Simply' Amazing: The talent of the 1969 Mets

Fifty-five years ago Wednesday, New York’s “Amazin’ Mets” defeated the Baltimore Orioles to win the 1969 World Series.

What was so “amazin’ ” about it? The Mets were in only their eighth season of existence. Over the previous seven seasons, the franchise had set Major League Baseball records for losing games.

But the Society for American Baseball Research calls the Mets’ 1969 season “A Season of Streaks, Shocks and Shutouts.”

New York Baseball Fans: Spoiled on Success?

The city of New York had a team in the World Series every year between 1949 and 1958 — and six of those years, the city had two teams in the World Series.

But in 1957, two of the city’s three Major League franchises — the Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers — bolted for the West Coast. Sure, the Big Apple could still boast it was the home of the Yankees. But losing two major clubs in one season stung.

So when an expansion franchise was granted to New York for the 1962 season, New York fans were elated. Making it even better was the fact that the new club hired legendary Yankees manager Casey Stengel as manager and that it would play its first two seasons in the Giant’s storied Polo Grounds home.

But the Mets of the early 1960s were a joke. At one point, the club had two pitchers named Bob Miller — one was a righty and one was a lefty. On the last day of the 1962 season, the Mets hit into a triple play. Robert Lipsyte of the New York Times wrote that the Mets had become an international symbol of Incompetence.

In 1965, Stengel attended an old-

timer’s party, fell off a barstool and broke his hip. He retired, but his replacement fared no better. It wasn’t until longtime Dodgers star Gil Hodges was brought in as manager in 1968 that the Mets found someone who was able to build the future of the franchise.

Seven Seasons of Sub-Par Baseball

The Mets “lost an awful lot of games by one run,” wrote Jimmy Breslin of the New York Herald Tribune in 1962, “which is the mark of a bad team. They also lost innumerable games by 14 runs. This is the mark of a terrible team ... They lost at home. They lost away. They lost at night and they lost in the daytime. And they lost with maneuvers that shake the imagination.”

In its first season, the Mets lost 120 games — the most in a single season in the modern history of baseball ... until the White Sox matched that record this season.

New manager Gil Hodges told his team in 1969: “You guys lost 36 one-run games last year. If you had won half of them, you’d be in contention.”

... Until The Amazing 1969

Hodges was able to build his version of the Mets around two pitchers: Tom Seaver, who had been the National League’s Rookie of the Year in 1967 and Jerry Koosman, who had won that same award the next season. In addition, the Mets featured another young pitcher who would go on to later fame: Nolan Ryan.

The Mets started the season losing 11-10 to the Montreal Expos in the Expos’ first-

ever game but then, on the strength of Hodges‘ skillful use of platooning in positions where his team might be outmatched any given day, managed to shake off their losing ways. The Mets won 38 of their last 49 games in the first season of Major League Baseball’s use of two divisions in each league. The Mets crushed the Atlanta Braves in three games to win the National League pennant.

Gleeful Mets rush pitcher Jerry Koosman on the mound at Shea Stadium on Oct. 16, 1969. Photo from Major League Baseball

The Baltimore Orioles of the American League had won 109 games — more than any major-league team since the 1954 Cleveland Indians — and had held the Minnesota Twins to just five runs in a sweep of the AL pennant series.

But against the Mets in the 1969 World Series, the Orioles managed to hit a collective .146 and won only once: A 4-1 victory in Game 1.

The Mets’ win is still regarded today as one of the greatest sports upsets of all time.

A Few of The Standouts of The 1969 Mets

Tom Seaver - Pitcher

In just his third season in the majors, 25-year-old Seaver finished the 1969 regular season with a 25-7 record and won the National League Cy Young Award and was named Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press and Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated.

Jerry Koosman - Pitcher

Koosman earned a 17-9 record and won eight of his final nine decisions of the regular season. He pitched six innings of no-hit ball to win Game 2 of the World Series and then, after falling behind 3-0 in Game 5, retired 19 of 21 consecutive batters to earn a win.

Cleon Jones - Outfielder

Jones finished the regular season with a .340 batting average — at the time, a team record. In Game 5, an Oriole pitch hit Jones in the foot, but the Orioles argued it hit the dirt and not Jones. The ball, however, showed a spot of shoe polish. Jones was awarded first base.

Al Weis - Outfielder

Weis batted only .215 and hit two home runs during the regular season. But he won Game 2 with a late-inning single and then tied Game 5 with the only home run he’d ever hit in Shea Stadium. He hit .455 in 11 at bats in the series and took home the Babe Ruth Award.

Down Clendenon - First Base

Clendenon was selected by the Expos in the expansion draft but then traded to the Astros. He declined to report, so the Expos sent him to the Mets in June. Clendenon hit .357 and three home runs in the World Series and was named the Series’ Most Valuable Player.