1969 New York Mets season

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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)

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 3 game of any season, and that had happened previously only once. 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."

[edit] Season Standings

[edit] Regular Season

[edit] Opening Day Roster

• Tommie Agee
• Ken Boswell
• Ed Charles
• Rod Gaspar
• Jerry Grote
• Bud Harrelson
• Cleon Jones
• Ed Kranepool
• Tom Seaver

[edit] Transactions

• 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.

[edit] Roster

[edit] Player stats

[edit] Batting

Note: G = Games played; AB = At Bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting Average; HR = Home Runs; RBI = Runs Batted In

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

[edit] Pitchers

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

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[edit] NLCS

[edit] World Series

Main article: 1969 World Series

NL 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

[edit] 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^[1]
• Tom Seaver, Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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.