Skip to main content

Happy Anniversary, 1969 Mets

We'll return to the home run tracking next week. In the meantime, we've got an anniversary to celebrate...

On October 16, 1969, the Mets won the World Series...


* They won, despite being at a nine-win disadvantage to the Orioles in regular season play (100 to 109). After the 1969 Mets, no NL team won a World Series at that big a disadvantage until 1988, when the 94-win Dodgers beat the 104-win Athletics.

* They beat a team with 109 wins. Only two teams have won the World Series by beating a team with more wins: The 1954 Giants (54 Indians won 111) and the 1906 White Sox (06 Cubs won 116)

* They held the Orioles to a .146 batting average. That's the second-lowest batting average a team has ever had in the World Series. Only the 1966 Dodgers (.142) hit worse.

* They won despite hitting .242 in the regular season- Only 4 Mets teams have had a worse batting average since (1972, 1974, 1983, 1992)

* Jerry Koosman allowed 11 baserunners in 17 2/3 innings, for a WHIP of 5.6. Only one pitcher, who pitched at least 15 innings in a World Series, has had a better WHIP since- Steve Blass (1971 Pirates, 5.5).

* Koosman pitched a complete game to clinch the World Series, something only three NL pitchers have done since (Steve Blass, Orel Hershiser, and Josh Beckett). Koosman is the last NL pitcher to throw a complete game AT HOME to clinch the World Series.

*Al Weis hit .455 in the World Series, which stands as a Mets record to this date. Next-best was Rusty Staub, who hit .423 in 1973.

* In the clinching game, the Orioles did not have an at-bat with a runner in scoring position. I intend to check, but I don't believe this has happened in a World Series game since then.

* The Mets clinched by rallying from 3 runs down to win. Only three teams since then have clinched the World Series by rallying from 3 runs down to win the clincher- the 1970 Orioles, the 1975 Reds, and the 1986 Mets.

* The 1969 Mets won 4 straight games to close out the postseason. The longest Mets postseason win streak is 5 games, spanning the end of the 2000 NLDS and the start of the 2000 NLCS.


Comments

Unknown said…
You forgot that the '69 Mets were the first expansion team to win a world championship. The 1969 Mets are the signature team of this franchise, even for those of us who were babies or weren't born when it happened. There's good news yet to come in '09. Metswalkoffs along with numerous other sites and authors helped put together the book, The Miracle Has Landed: The Amazin' Story of How the 1969 Mets Shocked the World. At over 400 pages, with never before seen photos and and never before heard stories, it's available for order now at a bargain price and the perfect holiday gift for the Mets fan in your life...oh who are we kidding--for you! http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Has-Landed-Amazin-Shocked/dp/1934186171/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255702980&sr=8-1
11:28 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Been There, Won That

The Dodgers had 19 hits in their loss to the Mets on Thursday night in a game that, no offense (pardon the ironic pun), was excruciating to watch for many, many reasons, none of which I feel like getting into at this hour. Willie Randolph summed it up in his press conference afterwards, saying simply "It's not fun!" I wonder if Tom Hanks, Alyssa Milano, Ray Romano and Kareeem Abdul-Jabaar (all in attendance) stuck around for the finish? I do wish to note briefly, again with the aid of Baseball-Reference, that the last time the Dodgers had 19 hits and lost a game, it was to the Mets. The difference between that game and this one was that this contest, of May 24, 1973, lasted an interminable 19 innings., with the Mets winning, 7-3. Rusty Staub's fifth hit of the game drove in the go-ahead run. Ken Boswell added an RBI single and Ed Kranepool salted the game away with a two-run double. Some other noteworthy anecdotes from a quick box score gleaning: * Like Thursday's...
9 comments
Read more

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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more

They Don't Make Em Like The Mook Any More

"There are certain things that stay with you, your whole life in sports. Mookie flying is one of those things." -- Blogger's father, 1:10pm on Feb 9. During the 1987 season, Mookie Wilson was on first base in seven instances in which the batter at the plate hit a double. How many times do you think Mookie scored? I'll give you a hint: Every time. According to some recent reading I've done, The average runner scores from first base on a double around 40-45 percent of the time. Mookie's career percentage: 65 percent (45 of 69) The average runner goes first to third on about 27 percent of singles hit. Mookie's percentage: 50 percent (120 of 240) The average runner scores from second base on about 58 percent of singles hit. Mookie's percentage: 75 percent (162 of 215) How good was Mookie Wilson? Let me put it to you this way. The guy turns 54 years old today (and got an early present by being re-hired by the Mets as a minor league instructor). I'd take...
8 comments
Read more