Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xv
1 First Off, Bill Buckner 1
2 Standing the World on Its Ear 6
3 Tom Seaver 10
4 Messy Jesse's Sweet 16 in Houston 12
5 Mike Piazza 14
6 The Shoe Polish Incident 17
7 Gil Hodges 19
8 Dykstra Nails It 22
9 All-Star Announcing Trio 24
10 The Grand-Slam Single 27
11 1986: Of Cruise Control and Comebacks 30
12 Zeroing In on a Miracle 33
13 The Seaver Deal 35
14 Keith Hernandez 39
15 1999 Division Series 41
16 Davey Johnson 44
17 Casey Stengel 47
18 Jerry Koosman 50
19 Murph Morphs Into Ruth 53
20 24-4: Doctor K 55
21 Tug McGraw 59
22 The Black Cat 61
23 The Carom 63
24 Mora Touches Down 66
25 Benny's Blast 69
26 Jonesing 71
27 Joan Payson 73
28 David Wright 76
29 The Big Shea 78
30 Best Mets Trades 81
31 To Cheer Again 84
32 Mookie Wilson 88
33 Cleon Jones 91
34 Darryl Strawberry 93
35 Bobby Valentine 96
36 Nolan Ryan and Other Bad Trades 99
37 The New York Press 101
38 Mets on the Radio 104
39 SNY: So Not YES 106
40 Frank Cashen 107
41 Seaver's Unbreakable Pitching Records 110
42 Rusty Staub 112
43 Gary Carter 115
44 Jerry Grote 117
45 Tommie Agee 119
46 Swoboda Happens 123
47 The Friggin' A's, Damn Yankees, and a Royal Pain 125
48 Seventh Heaven and Hell 128
49 No More No No-Hitters 131
50 Carlos Beltran 133
51 Jose Reyes 136
52 Ed Kranepool 138
53 Scioscia vs. Molina 140
54 Howard Johnson 141
55 Edgardo Alfonzo 144
56 Subway Mugging: A Brief History of Mets vs. Yankees 147
57 Yogi Berra 151
58 Bud Harrelson 153
59 Jon Matlack 154
60 Groundbreakers: Bill Shea and George Weiss 157
61 Roger McDowell 159
62 Sid Fernandez 162
63 Well Staffed 163
64 Closing Arguments 165
65 Lenny Dykstra 168
66 Al Jackson 171
67 4:00 AM Wake-Up Call 173
68 Citi Field 175
69 More than One Murph 177
70 Lost in Translation 178
71 Ron Taylor 182
72 Ron Hunt 184
73 The Flushing All-Stars 185
74 40-120 189
75 Ron Darling 192
76 Fantastic Four 196
77 Hendu Can Do 199
78 Terry Collins 202
79 Go to a Game at Citi Field 204
80 What Are Those Numbers on the Wall for? 207
81 Read the Mets 210
82 Go to a Mets Road Game 214
83 The Road Is Long 220
84 Battles Loved and Lost, Then Forgotten 222
85 Madoff and the Mets 224
86 The Last Day Blues 226
87 April 17, 1964: First Day at Big Shea 228
88 Shea Good-Bye: The Ceremony 233
89 The Polo Grounds 238
90 Al Leiter 240
91 David Cone 241
92 Short-Time Kings: R.A. and Olerud 243
93 Dave Kingman 245
94 Lee Mazzilli 247
95 The Mr. Met Dash 249
96 Broadway Joe and the Jets 251
97 The Beatles 252
98 Banner Day 256
99 Giveaway Day 258
100 The Home Run Apple 260
Trivia Answers 263
Notes 265
