But for the second straight year & the fifth time in time in seven years they finished in second place. That cost Manager Davey Johnson his job, as he was replaced by long time Mets favorite Bud Harrelson.
Harrelson would fare much worse as the 1991 club fell to 77-84 fifth place finish, the teams worst since 1983. Harrelson would be replaced by Mike Cubbage at the end of the season as well.
These Mets were different than the power hitting team of the mid to late eighties. Howard Johnson was the sole slugger left, as Kevin McReynolds on the down side of his career would hit 16 HRs & Hubbie Brooks, doing his second time around as a Met also hit 16 HRs.

In 1991 Howard Johnson would be one of the few bright spots on the New York Mets. In the sixth game of the season, the last on a 4-2 Mets home stand, Hojo hit his first HR of the year.
The next day, Hojo helped David Cone to his first win of the year, as he first had a two run single later followed by a two run HR in the 9th inning. He would close out April with four HRs batting just .211.
In May, Johnson started out with a May 4th walk off HR against Mike Lacoss & the San Francisco Giants. Two days later, in Darryl Strawberry's debut at Shea as a Dodger, Hojo homered again helping the Mets in a close 6-5 win. Strawberry also homered in his Shea return.

On June 11th, he hit another game winner, this one in the top of the 11th inning off Mike Capel in Houston beating the Astros 4-3. Hojo would hit HRs in back to back games on a road trip to Cincinnati, he would hit six HRs in June.
As July began he started out the month with back to back HR games in Montreal, both Mets wins. On July 3rd he helped lead the Mets to a 4-0 shut out win, it was the last win Ron Darling would record as a Mets pitcher.

As the season rolled on, the Mets losses mounted & most of Johnson's HRs in August came during Mets losses. On August 31st he had a big day in Cincinnati, where he hit two HRs driving in three runs in the Mets 8-7 win.
September would be Hojo's biggest month of the year as he went on to win the NL Player of the Month Award. Unfortunately, the Mets were not in any pennant race, he hit ten HRs drove in 31 runs, passing the 100 RBI mark for the second time in his career.

Hojo hit another the next day & another the next week. On September 13th he homered driving in two runs leading the Mets to a 4-2 win. He would also lead the Mets to a 3-2 win against Montreal four days later hitting a two run HR.
On October 1st, he stole his 30th base of the season , joining the 30 30 club for the third time in his career. He is just one of five players ever to accomplish that feat.
Johnson ended the year leading the league in HRs (37) RBIs (117) extra base hits (76) & sac flies (15). He was second in slugging % (.535), runs scored (108), at bats per HRs (14.8).

The next year he would play in 100 games hitting just seven HRs. The next year he hit seven more HRs but played in just 72 games. That year he was let go to free agency going to the Colorado Rockies & then the Chicago Cubs in 1995. He then retired at age 34 with 228 career HRs.
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