Ron Darling won 136 major league games, including 99 for the Mets. He also started seven postseason games, including four in the Mets’ 1986 championship season. Last year he wrote “Complete Game,” an inside look at pitching in the major leagues. Darling, 50, is an analyst for the Mets during the regular season, and he will be part of TBS’s postseason coverage team with Ernie Johnson and John Smoltz for the American League division series between the Yankees and the Twins. He will also cover the A.L. Championship Series.

Q.

We seem to have really moved past the steroids era. Does it seem that even John McGraw would feel at home if the N.L.C.S. pits the Phillies, with Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels, against the Giants, with Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez?

A.

He certainly would. Never in the past few years have we seen two teams match up like those two with marquee starting pitching.

Q.

Does the great finish by San Francisco — who were written off in August then roared back in September — give them momentum the way it did with Colorado in 2007? Or does talent win out in the end?

A.

Talent is always important but if you’re in the playoffs you certainly have talent. The emotional impact does count. San Francisco has got some magic in their bag right now. You could see it in Brian Wilson and Buster Posey’s reactions; you could see it in the fans. The only way you can pull these things off is with contributions from all 25 guys, and these players believe in each other.

Q.

What team do you think will win it all?

A.

Philadelphia has the best team right now. They also have the advantage with the schedule the way the Yankees did last year. They call Halladay, Hamels and Oswalt H2O in Philadelphia and right now they have it lined up so H2O could start 17 of 19 postseason games. And Joe Blanton would start the other two, and he showed in 2008 that he could pitch under pressure.



Q.

What’s your prediction for the American League?

A.

There’s an interesting mix there. Both New York and Tampa are vulnerable. So this is the year for Minnesota or Texas to break through. Tampa and New York have known they were going to be in the postseason almost the entire time. But they are certainly not going into the playoffs as strongly as the Yankees did last year or Tampa did the year before. The Yankees’ issue is starting pitching, and Tampa Bay’s Achilles’ heel is their starting pitching behind David Price. But the difference is that the Yankees can generate some kind of offense. Tampa Bay is a great athletic team — if you put them in a computer it would spit out a championship. But their offense is very sporadic.

Q.

You pitched on three days’ rest in the 1986 World Series. How do you feel about teams starting their aces on three days’ rest in the postseason?

A.

I think they should. C.C. Sabathia has already proven he certainly can do it. It’s more a mental thing than a physical thing. And you feel more rejuvenated and more alive in October. I don’t know if it’s the cool weather or the adrenaline but I felt like I had more on my fastball then I did the whole month of September.

Q.

As a pitcher, did you prepare differently for postseason games than for regular-season ones?

A.

Physically you don’t do anything differently — you follow your routine in getting to the ballpark, loosening, stretching. But what you want to do is get as quiet as you can — there are all these ticket requests for family and friends, and people coming in who want to meet you for brunch, and you don’t want to do it but you don’t want to be antisocial, but you have to find as much quiet time as possible. The energy needed to pitch in these games is so intense.

Q.

Is there any special preparation you need to make for the postseason as a broadcaster after announcing so many less-than-meaningful games for the Mets at the end of this season?

A.

I’ve been prepping since the All-Star break, following the teams that were in contention. If I saw Tim Lincecum threw seven scoreless innings I’d want to know more, to know how did he throw. So I might call [Giants announcer] Jon Miller or a reporter out there. But I’ve announced two Game 163 tie breakers the last two years, one in Chicago and one in Minnesota, and it’s the closest an old guy like me can get to having goose bumps. When I announce games like that and postseason games I think, Boy, I wish I could still play. That looks like fun. And that translates into whatever enthusiasm I need for the job.

Q.

Commissioner Bud Selig recently said he’d like to consider adding another round of playoffs. What do you think of that?

A.

I don’t like it. If you look at this season, you had a horrible race in the American League, where both New York and Tampa knew they were going to make the playoffs. And you had a great race in the National League with San Francisco, San Diego and Atlanta. With the new rules, you’d have two horrible races. This is the first generation with kids where everybody always gets a trophy. I don’t think major league baseball needs to give everyone a trophy. Baseball is 162 games long. If you can’t figure it out in that time, then maybe it’s not going to happen. It’s all right to not be in the playoffs. Maybe you don’t belong in the playoffs. When you look at teams in the N.H.L. and N.B.A. that make it, many of them don’t belong.

Q.

What happened to the Mets this year?

A.

In June they were 11 games up [over .500] and they were so good to watch. The fans were really enjoying the team. And then it went away. I don’t quite know why. So this year seemed to some like an utter disaster. But in spring training, Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and I felt they were a .500 team. If you don’t put them under the microscope where they play in this town and try to stay relevant compared to the Yankees, there were some successes.

Jon Niese certainly showed he was a major league starter who will get better. R.A. Dickey was one of the great stories of the year. Angel Pagan became a player that almost every team would want as their center fielder. And Ike Davis had the second-best season as a rookie in Mets history behind Darryl Strawberry. Jason Bay had a tough year even before the concussion, but he played the game the right way and the energy he brought was so evident.

Q.

What about next year and beyond?

A.

I think they’re handcuffed for next season because of the salaries on the books. They can’t give young players like Nick Evans and Lucas Duda that much time because they’re set in the outfield. What they need is a game plan. The Mets play in one of the few ballparks where you have to account for it when planning your team. You need pitchers who throw strikes and guys who can catch the ball and play smart.

When was the last time you head someone say: “I know what it means to wear a Mets uniform. I know how to play the Mets way”? They need to teach smart baseball and good defense so when you get to the big leagues, you know what is expected of you.

Right now the Mets can look at the players you have as they move up to each level and try to build a perennial winner in a few years, or you can try to piecemeal it together, trying to find the elixir in the free-agent market.

They’re not going to pay Cliff Lee. And starting pitching is not one of their problem areas. They’re set in the infield, except at second base; Luis Castillo’s salary is the one I think they’ll have to eat. Another question is whether Josh Thole is ready. I think they need to get a veteran who can help teach him but also who can play 50 games. And they need middle-relief help and to figure out what is happening with [Francisco] Rodriguez.

Hopefully, after what has happened in the last four years — can you believe it has been four years? — they are trending toward having a game plan. If you told the fans what you were doing and communicated with them, you could revitalize and energize the fan base.

Q.

With no outs in a scoreless game, Jonathan Sanchez legged out a triple on the last day of the season when San Francisco finally clinched the National League West against San Diego. He scored soon after. In your book you wrote about making a diving play in a critical game in 1987 and injuring your thumb so badly, you missed the rest of the pennant race and forever lost the ability to throw your curve. What do you think of Sanchez’s play?

A.

During the course of the season it might not be the best play. In the 1980s, Mike Scioscia was famous for blocking the plate, and our third-base coaches were told, “Do not get our pitchers hurt sending them home.” So you treat that play differently. But all bets are off in playoff baseball. And that’s what San Francisco, San Diego and Atlanta were doing for the last two weeks. It was the regular season, but every game was like a playoff game.

Also, pitchers run for four days between pitching. I hit a triple once at Wrigley Field — not an easy place to hit a triple — and after I slid in and dusted myself off, Buddy Harrelson, the third-base coach said, “That’s amazing.” I thought he meant that I hit a triple, although I’d already hit one that year. But he said, “You’re not even out of breath.” An everyday player would have been winded. I said, “That’s what pitchers do: we run.”

Q.

The Padres, after surprising everyone all year long, lost 10 straight, and later completed their collapse by falling from first and failing to reach the playoffs. This is something the New York Mets and their fans went through in 2007 and 2008. How do they cope and how do they move on?

A.

San Diego was the best story in baseball, and then after they lost 10 straight and then recovered, they had a chance to be the best story in baseball again. So I think they’re really frustrated right now. They are probably sitting in a room with the lights off. But when the hurt goes away they’ll take some solace in a magical season in which they maxed out what they could do as a team and one that gives them great promise for next year. They’re also an inspiration to any team in baseball by showing what you can do with pitching, catching the baseball and playing smart ball.

Q.

You live in Brooklyn now?

A.

Yes. There are always people playing ball in the park by me, McCarren Park. One day I saw these guys playing and said, These guys are really good. It turned out they were all Puerto Rican and Dominican players who had been brought over here when they were 16. They didn’t make it to the majors, but this is how they still keep playing while they work at their jobs. The quality of play is as good as in the minor leagues.

Q.

Did it make you feel tempted to go pitch?

A.

Not to pitch. All the way through college I always thought of myself as a ballplayer, not just a pitcher. It gives you such an advantage if you think like that — it can help your team win a game. Here, I was very tempted to get a glove and play shortstop.

Q.

It’s not just playoff time, it’s N.F.L. season. As someone who played football throughout your childhood, are you a Jets fan or a Giants fan?

A.

Neither. I don’t really give it a second thought. Gary Cohen is a crazy Jets fan. And Keith loves to gamble on football. So in September they both go crazy. I like the technical part — the different defenses and schemes. A quarterback recently gave me a playbook to study. But I don’t root for one team. That said, New York is my adopted city, so I’m all about the New York teams. I grew up in Boston, but we didn’t have money to go to many games. So the first time I really went was when I was young and in New York. I’d go to Knicks and Rangers games at Madison Square Garden all winter. I did just go to a Jet game — someone invited me — and the new stadium is awesome.