Hot Foot (My Hijinks and Upside-Down Life with the World Champion New York Mets)

Roger McDowell dishes on everything from the New York Mets to Seinfeld in this lively new memoir

Over the course of Roger McDowell’s twelve-year career in Major League Baseball, the laughs were never in short supply. His teammates were always on guard, careful not to become the next victim of his dreaded “Hot Foot.”

McDowell’s fun-loving nature, however, was matched only by his tenacity on the pitching mound. Praised as a “battler” and a “gamer” by those same pranked teammates, Roger was all business when he went out between the lines. Priding himself on toughness and reliability, McDowell’s 723 big league appearances from 1985 to 1996 were exceeded only by Lee Smith during those years. Responding to every challenge even on the grandest of stages, he helped the irascible 1986 New York Mets fight their way past other teams – and each other – toward a World Series title.

Now, forty years later, Roger discusses his earliest beginnings in the game, his climb to professional baseball, and then brings the reader onto the 1986 Mets’ roster for all the bus rides, dugout jokes, and locker room antics. Whether it was soaking Lenny Dykstra’s bat in rubbing alcohol and lighting it on fire, tricking Tommy Lasorda into eating dog treats in the clubhouse, or sneezing fake snot onto Cubs fans in the first row of seats at Wrigley Field, no one knew where McDowell would strike next.

​This memoir – which includes contemporary interviews with Roger’s teammates such as Dwight Gooden, Keith Hernandez, Ray Knight, Howard Johnson, Wally Backman, and many others – is the story of a life that was passionately devoted to one man’s love for the game.