Tom Brennan - 1969 Retrospective: Rocky the Mets' Flying Squirrel Doing Miraculous Things

 

I previously posted this article about a great Mets memory a few years ago.  

It was part of the magic that got the Mets to, and thru, the 1969 World Series on top.  

As I did my annual Mets draft retrospective series a few months back, I thought: 

Why not throw this article back up there again?  

Great old memories deserve to be reminisced about more than once.

Here goes:

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE GAMES: 

SWOBODA STRIKES AGAIN - TWICE!

As a Met fan, what are the memorable games that sunk deep down into our core and, despite our kvetching, hav kept us inextricably linked to this team?  

I’m writing about a handful of my favorite games.  

Games like the one where, when the Mets trailed 3-0 in a mid-September game in 1969, Ron Swoboda hit a Ruthian 500 foot grand slam, come-from-behind shot that easily cleared the hulking left center field wall at the 440 mark in Forbes Field.  

That titanic blast, on September 13, 1969, sealed that win for the Mets, putting them up by 3 ½ games.  

It finally had the skeptic in me believing that they would continue their improbable surge to a place never before attained – above 9^th place – but not only above 9^th place, but surging towards a pennant and a World Series victory!

Rocky’s homer in that Pittsburgh contest was only his 7^th of the season.  

In fact, he had dismal #’s through July that year, with just 3 homers, 22 RBIs, and a .213 average in 176 at bats.  After July, it was an improved story, as Rockie knocked in 30 runs in 178 at bats, and hit 6 HRs, 3 in August and 3 in September.  

But timing is everything: those 3 September blasts were each of monumental importance.

One of them was the incredible come-from-behind, game-deciding grand slam I mentioned above.  

Then, on September 15, just 2 days later, another seismic shift in the cosmos occurred, courtesy of that same Rocky Swoboda.  

The Mets that day faced a cream puff lefty named Steve Carlton.

Hey, maybe you’ve heard of him – won a few career games (329), struck out a few guys (4,136).  

Anyway, he decides he’s gonna strike out the most batters in history that night, 19.  

What a nerve to try to rain on the Mets’ surge to the pennant parade.  

But then, the otherwise brilliant Carlton never counted on the troubles he might encounter facing miracle man Swoboda.

Rocky, who it again bears repeating was unable to reach double digits in homers that year, had an amazing answer for Big Steve – not one answer, but two: TWO 2 run homers to shock the baseball world once again!  This upstart team had the temerity to have this lowly slugger mess up one of the greatest games ever pitched!

Rocky hit them off Carlton in the 4^th and 8^th, in a game with 4 Met errors.   They won another close won, miraculously.  I was stunned and again wondering just what the heck was going on with this team that had a different miracle every night.

One could argue that Swoboda that week had the most impactful hitting of any Mets hitter in their history.  His 3 hugely important homers snatched 2 victories from the jaws of defeat.  What if he hadn't gone all miracle worker on us and the Mets lost those two games instead?  Might their playoff momentum have stalled, even reversed?  Rocky made that question a mere hypothetical.  The man with 6 HRs entering September simply BROUGHT THE HAMMER DOWN.  

Rocky's astounding blasts were just another sign that they were unstoppable in 1969, and that the miracle winds that sometime swirl through baseball were at their backs!

Of course, Rocky had one more major miracle in his pocket - the World Series game-saving diving catch that had everyone's jaw drop.   

Improbable that he'd even try it - improbable that he caught a ball so low that the worms in the grass had their tentacles raised in sure hopes of catching this close-by souvenir.  Until someone else caught it - Rocky, the flying squirrel, flying as low below the radar as one can get and still remaining above the turf.

SOMEWHERE, SOME "MY SHARONA" MUSIC FAN IS SINGING.... 

"MY, MY, MY MY, SWOBODA!"

Because, my, my, my, was he something after Labor Day in 1969.