The 1969 New York Mets season was the team's eighth as a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise and culminated when they won the World Series over the Baltimore Orioles. They played their home games at Shea Stadium and were managed by Gil Hodges. The team is often referred to as the "Amazin' Mets" (a nickname coined by Casey Stengel, who managed the team from their inaugural season to 1965) or the "Miracle Mets".
The 1969 season was the first season of divisional play in Major League Baseball. The Mets were assigned to the newly created National LeagueEast division. In their seven previous seasons, the Mets had never finished higher than ninth place in the ten-team National League and had never had a winning season. They lost at least one hundred games in five of the seasons. However, they overcame mid-season difficulties while the division leaders for much of the season, the Chicago Cubs, suffered a late-season collapse. The Mets finished 100–62, eight games ahead of the Cubs. The Mets went on to defeat the National League West champion Atlanta Braves three games to none in the inaugural National League Championship Series. The Mets then went on to defeat the American League champion Baltimore Orioles in five games. First basemanDonn Clendenon was named the series' most valuable player on the strength of his .357 batting average, three home runs, and four runs batted in.
On Saturday, August 22, 2009, many of the surviving members of the 1969 championship team reunited at the New York Mets' present park, Citi Field.[1]
Drafted Wayne Garrett from the Atlanta Braves in the 1968 rule 5 draft Tommie Reynolds drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the 1968 rule 5 draft Juan Rios drafted by the Montreal Expos in the 1968 rule 5 draft Bill Short drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 1968 rule 5 draft
February 5, 1969
Greg Goossen and cash traded to the Seattle Pilots for a player to be named later. Received Jim Gosger three months later to complete the trade.
Spring training[]
The 1969 New York Mets held spring training at Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg, Florida, for the 8th season.
Regular season[]
Shea Stadium prior to a game in September 1969.
The Mets had never finished higher than ninth place in a ten-team league in their first seven seasons. As an expansion team, they went 40–120 in 1962, the most losses by an MLB team in one season in the 20th century, and the 1962 Mets' .250 winning percentage was higher than only the .248 posted by the 1935 Boston Braves.
The Mets never had been over .500 after the ninth game of any season. Seven years after their disastrous inaugural season, "The Amazin' Mets" (as nicknamed by previous manager Casey Stengel) won the World Series, the first expansion team to do so.
1969 was the first year of divisional baseball, precipitated by the expansion of each league from 10 to 12 teams.[3] The Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots joined the American League. The San Diego Padres and Montreal Expos joined the National League. Before 1969, the first place team in each league advanced directly to the World Series. Under the new structure, each league was divided into East and West divisions, each comprising six teams, with the divisional winners facing off in a best-of-five playoff for the right to represent their league in the World Series. The Mets were slotted into the National League Eastern Division, along with the Chicago Cubs, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Pittsburgh Pirates, expansion Montreal Expos, and the St. Louis Cardinals, who had been World Champions in 1964 and 1967 and losers of the 1968 World Series. For the first time since joining the National League in 1962, the Mets could finish no lower than 6th.[4] The New York Times journalist, Joseph Durso, predicted the Mets would finish 4th in the East, ahead of the Pirates and the Expos.[5]
On Tuesday April 8, with 44,541 fans in attendance at Shea Stadium, the Mets and the Expos played the first international baseball game in major league baseball history. The Mets had lost seven straight opening day games since joining the national league in 1962. That dubious record reached eight when the Expos prevailed in an 11-10 slugfest, despite the Mets scoring four runs with two down in the bottom of the ninth, highlighted by a pinch hit three-run homer by Duffy Dyer. Apparently, this was axiomatic Mets baseball, as one columnist described the Mets as "masters of the lingering death."[6]
The Mets took the next two games from the Expos, but then lost six of the following 7 games, bringing their record to 3–7. After a 9–14 start, the Mets won 9 of their next 13 games, including consecutive shutouts in late April against the Cubs and Expos. When Tom Seaver shutout the Atlanta Braves 5–0 on May 21, the Mets were 18-18, their best start in franchise history. But the Mets lost their next five games, starting with a 15-3 drubbing from the Atlanta Braves, followed by a 3-game sweep by the Astros, who outscored the Mets 18–4, and finishing with a loss at Shea Stadium to the lowly Padres.[7] At the end of play on May 27, the Mets' record stood at 18–23. Then, in late May, the Mets reeled off a club-record 11 straight wins, which included three walk-off wins and dominant pitching, as the Mets pitching staff yielded a stingy 2-runs per game. Starting with their 42nd game, the Mets went 82–39 (a .678 winning percentage), including an astonishing 38–11 in their last 49 games.[8]
Despite that performance, the Mets suffered two mid-season three-game series sweeps at the hands of the Houston Astros, who manhandled the Mets all season, taking 10 of the 12 games the teams played.
They were also no-hit by Bob Moose of the Pittsburgh Pirates on September 20, only five days after becoming the first major league team to strike out 19 times in a nine-inning game, a game they won, 4–3, on a pair of two-run home runs by Ron Swoboda, against the Cardinals'Steve Carlton.
Trailing the Chicago Cubs for much of the season, the Mets found themselves in third place, 10 games back, on August 14[9] but they won 14 of their last 17 games during August, and 24 of their 32 games during September and October, to surge past the Cubs, finishing 100–62, eight games ahead of the Cubs. That 18 game differential is one of the largest turnarounds in MLB history.[clarification needed]
With two outs in the top of the ninth inning, starting pitcher Jerry Koosman faced Orioles second basemanDavey Johnson (who later managed the Mets to their second World Series championship in 1986). After taking a pitch of two balls and one strike, Johnson hit a fly-ball out to left field which was caught by Cleon Jones.[10]
Hall of Fame members who played in the 1969 World Series[]
Three future Hall of Fame members were on that Mets' roster: pitcherTom Seaver (who won twenty-five games en route to winning the Cy YoungAward), a young Nolan Ryan (playing in his third season), and New York Yankees legend Yogi Berra (who briefly played for the Mets in 1965). Berra was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1972, Seaver in 1992, and Ryan in 1999.
The Baltimore Orioles boasted four future Hall of Famers on their roster: pitcher Jim Palmer, outfielderFrank Robinson, third basemanBrooks Robinson, and manager Earl Weaver.
June 13, 1969: Al Jackson was purchased from the Mets by the Cincinnati Reds.[11]
June 15, 1969: Kevin Collins, Steve Renko, Bill Carden (minors) and Dave Colon (minors) were traded by the Mets to the Montreal Expos for Donn Clendenon.[12]
Player stats[]
= Indicates team leader
Batting[]
Starters by position[]
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
Pos
Player
G
AB
H
Avg.
HR
RBI
C
Jerry Grote
113
365
92
.252
6
40
1B
Ed Kranepool
112
353
84
.238
11
49
2B
Ken Boswell
102
362
101
.279
3
32
3B
Wayne Garrett
124
400
87
.218
1
39
SS
Bud Harrelson
123
395
98
.248
0
24
LF
Cleon Jones
137
483
164
.340
12
75
CF
Tommie Agee
149
565
153
.271
26
76
RF
Ron Swoboda
109
327
77
.235
9
52
Other batters[]
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
WP:Jerry Koosman (2–0) LP:Eddie Watt (0–1) Home runs: BAL: Dave McNally (1), Frank Robinson (1) NYM: Donn Clendenon (3), Al Weis (1)
In popular culture[]
In the movie Oh, God!, God, as played by George Burns, explains to John Denver that "the last miracle I performed was the 1969 Mets."
Part of the movie Frequency is set in Queens, New York, in 1969, as firefighter and avid Mets fan Frank Sullivan (Dennis Quaid) and his family follow the "Amazin's" throughout the World Series.
In Moonlighting, Season 2, Episode 13, "In God We Strongly Suspect", when David is attempting to define the parameters of Maddie's skepticism and atheism by inviting her to provide logical explanations for various phenomena seemingly beyond man's understanding, he mentions the "'69 Mets" which she immediately dismisses as "a myth and a hoax".
In his song "Faith and Fear in Flushing Meadows", twee/folk artist makes mention of Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman.
In the TV sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond episode "Big Shots", Ray and Robert visit the Baseball Hall of Fame to meet members of the '69 Mets.
In the film Men in Black 3, set shortly before the Apollo 11 launch in July 1969, Griffin, an alien from the fifth dimension who can see the future, says the Mets' title is his favorite human history moment for "all the improbabilities that helped".
In the TV show Growing Pains, the family's name was the Seavers and their neighbors were the Koosmans.
In the TV Sitcom The Simpsons episode MoneyBart, Homer Simpson says the 1969 Mets will live on forever.
Awards and honors[]
Awards[]
Nolan Ryan's 1969 championship ring on display at the Nolan Ryan Exhibit Center
^Johnson, Lloyd; Wolff, Miles, eds. (1997). The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (2nd ed.). Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America. ISBN978-0-9637189-8-3.
