THE 1969 MIRACLE METS: THE IMPROBABLE STORY OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST UNDERDOG TEAM (5 page)

The greatest adoration is reserved for those
“in the arena,” as Theodore Roosevelt exclaimed, but much of their
fame comes from historians, often after their death, as was the
case for Abraham Lincoln. The political hero is often a man who
absorbs the “slings and arrows of outrageous” Shakespearean
fortune, like the artist admired and revered only in the soft
reflection of elapsed time.

There are others whose public
persona
stands the test of time: Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Howard Hughes, Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Rush Limbaugh. Some are
unique to New York: Fiorello La Guardia, Rudolph Giuliani.

Then there are the sports heroes. To be sure, many
of our greatest forged their names not on the Elysian fields of New
York but elsewhere, as was the case for Michael Jordan in Chicago,
Bart Starr in Green Bay, Sandy Koufax in Hollywood’s shadow, Joe
Montana in South Bend and San Francisco.

A handful of non-Americans have achieved
true worldwide notoriety that is not merely European hype or Latin
madness. These would include Pele of Brazil, Daley Thompson of
Great Britain, and Wayne Gretzky of Canada. David Beckham is a
media creation more than a true on-field superstar.

Others, for reasons of fate, prickly
personality, racial bigotry, character flaw or timing achieved the
very heights of on-field greatness but sadly or even justifiably
never quite saw the top of Mt. Icon. Jim Thorpe, Ted Williams, Jim
Brown, Hank Aaron, O.J. Simpson, Pete Sampras and Barry Bonds are
just a few whose abilities were unmatched but whose place in
history is exceeded sometimes by those whose records do not
compare.

Other sports legends include but are not
limited to: Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Tris Speaker, Lefty Grove,
Jimmie Foxx, Roberto Clemente, Red Grange, Sammy Baugh, Emmitt
Smith, Jerry Rice, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Vince Lombardi, Bill
Russell, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson,
Shaq O’Neal, Bruce Jenner, and Carl Lewis.

New York City is the capital of the world,
the epicenter of modern society, the New Rome. In recent decades
Los Angeles has bid to match it, and in many ways even passed it,
but for overall
impact
and
gravitas
, the Big Apple
remains the king of the American Century, with a unique ability to
elevate as well as destroy its heroes and villains. It is difficult
to truly define the true New York Sports Icon. The sports god does
not read from a script. He must face the stiffest possible
competition and cannot hide his mistakes like a flubbed line. He is
all-too human, and therefore all the more heroic when he performs
at a superstar level. Many are called, few are chosen. In many
ways, he is a thing of the past.

The criteria for membership is not a
difficult description: long membership on a New York team or on the
New York stage; in non-team sports some New York pedigree;
greatness on the field resulting in Most Valuable Player award(s);
ultimate title(s) won in the form of World Championship(s) with the
Icon in question providing leadership, his best performance(s) when
the heat of pressure is greatest; the kind of fan lovefest exuded
upon him that exceeds the ordinary; and for good measure a Toots
Shor personality embodied by the image of a guy who just might tell
tall tales in a Manhattan sports tavern.

His true iconic stature must proudly be made
and acknowledged while he is
on the field
during his prime
years, unlike a Ted Williams, oft-vilified yet admired mostly in
retrospect. He must be held in high esteem long after his career
ends, unlike an O.J. Simpson, who had a free lunch complete with
harem from one end of America to the other only to fall from grace
in the most despicable manner possible.

Ultimately, the contenders are these:

“Iron Joe” McGinnity

John McGraw

Lou Gehrig

Carl Hubbell

Bill Terry

Mel Ott

Joe Louis

Joe DiMaggio

Bill Dickey

Yogi Berra

Joe McCarthy

Branch Rickey

Duke Snider

Roy Campanella

Leo Durocher

Rocky Marciano

Casey Stengel

Roger Maris

Whitey Ford

Billy Martin

Joe Namath

Tom Seaver

Walt Frazier

Red Holzman

Muhammad Ali

Thurman Munson

Reggie Jackson

Dave Winfield

John McEnroe

Don Mattingly

Darryl Strawberry

Dwight Gooden

Gary Carter

Bill Parcells

Lawrence Taylor

Phil Simms

Patrick Ewing

Derek Jeter

Mariano Rivera

Roger Clemens

Alex Rodriguez

Joe Torre

The list of those left off tells the story
of the greatness of those who are on it. Weaning the truest of the
New York Sports icons from this list is a difficult chore. Managers
and coaches such as Joe McCarthy, Leo Durocher, Red Holzman and Joe
Torre presided over moments of supreme joy, but somehow they do not
quite make the cut of this ultra-competitive “team.”

Bill Dickey was at one time considered the
greatest catcher in baseball history, or certainly on the short
list with Mickey Cochrane; at least until the next generation of
backstops came along to eclipse his star. Keeping a Hall of Famer
like “Iron Joe” McGinnity (who starred for both the early Giants
and Dodgers, then known as the Superbas) off a list like this is
subjective, but then again so is omitting such mound stalwarts as
Rube Marquard, Herb Pennock, Waite Hoyt, Dazzy Vance, Lefty Gomez,
Red Ruffing, Don Newcombe, Sal Maglie, Allie Reynolds, Catfish
Hunter, Sparky Lyle and Goose Gossage.

Roger Maris and Billy Martin fall short for
various reasons. Maris of course is best known for doing just that;
falling short, in the eyes of the New York sporting press and
public, and in 1961 of Babe Ruth’s home run record within the
154-game schedule that would have saved him a big fat *. He was not
a Hall of Famer. Martin was beloved, but he was not a great player.
Personality is what keeps Maris out of the club and what is not
enough to put Martin in it.

Thurman Munson was a guy who was difficult
to like. He comes very close to inclusion on the list but
ultimately is not viewed as being as great as Yogi Berra or Roy
Campanella. Dave Winfield, Don Mattingly, Darryl Strawberry, Dwight
Gooden, Gary Carter, Phil Simms and Patrick Ewing are “I love the
‘80s” characters who were part of great moments in New York sports
history, but for various reasons must be left out.

What about the ice hockey stars? New York
Rangers’ goalie Ed Giacomin was a fan favorite, to be sure. So was
Denis Potvin of the Islanders, a team that went on a sustained run
of excellence. Ultimately, however, inclusion in this exclusive
fraternity means that the athlete or coach in question must not
merely be a big name in New York, but a transcendent figure beyond
the city, in some cases beyond his sport.

So who are the true New York Sports
Icons?

Start with the boxers. Joe Louis was from
Detroit, Rocky Marciano from Brockton, Massachusetts, and Muhammad
Ali from Louisville. However, the city of New York is inextricably
tied to the “sweet science,” sometimes nefariously (Mob
connections). But all three of these champions won in epic bouts at
Madison Square Garden, the Mecca of the boxing game.

John McEnroe is by no means the greatest
tennis player who ever lived. Jack Kramer, Don Budge, Pancho
Gonzalez, Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and
Roger Federer are all players who are better or probably at least
his equals. But McEnroe was a New York kid who made good in the
U.S. Open, the biggest of American tennis stages and of course the
annual Big Apple spectacle. More to the point, he had the unique
swagger of a New Yorker, took pride in rooting for other New York
sports teams, and played matches against another “street hustler,”
Jimmy Connors, and the silent Swede, Bjorn Borg, that were for the
ages.

While New York fancies itself the
“basketball capital of the world,” its fans the most passionate and
knowledgeable, only Walt Frazier of the Knicks makes the cut on the
hardwood. The greatest New York City high school player ever, Lew
Alcindor, became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and engendered animosity from
the people in his hometown for the “treachery” of going all the way
out to UCLA. “Clyde” Frazier was the epitome of Big Apple cool with
his fedora, mink coat; a penchant for ladies and nightlife.

Two of the football stars on the list are
there as much for image and off-field activities as for what they
did on the green plains, although both Frank Gifford and Joe Willie
Namath were all-time greats. Gifford is undoubtedly a true New York
Sports Icon, and perhaps his inclusion demonstrates the unfairness
of it. He was a terrific player, an All-American out of the
University of Southern California, and a golden boy. He had every
conceivable gift. As a player, he was great but many have surpassed
him. Contemporaries Jim Brown and Johnny Unitas would be considered
greater in the overall pantheon. But Gifford embodied Manhattan
polish, a sex appeal that implies some sense of racial identity
that, fair or not, made him a bigger name in the Big Apple in his
heyday than even Willie Mays. Gifford’s career on
Monday Night
Football
and place in the upper echelons of café society weigh
as heavily in his favor as his on-field statistics, by a long
shot.

Joe Namath’s place in the club is as
indicative of the selective nature of this fraternity as any.
Fairness has little to do with it. Namath, like Mickey Mantle, was
damaged goods. His performance at the University of Alabama prior
to a knee injury in 1964 conjured images of athleticism beyond mere
quarterbacking skills, but he
was
hurt all the time, and it
did
reduce his career effectiveness. There is a long list of
pro quarterbacks who are rated ahead of him. Nobody would offer
Namath as quite equal with his contemporaries, Roger Staubach or
Terry Bradshaw. But, oh,
the times
he presided over, the
place
of his exploits, and herein is the essence of what
makes the true New York Sports Icon such a great figure in American
society. He did it in
New York!

Fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers might take
exception to such a concept. They certainly viewed their heroes,
the likes of Bradshaw and Lynn Swann, with as much fervent love as
any town could love their guys. The way Cowboys players are
worshipped in Dallas is legendary, to be sure. Just ask Troy
Aikman, or consider the strip club world that embodied Michael
Irvin’s life. But the New York superstar is a special breed. He is
elevated above all others. It is a combination of New York
historical sports greatness and the special nature of the cities’
fishbowl lifestyle. In many ways it cannot be adequately explained,
but it is there, it is palpable and it is undeniable. He is bigger,
more substantial than any other. Only histories’ largest figures,
the greatest Presidents, the most noble astronauts and world-saving
war heroes, ascend above the true New York Sports Icon.

Two members of the New York (football)
Giants, as Howard Cosell (who may or may not make the list) liked
to call them, are deserving. Coach Bill Parcells brought two Super
Bowl championships to the Big Apple and embodied the picture of the
tough, winning coach. Lawrence Taylor defined and changed the
linebacker position. He is on a short list of athletes who truly
revolutionized a position or a game. His off-field foibles were the
stuff of New York tabloid legend, somehow reinforcing his identity.
He played himself brilliantly in Oliver Stone’s
Any Given
Sunday
.

Above and beyond all other athletic heroes,
New York reserves its greatest worship for the baseball stars. This
is Our National Pastime, and it is on the hallowed fields of New
York where the game’s legend was forged, its popularity branded
upon the conscience of a young nation. It was in Cooperstown where
the game was mythologized, on the Elysian Fields of New York where
the rules and foundations set forth. In two world wars, Americans
determined that other Americans were not German spies more often
than not by asking who won the previous year’s World Series, who
led the American and National League in batting, how many home runs
Babe Ruth hit. The answers more often than not engendered
passionate battlefield discussions expressing pride or
dissatisfaction in the doings of the Dodgers, Giants and Yankees.
Japanese kamikaze pilots shouted vain expletives, using the name of
Babe Ruth – not Red Grange or Bronco Nagurski – as they met their
Maker in the smokestacks of our ships.

The first of the great American sports
dynasties – before the Yankees; before Notre Dame and Southern
California in college football or the Packers in the NFL; before
the Celtics and UCLA on the hardwood; were the Giants. The first
great, true New York Sports Icon was Christy Mathewson
.
Mathewson was everything a hero is supposed to be: handsome, an
All-American from Bucknell (giving him a touch of Ivy League
veneer), upright, easily one of the greatest pitchers of all time,
a World Champion who did his best pitching in October, and a tragic
figure who died young after serving his country.

First baseman Bill Terry was the last
National Leaguer to bat .400 and managed the 1933 World Champion
Giants. His teammate, left-handed screwball artist Carl Hubbell,
struck out five of the greatest players in baseball history (Babe
Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, Joe Cronin)
consecutively in the 1934 All-Star Game. Mel Ott was the Giants’
answer to Babe Ruth, belting over 500 home runs over the short
right field porch at the Polo Grounds. He eventually took over as
the club’s manager.