Even before the New York Mets began the 1992 season, they'd set a critical record: the highest payroll ever for a major league team, $45 million. But it was worth it, right? With Bobby Bonilla, Vince Coleman, Bret Saberhagen, and Howard Johnson, winning another championship seemed a mere formality. Not. Last season's New York Mets never made it to Cooperstown. They finished the year just a breath out of the National League East cellar. They didn't only lose; they lost ugly. The few disgusted fans left at Shea loudly reminded the Mets that if they weren't the worst team money could buy, they were probably the baddest. Veteran newspapermen John Harper and Bob Klapisch now reveal the extraordinary inside story of the Mets' decline and fall - with the sort of detail and uncensored quotes that never run in a family newspaper. From the sex scandals that plagued the club in Florida (party, party, party with David Cone and Ron Darling) to the puritanical, no-booze rules of manager Jeff Torborg, from bad behavior on road trips (including a list of big leaguers' favorite bars) to the downright ornery practical "jokes" that big boys play, The Worst Team Money Could Buy is wackier than The Bronx Zoo and more risque than Ball Four. In other words, Klapisch and Harper have produced a grand-slam classic.