Even before the New York Mets began the 1992 season, they had set a critical record: the highest payroll ever for a major-league team, $45 million. With players Bobby Bonilla, Vince Coleman, Bret Saberhagen, and Howard Johnson, winning another championship seemed a mere formality. The 1992 New York Mets never made it to Cooperstown, however.

Veteran newspapermen Bob Klapisch and John Harper 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 to the puritanical, no-booze rules of manager Jeff Torborg, from bad behavior on road trips to the downright ornery practical "jokes" that big boys play, "The Worst Team Money Could Buy" is a grand-slam classic.

Bob Klapisch is a sports columnist covering major-league baseball for The Record. Klapisch has worked at the New York Post and the New York Daily News and is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He is the author of five baseball books, including High and Tight: The Rise and Fall of Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry. John Harper covered the Mets for the New York Post from 1988 to 1992 before joining the Daily News, where he is a sports columnist.