THE 1969 MIRACLE METS: THE IMPROBABLE STORY OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST UNDERDOG TEAM (58 page)

Angell had a “sense of unreality” when
visiting the Mets’ clubhouse, writing that the team less resembled
a true big league ball club, and more the cast of a Hollywood set
about
a big league club. They were “younger and more
theatrical,” the drama “hopelessly overwritten,” with players right
out of Central Casting: “Bud and Ken”; the “freckle-faced” Garrett
with a “sweet smile”; the “broken-nosed scrappy catcher” (Grote);
Agee and Jones (“silent, brooding big busters”); the “cheerful
hayseed” (Koosman); the “philosophical black elder” (Charles); at
least one “Jewish character,” indispensable in New York (Shamsky);
“seamy-faced, famous old-timers” (Hodges and Berra); “and Tom
Seaver, of course, the hero. And who can say that the Mets didn’t
sense this, too – that they didn’t know all along that this year at
Shea life was imitating not just art but a United Artists
production?”

Koosman was lucky in that he was simply
viewed as a fine pitcher. The weight of all the expectations Seaver
carried never fell on him. He just went out and pitched. His first
half was a mixture of spectacular success, a few nagging injuries,
and some mediocrity mixed with a lack of support. In the second
half, down the stretch, he was almost as good as Seaver, and this
statement must be understood in its full meaning.
Almost as
good
as Seaver was like an actor who was
almost as good
as Olivier, a writer who was
almost as good
as Hemingway, a
political figure who was
almost as good
as Churchill.

Koosman finished 17-9 with a 2.28 earned run
average, with 180 strikeouts in 241 innings pitched. Gary Gentry
was 13-12 and everybody expected him to someday be a 20-game
winner. Don Cardwell was 8-10 and Jim McAndrew finished 6-7.
Somehow, the starting staff does not add up to the concept of a
100-win team. One conjures the image of Baltimore’s four 20-game
winners in 1971, or Oakland’s three 20-game winners of 1973. Where
did those 100 wins come from?

Certainly Gil Hodges’s use of the bullpen
explains much of it. Tug McGraw, used in various capacities, was
9-3 with 12 saves. Nolan Ryan was 6-3. Cal Koonce (6-3) and Ron
Taylor (13 saves, 2.73 ERA) were effective late in games. In later
years, McGraw and Ryan were stars, but they were not at that level
yet. The 1969 Mets’ bullpen was not as spectacular as Oakland in
the early 1970s, when a host of “stopper” pitchers held opponents
until Rollie Fingers closed the door; or the Yankees of the late
1990s, when Mariano Rivera would do the same thing for Joe
Torre.

New York’s 2.99 earned run average was quite
insane, especially when compared to modern records in the age of
designated hitters, “juiced” balls, small parks and steroids.
However, St. Louis was better (.2.94.). They threw 28 shutouts on
the year with 35 saves. In the American League, Baltimore’s ERA was
2.83. The American League as a whole: 3.63. The N.L.: .3.60. With
expansion teams, there was a dilution of talent. Better N.L. teams
tended to get better against Expo and Padre pitching; put up
numbers against Expo and Padre hitters.

Offensively, the Mets’ numbers do not
logically figure to a 100-win season, especially in a pretty good
year for hitters. It was a vast improvement for baseball over 1968;
a year of solid, even, competitive achievement, individually and
for teams – pitching and hitting – in both leagues. Cleon Jones had
a breakout year, hitting .340 to finish third in the league with a
modest 12 home runs and 75 runs batted in. Jones’s run production
is worth noting. Today, .340 hitters are generally expected to be
power guys with 90-100 RBIs.

Agee hit a respectable .271, supplying more
clout than his Mobile friend with 26 long balls and 76 runs scored
from the leadoff spot. Clendenon was one of the strongest .252
hitters in memory, or so it seemed. He hit 12 home runs with 37
RBIs after coming over in the June trade. Shamsky was quite solid:
.300, 14 home runs. Swoboda was nobody’s idea of Harry Heilman or
any all-time greats, with a poor .235 average, nine homers and 52
RBIs. Kranepool’s .238 with 11 homers made nobody forget or
remember Lou Gehrig. Ed Charles was anemic (.207). Bud Harrelson
(.248), Al Weis (with the exception of two games at Wrigley Field
in July), Wayne Garrett, Bobby Pfeil; all field, no hit. Ken
Boswell? He could not even field. Jerry Grote went from .282 in
1968 to a .252 in 1969. J.C. Martin was mainly a pinch-hitter, Rod
Gaspar a defensive replacement, and Duffy Dyer caught in the second
games of twin bills.

The Mets hit 109 home runs. Eight of the 12
National League teams hit more. They batted .242, behind six other
clubs (10 points below the league average). Some people have tried
to compare the Mets to the Dodgers teams of Maury Wills and Lou
Johnson, who stole bases at a great clip, manufacturing runs that
way. Not so. They bunted and played a lot of “little ball,” but
only stole 66 bases. The Mets scored 632 runs, compared to 720 for
Chicago. Eight teams scored more, including every team in the West
Division except San Diego. Their .980 fielding percentage (a
nebulous statistic) led the division.

How did they do it? Again, if one looks at
it in a logical, secular way, it was the pitching of Seaver and
Koosman, with some luck. But considering it all, the hand of
destiny played its role, too. It was like evolution; too perfect to
be coincidence, like a windstorm blowing parts all over the place
until it settles into a perfectly constructed F-16 fighter jet.

New York’s 100-62 mark was the second best
regular season record in baseball (.617). Chicago (92-70) finished
second in the East, eight games back, followed by Pittsburgh
(88-74), St. Louis (87-75), then the Phillies and Expos. In the
West, Atlanta won with a 93-69 mark over San Francisco (90-72),
Cincinnati (89-73), Los Angeles (85-77), Houston (81-81) and San
Diego (110 losses). It was competitive year with lot of teams
playing winning ball. It was not a season of great mediocrity with
the Mets emerging as survivors more than winners, as could be said
of the 1973 Mets and many other “champions” throughout history.
Undoubtedly, the 220 combined losses of Montreal and San Diego
contributed to the winning records of their opponents, but in any
given year there are losing teams, bad teams.

In the American League East, Baltimore
dominated with 109 victories over Detroit (90-72), Boston (87-75),
Washington (86-76), New York (not quite as bad as the memory would
have one believe, at 80-81), and Cleveland (99 losses). It was a
disappointing year for Mayo Smith and the defending champion
Tigers, as well as Dick Williams and his 1967 pennant winning Red
Sox (leading to the volatile Williams’s firing by owner Tom Yawkey
after squabbling with Carl Yastrzemski). Washington had the best
season in the Bob Short years (1961-71) before becoming the Texas
Rangers of 1972. Manager Ted Williams talked them into believing
they could hit.

The Yankees were so overshadowed by the Mets
that they were overlooked. After falling all the way to the cellar
in 1966, the pinstripers had made the kind of progress that other
clubs would consider worthy, but their standards were so
astronomical that nobody cared. Still, Ralph Houk’s team, in their
first year after Mickey Mantle’s retirement, featured a top
outfielder (Bobby Murcer), a defensive whiz at first base (Joe
Pepitone), and a righty-lefty pitching combo not that far removed
from the Seaver-Koosman duo. Mel Stottlemyre, the All-Star Game
starter, was 20-14 with a 2.92 earned run average. Fritz Peterson
won 17 games (just like Jerry) with a solid 2.55 ERA.

In the West, Minnesota’s dominance over
Oakland in head-to-head play gave Billy Martin’s Twins (97-65) a
nine-game edge over the A’s (88-74). Martin was fired after the
season for getting in a bar fight with 20-game winner Dave Boswell.
Jim Perry was 20-6. The 1969 A’s were none of the things the Mets
were. They lacked the luck, the charisma or the electricity,
playing in a half-empty stadium, losing key games, and finishing
out of the running. But they were headed in an ultimately different
direction than the Mets. They featured the cogs of a 1970s dynasty
(the first in baseball since the Yankees): Reggie Jackson, Sal
Bando, Catfish Hunter and Rollie Fingers, all young and superb.
They would beat New York in the1973 World Series.

The rest of the West was desultory,
featuring losing California, Chicago and two expansion franchises
(Royals, Pilots). The two first-year teams certainly contributed to
the statistical feast of the Orioles and a few excellent individual
records in the junior circuit, but at 69-93 (Royals) and 64-98
(Pilots), they were vastly better than the two N.L. debuts.

Baseball was star-studded in 1969. Pete Rose
led the National League with a .348 batting average, followed by
Roberto Clemente (.345), Cleon Jones (.340), Matty Alou (.321) and
Willie McCovey (.320). McCovey slugged .656, with Atlanta’s Henry
Aaron second at .607. McCovey’s 45 home runs led the circuit,
followed by Aaron (44), Cincinnati’s Lee May (38) and Tony Perez
(37), followed by Jimmy Wynn of the Astros with 33. McCovey capped
his monster year with 126 runs batted in. Ron Santo had 123,
followed by Perez (122), May (110) and Ernie Banks (106). Lou Brock
stole 53 bases for St. Louis, followed by Houston’s Joe Morgan with
49, San Francisco’s Bobby Bonds (45), Maury Wills of Montreal-L.A.
(40) and the Reds’ Bobby Tolan at 26. Matty Alou had 231 hits,
while Pete Rose collected his customary 200-plus (218).

Seaver’s .781 winning percentage was the
best in the National League, followed by San Francisco’s Juan
Marichal (.656). Marichal led the senior circuit with a sparkling
2.10 earned run average, with Steve Carlton at 2.17, Bob Gibson at
2.18, Seaver at 2.21, and Koosman at 2.28. Seaver’s 25 wins were
the best in baseball. Phil Niekro of the Braves won 23. Marichal
and Fergie Jenkins won 21 each. No Met was among the save leaders.
Jenkins’s 273 strikeouts set the pace, followed by Gibson (269),
Bill Singer of Los Angeles (247), Don Wilson of Houston (235), and
Gaylord Perry of San Francisco (233). It was a different era, one
in which Gibson’s 28 complete games almost matched Fred Gladding’s
league leading 29 saves for Houston. No Met was among the complete
game leaders, an example of Hodges’s judicious use of his staff and
a portent of the future. Marichal spun eight shutouts, Koosman six.
Gaylord Perry, Claude Osteen of Los Angeles, Singer and Gibson all
pitched more than 300 innings.

In the American League, Minnesota’s Rod
Carew had his breakout year, leading the circuit with a .332
average. His teammate, Harmon Killebrew, slammed 49 homers. Frank
Howard of Washington was second with 48. Reggie Jackson, who had 37
at the All-Star break, slumped and finished with 47. Rico
Petrocelli and Carl Yastrzemski of Boston both hit 40 home runs.
Killebrew’s 140 RBIs set the pace, followed by Baltimore’s Boog
Powell at 121, Jackson (118), his teammate Sal Bando (113), Howard
(111) and Yaz (111).

Dick Bosman of Washington led the league
with a 2.19 earned run average, followed by Baltimore’s stellar Jim
Palmer (2.34) and Mike Cuellar (2.38), then California ace Andy
Messersmith (2.52) and Fritz Peterson (2.55). Denny McLain won 24
games, Cuellar 23, with Boswell, Jim Perry and Mel Stottlemyre
getting 20 apiece. “Sudden Sam” McDowell, Cleveland’s
flame-throwing southpaw, struck out 279 hitters. Mickey Lolich of
Detroit and Messersmith both finished with more than 200 Ks. McLain
tossed nine shutouts and 325 innings, which probably explains his
sudden fall more than association with unsavory characters.

The Sporting News
National League
All-Star team included McCovey (first base), Glenn Beckert
(second), Ron Santo (third) Don Kessinger (shortstop), Cleon Jones,
Matty Alou and Henry Aaron in the outfield, Johnny Bench behind the
plate, with Tom Seaver the right-hand pitcher and Steve Carlton
beating out Koosman as the lefty.

In the A.L., it was Boog Powell at first,
Carew at second, Killebrew at third, Petrocelli at shortstop, with
Frank Howard, Jackson and Baltimore’s Paul Blair in the outfield.
The catcher was Bill Freehan of Detroit. On the mound was McLain
from the right side, Cuellar from the left.

Killebrew was the American League’s Most
Valuable Player. Cuellar and McLain shared (for the only time in
history) the A.L. Cy Young award. Lou Piniella, traded by Seattle
to Kansas City early in 1969, won the A.L. Rookie of the Year
award. Ted Sizemore of the Dodgers took N.L. honors. No Met won a
Gold Glove. John Murphy of the Mets was named
The Sporting
News
Executive of the Year, and Gil Hodges was the National
League Manager of the Year. Tommie Agee won the N.L. Comeback
Player of the Year award. McCovey was
The Sporting News
Major League Player of the Year as well as the N.L.’s Player of the
Year, with Tom Seaver selected as the Pitcher of the Year.

Seaver was easily voted the Cy Young award,
but a major controversy came in the awarding of the National League
MVP, which went to McCovey. Tom Seaver was unquestionably the
deserving winner of the 1969 MVP. Pitchers had won MVP awards on
numerous occasions in the past. This included Hal Newhouser of
Detroit in both 1944 and 1945, and Brooklyn’s Don Newcombe in
1956.

In the 1960s, pitcher Sandy Koufax of Los
Angeles was the National League’s Most Valuable Player in 1963. In
1968, pitchers represented both leagues: McLain and Gibson. This
probably was too much for some members of the media, who began to
clambor that, especially since the Cy Young award now was awarded
in both leagues (instead of to just one pitcher in both Major
Leagues, as it had been between 1956 and 1966), they had their own
trophy.

Two writers on the selection committee
simply ignored Seaver on their ballots altogether. The vote
consisted of 10 places, with 10 points awarded for first place,
nine for second, two for ninth, one for 10
^th
. . .
McCovey finished with 265 points, Seaver with 243. They both had 11
first place votes. Had both of the writers voted Seaver second, or
if other writers who penalized him for being a pitcher, had voted
him higher, he would have beaten McCovey.