Monday, June 13, 2011

1969 New York Mets

1969 New York Mets

Regular season
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 third game of any season, except in 1966.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.
With great pitching and decent defense, but not much offense, the Mets were an uninspired 18-23 through their first 41 games. They then reeled off a club-record 11 straight wins, equaled on several occasions. Starting with their 42nd game, the Mets went 82-39, an impressive .678 winning percentage, the rest of the season.
Despite that performance, the Mets suffered two mid-season three-game series sweeps at the hands of the Houston Astros, and were also no-hit by Bob Moose of the Pittsburgh Pirates on September 20, five days after becoming the first major league team to strike out 19 times in a nine-inning game, which they won, 4-3, on a pair of two-run home runs by Ron Swoboda, against the Cardinals' Steve Carlton.
In second place most of the season behind the Chicago Cubs - who were having an unusually good season themselves — the Mets were in third place, 9 1⁄2 games back, in mid-August. They won 39 of their last 50 games to surge past the Cubs, finishing 100-62, eight games ahead of the Cubs. That 17 1⁄2-game differential is one of the largest turnarounds in MLB history.
During the season, Tom Seaver became the most recent National League pitcher to win at least 25 games in one season.

Season standings

NL EastWLPct.GBNew York Mets10062.617--Chicago Cubs9270.5688Pittsburgh Pirates8874.54312St. Louis Cardinals8775.53713Philadelphia Phillies6399.38937Montreal Expos52110.32148

Opening Day starters

Notable transactions

Roster

1969 New York MetsRosterPitchers
Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
Manager
Coaches

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
PosPlayerGABHAvg.HRRBICGrote, JerryJerry Grote11336592.2526401BKranepool, EdEd Kranepool11235384.23811492BBoswell, KenKen Boswell102362101.2793323BGarrett, WayneWayne Garrett12440087.218139SSHarrelson, BudBud Harrelson12339598.248024LFJones, CleonCleon Jones137483164.3401275CFAgee, TommieTommie Agee149565153.2712676RFSwoboda, RonRon Swoboda10932777.235952

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
PlayerGABHAvg.HRRBIShamsky, ArtArt Shamsky10030391.3001447Weis, AlAl Weis10324753.215223Gaspar, RodRod Gaspar11821549.228119Pfeil, BobbyBobby Pfeil6221149.232010Clendenon, DonnDonn Clendenon7220251.2521237Martin, J. C.J. C. Martin6617737.209421Charles, EdEd Charles6116935.207318Otis, AmosAmos Otis489314.15104Dyer, DuffyDuffy Dyer297419.257312Collins, KevinKevin Collins16406.15012Gosger, JimJim Gosger10152.13301Heise, BobBob Heise4103.30000

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
PlayerGIPWLERASOGentry, GaryGary Gentry35233.213123.43154Seaver, TomTom Seaver36273.12572.21208Koosman, JerryJerry Koosman322411792.28180Cardwell, DonDon Cardwell30152.18103.0160McAndrew, JimJim McAndrew27135673.4790

[edit]Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
PlayerGIPWLERASORyan, NolanNolan Ryan2589.1633.5392Dilauro, JackJack Dilauro2363.2142.4027

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
PlayerGWLSVERASOTaylor, RonRon Taylor5994132.7242McGraw, TugTug McGraw4293122.2492Koonce, CalCal Koonce406374.9948Jackson, AlAl Jackson910010.6410Frisella, DannyDanny Frisella30007.715Hudson, JesseJesse Hudson10004.503Johnson, BobBob Johnson20010.001Rohr, LesLes Rohr100020.250

Postseason

NLCS

Main article: 1969 National League Championship SeriesGameDateVisitorScoreHomeScoreRecord(NYM-ATL)
Attendance1October 4New York9Atlanta51-050,1222October 5New York11Atlanta62-050,2703October 6Atlanta4New York73-053,195NYM won 3, ATL won 0.
New York wins the National League Championship
and advance to the World Series

World Series

Main article: 1969 World SeriesNL New York Mets (4) vs. AL Baltimore Orioles (1)
Game         Score            Date         Location           Attendance
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    (1)   Mets - 1, Orioles - 4   October 11   Memorial Stadium   50,429
    (2)   Mets - 2, Orioles - 1   October 12   Memorial Stadium   50,850
    (3)   Orioles - 0, Mets - 5   October 14   Shea Stadium       56,335
    (4)   Orioles - 1, Mets - 2   October 15   Shea Stadium       57,367 (10 innings)
    (5)   Orioles - 3, Mets - 5   October 16   Shea Stadium       57,397

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, NY in 1969, as firefighter and avid Mets fan Frank Sullivan (Dennis Quaid) and his family follow the "Amazin's" throughout the World Series.

Awards and honors

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