The 1969 New York Mets season was the team's 8th 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 MLB. 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 defeated the American League champion Orioles in five games. First baseman Donn 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 Mets' present park, Citi Field.
Contents
Offseason
October 16, 1968: Sold Don Bosch to the Montreal Expos
Spring training
The Mets held spring training at Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg, Florida, for the 8th season.
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 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. 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 East division, along with the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, 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. The New York Times journalist, Joe Durso, predicted the Mets would finish 4th in the East, ahead of the Pirates and the Expos.
On April 8, with 44,541 fans in attendance at Shea Stadium, the Mets and the Expos played the first international baseball game in MLB 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 home run by Duffy Dyer. Apparently, this was axiomatic Mets baseball, as one columnist described the Mets as "masters of the lingering death."
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 Braves, followed by a 3-game sweep by the Houston Astros, who outscored the Mets 18–4, and finishing with a loss at Shea Stadium to the lowly San Diego Padres. 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.
Season standings
Schedule and results
Regular season
All times are Eastern Time
All games broadcast on WJRZ and Mets Radio Network
The final out
With two outs in the top of the ninth inning, starting pitcher Jerry Koosman faced Orioles second baseman Davey Johnson (who later managed the Mets to their second World Series championship in 1986). After taking a pitch of two balls and one strike, Johnson hit a fly-ball out to left field which was caught by Cleon Jones.
Hall of Fame members who played in the 1969 World Series
Two future Hall of Fame members were on that Mets' roster: pitcher Tom Seaver, who won 25 games en route to winning the Cy Young Award, 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.
The Baltimore Orioles boasted four future Hall of Famers on their roster: pitcher Jim Palmer, outfielder Frank Robinson, third baseman Brooks Robinson, and manager Earl Weaver.
Opening Day starters
Tommie Agee
Ken Boswell
Ed Charles
Rod Gaspar
Jerry Grote
Bud Harrelson
Cleon Jones
Ed Kranepool
Tom Seaver
Notable transactions
June 13, 1969: Al Jackson was purchased from the Mets by the Cincinnati Reds.
June 15, 1969: Kevin Collins, Steve Renko, Bill Carden (minors), and Dave Colon (minors) were traded by the Mets to the Montreal Expos for Donn Clendenon.
Player stats
Batting
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
Pitching
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
NLCS
Game 1
Saturday, October 4, 1969, at Atlanta Stadium in Atlanta
Game 2
Sunday, October 5, 1969, at Atlanta Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia
Game 3
Monday, October 6, 1969, at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York
World Series
Game 1
Saturday, October 11, 1969, at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland
Game 2
Sunday, October 12, 1969, at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland
Game 3
Tuesday, October 14, 1969, at Shea Stadium in Flushing, Queens, New York
Game 4
Wednesday, October 15, 1969, at Shea Stadium in Flushing, Queens, New York
Game 5
Thursday, October 16, 1969, at Shea Stadium in Flushing, Queens, New York
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, 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 his song "Faith and Fear in Flushing Meadows", twee/folk artist Harry Breitner makes mention of Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman.
In the TV sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond episode "Big Shots", Ray and Robert visit the Baseball Hall of Fame to meet members of the '69 Mets.
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.
In the TV Sitcom The Simpsons episode MoneyBart, Homer Simpson says the 1969 Mets will live on forever.
Awards and honors
40th Major League Baseball All-Star Game
Outfielders
Pitchers
Farm system
LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Memphis