Anatomy Of a Franchise: The New York Mets: Part III: 1969 "Amazin'"

(Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)

To review part I, click here. To review part II, click here.

What the New York Mets achieved in 1969 was truly amazing and the world witnessed not only mans first steps on the moon but equally remarkable, the first World Championship by a National League team in New York in 14 years.

I had just turned 24 that April and I was unable to attend opening day on April 8^th where the Mets lost to the newly created Montreal Expos expansion team 11-10 in front of 44,541 fans.

What had become a tradition of sorts was to try to go to the game on April 11^th, my birthday, where the St. Louis Cardinals were coming to town and the proposed match-up was going to be Steve Carlton vs. Jerry Koosman. I was stoked, only in those days no one ever said the word stoked.

Jerry Koosman was a left handed pitcher who complimented Tom Seaver at the top of the Mets staff. In 1968 he went 19-12 and actually had one more victory than Tom Terrific. With 7 shutouts, I was there for one of them, and a .208 ERA I couldn’t wait to see him against Carlton.

Steve was the sharper pitcher that day and Joe Torre hit a monster homer off Koosman as my wife Ellen and I moved from the upper reaches of Shea Stadium down to the box seats right over the 3rd base dugout. You see it was pretty easy to do that since only 12,591 showed up for that  classic pitching match-up.

Since my wedding on August 25th 1968 my wife and I attended five Met games. We went 0-5. Hmmm. The stirring of rumbling deep within my mind was staring to take shape. Wait until you hear my final scorecard with Ellen and me at Met games. You will not believe it. But you’ll have to wait a segment or two for those results.

By the way, a step backwards a couple of days, here is the starting lineup for the 1969 opening day New York Mets.

1. Tommie Agee  CF
2. Rod Gaspar      RF
3. Ken Boswell    2B
4. Cleon Jones     LF
5. Ed Charles       3B
6. Ed Kranepool  1B
7. Jerry Grote       C
8. Bud Harrelson SS
9. Tom Seaver      P

Most sportswriters and other so-called prognosticators picked the Mets to finish near the bottom of the newly created divisions. I thought they had a chance to do better than expected. Maybe an 81-81 record, but I could never foresee this team winning 100 games, sweep the powerful Atlanta Braves team led by Hank Aaron, and then go on to beat the “unbeatable” Baltimore Orioles in the World Series.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?