What brought the Mets to this point, the first National League Championship Series in history, was tremendous pitching, great defense, and timely hitting. The Mets were no powerhouse. Perhaps that fact alone may have been why the Cubs did not take the Mets too seriously until it was too late.

In 1969, the Cubs had power hitters Ron Santo, Ernie Banks, and Billy Williams, all legitimate homerun threats. The Mets by comparison had to import Donn Clendenon, an older veteran who had homerun power. But while Clendenon only provided 12 homers, Tommy Agee, the Mets primary leadoff hitter, led the team with 26.

The Cubs had four hitters with over 20 homeruns. After Agee, the next highest homerun total from a Met was Art Shamsky’s 14. And in a regular season that saw the Mets win 100 games, the Mets had no hitter reach 100 RBI. The highest total was by Tommie Agee and Cleon Jones who had 76 and 75 RBI respectively.

That’s why it was so ironic that the Mets would play the way they did in the NLCS against the Western Division champion Atlanta Braves.

October 4, 1969, NLCS Game 1

Atlanta Stadium – Tom Seaver, 25 game winner and candidate for the Cy Young award, was set to start the first post season game in Mets history against Atlanta Braves starter Phil Niekro. It would be no easy task facing an Atlanta Braves lineup that included Hank Aaron, Rico Carty, Orlando Cepeda, and Clete Boyer. The four combined to hit 96 home runs, Aaron had 44 of them.  For the Mets to prevail, their pitching and defense would have to come through as it did all season long.

After a scoreless first, the Mets rallied for two in the second. Jerry Grote singled in the first run with the second run scoring on a passed ball. But in uncharacteristic fashion, Seaver gave back a run immediately in the bottom half of the second when Rico Carty scored on a sacrifice fly by Clete Boyer. However, in fairness to Seaver, an error by Ken Boswell aided in the Braves rally. After two innings, the Mets led 2-1.

The Braves struck again in the third. After Seaver struck out Neikro, Felix Millan doubled. Center fielder Tony Gonzales doubled to right field driving in Millan to tie the game. Then Hank Aaron hit another double for the Braves, the third in a row scoring Gonzales. The Braves had the lead. I remember wondering if maybe the Mets just getting to the playoffs would be good enough. However, Seaver got out of further trouble as the game moved to the fourth with the Mets trailing the Braves 3-2.

After two out in the Mets fourth, Ed Kranepool singled and Jerry Grote walked. The Mets would need a big two out hit from Bud Harrelson. The shortstop came through when he hit a ball down the right field line that scored Kranepool and Grote. Harrelson ended up at third with a triple and the Mets were back on top 4-3.

With the Mets still holding the slim lead, Seaver served up a game tying homerun to Tony Gonzales to start the fifth inning. Later in the bottom of the seventh with one out, Hank Aaron hit another homer for the Braves giving them a 5-4 lead. The home crowd was roaring as a sinking feeling tugged at Mets fans’ hearts throughout the tri-state area.

But this was 1969, when the unexpected became the norm. Trailing 5-4 in the top of the eighth, Wayne Garret led off with a double to left field. Cleon Jones promptly singled him home and just like that, the Mets tied the score again. Art Shamsky followed with a single through the right side of the infield moving Jones over to second. Al Weis came into the game to run for Shamsky. Jones stole third putting runners at the corners with no one out. Boswell grounded the ball to first but Orlando Cepeda booted it allowing Jones to score and Weis to move to second base. The Mets had a 6-5 lead, still with nobody out.

Ed Kranepool grounded back to the pitcher Neikro who forced Boswell at second while Weis went to third. Jerry Grote then grounded to third. Boyer held the runner Weis and fired to first to get the out number two. On the play Kranepool moved to second.

Now the Mets had runners on second and third with two outs and leading by one run. Braves manager Lum Harris had Harrelson walked intentionally to get to Seaver. But Mets manager Gil Hodges sent up J.C. Martin to pinch hit instead.

Neikro was left in the game to pitch to the left hander who singled to right scoring Weis and Kranepool. On a throwing error from Atlanta center fielder Gonzales, Harrelson scored from first giving the Mets a four run lead. Martin was tagged out at second on the wild play on a throw from catcher Bob Didier to end the inning.

Seaver who was less than stellar in his first start in over a week. Now with the Mets leading 9-5, Ron Taylor was called in from the bullpen by Hodges to hopefully save the game. 

Taylor pitched a perfect eighth but ran into trouble in the ninth. A leadoff single then a double with two out put runners on second and third. Taylor got Orlando Cepeda to pop up to second. Al Weis, who had stayed in the game after pinch running in the eighth, squeezed the ball in his glove and the Mets had their first ever post season victory.

So in a year where pitching and defense got the Mets to the post season, on this day, their bats did all the work.

Record - Mets 1, Braves 0, in best of five series.