October 26, 1986

He landed on the grass between first base and the pitcher's mound without a ticket, an airborne party-crasher at the World Series. The skydiver who chose Shea Stadium as a landing strip in the first inning last night had read that the Mets were disappointed in the fan support they were receiving, and he decided to do his part for the team. Michael Sergio, a 37-year-old from Manhattan who said he was a musician, made his entrance from above center field, swooping in gracefully, a ''Let's Go Mets'' banner hanging from his parachute. The crowd of 55,078 gasped, then cheered his arrival. The Mets and Red Sox watched as the New York City Police and stadium security hustled the scene-stealer off the field.

Keith Hernandez had just made what seemed so certain to be the next-to-last out of the game, the World Series and the Met season. The Mets were trailing the Red Sox by two runs in the bottom of the 10th inning, and after Hernandez flied out to center field with no one on base, he took a long, slow walk to the dugout and kept going. He picked up his glove and his cap and took another long walk to the clubhouse. Hernandez walked through the door. He turned left into the office of Manager Dave Johnson, put his cap and glove on the manager's desk, sat in a folding director's chair and looked at a television set.

Charlie Samuels, the Mets' clubhouse man, walked through the hectic room early this morning, yelling to the players, ''Fellas, don't forget to turn your clock back.'' Not much earlier, the Mets' 1986 clock had virtually stopped. Then came their half of the 10th inning and their hearts almost stopped. The Mets rallied for three runs in the improbable inning and snatched, at least for the moment, the World Series championship from the star-crossed Boston Red Sox with a 6-5 victory that forced the seventh and decisive game tonight.

DEBBIE APPIO of Yaphank recently dropped off her 5-year-old daughter, Anne Marie, at the Just Kids Early Childhood Learning Center in Middle Island, as she has every almost every weekday morning for several years. After they kissed goodbye, Anne Marie busily played with musical instruments in a room bedecked with colorful children's artwork. Mrs. Appio went off to work as an accountant at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton. She would be at her desk in less than five minutes. The nearby day-care center has enabled Mrs. Appio to blend motherhood and a career with a minimum of problems, she says. During the summer, she often takes her daughter out to lunch. Twice, when she received calls that Anne Marie was ill, Mrs. Appio arrived almost immediately to take her to a doctor.

The repercussions of Local Law 10, enacted by New York City in 1980, are bittersweet. Pedestrians no longer fear being killed by falling masonry, but the facades of many buildings are being denuded of ornament.