This coming season will mark the fortieth anniversary of the New York Mets' first world championship. 1969 was one of the greatest baseball seasons ever, certainly one of the greatest in the history of New York baseball.

For the first six years of the existence of the Mets, futile baseball had found a home. The Mets still hold the record for the worst season compiled by a major league team. In 1962, their inaugural season, The Mets won just 40 games while losing a staggering 120. It could have been worse but two games were wiped off the schedule due to weather and mercifully were never made up.

While at the Polo Grounds in its final season, then the first four seasons at the late Shea Stadium, things did not get much better. The Mets continually lost more than one-hundred games except for 1966 when they were able to reduce their number of losses to ninety-five. That season, the Mets actually finished in ninth place, beating out the Chicago Cubs. Things were looking up. However, in 1967, the Mets fell back to tenth place while losing 101 games. Would fortunes ever change?

Although the Mets struggled in ’67, young players from the farm system were making fans take notice. Tom Seaver won the rookie of the year award. Cleon Jones looked like he might be a star hitter in the making. Ron Swoboda was showing the promise of a real power threat. Bud Harrelson was playing great defense at short. The pieces were starting to come together and the Mets farm system had other gems that only required more seasoning. 

The first step toward the Mets turning the corner came after the 1967 season. The Mets acquired Gil Hodges from the Washington Senators to manage. Hodges was a New York favorite having played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in his prime. He was the Dodgers first baseman when Brooklyn won their one and only world championship in 1955, defeating the Yankees in seven games. Hodges, a soft spoken mild mannered man, was also a strict and determined individual. As Mets players were soon to discover for themselves, Gil was a no nonsense guy between the lines. He expected results and he wanted to win.

1968 proved to be the Mets best season so far. The club won a franchise record 73 games and finished in ninth place for the second time in three years. More important than their record was the fact that the Mets began playing sound fundamental baseball. Their strength was their pitching staff. Tom Seaver had already established himself as a top pitcher in the National League. Rookie left hander Jerry Koosman won 19 games, another franchise record. He nearly won the rookie of the year award but was beaten out by Johnny Bench. Overall, the team performed better than ever and at the end of June, flirted with the .500 mark and got as high as sixth place for a brief period of time. But youth and inexperience contributed to the Mets stumbling during the dog days as they finished next to the bottom of the league. Regardless, Mets fans had a reason to hope and many thought more improvements would occur in 1969.

In the spring of 1969 at St. Petersburg, Florida, Gil Hodges informed his troops that the Mets would surprise a lot of teams, that they were better than they thought. He let them know that with hard work and dedication, their talent could take them deep into the season. Many players thought Gil was just trying to be positive but the manager was serious. He recognized the club’s talent, especially in the pitching department, and thoroughly believed they could succeed.

The Mets had a tremendous pitching staff. Led by Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman, they brought up rookie Gary Gentry, a hard throwing right hander. They also had flame thrower Nolan Ryan, another rookie in Jim McAndrew, and veteran Don Cardwell. The Mets had six solid starting pitchers plus relievers Tug McGraw, Ron Taylor, Danny Frisella, Cal Koonce, and Jack DiLauro.

The Mets were very strong defensively, especially up the middle. Jerry Grote was an outstanding defensive catcher. Switch hitter Bud Harrelson was an excellent shortstop with good range and a strong arm. Hodges would play the platoon of Ken Boswell and Wayne Garrett at second. Veteran Al Weis would also play second base and shortstop. Weis subbed for Harrelson at short when he had to leave for military duty, something not that uncommon for players to do back in the sixties. Although Weis was not a good hitter, he was sound defensively. In center field, Tommie Agee had been received in a trade with the White Sox the year before. In 1968, Agee struggled after he was hit in the head by a pitch in his first game of spring training. But in 1969, Agee would succeed as the Mets leadoff hitter and he was one of the best center fielders in the game.

Ed Charles, the veteran from Kansas City, would enter his third year with the Mets in 1969. Although Charles would be playing his last season, his sound defensive play at third and his clutch hitting would pay huge dividends for the Mets. Original Met Ed Kranepool was at first. Eddie never blossomed into the player the Mets had hoped but played solidly in ‘69. Later during the season, the Mets would acquire power hitting Donn Clendenon from Montreal. Donn took over most of the duty at first. Ron Swoboda and Art Shamsky would form a righty-lefty platoon in right and Cleon Jones, the Mets purest hitter, played a solid left field. Outfielder Rod Gaspar and catcher J.C. Martin filled out the bench.

On paper the Mets looked pretty good. Many writers, during the pre-season, had predicted the Mets could finish above .500 for the first time and perhaps might influence who would make the playoffs. But no one, writer, broadcaster, or fan, could have ever predicted what was to happen that season. No one would have believed it.

1969 was also the one hundredth anniversary of Major League Baseball. For most of the twentieth century, the American and National Leagues were made up of eight teams. In 1961, the American League expanded to ten teams. The National League followed in 1962 by awarding New York and Houston a franchise.

Prior to ’69, the owners voted to expand the leagues again. The Kansas City Royals and Seattle Pilots would be added to the American League. The San Diego Padres and the Montreal Expos, the first team outside the United States, were added to the National League.

Since there would be twelve teams in each league, it was also decided that each league would be divided into two divisions, an eastern and western division made up of six teams each. A common joke was the Mets were guaranteed to finish higher than ever. They could not finish lower than sixth place.

Teams would play most of the schedule within their own division. The Mets played eighteen games each against the other eastern teams that included the Cubs, Cardinals, Phillies, Pirates, and newly formed Expos. Games against the west would total twelve against each club. The western teams of the National League were the Dodgers, Giants, Astros, Reds, Braves and Padres.

The 1969 Mets season opened as only a Met opener could. The Mets hosted the newly formed Montreal Expos at Shea Stadium in front of 44,500 fans. Tom Seaver was on the mound. While all the experts predicted a much improved Mets team, the outcome of the first game was typical. The Mets lost to the Expos by a score of 11-10. A ninth inning rally by the Mets fell a run short. Only the Mets could lose a game in such an excruciating way to a team making its major league debut.

The Mets struggled for the first month and a half of the season. They were under .500 winning some then losing a few. The club could not gain any consistency. It was the same old Mets. At one point, the Mets managed to get to 18-18, reaching the .500 mark, but then lost five in a row. It was frustrating. The fans were no longer interested in rooting for the lovable losers. Six years of that was enough. Mets fans wanted results. They wanted something to cheer about. In late May, they got it.

With a record of 18-23, the Mets played the San Diego Padres on Thursday night, May 28th at Shea Stadium. The Mets were in fourth place, nine full games behind Chicago. That evening, the game lasted eleven innings with the Mets winning 1-0. The Mets won the next day against San Francisco. Then they won the next day, then the next day, and continued to win eleven games in a row, by far the longest winning streak in Mets history.

The streak started at Shea Stadium and ended on the west coast. After splitting a two game set with the Padres, the Mets swept the Giants in three then did the same to LA. The Mets winning ways continued in California. They swept the Padres three straight then won the first game against the Giants in San Francisco before the streak finally ended. When the eleven game streak was over, the Mets were six games above the .500 mark, in second place, seven games back. Everyone in the tri-state area was wondering who were these guys wearing orange and blue.

Most remarkably was that during the streak, the Mets won two extra inning games by a score of 1-0. The first started the streak against San Diego, the second 1-0 contest went fifteen innings against the Dodgers. Mets pitching was outstanding. Through the eleven games, Mets pitching gave up just 22 runs for an average of two runs per game. To emphasize how important pitching was to the Mets success, Met batters only knocked in 42 runs during the streak for an average of 3.8 runs a game. And in the final game of the streak, the Mets scored nine runs. But perhaps the most remarkable feat was that the Mets won six of the eleven games by one run, an important statistics for a team with winning aspirations.

The Mets lost the next two games after the streak ended but then went on to win nine of twelve to improve their record to ten games above the .500 mark. Met fans were ecstatic. Never before had the Mets been so competitive this late into the season. I’m sure that every Met fan would have been satisfied if the Mets continued to play well, finish above .500 and finish in second or third place. However, the Mets players had other ideas.

Look for Part II later in the week...

1969, Part 2