Skip to main content

1969 Was Good For The Other Guys Too

It seems obligatory that I write something about 1969 these days, but I'm wondering how much I can tell you that you haven't already heard before. If you're reading this blog, you probably know the basics about how the Miracle Mets overcame a huge deficit to top the Cubs and win the NL East, than shocked the Orioles to win the World Series.

I was watching a documentary about Ron Santo on TV the other night and it spent a good chunk of time documenting the heartache of the 1969 Cubs. I was already familiar with the basics of that story, but after watching video of a number of victory celebrations, I learned something new.

I would have liked the 1969 Cubs, and the 1969 Orioles as well, because they both had amazin' seasons when it came to walk-off wins.

The 1969 Cubs had 11 walk-off wins, one more than the 1969 Mets did, and if you saw the manner in which they won some of these games, you probably would have been easily convinced that it was meant to be their year.

On April 13, a bases-loaded, two-out walk, and follow-up single by Ernie Banks capped a three-run 9th in a 7-6 win over the Expos.

On May 14, they scored twice in the 9th to beat Johnny Podres and the Padres (yes, really), 3-2. Banks tied that one with a homer and Willie Smith won it with a single.

On June 22, they scored four runs with two outs in the 9th to beat the Expos, 7-6, winning on a walk-off homer by former 1962 Met Jim Hickman. They scored two in the 9th the next day to beat the Pirates, 5-4, on Ron Santo's sac fly. Hickman won another game with a walk-off homer three days after that.

On July 28, they scored twice after having two out with nobody on in the 10th to beat the Giants and Juan Marichal 4-3, overcoming a go-ahead hit by Willie Mays in the top of the inning.

Likewise, the Orioles had their share of absolutely ridiculous victories. Including postseason, they won in walk-off fashion 15 times. No Mets club has ever reached that number.

One of those victories came on a date quite familiar to Mets fans- July 9, 1969. While Tom Seaver was threatening perfection against the Cubs at Shea, the Orioles were finishing a sweep of the Yankees in rather imperfect fashion.

With the score even, 5-5, in the last of the 10th, Boog Powell's one-out hit gave the Orioles a chance to work their magic. With the count 3-2, Powell (a rather large man if you've ever seen him now), took off with the pitch. That paid off handsomely when Brooks Robinson's hit to right field went under the glove of Yankees outfielder Bobby Murcer, allowing Powell to lumber home with the winning run. The win gave the Orioles a rather staggering record of 59-25, part of their romp to an AL championship.

Of course, while I marvel at the walk-off history of these two clubs, there is one important fact to keep in mind.

Neither managed a walk-off win against the 1969 Mets.

True Mets fans who were around in 1969 know...The 24 teams who played in 1969 season tallied 207 walk-off wins (8.6 per team), up significantly from the 141 tallied by 20 teams the previous year (7.1 per team).

Comments

How many walkoff losses did the '69 Mets have? I'd look it up myself but I'd feel like I was treading on the maestro's turf.
metswalkoffs said…
Only 4.

May 1 vs Expos (Coco Laboy SF)

August 8 vs Braves (Felipe Alou 1B)

August 31 vs Giants (Jim Davenport BB)

September 3 vs Dodgers (Willie Davis 2B)
What's Amazin' is that three of the walkoff losses came during the period when the Mets were unstoppable at the end of the year--on August 8 they were still somewhat stoppable, but it was close. And Coco Laboy took 'em down at Parc Jarry? Sacre bleu!

Popular posts from this blog

Best Games I Know: Phillies (Updated)

  The best wins against the Phillies in Mets history …   May 5, 2022 – Mets 8, Phillies 7 The Mets score 7 runs in the 9 th inning to overcome a 7-1 deficit and win in Philadelphia.   April 29, 2022 – Mets 3, Phillies 0 Tylor Megill and 4 Mets relievers combine on the second no-hitter in franchise history.   September 22, 2016 – Mets 9, Phillies 8 (11) The Mets tie it in the 9 th on a Jose Reyes home run and win it in the 11 th on a 3-run home run by Asdrubal Cabrera.   July 17, 2016 - Mets 5, Phillies 0 Jacob deGrom pitches a one-hitter. Only hit is a single by Zach Eflin in the 5 th inning.   August 24, 2015 – Mets 16, Phillies 7 David Wright homers in his first at-bat in more than 4 months. The Mets hit a team-record 8 home runs.   July 5, 2012 – Mets 6, Phillies 5 The Mets score 2 runs with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9 th to beat Jonathan Papelbon. The winning run scores on David Wright’s bloop down the right field line.   August 13

The best Mets ejections I know

When you think of the Mets and famous ejections, I'm guessing you first think of the famous Bobby Valentine mustache game, when after Valentine got tossed, he returned to the dugout in disguise. You know it. You love it. I remember being amused when I asked Bobby V about it while we were working on Baseball Tonight, how he simply said "It worked. We won the game." (true) But the Bobby V mustache game of June 9, 1999 is one of many, many memorable Mets ejection stories. And now thanks to Retrosheet and the magic of Newspapers.com , we have a convenient means for being able to share them. Ever since Retrosheet's David Smith recently announced that the Retrosheet ejection database was posted online , I've been a kid in a candy store. I've organized the data and done some lookups of media coverage around the games that interested me post. Those newspaper accounts fill in a lot of blanks. Without further ado (and with more work to do), here are some of my findings

Trip(le) Through Time

In their illustrious history, the Mets have had one 'Triple Crown Winner,' so to speak and I'm not talking about the typical meaning of the term. I've gotten some queries recently as to whether a walk-off triple is even possible and I'm here to tell you that it is. There has been one, and only one, in Mets history, though I don't have the full explanation of circumstances that I would like. It took place against the Phillies on September 10, 1970. This was a marathon game that would have fit in perfectly with those having taken place so far this season and allowed the Mets to maintain a temporary hold on first place in an NL East race oft forgotten in team history. It went 14 innings, with a tinge of controversy in a negated Ken Boswell home run, a thrilling play by Bud Harrelson, who stole home in the third inning, and some stellar relief pitching, in the form of five scoreless innings from Danny Frisella, aided by Tim McCarver getting thrown out in a rundown b