T he last batted ball of the 1969 World Series was a deep fly hit by the Balti more Orioles Davey Johnson New York Mets left fielder Cleon Jones settled beneath it at the edge of the Shea Sta dium warning track He said to himself Come down baby Come down baby When it did he squeezed the baseball into his glove and dropped to one knee As Jones sank to the occa sion fans began to swarm onto the field to celebrate The impos sible dream had become reality Baseball’s lovable losers had become world champions Only a hopeless opti mist would have predicted the Mets would become baseball’s best team that year In their seven previous seasons they had averaged 56 wins and 105 losses and had never finished higher than ninth place in the 10-team National League NL Pitcher Jerry Koosman jumps into the arms of catcher Jerry Grote on Pitcher Jerry Koosman jumps into the arms of catcher Jerry Grote on October 16 1969 after the Mets won their first World Series October 16 1969 after the Mets won their first World Series THE MIRACLE METS 5
A STRONG LEADER Gil Hodges hit 370 major league home runs including the first in Mets history But the team's fans remember him most for being the no-nonsense manager who turned the ballclub into a winner Hired in October 1967 he instilled discipline and confidence in the players In May 1969 with the team struggling he gave a clubhouse speech He chewed us out but he didn't embarrass anybody second baseman Ken Boswell said We aren't playing up to our potential He knows we can Soon the Mets were winning in part because of a platoon system under which Hodges played left handed hitters against right-handed pitchers and righty hitters against lefty pitchers at first base second base third base and right field In April 1972 Mets players and fans were left with heavy hearts when their leader died of a heart attack at age 47 6 NEW YORK METS Catcher Jerry Grote was one of the first believers He told some teammates in spring training that they could win it all Pitching star Tom Seaver thought Grote was crazy My eyes started to roll Seaver said and I looked at him like he was nuts Grote did not look very smart when New York dropped five straight games to fall to 18 23 The Mets were nine games out in the new six-team NL East But that is when the team parted with its sorry his tory New York won its next 11 games including one in 15 innings The Mets moved into second place behind the Chi cago Cubs On July 8 the Cubs came to Shea leading the division by 5 1 2 games That afternoon the Mets had just one hit entering the ninth inning However they scored three
Tom Seaver delivers a pitch for the Mets in 1969 Seaver finished the season 25 7 with a 2 21 ERA and won the NL’s Cy Young Award runs to rally for a 4 3 vic tory The next night was even more exciting The Mets won 4 0 Seaver retired the first 25 Cubs before a single by Jimmy Qualls spoiled his bid for a per fect game Less than two weeks later the nation was mesmer ized by Apollo 11 When the astronauts walked on the moon I figured we had a chance to win reliever Tug McGraw said Nothing seemed impos sible after that Instead of reaching base ball’s stratosphere however New York took a giant leap back ward The Mets plummeted to THE MIRACLE METS 7
