October ‘69: The Miracle at Willets Point

If you had asked fans prior to the 1969 baseball season which scenario was more likely—man landing on the moon or the New York Mets wining the world championship—they would probably have been hard-pressed to choose, both being equally improbable. Casey Stengel, original Mets manager and overseer of the ugliest launching of a franchise in the 20th century, often made the correlation between a champion in Flushing and a man on the moon. Who would’ve thought Casey would be right?

When Gil Hodges was named manager in 1968, he made it clear that the team’s legendary ineptitude would no longer be acceptable. He then led them to the best season in their short history: 73-89 and a ninth-place finish (although just one game above the last-place Houston Astros). With a cadre of young stars including Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Jerry Grote, Tommie Agee, Cleon Jones, and Bud Harrelson, backed by a strong bench, Mets fans looked forward to a promising future. They just didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.

The 1969 season didn’t get off to a great start: the Mets lost to the expansion Montreal Expos, 11-10 on Opening Day. (By contrast to the nouveau Expos, it took the Mets 10 tries before they won their first game in their first year as a franchise.) By the end of April, New York was 9-11, good by Mets standards, but not good enough for their skipper. On May 31, they were still below .500, but they had embarked on the 11-game winning streak that turned everything around. The Mets won 19 of 28 games in June, though they were still 7½ games behind Chicago. The Mets won two series against the Cubs in July— including Tom Seaver’s “Imperfect Game” at Shea Stadium, but still stood 6½ games out at the end of the month. Though they slipped all the way to 10 games back, the Mets flourished in the dog days of August and on into September, winning 37 of their final 48 games.

Mets pitchers were dominant, but the offense was less potent. Agee led the team with 26 home runs and 76 RBIs while his boyhood friend Cleon Jones finished third in the league with a .340 batting average, the highest to that time in Mets history…by 37 points.

If their remarkable achievement had come a year earlier, the Mets would have advanced directly to the World Series. But the addition of two teams to each league inaugurated a new round of playoffs: the League Championship Series. For the Mets to advance to the fall classic, they would have beat the veteran-filled Atlanta Braves of Hank Aaron, Phil Niekro, Orlando Cepeda, Rico Carty, and company.

Because the focus fell on the Mets’ unlikely success, fans tend to forget how well the Braves did in 1969. They had not appeared in the postseason since losing to the Yankees in the 1958 World Series, when they called Milwaukee home. The 93-win Braves were third in the league with 141 home runs (led by Aaron’s 44) and fifth in runs per game. Their pitching was also strong, Niekro was second to in the NL to Tom Seaver in wins (23), and Ron Reed, a 6-foot-6 former Detroit Pistons forward, chipped in 18 victories. Pat Jarvis and George Stone won 13 apiece.

Hodges was relatively modest, picking his team to take the playoff to the five-game limit. The oddsmakers didn’t even give the Mets that much credit. The Braves were made 13-10 favorites in Las Vegas, despite going 4-8 against the Mets during the regular season. Only Jones and Art Shamsky batted over .300 for the year on a team that only hit .242, a mark the Braves bettered by 16 points. The Braves bettered the Mets in virtually every offensive category and slugger Hank Aaron led the league in total bases and extra-base hits while finishing one behind Willie McCovey for the NL lead with 44 homers. Pitching was the Mets’ strong suit: first in shutouts (28) and fewest hits allowed (1,217), second in the league in ERA (2.99), and third in saves (35).

The Braves were to host the first two games of the best-of-five National League Championship Series. Many sports pundits expected the bubble to burst on the Miracle Mets.

 

Game One, October 4

For a Change, the Hitters Cover for Seaver

If the Mets were nervous, it wasn’t evident. In the second inning, Art Shamsky singled off Phil Niekro, who then walked second baseman Ken Boswell. Ed Kranepool, the last of the original Mets from 1962, struck out, but Jerry Grote, the team’s All-Star catcher, singled in Shamsky with the first postseason run in Mets history. With Boswell on third, Niekro’s knuckler eluded rookie catcher Bob Didier for a passed ball as the Mets took a 2-0 lead.

In Atlanta’s half of the inning, Rico Carty, a perennial .300 hitter, doubled to left and moved to third as Boswell misplayed Orlando Cepeda’s grounder. Former Yankee Clete Boyer drove in the Braves’ first run with a sacrifice fly. Atlanta took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the third on consecutive doubles by Felix Millan, Tony Gonzalez (a mid-season pickup from the San Diego Padres), and Hank Aaron.

But the Mets answered immediately with a single by Kranepool, a Grote walk, and a Bud Harrelson triple to right, putting them back on top, 4-3. Gonzalez led off the bottom of the fifth with a home run to deadlock the contest and Aaron homered two innings later to give Atlanta a 5-4 lead. Their elation was short-lived.

In the top of the eighth, third baseman Wayne Garrett, a “Howdy Doody” look-alike plucked from Atlanta’s farm system by the Mets in the Rule 5 draft, doubled to left field. He came in on a single by Cleon Jones. Shamsky’s third hit on the afternoon moved Jones to second. After he stole third, Boswell hit a sharp grounder to the veteran Cepeda, who foolishly tried to nab the speedy Jones at the plate, but the throw was wild and Jones scored New York’s sixth run. Gil Hodges sent in Al Weis to run for Shamsky, and the slow-footed Kranepool managed to keep out of a double play, setting the stage for an improbable hero.

J.C. Martin, a left-handed hitting catcher, had come over to the Mets from the Chicago White Sox in November 1967 as the player to be named later in the Ken Boyer trade. With Grote firmly in place as the number one backstop—and rookie Duffy Dyer working his way into a backup catching role—Martin started just 44 games in 1969. Hodges sent Martin up to bat for Seaver, who hadn’t enjoyed a Cy Young-type day. Martin delivered a bases-clearing hit—abetted by a Gonzalez error—to ice the game, 9-5. Ron Taylor came on in relief for the final two innings, yielding two hits in the bottom of the ninth before getting Cepeda to pop up to second for the final out.

 

Game Two, October 5

Leaving Atlanta and Laughing

Tommie Agee, who had gone hitless in the NLCS opener, singled against Ron Reed to begin the festivities on day two. He continued his tour of the bases with a walk to Wayne Garrett, taking second on a steal of third, another Reed walk, and a clutch single by Ed Kranepool with two out.

Bud Harrelson lined out to open the second, but Jerry Koosman—who batted an anemic .048 in 84 at-bats—worked out a walk, to the disgust of Braves fans. That came back to haunt Reed as Agee followed with a home run, the first postseason homer in Mets history. After Garrett grounded back to the pitcher, Cleon Jones doubled and Art Shamsky drove him in with a single to right; he ended up on third base after Tony Gonzalez’s error in center field. That was it for Reed, who was charged with four earned runs in 1⅔ innings. Reliever Paul Doyle didn’t fare much better; the Mets added two more runs off the 30-year-old lefty in the third inning. After Kranepool struck out, Orlando Cepeda booted Jerry Grote’s ground ball for another miscue. Harrelson drove in the catcher with a double to left. Koosman followed with a strikeout and the Braves decided to walk Agee intentionally, but the strategy backfired when Garrett singled to center, plating Harrelson. Out with Doyle, in with veteran Milt Pappas. The Mets added two more in the fourth when Shamsky single was followed by Ken Boswell home run.

The Braves, however, didn’t get this far because they were quitters. They had rallied from fourth place and three games back in early September to win the NL West by that same margin. Rico Carty doubled to right and came in on a Cepeda single against Koosman in the fourth inning for Atlanta’s first run of the game. The next inning, after the Mets made it 9-1, the Braves exploded for four tallies, all after two were out. After a Millan single and a walk to Gonzalez, Hank Aaron blasted a three-run home run; Koosman was starting to lose steam. He walked Carty and gave up a double to Cepeda; both came around on Clete Boyer’s single. Gil Hodges replaced Koosman with Ron Taylor, the only Met with previous postseason experience (as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1964 World Series).

The Mets weren’t finished either. Facing Cecil Upshaw in the top of the seventh, Agee walked, stole second, and advanced to third on a fly ball by Garrett. Jones came up to the plate now and Agee had the idea of trying to steal home. Unfortunately, no one told the batter, who swung and hit a vicious line drive at the head of the oncoming runner, who miraculously avoided the ball. After a collective sigh of relief, Jones made things much easier a minute later when he hit a home run to put the game on ice, 11-6. Tug McGraw picked up a three-inning save in what would be his only postseason action of 1969. Taylor was credited with the victory.

 

Game Three, October 6

A Pennant in Three Easy Steps

In his 2004 memoir, The Magnificent Seasons, Art Shamsky recalled the emotions he and his teammates felt when they arrived in Atlanta. “It’s men against boys,” he wrote. Even with the first game in the bag, Shamsky said the Mets were still worried. But once back in New York, amidst the familiar surroundings and loving fans—they relaxed, and when they won, “It was pandemonium.” Again. The year had begun with the Jets winning a Super Bowl and shocking the establishment almost as much as the Mets would during the baseball season—by the following spring, the Knicks would also be world champions for the first time. All those championships culminating in a short period were important to New York City and a nation still reeling from the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as fiscal difficulties and social unrest of the end of the 1960s.

With no time off in the NLCS in 1969, the series resumed in New York the next day. A Monday afternoon crowd of 54,195 squeezed into Shea Stadium for the third game, which pitted Gary Gentry, the Mets’ unheralded rookie third starter, against Pat Jarvis. Both righties had won 13 games for their respective teams, but Jarvis, at 28, already had four major league campaigns under his belt.

Despite being the second-youngest pitcher on the staff after Nolan Ryan, Gentry—who was making the start on his 23rd birthday—was no greenhorn. He had allowed just 192 hits in 234 innings, which would prove to be his career-best. In fact, he had just one more season in which he pitched more than 200 innings; he was out of the majors by 1975, finishing his career with—of all teams—the Atlanta Braves.

Gentry erased Felix Millan on a fly ball to lead off the game, but Tony Gonzalez singled and Hank Aaron followed with his third homer of the NLCS, giving the Braves a 2-0 lead. Gentry made it through the second inning with just a walk, but he didn’t retire a batter in the third. That inning started with another hit by Gonzalez, but this time Aaron merely doubled, moving the runner to third. When Rico Carty drove a liner that was just foul of the left-field foul pole, Hodges decided he’d seen enough, lifting Gentry with a one-ball, two-strike count on the batter and calling in the fireballing but erratic Nolan Ryan.

The future Hall of Famer had a 6-3 record in 25 games, 15 of which came as a reliever. He struck out 92 batters in 89 innings, allowing just 60 hits while walking 53. In Peter Golenbock’s Amazin’: The Miraculous History of New York’s Most Beloved Baseball Team, Ron Swoboda recalled the team’s surprise at the manager’s move. “When he brought him in I thought, ‘This is interesting.’” Jerry Koosman went further: “The whole bench said, ‘If he’s bringing in Ryan, Gil has given up.’”

But, in fact, Ryan was superb. He blew a third strike past Carty, walked Orlando Cepeda intentionally to load the bases, caught Clete Boyer on a called strikeout, and finally retired Bob Didier on a fly ball. Ryan had kept the Braves off the scoreboard in the third and the Mets responded quickly when Tommie Agee hit his second NLCS homer in the bottom of the inning.

Shamsky started a rally in the fourth with his series-high seventh single. He crossed the plate on Ken Boswell’s second playoff home run to give the Mets a 3-2 lead. Though the Braves regained the lead on a two-run Cepeda home run in the top of the fifth, Hodges left Ryan in to bat and the pitcher led off the bottom of the inning with a single. He scored on Wayne Garrett’s just-fair four-bagger for a 5-4 lead. Jones singled and scored on another hit by Boswell, his third RBI of the game. They added their final run in the sixth on a double by Jerry Grote and a single by Agee.

The Braves never mounted another serious threat. Ryan’s third inning heroics had proved the turning point. Gonzalez ended Atlanta’s suffering by grounding to third for the final out of the playoffs. In seven innings, Ryan allowed just three hits, walked two, and struck out seven to pick up the victory that propelled the Mets into their first World Series.

In the three-game sweep, the Mets outscored the Braves 27-15, batting an improbable .327, led by Shamsky’s .538; Jones, Garrett, Agee, and Boswell all batted .333 or better. Koosman told Golenbock, “The tension of the world was on us. Everybody wanted to be on the bandwagon. [Governor Nelson] Rockefeller and [NewYork Mayor John V.] Lindsay and numerous big names were suddenly appearing in the clubhouse.”

Despite public address pleas, Mets fans stormed the field for the second time in three weeks, threatening to destroy the diamond in their frenzied joy, wanting a fistful or grass or dirt as a souvenir to mark this most amazing season. “The management might just have well have spared the voltage for the speaker system,” wrote Norm Miller in the New York Daily News. Yet the excitement didn’t seem to match that of the NL East pennant-clincher against the St. Louis Cardinals. “The main difference was that the first time we had done something nobody believed we could do,” Shamsky said during the locker room celebration. What thrilled him the most were the contributions from players like Boswell and Garrett, who were now receiving overdue recognition for their work. “We’ve been that way all year,” he said. “If one guy didn’t [come through], another did.”

 

The 66th World Series

While the Mets were marching for their league’s pennant, the Baltimore Orioles were doing the same. The Orioles, who had upset the Los Angeles Dodgers by sweeping them in the 1966 fall classic, finished sixth in 1967 and in second place in 1968. They roared back in 1969, winning 109 games and finishing 19 ahead of second-place Detroit in Earl Weaver’s first full season as a major league manager.

Baltimore’s squad boasted the AL Cy Young Award co-winner, Mike Cuellar, one of three Orioles who finished in the top 10 in AL MVP voting (Boog Powell and Frank Robinson were second and third, respectively, to Minnesota Twin Harmon Killebrew for MVP). Six players—Powell, Frank and Brooks Robinson, Paul Blair, Davey Johnson, and Dave McNally—appeared in the All-Star Game that summer. As a team, they were second only to the Minnesota Twins in batting average and third to the Red Sox in home runs. Yet they were a disciplined lot, striking out a league-low 806 times and working out 634 walks (second most).

Defensively, the Orioles were without peer, finishing first in fielding percentage and committing the fewest errors (101) of any team in the game. The pitching staff—led by McNally Mike Cuellar, and Jim Palmer—had the only ERA under 3.00 and gave up the fewest home runs (117) and walks (498).

The Orioles faced the American League West champion Twins in the ALCS and, like the Mets, swept the series. The first two games, played in Baltimore, were tight affairs: 4-3 in 12 innings and 1-0 in 11. In the Metropolitan Stadium finale, the brawny Orioles busted loose, with Jim Palmer scattering 10 hits in an 11-2 romp.

So it was no surprise that the Orioles were the favorites in the 66th World Series. Maybe it was a sense of bravado, but some of the Mets and the New York media predicted a sweep for the home team, including Cleon Jones and Casey Stengel, the original Mets skipper, who was penning a guest column. Phil Pepe of the New York Daily News wrote, “The Mets are behind. They’re behind in hitting, fielding, pitching, running, and betting. But they haven’t lost yet. Not yet they haven’t.”

Earl Weaver, Baltimore’s Napoleonic manager, told reporters the Mets had “two pitchers, some slap hitters, and a little speed. They say the Mets have desire. The Orioles have just as much desire and a lot more talent.”

After watching Rod Gaspar, a bench player reveling in the NLCS victory glow, predict a sweep, Frank Robinson challenged, “Bring on Ron Gaspar.” A teammate corrected him, “Not Ron, Rod, stupid.”

“Okay, bring on Ron Stupid,” Robinson responded.

He would come to regret that remark.

 

Game One, October 11

Not the Way to Start Things Off

The two eventual Cy Young winners faced off in the first game at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore on a brilliant fall Saturday afternoon in front of 50,429 fans, shy of a full house. The World Series was indeed a showcase, not just for players, but celebrity fans as well. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn threw out the first two pitches, one to each starting catcher. Several members of the First Family, including Pat Nixon, daughters Julie and Tricia, and Tricia’s husband, David Eisenhower, were in attendance.

Tom Seaver had become the first pitcher in National League history to defeat 11 different clubs in a season—a mark made possible by expansion and Chicago’s Ferguson Jenkins also beat all 11 clubs in 1969—but Seaver was not his usual polished self in his first game against an American League foe. After the Mets went down in the top of the first, Don Buford, Baltimore’s leadoff hitter, took a Seaver pitch over the right-field fence for a home run. That lone tally held up until the fourth inning when Seaver— as he had done in the NLCS opener Atlanta—had an uncharacteristic inning. He retired Boog Powell and Brooks Robinson, but he had trouble finding that third out. Catcher Elrod Hendricks singled to right, followed by a walk to Davey Johnson. Mark Belanger, one of the Orioles unsung heroes, singled to right, driving in Hendricks and moving Johnson to third.

Pitcher Mike Cuellar, who batted .117 with a double and two triples during the season, blooped a single to left-center to score Johnson. With runners now on first and second, Buford came through again, lining a double down the right field line to score Belanger to the Orioles up, 4-0.

In the meantime, Brooks Robinson, one of four Birds who would win a Gold Glove that season, was making his reputation on the national scene with several sparkling plays at third base behind a cruising Cuellar. Seaver set the Orioles down without a hit in the fifth, but he was due to lead off in the sixth. Hodges batted rookie Duffy Dyer for him and the veteran Don Cardwell came in to pitch the bottom of the inning. Cardwell and Ron Taylor kept the Orioles off the scoreboard the rest of the game, but it proved too late.

The Mets had an opportunity to do some damage in the seventh. Donn Clendenon, who came over from the Expos in a June trade, and hit 12 home runs, and drove in 37 as a Met, singled to center and Ron Swoboda walked. After Ed Charles flied out to right, Grote lined a single to left to load the bases. (Clendenon, Swoboda, and Charles had not appeared in a single game of the NLCS because Atlanta had thrown all right-handed pitchers and Hodges adhered to his platoon system.) Al Weis’s sacrifice fly to left scored Clendenon but Gaspar, batting for Cardwell, hit a slow roller to third that Robinson turned into one of his patented bare-handed-pickup, throw-on-the-run plays to end the threat.

The Mets had one more chance in the ninth, but with two out and two on, Shamsky grounded out to Johnson to end the game “I had a chance to be a hero, but it didn’t work out that way,” he told Stanley Cohen in A Magic Summer. Shamsky had also made the final out in the September 20 no-hitter by Bob Moose of the Pittsburgh Pirates, one of the few blotches on an otherwise fantastic season.

After the game, Earl Weaver shared his impressions with the media. “They’re about what we expected,” he said. “Of course, they have to have more than they showed us today. They must have something because they did win 100 games in that big beautiful National League, didn’t they?” Weaver admitted his comments could be construed as sarcastic.

The media played up disparaging remarks made by Weaver, Frank Robinson, and others. Brooks Robinson recalled beating a Los Angeles Dodgers team led by Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, “and [Seaver and Koosman] can’t be as good as them.” He also suggested that “New York ballplayers are built up more than they are.”

A scout for the team scoffed, “Team of destiny? I think they’re destined to be beaten by the Orioles.” But Paul Blair, Baltimore’s fleet center fielder (and a former Mets farmhand) had some nice things to say, even as he expressed confidence in his mates. He told reporters he respected Seaver, Koosman, and Gentry, as well as Jones and Agee, “Bad ballclubs don’t win 100 games, sweep three from Atlanta, and get to the Series. But we have a better ballclub.”

Yes, on paper the Orioles were stronger at just about every position and so were made the “logical favorites” over the Mets. As Leonard Koppett of the New York Times opined, “‘Logic’ is another name for past performance. But in the four-of-seven game competition that will be watched so intently by millions of television viewers in this country and abroad, history won’t count.”

 

Game Two, October 12

Kooz’s Gem

Jerry Koosman had a reputation of coming up big in clutch situations. He was the first Met to win a home opener, a 3-0 blanking of the San Francisco Giants in the second start of his rookie year in 1968. The second game of the World Series meant a lot more and Kooz kept the powerful Orioles hitters in check over the first six innings, nursing a one-run lead, courtesy of Donn Clendenon’s fourth-inning solo home run. He also hadn’t allowed a hit.

In the bottom of the seventh, Paul Blair broke up the no-hit bid with a single to left to start the inning. After outs by Frank Robinson and Boog Powell, Blair stole second and crossed the plate moments later on a single by Brooks Robinson to tie the game.

With two outs in the top of the ninth, Ed Charles, the proclaimed “soul” of the team, singled to left and moved to third on Grote’s second hit of the afternoon. With Koosman waiting on deck, McNally pitched to Al Weis. The second baseman’s single to left drove in Charles for the slim lead. Rather than put up a pinch hitter, Gil Hodges let Koosman bat for himself, and he made the third out.

The lefty recorded two quick outs in the bottom of the inning before walking Frank Robinson and Powell. Hodges signaled to the bullpen and brought in Ron Taylor, who induced Brooks Robinson to ground out to third for the final out and the first World Series victory in Mets history.

After the game, Mets owner Joan Payson told the press she had covered her eyes when Brooksie hit the final ball. As the media is wont to do, they looked for some angle to spice things up a bit. They found it in a “war of words” between Hodges, the Mets no-nonsense manager, and the equally intense Frank Robinson.

After the game, Robby said he had been surprised by the Mets’ low profile on the bench. “I thought it was very strange that they didn’t show any enthusiasm when they loaded the bases in the seventh inning [the game before],” he said. Appraised of the ballplayer’s remarks, Hodges countered, “I’m glad that Frank is watching our bench, but I’m not concerned with what he says.”

So the reporters ran back to Robinson for his comments. “Tell Hodges he should manage his club and I’ll play right field.” But he had one more parting shot at winning pitcher Jerry Koosman. “He didn’t exactly dazzle us with his stuff. We hit the ball well 10 or 12 times, but they went right to somebody If three balls fell in, we could have scored three or four runs.”

 

Game Three, October 14

Two for the Price of One

After a day off, the scene shifted to New York for the third game. The atmosphere, to say the least, was different as the World Series returned to the Big Apple for the first time since 1964, and the first time a National League team had hosted a Series in New York since the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956.

Gary Gentry, who hadn’t made it out of the third inning against the Braves in the NLCS, was on the mound for the Mets. Jim Palmer, who threw the AL’s only no-hitter that season, an 8-0 gem against the Oakland A’s on August 13, took the hill in Game Three of the Series for Baltimore. This time the rookie shut down the opposition, allowing just three hits (but five walks) in 6⅔ innings. Just as happened in the NLCS, he was relieved by Nolan Ryan, who got out of a jam that threatened to change the complexion of the game. Ryan struck out three, walked two, and gave up just one hit for the rest of the game to pick up the save. Unlike his brief NLCS outing, Gentry did more than his share with both his arm and his bat.

In the second inning, with runners on first and second and two outs, Gentry, who had batted .081 during the regular season, doubled over a drawn-in Blair in center field to drive in both runners and give the Mets a 3-0 lead. Palmer said after the game that Baltimore’s scouting reports had “underestimated” Gentry’s hitting and pitching abilities.

The real story, however, was not the sparkling contributions of Gentry or Ryan. In fact, most fans might have a hard time remembering who pitched that day. They would not forget Tommie Agee’s contributions. Agee and Al Weis had come to the Mets in a trade with the White Sox in December 1967 for former batting champion Tommy Davis, pitcher “Fat Jack” Fisher, and two other players. Agee was just two years removed from winning the AL Rookie of the Year Award and finishing in the top 10 for MVP, but he hit an anemic .217 with just 17 RBIs in his inaugural season with the Mets. The 1969 season was far better to him… and the Mets.

Just as Don Buford had done against Tom Seaver in the first game in Baltimore, Agee greeted Palmer with a leadoff home run in the home first. Agee’s blast to center field was his only offensive contribution, but he did more with soft leather than hard wood.

Sandy Amoros, Al Gionfriddo, Kirby Puckett, Willie Mays. All of these made eye-popping catchers in their World Series. Agee did it twice … and in the same game. The first came in the fourth inning. With one out, Frank Robinson and Boog Powell singled. Brooks Robinson struck out to bring up Elrod Hendricks. Agee shaded the left-handed hitter to pull, but Hendricks lined a shot to the gap in left-center. Agee took off and snow-coned the gapper for the third out at the 396-foot mark. He put his hand up against the wall with the ball to stop himself. The man who hit the ball missed one of the great catches in World Series history. “I didn’t see him catch it,” Hendricks told reporters. “I look up and I see the white of the ball in his glove and I figured he still might drop it. Then he holds his glove up and I just said, ‘Damn.’”

After Jerry Grote doubled to drive in the fourth run for the Mets in the home sixth, Agee came to the rescue once more in the top of the seventh. The Orioles mounted a two-out threat as Gentry walked Belanger, Dave May (pinch-hitting for Palmer), and Buford to load the bases. Hodges brought in Ryan, who was known to walk a batter or two himself.

Blair smacked a Ryan fastball to right-center. Agee sprinted, dove, and came up with the sinking liner on his belly on the warning track. Blair said later that the catch saved four runs, confident that he would have had an inside-the-park homer to tie the game had the ball gotten past Agee. Hodges, who had played in seven Word Series as a member of the Dodgers, assessed Agee’s work that afternoon. “I’d have to say the second [catch] was number one of any World Series I’ve seen.” Agee downplayed his performance, calling the first one the tougher of the two. “It was away from my glove and it almost went through my webbing.”

The Mets got their final run in the eighth inning when Ed Kranepool homered off Dave Leonhard. By then the Orioles were a little stunned, having been hit head-on by a Miracle.

 

Game Four, October 15

Victory Most ‘Fair

Tom Seaver had shaken off the leg injury that hampered him against Atlanta and in the World Series opener. He revealed he had strained a left calf muscle while shagging fly balls during batting practice in Atlanta and that kept him from following his normal workout routine, leaving him more fatigued. But this time Tom Terrific was on top of his game.

In the bottom of the second, with Mike Cuellar once again his opponent, Donn Clendenon hit his second solo shot of the World Series. The Orioles had a good chance to score in the third inning, when Mark Belanger and Cuellar opened the frame with singles. Belanger moved to third on Don Buford’s forceout to second. Paul Blair bunted back to Seaver, who threw him out for the second out while holding Belanger at third. Frank Robinson fouled out to Clendenon to end the inning.

The score remained 1-0 until the top of the ninth. After Blair filed out to right, Frank Robinson singled to left and scampered to third on Boog Powell’s single to right. Brooks Robinson hit a rocket to right that turned into another Amazin’ play by a Mets outfielder. This time it was Ron Swoboda to the rescue. “Rocky” was not known for his smooth defense, but he made a running, flat-out dive to his right on the sinking drive. Frank Robinson tagged up and scored on the play to tie the game, but if Swoboda had missed the ball, it would have given the Orioles the lead and potentially changed the Series. Instead, momentum stayed with the Mets.

New York had an opportunity to finish things off in regulation. With Eddie Watt on the mound for the Orioles, Jones singled with one out. After Clendenon struck out, Swoboda singled to move Jones to third. Gil Hodges called on Art Shamsky, one of the heroes of the NLCS, to pinch-hit for Charles, but Watt got him on a grounder to second to move the contest into extra innings.

In the top of the 10th with Seaver still on the hill, Johnson reached first on Wayne Garrett’s bobble. Belanger fouled out to Grote to bring up Clay Dalrymple to bat for Watt. His single moved Johnson to second and a fly ball out by Buford put him on third base. Seaver ended his afternoon’s work by striking out Blair.

In the bottom of the frame, Grote greeted new pitcher Dick Hall with a fly to left that Buford misjudged and turned into a double. After Rod— not Ron—Gaspar came on to run for Grote, the Orioles walked Al Weis—normally a weak batter but he had two hits in the game and had won Game 2 with a late-inning single—to set up the possible double play. With lefty-swinging J.C. Martin out to bat for Seaver, the Orioles went with southpaw Pete Richert. The moves were made by coach Billy Hunter, managing in place of Weaver, who had been ejected by home plate umpire Shag Crawford for arguing balls and strikes. Weaver became the first manager to be so ignominiously treated since Cubs manager Charlie Grimm was booted in the 1935 Series.

What would be Martin’s only appearance in a World Series was the latest installment in the Mets’ Miracle Motif. Martin laid down a bunt on the first-base side of the mound. Richert and Hendricks converged and the pitcher came up with the ball. Richert turned and fired to first, but the throw hit Martin in the left wrist and caromed away. Gaspar, meanwhile, came all the way around to score, perhaps answering Frank Robinson’s earlier jibes.

Photographs later revealed that Martin had been just inside the runner’s lane and could have been called out for interference. Richert had witnessed it first hand and continued arguing as the Mets celebrated. The call stood and more than 57,000 at Shea Stadium roared. What else could possibly happen at Shea to top this?

 

Game Five, October 16

Man Steps on the Moon… Leaving a Shoe Polish Mark

The fifth game featured Jerry Koosman and Dave McNally in a rematch of Game 2. There was a lack of offensive action until the third inning, and it came from an unlikely source. After Mark Belanger, the number eight batter, led off with a single, Koosman committed a cardinal sin: he served up a home run to the opposing pitcher. McNally had batted just .085 in 1969, but one of his eight hits was a home run—and he’d hit three in 1968. Two outs later after McNally’s blast, Frank Robinson launched a home run of his own, his only extra base hit of the Series, to make the score 3-0. In one inning the Orioles had scored more runs than they had in three games. Could this be the turnaround of the Series?

The answer came in the bottom of the sixth inning. Cleon Jones led off by dancing away from a pitch in the dirt. It rolled over to the Mets dugout and moments later manager Gil Hodges picked it up and calmly walked out to home plate umpire Lou DiMuro. (See Jerry Koosman biography for his account of what happened during the few seconds after the ball caromed into the dugout.)

Hodges pointed out a dark smudge on the ball from Jones’s shoe polish, apparent proof that he had been hit by the pitch. DiMuro waved Jones to first base. Donn Clendenon followed the lucky break with this third home run—a shot over the left-field wall—to bring the Mets to within one.

In the top of that very inning, Frank Robinson thought he had been nicked in the thigh by a Koosman pitch and trotted down to first before he was called back by DiMuro. He argued long and hard, but the umpire denied the claim. To no one’s surprise, Earl Weaver popped out for a chat, but since he was still smarting from the previous day’s ejection, he kept the conversation accordingly civil. He was more animated after Jones was sent to first in the bottom of the inning, but it just wasn’t his day.

The Shoe Polish Incident reminded old-timers of another situation involving a Jones—in this case “Nippy” of the Milwaukee Braves. In Game Four of the 1957 World Series, with the Braves trailing the New York Yankees 5-4 in the bottom of the 10th inning, shoe polish again served as proof that a batter had been hit by a pitch after the home plate umpire had initially ruled differently. Jones was replaced by a pinch runner who scored on a double by Johnny Logan and Eddie Mathews hit a game-winning two-run homer. The Braves would go on to beat the Yankees in seven games.

The 1969 Mets were not done with unlikely plot twists. During the regular season, Al Weis had batted a measly .215 with only two home runs, both of which came in consecutive games at Wrigley Field against the Cubs. But on this day, Weis came through big time, to the wonderment of all, with a blast into the left-field seats to tie the game. He had never before homered at Shea Stadium. And he never would again.

His home run not only tied the game, but it also kept Koosman in the game. Eddie Watt, meanwhile, replaced McNally, who had been lifted in the top of the eighth for a pinch hitter. Jones welcomed him with a double off the fence in left-center field. Hodges had been faithful with his platoons to the point that Ed Charles, Ron Swoboda, and Clendenon did not play at all in the NLCS. Now, in a tied World Series, with a chance to take the lead and perhaps end it, he stayed with the right-handed bats against the right-handed pitcher. Though Clendenon grounded out to third, Swoboda followed with a double down the left-field line to give the Mets the lead. After Charles filed out, Grote hit a grounder to first. Powell had difficulty corralling the ball and Watt dropped the throw as he covered first base—each received an error on the play—as Swoboda never stopped running and crossed home plate to make it a 5-3 game.

Koosman faced the heart of the Baltimore lineup for the top of the ninth. Frank Robinson led off with a walk, but Powell forced him at second and left for a pinch runner. Brooks Robinson filed out to Swoboda in right which left it up to future Mets manager Davey Johnson. He gave Mets fans a thrill of a lifetime as his fly ball descended gently into the waiting glove of Cleon Jones. He almost bent to a knee to catch it and when he got up, the Mets were world champions.

The celebration at Shea and through the city was instantaneous and unbridled. The Mets, listed as 100-1 odds to win the World Series back in the spring, did just that in the fall. Clendenon, who batted .357 with three home runs, a double, and four runs batted in, was named the Series MVP. The Babe Ruth Award, voted after the Series by sportswriters, went to the Mets’ Bambino of the World Series: Al Weis.

The postseason winners share for the Mets were just over $18,300 for each player. In contrast to today’s marathons, none of the five games lasted longer than a snappy two hours and thirty-three minutes—including the 10-inning classic Game 4.

The Amazin’ Mets had cast off the mantle of lovable losers. “This is the summit,” said Ed Charles, who retired after the World Series. “We’re number one in the world and just can’t get any bigger than this.”

“Some people still might not believe in us,” said Jones. “But then, some people still believe the world is flat.”

RON KAPLAN is the sports and features editor for the New Jersey Jewish News. He also hosts a blog on baseball literature and other media at RKsBaseballBookShelf.wordpress.com and another on Jews and sports at njjewishnews.com/kaplanskorner.