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 League East. 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. They went on to defeat the National League West champion Atlanta Braves three games to none in the inaugural NLCS, and defeat the American League champion Orioles in five games. First basemanDonn Clendenon was named the World 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.
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 shut out 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 - recovering from being 10 games behind the Cubs to finish 8 games ahead of them - is one of the largest turnarounds in MLB history.
Hall of Fame members who played in the 1969 World Series
Two future Hall of Fame members were on that Mets' roster: pitcherTom Seaver, who won twenty-five games en route to winning the Cy YoungAward, and a young Nolan Ryan playing in his third season. Seaver was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1992 and Ryan in 1999. Manager Gil Hodges was elected to the Hall in 2022. Bench coach Yogi Berra and Director of Player Development Whitey Herzog are also in the Hall of Fame.
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 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.
↑ Johnson, Lloyd; Wolff, Miles, eds. (1997). The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (2nded.). Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America. ISBN978-0-9637189-8-3.
Frank Edwin "Tug" McGraw Jr. was an American professional baseball relief pitcher. McGraw played in 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1965 to 1984, for the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, earning a total of over $2 million. He is often remembered for coining the phrase "Ya Gotta Believe", which became the rallying cry for the 1973 New York Mets and has since become a popular slogan for the team and fans.
Tommie Lee Agee was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a center fielder from 1962 through 1973, most notably as a member of the New York Mets team that became known as the Miracle Mets when, they rose from being perennial losers to defeat the favored Baltimore Orioles in the 1969 World Series for one of the most improbable upsets in World Series history. Agee performed two impressive defensive plays in center field to help preserve a Mets victory in the third game of the series.
Gary Edward Gentry is an American former right-handed Major League Baseball pitcher.
Gerald Wayne Grote was an American professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball from 1963 through 1981 for the Houston Colt .45s, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Kansas City Royals.
Cleon Joseph Jones is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a left fielder. Jones played most of his career for the New York Mets and in 1969 caught the final out of the "Miracle Mets" World Series Championship over the Baltimore Orioles.
Jerome Martin Koosman is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox, and Philadelphia Phillies between 1967 and 1985. Koosman is best known as a member of the Miracle Mets team that won the 1969 World Series.
Edward Emil Kranepool III is an American former professional baseball player. He spent his entire Major League Baseball career with the New York Mets. He was predominantly a first baseman, but he also played in the outfield.
The 1969 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1969 season. The 66th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Baltimore Orioles and the National League (NL) champion New York Mets. The Mets won the series, four games to one, to accomplish one of the greatest upsets in Series history, as that particular Orioles team was considered to be one of the finest ever. The World Series win earned the team the sobriquet "The Miracle Mets". This was the first World Series of MLB's divisional era.
The 1969 National League Championship Series was a best-of-five match-up between the East Division champion New York Mets and the West Division champion Atlanta Braves. In what was the first ever NLCS, the Mets defeated the Braves three games to none. They did not sweep a playoff series again until 2006 as they swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series in three games.
Donn Alvin Clendenon was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman from 1961 to 1972. He is most notable for his performance during the 1969 World Series when he won the World Series Most Valuable Player Award by hitting three home runs to help lead the team known as the Miracle Mets to an upset victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1969 throughout the world.
Ronald Alan Swoboda is an American former professional baseball player and television sports color commentator. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder from 1965 through 1973, most notably as a member of the New York Mets team that became known as the Miracle Mets when they rose from being perennial losers to defeat the favored Baltimore Orioles in the 1969 World Series for one of the most improbable upsets in World Series history. Swoboda executed one of the most impressive defensive plays of the series in the ninth inning of Game 4 to help preserve a Mets victory. He also played for the Montreal Expos and the New York Yankees.
Albert John Weis is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as an infielder from 1962 to 1971 for the Chicago White Sox and the New York Mets. A light-hitting batter with only seven career home runs, he is notable for hitting a dramatic home run in Game 5 of the 1969 World Series. He was a switch hitter until the end of the 1968 season, after which he batted exclusively right-handed.
Douglas Randall Sisk, is an American former Major League Baseball relief pitcher. His primary pitch was a sinker that was difficult for batters to drive in the air.
The 1978 New York Mets season was the 17th regular season for the Mets, who played their home games at Shea Stadium. Led by manager Joe Torre, the team had a 66–96 record and finished in sixth place in the National League East.
The 1977 New York Mets season was the 16th regular season for the Mets, who played home games at Shea Stadium. Initially led by manager Joe Frazier followed by Joe Torre, the team posted a 64–98 record and finished in last place for the first time since 1967, and for the first time since divisional play was introduced in 1969.
The 1973 New York Mets season was the 12th regular season for the Mets, who played home games at Shea Stadium. Manager Yogi Berra led the team to a National League East title with an 82–79 record and the National League pennant, though they were defeated by the Oakland Athletics in the World Series. Their .509 winning percentage is the lowest of any pennant-winner in major league history. Having won only 82 games during the regular season, they, along with the 2005 San Diego Padres, qualified for the postseason with the fewest regular season wins since Major League Baseball expanded to a 162-game season in 1961, and the fewest of any team since 1885. The season was well known for pitcher Tug McGraw's catchphrase "Ya Gotta Believe!!!"
James Clement McAndrew was an American professional baseball pitcher. He pitched in Major League Baseball for the New York Mets and San Diego Padres from 1968 to 1974. He was a member of the 1969 World Series champions.
Kenneth George Boswell is a former Major League Baseball second baseman.
The 1969 Montreal Expos season was the inaugural season in Major League Baseball for the team. The Expos, as typical for first-year expansion teams, finished in the cellar of the National League East with a 52–110 record, 48 games behind the eventual World Series Champion New York Mets. They did not win any game in extra innings during the year, which also featured a surprise no-hitter in just the ninth regular-season game they ever played. Their home attendance of 1,212,608, an average of 14,970 per game, was good for 7th in the N.L.
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