A Magic Summer: the Amazin' Story of the 1969 New York Mets by Stanley Cohen

Author:Stanley Cohen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626367944
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2011-01-25T00:00:00+00:00

But to the outside observer, the Mets appeared to be slipping as the season moved into August. Even after sweeping Atlanta, they were still six games behind the Cubs as they prepared to make return visits to Cincinnati, Atlanta, and Houston. It was only a ten-day road trip, but by the time it was over the Mets would be perilously close to falling out of the race.

The first stop on the trip was Cincinnati, where the Mets dropped three out of four. The Reds had just inched past Atlanta in the Western Division race, and now they seemed to welcome the opportunity to solidify their lead. Cleon Jones, restored to the starting lineup, went hitless in the opening game, but so did most of his teammates as Jim Maloney pitched a two-hitter to beat Koosman 1-0. The Mets managed to split a doubleheader the next day, but Nolan Ryan’s wellpitched victory was overshadowed by a recurrence of Seaver’s arm problems. His aching right shoulder caused him to leave after the third inning, having already given up four runs and five hits. Over the past month, his record now stood at two victories and four defeats. Seaver was concerned, but he tried to keep things in perspective.

“When you’ve been pitching since you were nine years old and never had a sore arm until now, it’s impossible not to worry,” he said. “But I’m intelligent enough to know my trouble is a strained muscle, not a torn muscle and not a joint.” Still, as Seaver admitted, it was impossible not to worry.

While the Mets were losing their third game to Cincinnati, the Cubs were completing a sweep of Houston in the Astrodome. It was their seventh straight win, and it enlarged their first-place margin to a relatively comfortable eight and a half games. The Mets, staggering a bit now, conceivably welcomed their visit to Atlanta. The Braves’ power-heavy lineup appeared to hold little menace for Met pitchers, and indeed they allowed only four runs in as many games while winning three of them. For added encouragement, Seaver pitched seven and a third innings with only minor discomfort, earning his sixteenth victory of the season. Ever the student of pitching mechanics, Seaver said he had kept his motion as compact as possible to reduce the strain on his shoulder. The decision gave him a lifetime record of 10—2 against Atlanta, and the Mets concluded the regular season’s business between the teams with eight wins in their twelve meetings.

If the Mets had developed the habit of breathing new life when they played the Braves, the Astros were the team that choked it out of them. Since the two teams joined the league together in 1962, Houston had beaten the Mets eighty-five times and lost only forty-nine. So far in 1969, the Mets had dropped seven of nine games between the teams, including the last six in a row. In the past three seasons, they had won only five times in the Astrodome. Now, with

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