RobKirkpatrick.com

Bobby Thomson, the man who struck “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World,” passed away on Monday.  Here’s his New York Times obituary:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/sports/baseball/18thomson.html?_r=1

And here’s my short story “Epiphany at Coogan’s Bluff,” which Slow Trains published in 2007:

http://www.slowtrains.com/vol6issue4/kirkpatrickvol6issue4.html

Forty-one years ago today, the New York Mets acquired first baseman Donn Clendenon from the Montreal Expos in exchange for Kevin Collins, Steve Renko, Bill Carden, and Dave Colon.  Clendenon would hit .252 with 12 home runs and 37 RBI in 72 games for the Mets in the 1969 regular season, injecting some much-needed right-handed power into the lineup. He starred in the World Series that October, going 5 for 14 with 3 home runs and 4 RBI against the vaunted Baltimore Orioles staff to earn MVP honors in the fall classic for the Miracle Mets. Clendenon’s best full season with New York was in 1970, when he hit .288 with 22 home runs and 97 RBI.

On this same date in 1983, the then-woeful Mets again acquired a first baseman who would prove to be a key figure in a World Championship. The St. Louis Cardinals sent Keith Hernandez to the Mets in exchange for Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey. Hernandez hit .306 for the remainder of 1983 and hit .311 in 1984, when he finished second in the National League MVP voting and showed invaluable on-the-field leadership as the Mets became pennant contenders for the first time in a decade. Consistent Keith hit .309 in 1985 and .310 in 1986, when he helped led the team to its second World Championship. In 1987, he was named the franchise’s first team captain and hit .290. Injuries dogged him throughout 1988 as his average fell dramatically, though he still helped New York win the Eastern Division and knocked in 5 runs in a seven-game postseason series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. That season, he also claimed his eleventh consecutive Gold Glove.

“And at seven minutes to midnight, the goose-egg sweep is complete.”

So said Mets broadcaster Gary Cohen on Thursday night, perhaps as a nod to Lindsey Nelson and the ‘69 Mets, as New York finished off a sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies with the third of three consecutive shutouts.  The Mets topped the Phillies 8-0 on Tuesday, 5-0 on Wednesday, and 3-0 in the series finale at CitiField to pull from last place in the National League East to within 2 games of first place.  It was the first time in 41 years that the Mets staff shut out an opponent over a three-game series.

The Phillies were also the victims in 1969, getting blanked in three contests at Connie Mack Stadium by Jerry Koosman, Tom Seaver, and a combined effort from Gary Gentry, Nolan Ryan, and Ron Taylor.  Two days before the series in Philly, Gentry had gone the distance against Steve Carlton and the St. Louis Cardinals at Shea Stadium in a 6-0 victory that clinched the division for the suddenly Amazin’ Mets, part of a 42-inning scoreless streak.  As Al Weis turned a 6-4-3 double play to end the game, broadcaster Nelson famously marked the moment for posterity: “At 9:07 on September 24th, the Mets have won the championship of the Eastern Division of the National League!”

A comparison of the two “goose-egg” streaks illustrates how much the game has changed since 1969. Gentry pitched the full nine against the Cards, as did Koosman and Seaver in their gems against the Phils. Gentry went just five innings in the series finale in Philadelphia – giving way to Ryan (who tossed three scoreless in relief) and Taylor, who recorded a one-inning save – but he was going on just three days’ rest, which is interesting considering the game was meaningless at that point with the Mets having already clinched the division for manager Gil Hodges.

In today’s era of pitch counts and “protecting” pitchers, it’s become increasingly rare for pitchers to go the distance, even when they’re still working on shutouts.  (And can you imagine a manager today letting his #1 or #2 hurlers go nine innings in mere postseason tuneups?)  The 2010 Mets who entered the three-game set in last place in the East, returned to relevance in the division on the strength of three groups efforts.  Mets pitchers recorded the following stats in 27 innings against Philadelphia:

Tuesday, May 25

R. A. Dickey (W, 1-0) 6 IP, 0 R, 7 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K

R. Valdes (SV, 1) 3 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 2 BB, 4 K

Wednesday, May 26

H. Takahashi (W, 4-1) 6 IP, 0 R, 5 H, 0 BB, 6 K

J. Mejia 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 K

Igarashi 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K

Nieve 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K

Thursday, May 27

Pelfrey (W, 7-1)  7 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 5 BB, 5 K

Feliciano 1 IP, 0 R,  0 H, 0 BB, 2 K

Rodriguez 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K

TOTALS VS. PHILLIES

27 IP, 0 R, 18 H, 10 BB, 27 K

Given the inaugural 2009 season of CitiField, when the ballpark served more as a testament to the Wilpon family’s Brooklyn Dodgers fetish than to the Mets’s own history, I was pleasantly surprised on Saturday when I got to see the new Mets Hall of Fame.  In addition to the requisite plaques for all team inductees, the HOF houses both World Series trophies, jerseys worn by Mets greats and near-greats, Tom Seaver’s Cy Young and Sportsman of the Year awards, one of Keith Hernandez’s 11 Gold Gloves, and – perhaps most impressive of all – the glove worn by Tommie Agee when he made both of his highlight catches in Game 3 of the ‘69 series (a Spalding Johnny Callison Autograph model) and the infamous “shoe polish ball” from the Game 5 clincher.

Those of you who followed my recreation of the 1969 baseball season would enjoy the Facebook page for Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging ’70s, the forthcoming book by pop culture historian Dan Epstein. I can personally attest that it’s a hugely fun book, and the author’s put together a FB profile that is in the process of goin’ viral with more than 600 fans in little over a week’s time.  The page has regular updates with links to great YouTube footage from the 70s, wonderfully tacky images from the era shared by fans, and frequent commentary from the author featuring his characteristic wit. 

Check it out. 

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Big-Hair-Plastic-Grass-A-Funky-Ride-Through-Baseball-In-The-1970s/321769914865?ref=ts

Here are the rules:

1. Assign a team/franchise to the position where it’s placed stars (HOFers, MVPs, All-Stars & Cy Youngs) throughout its history.

2. Use each team/franchise just once.

3. Arrange the franchise positions into a batting order based on each’s composite offensive skills.

1. SS Pittsburgh Pirates (Vaughn, Wagner, Groat)

2. 2B St. Louis Cardinals (Hornsby, Schoendienst, Herr)

3. LF Boston Red Sox (Williams, Yaz, Rice, Ramirez)

4. CF New York Yankees (Combs, DiMaggio, Mantle)

5. 1B NY/San Francisco Giants (Terry, Mize, McCovey, Clark)

6. 3B Boston/Milw./Atl. Braves (Matthews, Pendleton, Jones)

7. RF Detroit Tigers (Heilmann, Kaline, Gibson)

8. C Cincinnati Reds (Lombardi, Bench)

9. SP Brooklyn/LA Dodgers (Roe, Drysdale, Koufax, Sutton, Valenzuela, Hershiser)

RP Phila./Oakland A’s (Fingers, Eckersley, Street)

Have a better lineup?  Send it to me!

While grateful for all the attention I’ve gotten for my “other” two books from last year, I think my Cecil Travis book (published in a new Bison Books edition in ‘09 by the University of Nebraska Press) has somewhat gotten lost in the shuffle.  So check out the mini bio for this Washington Senators All-Star from the 1930s and ’40s that I contributed to the SABR Baseball Biography Project:  

http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&bid=597&pid=14327

…Then, if you’d like to know more, click on the BOOKS link at the top of my site and pick your online vendor of choice.

- Rob

On this date forty years ago, Ed Charles (seen in the above photo, to the left of Jerry Koosman and Jerry Grote, celebrating the last out of the 1969 World Series) became the first player released by the newly crowned world champion New York Mets.

Charles, then 36, had played in 61 games for the Mets in 1969, hitting .207 with 3 home runs and 18 RBI. One of the home runs came in the division clinching game on September 24 off Steve Carlton, who’d started the All-Star Game for the National League in July.

Charles did not play in the NLCS against the Braves, but he played in four of five World Series games against the Orioles, hitting just .133.  His biggest contributions in the Series came in Game Two. He singled and scored the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth inning. Then, with two on and two out in the bottom of the ninth, he gloved a hard grounder and threw to Donn Clendenon to preserve a 2-1 win.

“The Glider” played in eight Major League seasons after signing as an amateur with the Boston Braves in 1952. His best offensive season was his rookie year in 1962, when he hit .288 with 17 home runs and 74 RBI for the Kansas City Athletics.

Known as a smooth fielder, Charles came to the Mets in 1967 in a trade for Larry Elliott and cash. Charles had a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage in the ‘69 series.

After his release, Charles retired from baseball with a career average of .263 and 86 home runs. He scored 438 runs and knocked in 421 in 1005 games played.

Charles was on hand at CitiField when the Mets honored the 40th anniversary of the ‘69 team this summer.

Now that we’ve completed our day-by-day recreation of the 1969 World Championship season, we can take some time to analyze how the Mets pulled off their miraculous upset of the Orioles in five games.

First, if someone had said that New York’s top two hitters from their everyday lineup, leadoff man Tommie Agee and third-spot slugger Cleon Jones, would hit a combined .162 (6 for 37) in the series – and that Art Shamsky, the only other Met (aside from Jones) to post a .300 average in the regular season, would be hitless in 6 at-bats in the World Series after hitting .538 against the Braves in the NLCS - one might have thought Baltimore had swept the series. 

So how did the Mets win?  Simple: pitching.  True, New York had a less than amazin’ .220 team average in the series, but their pitching staff held the O’s to an anemic .146 team mark in the five games. After scoring 4 runs off Tom Seaver in Game One, the AL champs scored just 5 runs over the final 4 games.  Jerry Koosman, the team’s second best hurler in the regular season, was its best in the series with a 2-0 record and a 2.04 ERA in 17 2/3 innings. With Koosman’s two wins bookending Gary Gentry’s 6 2/3 scoreless innings in Game Three and Seaver’s 10-inning masterpiece in Game Four, New York subdued the Birds by holding them to just 4 extra-base hits across the 5 games. Out of the bullpen, Ron Taylor, Nolan Ryan, and Don Cardwell threw 5 2/3 innings without allowing a run.

The top two men in the Baltimore lineup, Paul Blair and Don Buford, had just 4 hits in 40 at-bats. Boog Powell led the Orioles with a .263 average but had no home runs or RBI.

Meanwhile, the Mets got enough offense from two members of their right-handed platoon lineup - one expected and one unexpected. Seeing the majority of the action at their positions with southpaws Mike Cuellar and Dave McNally starting 2 games aipiece for the O’s, cleanup hitter Donn Clendenon hit .357 with 3 home runs, and eighth-place hitter Al Weis opened eyes with 5 hits in 11 at-bats (.455) including the game-winning RBI in Game Two and a game-tying home run in Game Five. As they had throughout their 100-win campaign, the 1969 Amazin; Mets used timely hitting and dominant pitching to bring a happy end to a miracle season.

After their thrilling World Series victory, your 1969 New York Mets were honored with an invitation to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, on which they delivered an unforgettably forgettable rendition of “You Gotta Have Heart.”

Click on the link below to see the Miracle Mets look downright out of their element.  “G. Thomas” Seaver and ”Gerald” Grote seem to be enjoying themselves, but most of the team seems like they’d rather be somewhere else. And is it just me, or does Wayne Garrett remind you of Richie Cunningham? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGMPSaEwcek&feature=PlayList&p=1951725A77F13D70&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=4