The
New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in
the borough of Queens
in New York City
, New
York
. The Mets are a member of the
East Division of
Major League Baseball's
National League.
The Mets were founded as an expansion franchise in 1960 and began
play in .
The club came into existence as a replacement
for New York's two previous National League teams, the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants, who relocated to
California
following the season. As an interesting
historical note, there was an earlier baseball club called the
New York Metropolitans which
played in the short-lived
American Association
during the 1880s. While the defunct 19th century team is not
related to the current incarnation of the Mets, its moniker did
serve as the inspiration for the modern day National League
franchise.
For the
first two years of its existence, the team played its home games at
the historic Polo
Grounds
in Upper Manhattan,
which it shared with the New York
Jets. In , both teams moved into newly constructed
Shea
Stadium
, where the Mets stayed through the season.
In 2009,
the club moved into Citi
Field
, located adjacent to the former site of Shea
Stadium.
During their history, the Mets have won two
World Series titles (1969 and 1986), four
National League
pennants (1969, 1973,
1986, 2000), and five
National
League East titles (1969, 1973, 1986, 1988, 2006). The Mets
also qualified for the postseason as the National League
Wild Card team in
1999 and 2000. The Mets have appeared in more World Series —
four — than any other
expansion
team in Major League Baseball history. Their two championships
equal the tally of the
Toronto Blue
Jays and
Florida Marlins for the
most titles among expansion teams.
The Mets held the New York baseball attendance record for 29 years.
They broke the
Yankees' 1948 record
by drawing nearly 2.7 million in 1970. The Mets broke their own
record five times before the Yankees took it back in 1999.
[3476][3477]
No Met pitcher has ever thrown a
no-hitter, and the franchise's hurlers have gone
more than 7,500 games without pitching one — longer than any
other Major League franchise. On several occasions, potential
no-hitters by Met pitchers have been broken up in the late innings.
Tom Seaver twice pitched 8 1/3 innings
without allowing a hit for the Mets — in one of those games,
against Chicago in 1969, Seaver only needed two more outs for a
perfect game before Jimmy Qualls singled - while in recent years
Tom Glavine,
Pedro Martínez,
Mike Pelfrey, and
John
Maine all lost their no-hit bids in the 7th or 8th
inning.
In 1998, the Independent Budget Office of the city of New York
published a study on the economic effect of the city's two Major
League Baseball teams. The study included an analysis of where fans
of both the Mets and the Yankees resided. The study found that 39%
of Mets fans lived in one of the five boroughs of New York, 49% in
the tri-state area outside the city and 12% elsewhere.
Mets fans were more
likely to be found in Queens, Staten Island
, and the Long Island
counties of Nassau
and Suffolk
, whereas Manhattan
, the
Bronx
, Brooklyn
, New
Jersey
, Connecticut
, and the counties of Westchester
and Rockland
, as well as the upper Hudson Valley and the upstate
New York region, leaned more towards the Yankees — this
despite Manhattan's one-time association with the Giants, one of
the Mets' predecessors.
Franchise history of The New York Mets
In 1957,
the Brooklyn Dodgers and
New York Giants abandoned New
York for California, leaving the largest city in the United States with
only one major league franchise. Two years later, on July
27, 1959, attorney
William Shea
announced the formation of a third major baseball league, the
Continental League. He tried to
get several existing clubs to move, including the
Philadelphia Phillies, the
Pittsburgh Pirates, and the
Cincinnati Reds, but no
National League club was interested.
One of the Continental League's five charter members was a team in
New York City. Majority interest was held by
Joan Whitney Payson and her husband,
Charles Shipman Payson,
former minority owners of the Giants. The second largest stake was
held by
George Herbert
Walker, Jr. (uncle of the future President
George H. W. Bush),
who served as
vice president and
treasurer until 1977.Former Giants
director
M. Donald Grant became chairman of the board.
Grant and Joan Payson had been the only members of the Giants'
board to oppose the team's move west.
The existing
league, which had
considerably more autonomy at the time, responded with plans to add
four new teams, two in each league. One of the new National League
teams was to be in New York. The NL offered this new franchise to
the CL's New York group, provided that they commit to building a
new park. Shea told
New York
Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. that he had to personally
cable every National League owner and guarantee that the city would
build a new facility.
The new team required a new name and many were suggested. Among the
finalists were "
Bees", "
Burro", "
Continentals",
"
Skyscrapers", and "
Jets", as well as the eventual runner-up, the "
Skyliners." Although Payson had admitted a
preference for "
Meadowlarks", the owners
ultimately selected
"Mets", because it was closely
related to the club's already-existing corporate name, "New York
Metropolitan Baseball Club, Inc.," it hearkened back to "
Metropolitans", a name used by an
earlier New York team in the
American Association
from
1880 to
1887, and
because its brevity would naturally fit in newspaper headlines. The
name was received with broad approval among fans and the
press.
From the beginning, the Mets sought to appeal to the large
contingent of former Giants and Dodgers fans. The Mets' team colors
reflect this:
orange from the Giants,
blue from the Dodgers (and even a reference to
the Yankees via home
pinstripes).
Coincidentally, orange and blue are also
New York
City's official colors. Thus two rival fan-bases
with 19th Century origins were largely united in support of the new
club.
1962–1969: Lovable Losers, Shea Stadium and the Miracle
Mets
In October, 1961, the
National
League held an
expansion draft
to stock the rosters of the Mets and the
Houston Colt .45s with players from other
clubs. 22 players were selected by the Mets, including some with
notable previous success such as
Roger Craig,
Al Jackson,
Frank Thomas, and
Richie Ashburn. But rather than select
talented young players with future potential, Mets management
preferred to sign faded stars of the Dodgers and Giants to appeal
to fans' nostalgia. Legendary Yankees manager
Casey Stengel was hired out of retirement to
lead the team, but his managerial acumen wasn't enough to overcome
the severe deficiency of talent among the players.
1962–63
The
Mets took the field
for the first time on April 11, 1962 against the
St. Louis Cardinals (the
first game schedule for April 10 was delayed due to rain). In an
apparent harbinger of things to come, pitcher Roger Craig went into
his windup with the Cardinals'
Bill White on third—and dropped
the ball. Craig was charged with a
balk,
scoring White from third with the first run ever against the Mets.
Despite
Gil Hodges hitting the first home
run in New York Mets history that day, the Mets went on to lose
that game. It would be the first of nine straight losses to start
the season en route to a 40–120 record. Their .250 winning
percentage was the
fourth worst in major-league
history, and the third-worst of the modern era (since
1901). Throughout major league history only
the 1899
Cleveland Spiders
(20–134) lost more games in a single season than the 1962 Mets. It
wasn't until 2003 that the record would be threatened by the
Detroit Tigers, who
finished the season at 43–119. The ineptitude of the Mets during
their first year is chronicled in colorful fashion in the 1963 book
Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?, written by New York
columnist
Jimmy Breslin.
Beloved by New York fans despite—or perhaps because—of their losing
ways, the Mets of the early 1960s became famous for their
ineptitude. Journeyman players like the ironically nicknamed
"Marvelous Marv" Throneberry became
icons of athletic incompetence. Ex-Dodger and Giant pitcher
Billy Loes, who was selected by the Mets
in the 1961 expansion draft, was credited with the ungrammatical
"The Mets is a good thing. They give everybody jobs. Just like the
WPA." Even the Mets
proved to have standards, however. In
1962,
Cleveland Indians catcher Harry
Chiti was purchased by the Mets for a
player to be named later in the
season. After only 15 games and a .195 batting average, the Mets
sent him back to the Indians; he never played another major league
game. Chiti was the first player ever to be sent back to his
original team in a trade in Major League history.
The
1963 Mets featured a
pitcher, Carlton Willey, who was having a great year, pitching four
shut-outs, when he incurred an injury and finished with a 9–14
win-loss record.
1964
On May 26, 1964, in Chicago, they played like champions (at least
for one game) and pummeled the
Chicago Cubs, 19–1. According to
legend, later that day a fan called a New York newspaper to get the
score. He was told: "They scored 19 runs." There was a long
silence, then the fan asked: "Did they win?"
Also in
1964, the Mets, who played their first two seasons in the old
Polo
Grounds, the former home of the Giants, moved to the newly
constructed Shea
Stadium, a 55,300-seat multipurpose facility built in the
Flushing neighborhood of the
Borough of Queens, adjacent to
the site of the 1939 and
1964 New York World's
Fairs.
One high point of Shea Stadium's first season came on
Father's Day, when
Philadelphia Phillies
pitcher
Jim Bunning threw a perfect game
against the
Mets, the
first in the National League since
1880. For perhaps the only
time in the stadium's history, the Shea faithful found themselves
rooting for the visitors, caught up in the rare achievement, and
roaring for Bunning on every pitch in the ninth inning. His
strikeout of John Stephenson capped the performance. Another high
point was Shea Stadium's hosting of the
All-Star Game.
Unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight in
the final hectic weekend of the 1964 season, the Mets
relished the role of spoiler, beating the Cardinals in St.
Louis
on Friday and Saturday (keeping alive the hopes of
the Phillies, Giants, and Reds) before succumbing to the eventual
National League champions on Sunday.
1966
The Mets' image as lovable losers was wearing a little thin as the
decade progressed, but things began to change slowly in the late
'60s. In
1966, the
Mets chose catcher
Steve Chilcott as
the first overall selection in the
amateur draft. He became
the first number one draft pick to retire without reaching the
major leagues. The second pick that year was Hall of Famer
Reggie Jackson.
1967–68
The Mets acquired top pitching prospect
Tom
Seaver in a lottery and he became the league's
Rookie of the
Year in
1967.
Even though the Mets remained in last place, Tom Seaver was a sign
of good fortune to come.
He was originally signed by the Atlanta Braves in February 1966 out of the
University of Southern
California
, but his contract was voided by Commissioner William Eckert on the basis that the USC season had already started when
Seaver signed. In order to resolve this issue, the Mets,
Indians, and Phillies were all placed in a hat since they were the
only teams willing to match the Braves offer, and the Mets were
fortunate enough to win the drawing. In addition to Seaver, two
other young players were catcher
Jerry
Grote and shortstop
Bud Harrelson.
This trio of youth formed a new, determined clubhouse nucleus that
had no interest in losing, lovably or otherwise. By the
1968 season,
Wes Westrum would be replaced as manager by
Gil Hodges. Pitcher
Jerry Koosman joined the staff and had a
spectacular rookie season in
1968, winning 19 games.
Left fielder
Cleon Jones developed as a
batter and exciting center fielder
Tommie
Agee came over in a trade. But although much improved, the
1968 team still finished
the season in 9th place.
1969: The Miracle Mets
The Mets began the
1969 season in a mediocre
way: an opening day home loss of 11–10 to the expansion
Montreal Expos was followed by a
record of 21–23 through the end of May. On April 10, 1969
Tommie Agee became the only player ever to hit a
home run to the small area of fair territory in the upper level of
Shea Stadium. A painted sign on the stands nearby commemorated the
spot at Shea. By mid-August, the favored
Chicago Cubs seemed safely on their
way to winning the first ever National League East Division title
(and their first postseason appearance of any kind since
1945). The Mets sat in third place, ten
games behind; but Chicago went 8–17 in September, while the Mets,
with outstanding pitching from their young staff, piled up victory
after victory, winning 38 of their last 49 games. They took first
place for good on September 9, and finished in first place with a
100–62 record for the season, their first winning year ever, a full
eight games over the Cubs. The Mets finished with a team ERA of
2.99, and a league leading 28 shutouts thrown. Tom Seaver led the
way with a 25–7 record, with lefty
Jerry
Koosman behind him at 17–9 record, while
Cleon Jones finished with a .340 batting
average. Seaver's best game occurred on July 9, at Shea Stadium,
where he came within two outs of a perfect game, but gave up a
one-out, ninth-inning single to the Cubs' Jimmy Qualls for the only
hit in the Mets' 4–0 victory.
The "Miracle Mets" or "Amazin Mets," as they became known by the
press, went on to win a three-game sweep of the strong
Atlanta Braves, led by legend
Henry "Hank" Aaron, in the very first
National League
Championship Series. The Mets were still considered underdogs
in this series despite the fact that they had a better record than
the Braves, the first place team in the National League West.
The Mets were given very little chance in the
1969 World Series, facing a powerful
Baltimore Orioles team
that had gone 109–53 in the regular season and included
Frank Robinson,
Brooks Robinson, and
Jim Palmer as well as future Mets manager
Davey Johnson, who would make the
final out of the Series. Before the series began, pundits predicted
Tom Seaver might win the opening game, but that the Mets would have
trouble winning again in the World Series. As it turned out, just
the opposite occurred; Seaver was roughed up, allowing four runs in
the opener, which he lost — but the Mets' pitching shut down
the Orioles after that, holding them to just five runs over the
next four games, to win the World Series 4 games to 1. Seaver got
his revenge in game four, pitching all 10 innings of a 2–1
victory.
For longtime Mets announcer
Ralph Kiner
and many fans, the turning point in the team's season, came in the
third inning of the second game of a July 30 doubleheader against
the
Houston Astros. When
left fielder Cleon Jones failed to hustle after a ball hit to the
outfield, Mets manager Gil Hodges removed him from the game —
but rather than simply signal from the dugout for Jones to come
out, or delegate the job to one of his coaches, Hodges left the
dugout and slowly, deliberately, walked all the way out to left
field to Jones, and walked him back to the bench. For the rest of
that season, Jones never failed to hustle.
1970–1979: "Ya Gotta Believe!" and the Midnight Massacre
1970–72
The Miracle Mets magic wore off as the 1970s began. In subsequent
years, Mets pitchers generally excelled but received lackluster
support from the hitters with mediocre finishes the result. Efforts
to improve the offense backfired with blunders such as trading
Amos Otis for troubled infielder
Joe Foy after the 1969 season as well as young
pitcher
Nolan Ryan for infielder
Jim Fregosi after the
1971 season.
Once out of the
glaring New York spotlight, Ryan became one of the best pitchers in
history, spending 22 more years in the majors and entering the
Baseball Hall of Fame
in 1999 as a Texas Ranger. Fregosi
battled injuries and played just 146 games for the Mets over a
season and a half. Meanwhile Otis became a star with the
Kansas City Royals while Foy lasted only
one season in New York.
The team was thrown into confusion and shock prior to the
1972 season, when Manager
Gil Hodges, who had led the team to the
World Series victory in 1969, suffered a sudden heart attack at the
end of spring training and died. Coach
Yogi
Berra succeeded Hodges.
1973
The home run apple in Shea
Stadium
Berra's Mets found themselves in last place with a 61–71 record at
the end of August 1973, but they recovered behind relief pitcher
Tug McGraw and his
"Ya gotta
believe!" rallying cry (the team has since
trademarked the phrase), winning 21 of their last
29 games. Berra also coined his most famous
Yogiism that year:
"It ain't over
till it's over!" Their final record of only 82–79 was good
enough to win the division while five better teams missed the
postseason. Despite the second-worst winning percentage ever by a
division winner (until the
2005 San Diego Padres), the
Mets then shocked the heavily-favored
Cincinnati Reds "
Big Red Machine" in the
NLCS. Their record
remains the worst of any pennant-winning team but they managed to
push the defending World Series Champion
Oakland Athletics to a seventh
game. Their near-miracle season ended with a loss to
Ken Holtzman in the final contest.
1974–79
As the
1975 season
ended, owner Joan Payson died, leaving the team to her husband
Charles. While Joan Payson had been the driving force behind the
Mets, her survivors did not share her enthusiasm. Charles delegated
his authority to his three daughters, who left control over
baseball matters to club chairman Grant. Contract disputes with
star pitcher
Tom Seaver and slugger
Dave Kingman erupted in 1977. Both
players were traded on June 15, the trading deadline, in what New
York
tabloids dubbed "The Midnight
Massacre." The Mets received six players in the two deals, but none
had any lasting impact. Attendance fell, to the point where Shea
Stadium was nicknamed "Grant's Tomb." Coincidentally, the Yankees
began their resurgence at roughly the same time, further eroding
the Mets' fan base.
The
team finished in last
place yet again in
1978. By this time, it was
obvious that Grant had mismanaged the team and failed to invest in
its future. Charles Payson himself fired Grant at the end of the
season. The Mets continued to struggle, and did not become a
competitive team again until the mid-1980s, marking the first time
that both New York teams were competitive at the same time, both on
the field and at the box office.
1980–1990: Cashen rebuilds, World Series Champions and what
could have been
1980–84
In January 1980, the Payson heirs sold the Mets franchise to the
Doubleday publishing company
for $21.1 million.
Nelson
Doubleday, Jr. was named chairman of the board while minority
shareholder
Fred Wilpon took the role of
club president. Wilpon quickly hired longtime
Baltimore Orioles executive
Frank Cashen as general manager to begin the
process of rebuilding the Mets.
Cashen's positive impact on the organization took some time to be
felt at the major league level. He began by selecting slugging high
school phenomenon
Darryl
Strawberry as the number one overall pick in the
1980 amateur draft. Two
years later, hard-throwing hurler
Dwight
Gooden was taken as the fifth overall selection in the
1982 draft. The pair rose
quickly through the minors, winning successive
Rookie of the
Year awards (Strawberry in 1983, Gooden in 1984). Cashen's
mid-season 1983 trade for former
MVP
Keith Hernandez helped spark the
Mets' return to competitive contention. In 1984, new manager
Davey Johnson was promoted from the
helm of the AAA
Tidewater Tides and
led the Mets to a 90–72 record, their first winning season since
1976.
1985
In 1985, the Mets acquired catcher
Gary
Carter from the
Montreal Expos
and won 98 games, but lost the division title to the
St. Louis Cardinals in the
final days of the season in a memorable series. The Mets began the
series three games behind St. Louis and won the first two, but
faltered in the third game, allowing St. Louis to remain in first
place.
1986: World Champions Again
Unlike the league champion Mets of 1969 or 1973, the 1986 Mets
broke away from the rest of the division early and dominated
throughout the year. They won 20 of their first 24 games, clinched
the East Division title on September 17, and finished the year
108–54, which tied with the
1975 Cincinnati Reds for the
third highest win total in National League history, behind the
1906 Chicago Cubs (116) and
the
Pittsburgh
Pirates (110). The relative lack of excitement during the
regular season was more than compensated for by the spectacularly
suspenseful and dramatic post-season series.
In the
National
League Championship Series, the Mets faced their fellow 1962
expansion team, the
Houston
Astros. Unlike the Mets, the Astros had yet to win a pennant,
but had former Mets pitchers
Mike
Scott, the league's
Cy Young
Award winner, and
fireballer Nolan Ryan leading their pitching staff. The Mets
took a two-games-to-one lead with a come-from-behind
walk-off home run by
Lenny Dykstra. In Game 6, the Mets turned a
3–0 ninth-inning deficit into a sixteen-inning marathon victory to
clinch the National League pennant and earn their third
World Series appearance. The Astros would have
to wait until
2005 to finally win
their first pennant.
In the
World Series against the
Boston Red Sox, the Mets
faced elimination leading into Game 6. The Red Sox scored two runs
in the tenth inning and twice came within one strike of winning
their first World Series since
1918. However, the Mets rallied and would
come back in typical Amazin' Mets fashion, as the game became one
of the most famous games in baseball history as the
Curse of the Bambino appeared to be
alive and well. In fact, it was in this series that talk of the
curse began.
With two outs and down two runs, three consecutive singles brought
the Mets within of knotting the score. Hitter
Mookie Wilson ran the count to 2-1, then
fouled off 3 consecutive pitches. With the count 2-2, pitcher
Bob Stanley threw a wild pitch that
Wilson had to leap out of the way of. Boston catcher
Rich Gedman made a wild stab for the ball but it
went to the backstop. Pinch hitter
Kevin Mitchell scored from third
base, tying the game.
Now facing a full count, Wilson fouled off two more pitches. On
NBC,
Vin Scully then called a play that would quickly
become an iconic one to baseball fans, with the normally calm
Scully growing increasingly excited:
Scully then remained silent for more than three minutes, letting
the pictures and the crowd noise tell the story. Scully resumed
with:
The Mets went on to win their second World Series title by taking
Game 7, also in dramatic fashion, overcoming a 3 run deficit while
scoring a total of 8 runs during the final 3 innings. They remain
the only team to come within one strike of losing a World Series
before recovering to become World Champions.
While the team around the 1986 championship was strong, they also
became infamous for off-the-field controversy. Both Strawberry and
Gooden were youngsters who wound up burning out long before their
time because of various substance abuse and personal problems.
Hernandez's cocaine abuse was the subject of persistent rumors even
before he joined the Mets, but he publicly acknowledged his
addiction in 1985 and made a successful recovery. Lenny Dykstra's
reputation was recently tainted by allegations of
steroid use and
gambling
problems.Instead of putting together a winning dynasty, the
problems caused the Mets to soon fall apart.Despite Darryl
Strawberry's numerous off-the-field mishaps, he remains the Mets'
all-time leader in home runs and runs batted in.
1987
After winning the World Series in 1986 the Mets declined to re-sign
World Series MVP
Ray Knight, who then
signed with the
Baltimore Orioles.
Also, they traded the flexible
Kevin Mitchell to the Padres for
long-ball threat
Kevin McReynolds.
But the biggest shock since the Midnight Massacre of 1977 was when
Mets' ace Dwight Gooden was admitted to a drug clinic after testing
positive for cocaine. But after struggling in the first few months
of the
1987
season, "Dr. K" would come back, and so would the Mets. It was
during the tough times that the Mets made a great long-term deal,
trading
Ed Hearn to the
Kansas City Royals for pitcher
David Cone. They would surge to battle
St. Louis for the division
title. But on September 11 in a game against St. Louis, 3rd baseman
Terry Pendleton hit a homer to give
the Cardinals a lead, and eventually the NL East title. One
highlight of the year was
Darryl
Strawberry and
Howard
Johnson becoming the first teammates' ever to hit 30 homers and
steal 30 bases in the same season.
1988
After missing the playoffs in 1987, the 1988 Mets again won the
division. Thanks to some stellar pitching from Gooden,
Ron Darling, and
David
Cone as well as offense from McReynolds, Strawberry, and Howard
Johnson, the Mets won 100 games for the 2nd time in 3 campaigns. In
addition, Strawberry and McReynolds both lost the MVP to
Kirk Gibson as they finished 2nd and 3rd in the
voting, respectively. Despite this, however, the clubhouse was
distracted by the presence of a young
Gregg Jefferies who was just called up. The
veteran players took a dislike to Jefferies, who had a habit of
excessive bragging, prompting his teammates to saw his bats in half
as a form of hazing. The Mets played the
Los Angeles Dodgers in the
1988 National
League Championship Series in a season where they beat them 10
out of 11 times but, led by
Orel
Hershiser, the Dodgers continued their
Cinderella story season by beating the
Mets in seven games.
1989-1990
The Mets (as well as the
Montreal Expos) would battle the
Cubs for the division title
in
1989, but
Chicago would prevail, despite a career year by Howard Johnson and
a deadline trade with
Minnesota for
1988 AL Cy Young winner
Frank Viola.
Those high points were tempered by injuries to Gooden, Hernandez
and Carter as well as an ill-fated trade that sent Dykstra and
Roger McDowell to
Philadelphia in exchange for
Juan Samuel. After the season, Samuel, who hit
.235 that season, would be traded to the Dodgers for
Mike Marshall, who would hit .239
in 53 games for the Mets before being traded to Boston. Dykstra,
however, would become an All-Star in Philadelphia and help lead his
team to a pennant in 1993.
That offseason, the Mets had a mix of triumph and tragedy. They
would receive All-Star closer and native New Yorker
John Franco in a trade with the
Cincinnati Reds, and Strawberry, in legal
trouble as well, would check into an alcohol rehabilitation center
and miss the start of the season. They would also lose key veterans
Gary Carter and
Keith Hernandez as they left for the Dodgers
and Indians, respectively. The next season, the Mets would surge
again to battle the
Pittsburgh
Pirates, but Pittsburgh's "B-B Guns" (which included
Barry Bonds,
Bobby
Bonilla,
Jay Bell and Wally Backman)
led the Pirates to their first NLCS since 1979. In that campaign,
general manager
Frank Cashen fired
Johnson from his managerial job and replaced him with former
shortstop
Bud Harrelson. Although he
led them to a good finish in 1990 (Strawberry's last with the Mets,
as he went on to sign with the Dodgers in the offseason), the Mets
fell to 5th place in 1991. Before the 1991 season the Mets signed
Vince Coleman to a $2 million contract
after failing to sign defending batting champion
Willie McGee. This was the first of what would
lead to many bad free agent signings and trades that would doom the
Mets during the mid 1990s.
1991–1997: "Hardball Is Back", The Worst Team Money Could
Buy and Generation K
1991–92
During the
1991
season, the
Mets were
actually in contention for most of the first half of the season,
closing to within 2.5 games of the front-running
Pirates at one point.
However, during the second half, the bottom completely fell out and
Harrelson was fired with a week left to go in the season, replaced
by third base coach
Mike Cubbage for
the final games.
Jefferies was once again a distraction as he
released a controversial statement to be read on WFAN
radio:
"When a pitcher is having trouble getting players out, when a
hitter is having trouble hitting, or when a player makes an error,
I try to support them in whatever way I can. I don't run
to the media to belittle them or to draw more attention to their
difficult times. I can only hope that one day those
teammates who have found it convenient to criticize me will realize
that we are all in this together. If only we can
concentrate more on the games than complaining and bickering and
pointing fingers, we would all be better off."
This was seen as the end for Jefferies in New York as he would be
traded to the
Kansas City Royals
in the offseason.
The season ended on a high note, however, as
David Cone pitched a one-hit shutout
against the Phillies at Veterans
Stadium
, in which he struck out 19 batters, tying the
National League regulation game record (first set by former Met
Tom Seaver)
With all of the personal problems swirling around the Mets after
the 1986 championship, the Mets tried to rebuild using experienced
superstars. They picked up
Eddie Murray
for over $3 million,
Bobby Bonilla for
over $6 million. They also traded McReynolds and Jeffries for
one-time World Series hero
Bret
Saberhagen and his $3 million contract, along with signing
veteran free agent pitcher
Frank Tanana
for $1.5 million. The rebuilding was supported by the slogan,
"Hardball Is Back".
The experiment of building a team via free agency quickly flopped
as Saberhagen and Coleman were soon injured and spent more time on
the disabled list than on the field, and Bonilla exhibited
unprofessional behavior towards members of the press, once
threatening a reporter by saying, "I'll show you The Bronx"
[3478]. At the beginning of the 1991 season,
Coleman, Gooden and outfielder
Daryl
Boston were named in an alleged sexual abuse incident against a
woman near the Mets' spring training facility; charges were later
dropped. Meanwhile, popular pitcher
David
Cone was dealt to the
Toronto Blue
Jays during the 1992 season for
Ryan
Thompson and
Jeff Kent. While the move
was widely criticized by fans of both teams, the Jays went on to
win the
1992 World Series.
1993
The lowest point of the experiment was the
1993 season when the Mets
lost 103 games. In April of that year, Coleman accidentally hit
Gooden's shoulder with a golf club while practicing his swing. In
July, Saberhagen threw a firecracker under a table near reporters.
Their young pitching prospect
Anthony Young started the '93
season at 0–13 and his overall streak of 27 straight losses over
two years set a new record. After Young's record-setting loss,
Coleman threw a firecracker out of the team bus window and injured
three people resulting in felony charges that effectively ended his
Mets career. Only a few days later, Saberhagen was in trouble
again, this time for spraying
bleach at three
reporters. The meltdown season resulted in the worst record for a
Mets team since 1965. Their descent was chronicled by the book
The Worst Team Money Could Buy: The Collapse Of The New York
Mets (ISBN 0-8032-7822-5) by Mets beat writers
Bob Klapisch and John Harper. In addition, two
of the three remaining links to the '86 team,
Howard Johnson and
Sid Fernandez, departed after the season via
free agency.
1994 season
The
following
season was filled with some bright spots, but there was still
trouble for the franchise, and for the team's franchise player.
Gooden, who had a 3–4 record with a 6.31 ERA in the final year of
his contract with the team, shocked not only New York sports fans,
but baseball fans around the country by testing positive for
cocaine and was suspended by Major League Baseball for 60 days.
Shortly after he began serving his suspension for the positive drug
test, it was announced that he had again tested positive for
cocaine and was now being suspended by Major League Baseball for
one year, thus ending his Mets career and nearly his life. The day
after receiving the second suspension, Gooden's then-wife, Monica,
found him in his bedroom with a loaded gun to his head.
Still, the 1994 season saw some promise for the troubled Mets, as
first baseman
Rico Brogna and second
baseman
Jeff Kent became fan favorites
with their solid glove work and potential 20-25 home run power,
Bonilla started to become the player the Mets expected, and a
healthy Saberhagen, along with promising young starter
Bobby Jones and John
Franco, helped the Mets pitching staff along. In the
strike-shortened 1994
season the Mets were in 3rd place behind first-place
Montreal and
Atlanta when the season ended on
August 12.
1995 season
When the strike finally ended in
1995, the Mets finally
showed some promise again, finishing in 2nd place (but still 6
games under .500) behind eventual World Series champion
Atlanta.
The 1995 season marked the emergence of pitchers
Bill Pulsipher,
Jason Isringhausen, and
Paul Wilson. The trio were dubbed
Generation K, a group of talented young
hurlers who were destined to bring the Mets into greatness, much
like Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and
Nolan
Ryan did in the 60s. However, all three players succumbed to
injury, preventing them from reaching their full potential.
1996 season
The Mets dismal
1996
season was highlighted by the play of
switch hitting catcher
Todd Hundley breaking the Major League
Baseball single season record for home runs hit by catcher with 41.
Center fielder Lance Johnson set single-season franchise
records in
hits (227),
triples (21),
at
bats (682),
runs scored (117),
and
total bases (327).
1997
In the off season, the Mets acquired 1st Baseman
John Olerud from the Toronto Blue Jays for
pitcher
Robert Person.
In
1997, as they
missed the playoffs by only four games, and improved by 17 wins
from 1996.
On June 16, the Mets beat the New York Yankees at Yankee
Stadium
in the first ever regular-season game played
between the crosstown rivals 6–0. Mets starter
Dave Mlicki pitched a complete game/shutout to
pick up the win. In 1997, Hundley's great season was derailed by a
devastating elbow injury and required
Tommy John surgery.
1998–2004: Piazza, the Subway Series and 9/11
.jpg/200px-Mike_Piazza_(1999).jpg)
Mike Piazza on May 30, 1999
1998
In 1998, the Mets acquired
Mike Piazza
in a blockbuster trade that immediately brought star power and
credibility to the Mets that had been lacking in recent
years.
After the Piazza trade, the Mets played well, but missed the 1998
postseason by only one game. With five games left in the
1998 season, the Mets
could not win a single game against both the
Montreal Expos at home and the
Atlanta Braves on the
road. Following the 1998 season the Mets re-signed Mike Piazza to a
seven-year, $91 million contract, the Mets traded Todd Hundley to
the Los Angeles Dodgers.
[3479] Trades netted the Mets Roger Cedeno,
Armando Benitez, and the Mets signed free agents
Robin Ventura,
Rickey Henderson, and
Bobby Bonilla.
1999
The Mets started the
1999 season well, going
17–9, but after an eight-game losing streak, including the last two
to the
New York
Yankees, the Mets fired their entire coaching staff except for
manager
Bobby Valentine. The Mets,
in front of a national audience on
ESPN
Sunday Night
Baseball, beat the
New York Yankees 7–2 in the
turning point of the 1999 season. Both Mike Piazza and Robin
Ventura had MVP-type seasons and
Benny
Agbayani emerged as an important role player. It was a breakout
year for Mets second baseman
Edgardo
Alfonzo and
Roger Cedeño, who
broke the single season steals record for the Mets.
After the regular season ended, the Mets played
a one game
playoff against the
Cincinnati Reds,
Al Leiter pitched the best game of his Met career
as he hurled a two-hit complete-game shutout to advance the Mets to
the playoffs. In the
NLDS, the Mets defeated
the
Arizona
Diamondbacks 3 games to 1. The series-clinching victory
included a walk-off home run by backup catcher
Todd Pratt. The Mets would lose however in the
1999 National
League Championship Series to the
Atlanta Braves, in six exciting
games which included the famous
Grand
Slam Single by Robin Ventura to win game 5 for the Mets. The
Mets were at one point down 3–0 in the series.
2000
In the 1999 offseason, the Mets traded Roger Cedeño and
Octavio Dotel to the
Houston Astros for
Derek Bell and
Mike Hampton.
Todd
Zeile was signed to play first base, replacing departing free
agent John Olerud.
The
2000 season
began well for the Mets as Derek Bell became the best hitter on the
team for the first month. The highlight of the season came on June
30 when the Mets beat the rival
Atlanta Braves in a memorable
game at Shea Stadium on
Fireworks Night. With the Mets
losing 8–1 to begin the bottom of the eighth, they rallied back
with two outs to tie the game, capping the 10-run inning with Mike
Piazza's three run home run to put the Mets up 11–8, giving them
the lead and eventually the win. The Mets easily made the playoffs
winning the
National League wild
card. In the playoffs, the Mets beat the
San Francisco Giants in the
first round and the
St.
Louis Cardinals in the
2000 National League
Championship Series to win their fourth NL pennant. Mike
Hampton was named the NLCS MVP for his two scoreless starts in the
series as the Mets headed to the
2000
World Series to face their crosstown rivals, the New York
Yankees. The Mets were defeated in the much-hyped "
Subway Series." This marked the first all-New
York World Series since
1956, when
the
Yankees defeated
the
Brooklyn
Dodgers.
The most memorable moment of the 2000 World Series occurred during
the first inning of Game 2 at Yankee Stadium. Piazza fouled off a
pitch which shattered his bat, sending a piece of the barrel toward
the pitcher's mound. Pitcher
Roger
Clemens seized the piece and hurled it in the direction of
Piazza as the catcher trotted to first base, benches briefly
cleared before the game was resumed with no ejections. In July
2000, Clemens had knocked Piazza unconscious with a fastball to the
helmet, Piazza had previously enjoyed great success against
Clemens, with 3 crucial home runs in previous encounters.
2001
In 2001, the Mets finished with a record of 82–80.
After the September 11th terrorist attacks
Shea
Stadium was used as a relief center and then saw the first
sporting event in New York City since the attacks, in a game vs.
the Atlanta Braves on
September 21. Before the game the
FDNY,
EMT,
NYPD, and all rescue workers were honored,
Diana Ross sang
God
Bless America, the two teams shook hands to show that they were
united in the face of tragedy, and Liza Minnelli sang "
New York, New York" during the
7th inning stretch. In the bottom of the 8th inning the Mets were
trailing 2–1 when Mike Piazza came to bat with a runner on first.
Piazza dramatically sent Shea into a frenzy by crushing a home run
to give the Mets a 3–2 lead and the eventual win. The game is
considered to be one of the greatest moments in the history of the
franchise.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the
Mets, as well as other teams in the league, wore Red Cross
, FDNY, and NYPD hats. Unlike the other
teams, the Mets wore these for the rest of the year, despite
threats of fines by Major League Baseball.
2002 season
In the following seasons, the Mets struggled mightily as the result
of several poor player acquisitions, including
Mo Vaughn,
Roberto
Alomar, and re-acquiring former Mets Roger Cedeño and
Jeromy Burnitz. These acquisitions were made
by then-general manager
Steve
Phillips, who was fired during the 2003 season. Phillips was
credited with building the 2000 World Series team, but also blamed
for the demise of the Mets' farm system and the poor play of the
acquired players. The Mets did have a few bright spots in 2002. Al
Leiter became the first major league pitcher to defeat all thirty
major league teams with a victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
However, the Mets posted a 75–86 record, last in the
NL East.
The team's
2002
difficulties reached off the field as co-owners Wilpon and
Doubleday became embroiled in a bitter legal dispute over Wilpon's
attempt to buy Doubleday's half of the team. Doubleday alleged that
Major League Baseball attached an unrealistically low value to the
team, thereby lowering the amount of money he would receive from
Wilpon in the buyout. Wilpon sued Doubleday in federal court to
force the sale. The purchase was finally settled and Wilpon became
sole owner of the Mets on August 23, 2002. Wilpon, the founder of
Sterling Equities, Inc., manages the Mets through his
limited partnership firm, Sterling
Mets.
2003 season
The Mets' record in
2003 (66–95) was the
fourth worst in baseball, and Piazza had missed two-thirds of the
season with a torn groin muscle. His steady decline around that
time mirrored the Mets' fortunes for the first half of the decade.
José Reyes also made his
debut on June 10, 2003.
2004 season
In
2004, the Mets
made more poor player acquisitions including signing Japanese
shortstop
Kazuo Matsui, who never lived
up to his potential in two-and-a-half years with the Mets. General
manager
Jim Duquette acquired pitcher
Kris Benson for third baseman
Ty Wigginton at the trade deadline just before
one of the worst trades in franchise history, sending highly-touted
pitching prospect
Scott Kazmir to the
Tampa Bay Devil Rays for the
disappointing
Victor Zambrano. On
July 21, 2004, the Mets brought up third baseman
David Wright. Since then, Wright and
Jose Reyes have become the most outstanding products of the Mets'
farm system since
Darryl
Strawberry and
Dwight Gooden.
Nonetheless, The Mets finished 71–91 in 2004.
2005–present: Minaya, The Collapse, Citi Field and
Injuries
After the
2004
season,
Mets ownership
made significant changes to their management strategy. With their
television contract with the
Cablevision
expiring at the end of 2005, they announced plans to establish
their own cable network to broadcast Mets games. This investment in
what became known as
SportsNet New
York was coupled with an aggressive plan to upgrade the
performance of the team on the field.
Jim
Duquette was replaced as general manager by former Expos GM
Omar Minaya. Minaya, an ex-Mets
assistant GM, had achieved notable success in Montreal by making
bold player moves on a limited budget. With the Mets, Minaya was
given substantial financial resources to develop a winning
team.
2005 season
Minaya began by hiring Yankee bench coach
Willie Randolph as manager, then signed two
of that year's most sought-after free agents —
Pedro Martínez and
Carlos Beltrán — to large
multi-year deals. Despite an 0–5 start to the
season, the team finished
83–79, finishing above the .500 mark for the first time since 2001.
The 2005 season was also the last by
Mike
Piazza in a Mets uniform.
During the 2005 offseason star first baseman
Carlos Delgado and catcher
Paul Lo Duca were acquired via trade and the
Mets signed free agent closer
Billy
Wagner.
2006 season
In
2006, led by a
franchise record six
All-Stars (Beltran,
Lo Duca, Reyes, Wright,
Tom Glavine, and
Martínez), the Mets won the division title, their first in 18
years. In a runaway similar to 1986, the Mets led the division from
April 6 on, and only spent one day out of first the whole season.
The Mets finished the season 12 games ahead of the
Phillies, and with the
best record in the
National League.
The turning point for the season was a 9–1 June road trip. The 2006
season was also the first time that the Mets and
Yankees each won their
respective divisions in the same year and both teams tied for the
best record in baseball.
The Mets swept the
Los
Angeles Dodgers in the
2006 National League
Division Series. In the
2006 National League
Championship Series, the Mets lost in seven games to the
St. Louis Cardinals,
the eventual
2006 World Series
champions. Game 7 featured one of the most spectacular plays in
postseason history when left fielder
Endy Chávez leaped over the 8-foot (2.4
m)-high left field wall in the top of the sixth inning and caught
the ball with the tip of his glove to rob Cardinals third baseman
Scott Rolen of a two-run home run.
Chávez then threw to the cutoff man second baseman
Jose Valentin, who threw to Carlos Delgado at
first base, doubling off center fielder
Jim
Edmonds for an inning-ending double play. Unfortunately,
Chávez's effort was in vain, as Carlos Beltran took a curve ball
from Cardinals closer
Adam
Wainwright for a called third strike in the bottom of the ninth
to end the Mets season.
2007 season
After their success in 2006, there were high expectations for the
Mets in
2007, and
they started the season strong. The Mets, however, would lose 12 of
their final 17 games enabling the
Philadelphia Phillies to
win the NL East by one game. The Mets were eliminated on the final
day of the season as Tom Glavine allowed 7 runs to the
Florida Marlins in the first
inning. The Mets became first team in baseball history to blow a
lead of seven or more games with only 17 games to play.
2008 season
In the 2007 offseason the team acquired two-time
Cy Young Award-winning pitcher
Johan Santana from the
Minnesota Twins for outfielder
Carlos Gomez and minor-league pitchers
Philip Humber,
Deolis
Guerra and
Kevin Mulvey.
The
2008 season marked
the final season at Shea
Stadium, the team's home for 45 years. Throughout
the first half of the season, the Mets struggled, playing .500. On
June 16,
Omar Minaya fired
Willie Randolph,
Rick Peterson, and
Tom
Nieto.
Jerry Manuel was named
interim manager. The Mets improved under Manuel, highlighted by a
10-game winning streak in July. In September the Mets had 3.5 game
divisional lead over the
Philadelphia Phillies with
17 games left to play. However, the Mets lost 10 of their final 17
games. The Phillies went 13–4 during the same stretch and won the
division (the Phillies went on to win the World Series). The Mets
still remained in the NL Wild Card with the
Milwaukee Brewers but on
September 28, the final game played at Shea Stadium, the Mets were
eliminated from playoff contention by losing to the
Florida Marlins on the season's
final day for the second straight season.
2009 season
To improve the bullpen for the
2009 season, which was
arguably the reason the Mets missed the playoffs in 2007 and 2008,
the Mets signed free agent closer
Francisco Rodríguez, who
established a single-season major league record for saves (62) as a
member of the
Los Angeles
Angels of Anaheim in 2008. They also acquired setup man
J.J. Putz from
the
Seattle Mariners in exchange
for several players.
The 2009
season was the Mets' first season at Citi Field, a retropark following current architectural trends
in stadium design. It follows the brick and steel-truss trend
begun by the Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards
in 1992. The exterior facade resembles Ebbets Field
, former home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Mets' first
exhibition game at Citi Field was played on April 3, 2009 against
the
Boston Red Sox. The
first home game was on April 13, 2009 against the
San Diego Padres, who spoiled
the opener with a 6–5 win against the Mets. On April 17,
Gary Sheffield, who just days earlier was
signed by the Mets as a free agent, hit his
500th home run against the
Milwaukee Brewers. Sheffield
became the first pinch hitter to reach this milestone, as well as
the first to do it in a Mets uniform.
The 2009 season for the Mets was marred by numerous injuries
suffered by its players, with 20 of them having been on the
disabled list at one point or another
during the season and losing star players like
J.J. Putz,
John Maine,
Oliver
Perez,
José Reyes,
Carlos Beltrán,
David Wright,
Carlos Delgado,
Johan Santana,and
Gary Sheffield. As a result, the Mets
finished in fourth place, with a record of 70-92 and failed to
qualify for the playoffs for the third straight season. Mets
players spent more than 1,480 days in the disabled list in 2009,
more than any other team in the majors.
Quick facts
Uniform and logo symbolism
Uniform color and design
The Mets' colors are blue, orange, black and white, symbolic of the
return of
National League baseball
to New York after the
Brooklyn
Dodgers (blue/white) and
New
York Giants (orange/black) moved to California. Blue and orange
are also the colors of New York City, as seen on its
flag.
Currently, the Mets wear an assortment of uniforms. One variation
includes solid gray road uniforms with blue trim on the sleeves,
the jersey front, and down the side of the pant legs. "NEW YORK" is
printed across the front of road jerseys in old English style font.
Prior to the 1997 season the Mets introduced "snow white" home
uniforms. Like the road uniforms, they feature blue piping but are
white and feature the cursive "Mets" written across the front of
the jersey. Before the 1998 season black was added as an official
Mets color. Black drop-shadows were added to the blue and orange
lettering on the white and gray jerseys. A solid black alternate
jersey with blue piping and "Mets" written in blue lettering
trimmed in orange and white was introduced.
The Mets will introduce a new pinstripe home uniform for the 2010
season. The design combines new and old elements of Mets uniforms.
The cream color and blue pinstripes of the new uniform are based on
the original Mets uniform when the team debuted in 1962. "Mets"
continues to be written in blue script on the front of the jersey,
outlined in orange and black. The team will continue to wear their
non-pinstriped white uniforms and their black alternate jerseys at
Citi Field as well.
The standard cap is blue with an orange "NY" logo. Two alternate
caps were also introduced — a black cap with a blue brim and a
blue "NY" logo trimmed in orange (worn with the white and gray
jerseys) and an all black cap with a blue "NY" logo trimmed in
orange and white (worn with the black jersey).
The Mets wear three styles of
Coolflo
batting helmets, depending what cap they are wearing that day. If
they are wearing their black cap with blue brim, the batting
helmets have a blue brim and fade to black in the back with a black
"NY" outlined in white. If they are wearing their all-black caps,
the batting helmets are all black with a blue "NY" outlined in
white then orange, and if they are wearing their all-blue caps, the
batting helmets are all-blue with an orange "NY" with no
outlines.
Logo
The cap logo is identical to the logo used by the New York Giants
in their final years, and is on a blue cap reminiscent of the caps
worn by the Brooklyn Dodgers. In the primary logo, designed by
sports cartoonist Ray Gatto, each part of the skyline has special
meaning — at the left is a church spire, symbolic of Brooklyn,
the borough of churches; the second building from the left is the
Williamsburg Savings Bank, the tallest building in Brooklyn; next
is the Woolworth Building; after a general skyline view of midtown
comes the Empire State Building; at the far right is the United
Nations Building. The bridge in the center symbolizes that the
Mets, by bringing National League baseball back to New York,
represent all five boroughs.
[3480]
With the introduction of black as an official color, an alternate
team logo was created. It is identical to the original logo, but
the skyline is black instead of blue and the "Mets" script is blue
trimmed in orange and white instead of orange trimmed in
white.
Baseball Hall of Famers
- Affiliation according to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and
Museum
- Names in Bold - Inducted as Met
- * Carter asked that the cap on his Hall of Fame plaque either
be depicted as split between the Mets and Montreal Expos, or just as a Met. The Hall
chose instead to depict him as an Expo, determining that his time
with that team formed the most significant portion of his
career.
Ford C. Frick Award recipients
Names in
bold received the award based on their
work as Mets broadcasters.
* Played as Mets
Retired numbers
The numbers honored are as follows:
In addition,
Tom Seaver is the only Met
ever to win the
Sports
Illustrated Sportsman of
the Year Award in 1969 and was voted the Mets "Hometown Hero"
in a 2006 poll sponsored by
DHL.
Major
League Baseball retired Jackie Robinson's number 42 on April 15,
1997, when the Mets played the Dodgers at Shea Stadium, although Butch Huskey
wore the number throughout the rest of his Mets career (due to a
grandfather clause placed on the
retired number by MLB). Mo Vaughn
also wore number 42 during his stint with the Mets, due to the same
clause.
On April 8, 2008, the final Opening Day at Shea Stadium, the Mets
unveiled a sign bearing the name
"Shea"
next to the team's retired numbers listed above.
Numbers out of circulation but not retired
The Mets have not issued number 8 since
Gary
Carter was elected to the Hall of Fame.
Retired numbers by the Mets at Citi
Field
When the Mets honored Carter, they did not retire number 8 at that
time, but instead gave him a replica of his Hall of Fame plaque
depicting him as a Met instead of an Expo.
John Franco wore number 31 for the Mets
until 1998, when he switched to number 45 to accommodate
Mike Piazza, who wore it until leaving the Mets
after the 2005 season. Pedro Martinez has worn number 45 for the
Mets from 2005 - 2008. Currently number 45 has not been issued for
the 2009 season. The Mets have not issued number 31 since Piazza's
departure. There is also a growing debate that number 45 be retired
in honor of the late Tug McGraw.
When
Willie Mays retired after the 1973
season, owner Joan Whitney Payson(who had great admiration for
Mays) promised Mays his number would not be issued to another
player. Since then, number 24 has been issued only twice: to 1B-OF
Kelvin Torve (by mistake in 1990) and
to OF
Rickey Henderson, as a player
(1999–2000) and as a coach (2007).
Team captains
Current roster
Minor league affiliations
See also
References
External links
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