Reese Kaplan -- The Start of the Mets Post Season History: 1969

Over the next few weeks while I'm relocating overseas to Malaysia where I'll be living going forward I thought about what I could say that would be relevant (though not necessarily timely) for our fans who read here regularly.  With a little head scratching I thought I'd profile the Mets' post-season history since coming into the National League in 1962.  If I counted correctly, we will have nine years to analyze with the uncharacteristically optimistic slant that 2022 will be the tenth one.  

I was a mere 9 years old when the New York Mets went from baseball laughingstock to World Champions in what appeared to be a miraculous turnaround due mostly to Tom Seaver and manager Gil Hodges, but no one could have predicted a team that had as recently as 1967 lost 101 games would improve by that magnitude.  Gil Hodges was brought in to manage this bunch and in his New York rookie season he saw the team for the first time climb up to 9th place from their customary ranking at the bottom.  

In 1969, however, all things changed dramatically.  Hodges proved to be the kind of leader the team had never before seen.  He was handed a hodge podge of young and veteran players that he had to balance and hone into winning results.  It was no small feat considering where the franchise had been up until that point.  

On Opening Day of 1969 the lineup presented included:

                            1.  Tommie Agee (CF)

                            2.  Rod Gaspar (RF)

                            3.  Cleon Jones (LF)

                            4.  Ken Boswell (2B)

                            5.  Ed Charles (3B)

                            6.  Bud Harrelson (SS)

                            7.  Jerry Grote (C)

                            8.  Ed Kranepool (1B)

                            9.  Tom Seaver (P)

If you look closely at the statistics of anyone cited to take the field in the showcase game of the season, Tommie Agee and Cleon Jones were about the only ones from whom you could expect decent offensive production.  When you consider, for example, Ken Boswell's career batting average was just .248 with his high water marks being 9 HRs in 1972 and just 44 RBIs in 1970, that was who the Mets had batting cleanup.  Ed Charles as a 29 year old Kansas City rookie hit .288 with 17 HRs and 74 RBIs but it was pretty much downhill after that.  He came to New York in 1967 and over the course of three seasons put in just under two seasons worth of .249 hitting.  Bud Harrelson was known far more for his glove and legs than for his bat.  He was just a .236 hitter for his career.  Jerry Grote was a little bit better with the bat than you might initially have noticed, but it was his command of the pitchers that kept him an integral part of the team's success.  Ed Kranepool had been around since his 1962 cup of coffee with the team, but it wasn't until the tail end of his career many years later as a decent pinch hitter that he turned himself into an asset.  In 1969 he was just a .238 hitter with 11 HRs.  Rookie Rod Gaspar did his career's best work in 1969 by hitting .228 and was out of baseball just two years later.  No, hitting was not going to put this team into contention.

Now turn things around and look at the pitching staff.  Your eyes pop when you look closely at the numbers from Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Nolan Ryan, Gary Gentry and other starts from Jim McAndrew and Don Cardwell.  At that juncture future closer Tug McGraw even got a few nods as a starting pitcher, too.  Of course, when you go 9-3 with a 2.24 ERA you can pretty much do anything on the mound.  Seaver won the first of his Cy Young Awards based upon his 25-7 record with a 2.21 ERA.  He struck out over 200 while maintaining a WHIP of just over 1.000.  

However, before you assume the team was all pitching remember how others forced their way into the lineup.  Ron Swoboda may never have turned into the magnitude of slugger they'd hoped he'd become, but in 1969 he was on a pace with sufficient at-bats would have had him over 90 RBIs for the year.  The other big contributor was 27 year old former Cincinnati Red Art Shamsky who hit .300 with good power and run production.

However, it was mid-season acquisition Donn Clendenon who was the primary chip that paid huge dividends.  They gave up a backup infielder named Kevin Collins and four minor leaguers to get the former Pirates slugger from the Expos.  The only player of the five sent north who did anything was pitcher Steve Renko, but Clendenon was the early version of Yoenis Cespedes for the club giving them the long ball threat they so badly needed.  He clubbed 16 HRs and 51 RBIs in little more than a half-season's worth of ABs between his time in Montreal and his time in New York.  (In 1970 he was even better, hitting .288 with 22 HRs and 97 RBIs.  Those were numbers the Mets had never before seen in their history.)

Of course, the .500 playing club was catching people's fancy long before they made their surge.  At one point an 11 game winning streak propelled them upward rather quickly and by year's end their hot play coincided with a historic collapse by the Chicago Cubs leading to the first ever NL-East divisional title.  

The playoffs that year were against the Atlanta Braves and the Mets showed no mercy, winning three straight to take the National League pennant and propel themselves into their first-ever World Series.  

Going into that historic October was thrilling but also pretty scary considering that the Orioles roster included guys like Boog Powell, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Mark Belanger, Don Buford, Paul Blair and some second baseman name Davey Johnson.  In their starting rotation they featured Jim Palmer, Dave McNally and Mike Cuellar.  They were not going to be easy pickings.

Of course, when Tom Seaver started Game One and lost 4-1 while the Mets only eked out 6 hits against Cuellar, it seemed as if the dream of being the best of the best belonged to Baltimore.  However, as we all know the team steamrolled over the Orioles winning the next four straight leading to the Mets World Championship and a ticker tape parade downtown.  

Google the articles, look at the Youtube videos and read the many tomes penned about the 1969 Mets.  It was a ride like the club had never even anticipated and it wasn't until 1986 that they came close to the same level of success and bravado.