1969 Miracle Mets: The Improbable Story of the World's Greatest Underdog Team

by Steven Travers, Bud Harrelson (Foreword by)

Overview

In the 1977 movie Oh, God!, George Burns, playing the deity, is asked to prove his divinity by performing a miracle. Burns replies, “The last miracle I did was the 1969 Mets. Before that, I think you have to go back to the Red Sea.”

  

This book tells the tale of the single most impossible, unbelievable, and wonderful sports story of all time—of the 1969 “Amazin’ Mets” and their incredible spring, summer, and fall. But it does much more than simply recount how the worst sports franchise ever ascended to greatness in a few short months. The 1969 Miracle Mets is the story of tumultuous times: the 1960s. Against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, the New York Mets proved to be a metaphor for a changing America and, in retrospect, the catapult for the eventual comeback of a battered-yet-unbowed Metropolis. Tom Seaver and his teammates come alive in these pages as the final symbols of an innocent age, an age when the greatest icons in American culture—New York sports heroes—mounted the stage in awesome splendor, before Watergate, before free agency, before the mercenaries took over.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781461746737
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/17/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Steven Travers is a USC graduate, a former professional baseball player, and the author of many books, including the best-selling Barry Bonds: Baseball’s Superman, nominated for a Casey Award as Best Baseball Book of 2002.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents Foreword

Introduction: The glory of their times

The true New York Sports IconThe reincarnation of Christy Mathewson

If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere

“Can't anybody here play this game?”

The eve of destruction

High hopes

In the “big inning”

Meet the Mets

The leaping corpse

The first crucial day

The birth of a true New York Sports IconAfter the Pentecost: July 11 – July 16, 1969

The wrath of Gil

Resurrection

The march to the sea

David vs. GoliathThe perfect game

The Promised Land

Fall from gracePlato's retreat and subsequent comeback

The empire strikes back

Whatever happened to . . .?

Those Amazin' Mets

A shining city on a hill

NotesBibliography

Index

Recipe

In the 1977 movie Oh, God!, George Burns, playing the deity, is asked to prove his divinity by performing a miracle. Burns replies, “The last miracle I did was the 1969 Mets. Before that, I think you have to go back to the Red Sea.”

This book is a riveting account of the single most impossible, unbelievable, and wonderful sports story of all time—the 1969 “Amazin’ Mets” and their incredible spring, summer, and fall as they went on to capture the World Series. But it does much more than simply recount how the worst sports franchise ascended to greatness in a few short months. The 1969 Miracle Mets is a story of tumultuous times. Against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and a New York City in disarray, the Mets proved to be a metaphor for a changing America and, in retrospect, the catapult for the eventual comeback of a battered-yet-unbowed metropolis.

One hero of this story is, of course, Tom Seaver. At the age of twenty-four, at the start of what would be a remarkable Major League career, he pitched his team to victory in 1969. Seaver represents the crux of what makes this book so unique, so compelling, such a nostalgic memory of a town, a team, and a time that is no more.

And yet this is not a book about one superstar, but about an entire team that ascended to the heights. Tom Seaver and his teammates come alive in these pages as the final symbols of an innocent age, an age when the greatest icons in American culture—New York sports heroes—mounted the stage in awesome splendor, before Watergate, before free agency, before the
mercenaries took over.

Editorial Reviews

Every loyal New York Mets fan will welcome this opportunity to relive the 1969 season, the baseball campaign that transformed the hapless Mets into World Series champions. Steven Travers's The 1969 Miracle Mets has it all: the team's Lazarus-like awakening from being a National League doormat; their late 38-11 surge to win the NL East; their defeat of the favored Atlanta Braves to capture the pennant; and then their underdog Series victory over the powerful Baltimore Orioles, capped by that "You Gotta Believe" fifth game. The 1969 Miracle Mets even has a foreword by infield hero Buddy Harrelson.