1969 by Rob Kirkpatrick

Author:Rob Kirkpatrick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2017-07-20T16:00:00+00:00

16. AN AMAZIN’ SUMMER

Dominant pitching and timely hitting leads the Mets on a miraculous winning streak into first place.

While the nation seemed to be turned on its end in the summer of ’69, the national pastime was about to be turned upside down in a rags-to-riches story that would be one for the ages. It had appeared to most fans that the story of the 1969 baseball season would be of the Chicago Cubs, who seemed poised to end two decades of frustration. Yet just beneath them within their own division, another team was building a Cinderella story of its own. After sweeping a three-game series in Pittsburgh the first weekend in July, the Mets were eleven games over .500 with a record of 45-34.

How the Mets were winning games was a mystery to many around the league. Sure, they had a pitching staff stocked with young guns, but their lineup lacked the punch one usually expects to see in a contending team. Cleon Jones was the only everyday player who hit .300—he would challenge for the batting title throughout the season and finish third behind Pete Rose (.348) and Roberto Clemente (.345) with a mark of .340—and in a year in which most teams had at least one player with 90 or 100 runs batted in (RBI), Tommie Agee and Jones were first and second on the Mets with 76 and 75 RBI, respectively. Only one other player, Ron Swoboda, had more than 50 RBI. Meanwhile, with his 26 home runs, Agee was the only Mets hitter to break the 15 home run mark. As a point of comparison, Harmon Killebrew of the Minnesota Twins led baseball with 49 home runs and 140 RBI.

As the Mets continued to climb in the standings, the Cubs’ Ron Santo expressed his befuddlement at the Mets’ winning ways. “I know the Dodgers won pennants with just pitching, but this Mets lineup is ridiculous,” he ranted.351 “It’s a shame losing to an infield like that,” he said of one game lineup that had featured Ed Kranepool, Wayne Garrett, Al Weis, and Bobby Pfeil—none of whom hit even .240 that year. “I wouldn’t let that infield play in Tacoma,” he said, comparing the Mets to the Chicago’s triple-A affiliate.352

So how was Gil Hodges’s team making a dent in Chicago’s division lead? For one thing, his use of a platoon system produced favorable lefty-righty matchups that yielded deceivingly productive results. Swoboda’s 52 RBI combined with 47 from Art Shamsky, who often spelled Swoboda against right-handed hitters, produced a two-headed output of 99 RBI from the rightfield position. The left-handed Kranepool and right-handed Donn Clendenon, a mid-season acquisition from the Expos, gave the Mets a power-hitting duo at first base, and skillful hitter Ken Boswell and fluid glove man Al Weis complemented each other at second base. The team got little offensive production from catcher, shortstop, or third-base positions, but what the team did get was timely hitting. Grote recalled years later, “I only hit six home runs that year, but I think three of four of them won ballgames.

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