Glory Days O nce upon a time New York was a three-team baseball town nce upon a ttiime NNew YYorkk was a tthhree-tteam bbasebballll ttown The Dodgers played in Brooklyn the Giants played in Manhattan and the Yankees played in the Bronx The Dodgers and Giants left for California in 1958 For four seasons the National League NL had no teams in New York That changed in 1962 when the NL added two new clubs the Mets and the Houston Colt 45s now known as the Astros The Mets moved into the Giants old stadium while a new one was built for the team in Queens In their early years the Mets played right across the river from the Yankees who were champions of the American League AL In order to attract fans the Mets used players who had once been famous in the city These players included Gil Hodges Duke Snider Charlie Neal Roger Craig Gene Woodling and Clem 6
Labine Their manager was Casey Stengel who had been a member of the Giants Dodgers and Yankees He got help in the dugout from New York baseball legend Yogi Berra Other Mets who were familiar to old-time baseball fans were Richie Ashburn Frank Thomas Gus Bell and Roy McMillan Unfortunately these players were no longer stars The Mets were terrible on the field In their first four seasons they finished last each year Even though the Mets usually lost millions of fans still came to see them The team made a lot of money and used it to develop talented young players This strategy worked In 1969 the Mets won the NL pennant and the World Series The team’s pitchers were the best in baseball New York’s staff included Tom Seaver Jerry Koosman Gary Gentry Nolan Ryan and Tug McGraw Their best defensive players were Jerry Grote Bud Harrelson Tommie Agee and Cleon Jones LEFT Gil Hodges and Duke Snider traded their Dodgers uniforms for Mets uniforms in 1962 ABOVE The team made news when Yogi Berra joined his old Yankees manager Casey Stengel on the Mets in 1965 7
The Mets added more good players over the next few years including Jon Matlack John Milner Rusty Staub Felix Millan and Willie Mays They won the pennant again in 1973 but lost the World Series to the Oakland A’s More than 10 years passed before the Mets had another championship team Once again they built their club around a group of young pitchers Dwight Gooden Ron Darling Sid Fernandez Jesse Orosco and Roger McDowell The batting order featured experienced players such as Gary Carter Keith Hernandez and Ray Knight as well as young stars Darryl Strawberry Lenny Dykstra and Mookie Wilson In 1986 the Mets won their third pennant and second World Series In 2000 the Mets returned to the World Series Again they relied on strong pitchers including Mike Hampton Al Leiter John Franco and Armando Benitez New York also had one of the best fielding teams ever Their offense was excellent as well thanks to stars such as Mike Piazza and Edgardo Alfonzo LEFT Tom Seaver won 198 games for the Mets and helped them reach the World Series twice ABOVE Dwight Gooden was the leader of the team’s pitching staff in the 1980s 9
