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It has been suggested that the section 1969: The "Amazin' Mets" from the article New York Mets be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) |
| 1969 New York Mets World Series Champions |
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| 1969 Information | |
| Owner(s) | Joan Whitney Payson |
| General Manager(s) | Johnny Murphy |
| Manager(s) | Gil Hodges |
| Local television | WOR-TV |
| Local radio | WJRZ/WABC-FM (Ralph Kiner, Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy) |
The New York Mets' 1969 season was the 8th regular season for the Mets who played their home games at Shea Stadium. Managed by Gil Hodges, the team went 100-62 and finished 1st in the Eastern Division of the National League, becoming the first-ever divisional champions. From there, they defeated the Atlanta Braves, three games to zero in the inaugural National League Championship Series for their first-ever National League pennant, followed by their first-ever World Series Championship as they defeated the American League Champion Baltimore Orioles in five games.
The Mets had never finished higher than 9th place in a ten-team league in any of their first seven seasons. They set a modern record for losses in a season in 1962, 120, that stands to this day. It was the most losses by any team in one season in the 20th century, challenged in 2003 by Detroit, who lost 119, but the 1962 Mets' .250 winning percentage is not the worst. The 1935 Boston Braves own that, going 38-115 for a .248 percentage.
They had never been over .500 past the third game of any season except for 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.
Long on great pitching, and with 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, a mark equaled by several later versions of the Mets, but not yet bested, and the world knew they were for real. Starting with game #42, the Mets went 82-39, a blistering .678 winning percentage, the rest of the season.
Despite that performance, the Mets suffered two mid-season 3-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, just 5 days after becoming the first major-league team to strike out 19 times in a 9-inning game, which they won, 4-3, on a pair of 2-run bombs by Ron Swoboda, against the Cardinals' Steve Carlton.
In second place most of the season behind the Chicago Cubs, the Mets were in 3rd place, 9 1/2 games back, in mid-August. They won 37 of their last 48 games to sweep past the Cubs and finish with 100 wins against 62 losses, 8 games over the 2nd place Cubs. That 17 1/2 game differential is one of the largest turnarounds in the history of the game.
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."
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Season Standings
| NL East | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York Mets | 100 | 62 | .617 | -- |
| Chicago Cubs | 92 | 70 | .568 | 8 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 88 | 74 | .543 | 12 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 87 | 75 | .537 | 13 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 63 | 99 | .389 | 37 |
| Montreal Expos | 52 | 110 | .321 | 48 |
Regular Season
During the season, Tom Seaver would be the last pitcher to win at least 25 games in one season for the Mets in the 20th Century.[1]
Opening Day Roster
- Tommie Agee
- Ken Boswell
- Ed Charles
- Rod Gaspar
- Jerry Grote
- Bud Harrelson
- Cleon Jones
- Ed Kranepool
- Tom Seaver
Transactions
- June 5, 1969: Buzz Capra was drafted by the New York Mets in the 27th round of the 1969 amateur draft. [2]
- June 13, 1969: Al Jackson was purchased by the Cincinnati Reds from the New York Mets. [3]
- June 15, 1969: Kevin Collins was traded by the New York Mets with Bill Carden (minors), Dave Colon (minors), and Steve Renko to the Montreal Expos for Donn Clendenon.
Roster
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1969 New York Mets roster
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| Roster | |||||||||
Pitchers
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Catchers
Infielders |
Outfielders
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Manager
Coaches
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Player stats
| = Indicates team leader |
Batting
Note: G = Games played; AB = At Bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting Average; HR = Home Runs; RBI = Runs Batted In
| Player | G | AB | H | HR | RBI | Avg. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jerry Grote | 113 | 365 | 92 | 6 | 40 | .252 |
| Ed Kranepool | 112 | 353 | 84 | 11 | 49 | .238 |
| Ken Boswell | 102 | 362 | 101 | 3 | 32 | .279 |
| Wayne Garrett | 124 | 400 | 87 | 1 | 39 | .218 |
| Bud Harrelson | 123 | 395 | 98 | 0 | 24 | .248 |
| Tommie Agee | 149 | 565 | 153 | 26 | 76 | .271 |
| Cleon Jones | 137 | 483 | 164 | 12 | 75 | .340 |
| Ron Swoboda | 109 | 327 | 77 | 9 | 52 | .235 |
| Art Shamsky | 100 | 303 | 91 | 14 | 47 | .300 |
| Al Weis | 103 | 247 | 53 | 2 | 23 | .215 |
| Rod Gaspar | 118 | 215 | 49 | 1 | 19 | .228 |
| Bobby Pfeil | 62 | 211 | 49 | 0 | 10 | .232 |
| Donn Clendenon | 72 | 202 | 51 | 12 | 37 | .252 |
| J.C. Martin | 66 | 177 | 37 | 4 | 21 | .209 |
| Ed Charles | 61 | 169 | 35 | 3 | 18 | .207 |
| Amos Otis | 48 | 93 | 14 | 0 | 4 | .151 |
| Duffy Dyer | 29 | 74 | 19 | 3 | 12 | .257 |
| Kevin Collins | 16 | 40 | 6 | 1 | 2 | .150 |
| Jim Gosger | 10 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 1 | .133 |
| Bob Heise | 4 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .300 |
Starting pitchers
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gary Gentry | 35 | 233.7 | 13 | 12 | 3.43 | 154 |
| Tom Seaver | 36 | 273.3 | 25 | 7 | 2.21 | 208 |
| Jerry Koosman | 32 | 241.0 | 17 | 9 | 2.28 | 180 |
| Don Cardwell | 30 | 152.3 | 8 | 10 | 3.01 | 60 |
| Jim McAndrew | 27 | 135.0 | 6 | 7 | 3.47 | 90 |
| Ron Taylor | 59 | 76.0 | 9 | 4 | 2.72 | 42 |
| Cal Koonce | 40 | 83.0 | 6 | 3 | 4.99 | 48 |
| Tug McGraw | 42 | 100.3 | 9 | 3 | 2.24 | 92 |
| Jack Dilauro | 23 | 63.7 | 1 | 4 | 2.40 | 27 |
| Nolan Ryan | 25 | 89.3 | 6 | 3 | 3.53 | 92 |
| Al Jackson | 9 | 11.0 | 0 | 0 | 10.64 | 10 |
| Danny Frisella | 3 | 4.7 | 0 | 0 | 7.71 | 5 |
| Jesse Hudson | 1 | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 4.50 | 3 |
| Bob Johnson | 2 | 1.7 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 1 |
| Les Rohr | 1 | 1.3 | 0 | 0 | 20.25 | 0 |
Other pitchers
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA |
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Relief pitchers
| Player | G | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ron Taylor | 59 | 9 | 4 | 13 | 2.72 | 42 |
| Nolan Ryan | 22 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 3.53 | 92 |
NLCS
| Game | Date | Visitor | Score | Home | Score | Record
(NYM-ATL) |
Attendance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | October 4 | New York | 9 | Atlanta | 5 | 1-0 | 50,122 |
| 2 | October 5 | New York | 11 | Atlanta | 6 | 2-0 | 50,270 |
| 3 | October 6 | Atlanta | 4 | New York | 7 | 3-0 | 53,195 |
| NYM won 3, ATL won 0. New York wins the National League Championship |
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World Series
NL New York Mets (4) vs. AL Baltimore Orioles (1)
Game Score Date Location Attendance
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(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
Awards and Honors
- Al Weis, Babe Ruth Award
- Donn Clendenon, World Series Most Valuable Player Award
- Gil Hodges, Associated Press NL Manager of the Year
- Tom Seaver, Associated Press Athlete of the Year[4]
- Tom Seaver, Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year
Team Leaders
- Home Runs - Tommie Agee (26)
- RBI - Tommie Agee (76)
- Hits - Cleon Jones (164)
- Stolen Bases - Cleon Jones (16)
- Walks - Cleon Jones (64)
- Wins - Tom Seaver (25)
- ERA - Tom Seaver (2.21)
- Strikeouts - Tom Seaver (208)
Farm system[5]
- Class AAA: Tidewater Tides (International League; Clyde McCullough, manager)
- Class AA: Memphis Blues (Texas League; Pete Pavlick and John Antonelli, managers) -- LEAGUE CHAMPION
- Class A: Visalia Mets (California League; Roy McMillan, Chuck Estrada and Harry Minor, managers)
- Class A: Pompano Beach Mets (Florida State League; Joe Frazier, manager)
- Rookie: Marion Mets (Appalachian League; Jack Cassini, manager) -- LEAGUE CO-CHAMPION
References
- ^ Great Baseball Feats, Facts and Figures, 2008 Edition, p.98, David Nemec and Scott Flatow, A Signet Book, Penguin Group, New York, NY, ISBN 978-0-451-22363-0
- ^ http://www.baseball-reference.com/c/caprabu01.shtml
- ^ http://www.baseball-reference.com/j/jacksal01.shtml
- ^ Associated Press Athlete of the Year (male)
- ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, N.C.: Baseball America, 2007
External links
- 1969 New York Mets
- 1969 New York Mets team page at www.baseball-almanac.com
- 1969 - New York Mets Win Their First World Series A report from K.C. Connors of WCBS Newsradio 880 (WCBS-AM New York) Part of WCBS 880's celebration of 40 years of newsradio.
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| Preceded by First Season |
NL East Championship Season 1969 |
Succeeded by Pittsburgh Pirates 1970 |
| Preceded by St. Louis Cardinals 1968 |
National League Championship Season 1969 |
Succeeded by Cincinnati Reds 1970 |
| Preceded by Detroit Tigers 1968 |
World Series Champions New York Mets 1969 |
Succeeded by Baltimore Orioles 1970 |
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