas. Horwitz said, "If the situation made sense for both parties, we could have no problem picking up the phone and bringing Ray back."

Knight added, "There's no doubt I would love that."

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