THE 1969 MIRACLE METS: THE IMPROBABLE STORY OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST UNDERDOG TEAM (13 page)

Vance applied whited lye to his torn undershirt and
pitched straight overhand. Between the bleached sleeve waving and
flapping white sheets hanging from clotheslines out of Flatbush
apartment houses behind the center field wall, “You couldn’t
hit
‘im on a Mundy . . .
diapers, undies, sheets flapping on
clotheslines – you lost the ball entirely,” said Bressler. “He
threw balls by me I never even saw.”

Vance was involved in the play that defined the
“Daffiness Boys.” With Babe Herman at bat, Hank DeBerry on third,
Vance on second and Chick Fewster on first with no outs, Herman hit
a ball to right that hit the wall, scoring DeBerry. Vance held up
to see if it was caught. He then rounded third but was too slow to
score, so he headed back to the bag. Fewster, running with his head
down, arrived at third at the same time as Vance. Herman, running
fast and also not looking, stretched out a “triple.” With Fewster
standing on third, Vance slid back into the base just as Herman
slid into it from the other side!

The third baseman, not knowing what to do, tagged
all three of them. The umpire was confused and brouhaha ensued
amongst Fewster, Herman, the third baseman, the umpiring crew, the
third base coach, and both managers. The crowd hooted with laughter
while the sportswriters immediately thought of wild adjectives to
describe the hilarity.

Vance lay on the ground observing it all in bemused
silence. Finally he lifted up his head and began to speak in the
manner of a be-wigged English barrister. Silently, all eyes fell on
him as he stated: “Mr. Umpire, Fellow Teammates, and members of the
Opposition, if you carefully peruse the rules of Our National
Pastime you will find that there is one and only one protagonist in
rightful occupation of this hassock – namely yours truly, Arthur C.
Vance.”

He was right. Herman had “tripled into a double
play.” It was a “clown act,” an image of lovable boobs that would
be repeated by the New York Mets of the 1960s. But the concept of
clowns and losers, while humorous in Brooklyn perhaps, was
overshadowed by the excellence of the other two New York baseball
franchises.

John McGraw managed the Giants from 1902 to 1932. At
5-7, 155 pounds in his youth he was known as “Little Napoleon” and
even resembled the French dictator. To this very day, if an
“all-time all-star team” is chosen by truly knowledgeable baseball
historians, McGraw may very well be considered the finest manager
of all time. He was voted just that when the game celebrated its
100th year of professional baseball in 1969.

McGraw’s Giants won the 1905, 1921, and 1922 World
Series. They were the class of the National League. In his early
years, the Giants featured one of the finest pitching combinations
in baseball history. Christy Mathewson was a four-time 30-game
winner who achieved 37 victories in 1908. Mathewson’s performance
in the 1905 World Series may be the greatest in history, compared
to only by Sandy Koufax in 1963 and Bob Gibson in 1967. Mathewson
pitched
three shutouts
against the Philadelphia Athletics.
Over the course of his career, “Matty” won 373 games. His pitching
partner was “Iron Joe” McGinnity, a Hall of Famer who won more than
30 games in the 1903 and 1904 seasons.

Twice, McGraw’s Giants met strange fates that cost
them ultimate glory. In September of 1908 at the Polo Grounds, the
Giants and Chicago Cubs were tied in the ninth inning with two outs
and the bases loaded. Al Bridwell singled the winning run in from
third. Rookie first baseman Fred Merkle of the Giants, the runner
at first base, did not run and touch second. The crowd descended on
the field, as was the custom of the day, since they exited through
an open center field gate that led to the subway station. Chicago
second baseman Johnny Evers saw that Merkle never touched second.
Amid the confusion, he tried to retrieve the ball so he could touch
second base, but McGinnity saw what was going on, “intercepted” the
ball and threw it out of the stadium. Evers went to the
ball
bag
, pulled another baseball out, got the attention of umpire
Hank O’Day, ran to touch second, and O’Day declared Merkle out. The
crowd was unaware of what had happened and of course McGraw was
apoplectic when told, but the call stood. Instead of a 2-1 Giants
victory, the game was declared a tie to be replayed only if it
effected the final standings at season’s end.

The schedule ended in a flat-footed tie so a
play-off had to be held at the Polo Grounds. Cubs Hall of Famer
Mordecai “Three-Fingered” Brown defeated Mathewson and Chicago went
on to win
the last World Series in their history!
Fred
Merkle’s failure to touch second remains the legendary “Merkle
boner.”

In 1912, the Giants battled the Boston Red Sox in
the World Series. It was the first year the Sox played in Fenway
Park. Their “boy wonder” ace, “Smoky Joe” Wood won 34 games. John
F. Kennedy’s grandfather, John F. Fitzgerald (known colloquially as
“Honey Fitz”) was the Mayor of Boston, popular in large measure
because he jumped on the Red Sox bandwagon (when not handing out
“walking around money” as bribes to Irish voters).

The Series went to the seventh game, with Matty
battling Wood in a classic for the ages. The Red Sox won when New
York center fielder Fred Snodgrass dropped an easy fly ball. It has
forever been known as the “Snodgrass muff.”

On June 3, 1932, Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees
hit four home runs. He was forever being overshadowed, first by
Babe Ruth, and on that day by John McGraw, who chose it to announce
his retirement after three decade managing the Giants. Hall of Fame
first baseman Bill Terry took over as skipper of the Giants, and in
1933 they won the World Series. Hall of Fame pitching sensation
Carl Hubbell led New York throughout the decade. In 1934, Hubbell
struck out five straight future Hall of Famers (Babe Ruth, Lou
Gehrig, Jimmie Fox, Al Simmons, Joe Cronin) in the All-Star Game.
Outfielder Mel Ott was the home run sensation of the National
League.

To the extent that there had up until that time been
a rivalry between the proud Giants and the lowly Dodgers, it kicked
into gear in 1934. The Giants and St. Louis Cardinals were locked
in a tight struggle for the pennant when New York played Brooklyn
late in the season. Asked his concern about the Dodger series,
Terry replied with rhetorical sarcasm, “Are they still in the
league?” Brooklyn beat New York and St. Louis went on to win the
World Series.

New York is a baseball town, but much of its legend
is steeped on the gridiron. Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne
built a dynasty. In the 1920s, a Christian revival movement swept
America, particularly the South and the Midwest. It had dark
overtones of white supremacy, giving rise to the long-dormant Ku
Klux Klan and strong anti-Catholic sentiments, which Rockne and his
team faced on the road. Rockne determined to play a schedule in
large metropolitan stadiums, where he knew a “subway alumni” fan
base of Irish, Italian and Polish Catholics rooted for Notre
Dame.

An invitation to play Stanford in the Rose Bowl was
accepted, followed by Southern California in the Los Angeles
Memorial Coliseum and at Soldier Field in Chicago. But among the
most memorable “barnstorming” Notre Dame games were those played in
New York; first and foremost the 1924 battle with national
powerhouse Army.

Led by the wondrous backfield of Elmer Layden, Harry
Stuhldreher, Don Miller and Jim Crowley, Notre Dame defeated Army,
13-7 on October 18, 1924. The next day,
New York
Herald-Tribune
sportswriter Grantland Rice’s column said,
“Under a blue, gray October sky, the Four of Horsemen of Notre
Dame” rode on the “green plains” of the Polo Grounds, comparing
them to the Biblical “Hour Horsemen of the Apocalypse” as described
in The Revelation. The legend was made.

Four years later in 1928, this time at Yankee
Stadium, Notre Dame was a considerable underdog against Army.
Trailing at halftime, Rockne told his team that eight years earlier
All-American back George Gipp, dying of strep throat, told him that
some day when “the boys are up against it” to go out there one last
time to “win one for the Gipper.” It was blarney; Rockne made up
the story, but when the Irish rallied to beat Army it made the
newspaper accounts and was embellished into pure legend.

In 1944 and 1945, Army under coach Earl “Red” Blaik
featured some of the greatest national championship teams in
history. A “teammate Heisman Trophy” duo of Doc Blanchard and Glenn
Davis (“Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside”) led Army to two straight
blowouts of the Irish by the combined score of 107-0. On November
9, 1946, with World War II won and unbeaten Army symbolizing
American superiority, underdog Notre Dame held them to a 0-0 tie.
Future Irish Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Lujack tackled Blanchard
in the open field to save the day, and the Irish were rewarded with
the National title.

Great broadcasters described astounding sports
action to a breathless, sports-crazed nation in the 1920s and
1930s. Ted Husing and Graham McNamee’s staccato deliveries
characterized the early style. Later, Red Barber, Mel Allen, Russ
Hodges and Vin Scully became like family friends to millions of New
Yorkers.

The
New York Times
, the
Herald-Tribune
and numerous other major dailies provided vivid sports
descriptions, making legends out of such talented scribes as
Grantland Rice, Ring Lardner, Red Smith, Jimmy Cannon and Jimmy
Breslin.

Under the ownership of the Mara family, the New York
Giants became one of the leading franchises in professional
football. In the 1950s, the simply-named “New York Giants Defense”
was orchestrated by assistant coach Vince Lombardi and defensive
back/captain Tom Landry. In December of 1958 the Giants squared off
against the Baltimore Colts in a game some still call the best in
pro football history. It is certainly credited with making the
National Football League popular at a time in which baseball
dominated.

The Giants and Colts battled it out at Yankee
Stadium in front of a national television audience. Baltimore’s
legendary quarterback, Johnny Unitas, led the Colts on a comeback
drive forcing the game into overtime, then propelled them to the
World Championship in the extra period. In 1986 and again in 1990,
coach Bill Parcells led the Giants to Super Bowl championships led
by the virtuoso defensive play of the great Lawrence Taylor.

The open-air Madison Square Garden saw great boxing
matches in the 1920s and 1930s. Such stalwarts as Gene Tunney, Jack
Dempsey, the
Cinderalla Man
(Jim Braddock), Joe Louis, Max
Schmelling, “Sugar Ray” Robinson, Rocky Marciano, Jake LaMotta,
Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, and Mike Tyson were part
of the colorful fight scene in New York.

The U.S. Open, played for years at Forest Hills in
Flushing Meadows, became the most exciting of the major tennis
tournaments. New York crowds tended to be more raucous, and the
nighttime matches gave a sense of drama and spectacle. Such stars
as Rod Laver, Arthur Ashe, Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras,
Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Billie Jean King, Chris
Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, and Venus Williams have
lit up the action. John McEnroe grew up near Forest Hills and
attended high school in Manhattan before heading off to Stanford.
When he turned professional, he became a fan favorite at the U.S.
Open. His matches with Connors and Borg are the stuff of
legend.

The New York Rangers were popular in hockey-savvy
New York, but later the Islanders had one of the great dynasties in
NHL history (winning four straight Stanley Cups).

The New York Knickerbockers were, prior to the
1969-70 National Basketball Association campaign, average at best.
However, New York is a big basketball town and fans at Madison
Square Garden, located in mid-town Manhattan across the street from
Toots Shors, followed them closely. High school basketball, and the
strange hybrid of playground hoops, had always permeated the New
York conscience. The great Connie Hawkins came out of Brooklyn, a
legend as much for his outdoor exploits as for what he did in
regular games. Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) was
probably the greatest high school basketball player of all time at
Power Memorial Academy, an all-boys Catholic school (that is not
there anymore) on Amsterdam Avenue on the West Side between 1962
and 1965.

The period between 1968 and 1970 remains one of the
most golden in New York sports memory; and there have been many
golden moments. First there was the Jets. Then, in 1969, the Mets
and the Knicks. As the Mets were shocking the world in the fall of
1969, the Knickerbockers were embarking on a surprise campaign. For
years, Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics had dominated the NBA.
More often than not, the Celtics found the road to the championship
ran through Los Angeles, where the Lakers featured Jerry West and
Elgin Baylor.

The Philadelphia 76ers were the only team to break
up Celtic hegemony when Wilt Chamberlain led them to the 1967
crown. When Chamberlain joined the Lakers in 1968, all bets were
off. The Lakers were felt to be the best team ever assembled. By
1969, there seemed no obstacle to a Lakers championship. With
Russell retired, Boston was a non-factor.

But then Chamberlain was injured and as the season
played out, the best team in the NBA was Red Holzman’s surprise
Knickerbockers. Led by powerful center Willis Reed, “Dollar Bill”
Bradley, the brilliant Rhodes Scholar-forward from Princeton, and
the legendary Walt “Clyde” Frazier at guard, the Knicks dominated
league play. They overcame Alcindor’s Milwaukee Bucks in the
Eastern play-offs. This set up a showdown with Los Angeles, where
Chamberlain had recovered from his injury and the Lakers were
clicking on all cylinders.