The Mets of 1969 Take Another Look Back at an Amazin’ Season

If the New York Mets win the World Series this year, few people will be amazed. Surprised, perhaps, but not amazed. These Mets were expected to do well.

That wasn’t the case in 1969. Seven years after being labeled one of the sorriest teams in major-league history, the Amazin’ Mets pulled off one of baseball’s biggest upsets when they beat the Baltimore Orioles in five games in the World Series.

Because the Mets finished ninth in the 10-team National League in 1968, they weren’t given much of a chance at winning anything. But Cleon Jones, the Mets’ left fielder in ‘69, remembers how the expansion team came of age that season.

“We were looking to improve as a team and felt with a couple of guys we could be as good as anybody,” said Jones, who led the club with a .340 average in ’69. “We had (Tommie) Agee and (Tom) Seaver and we were steady in the outfield. So we began to assess ourselves. We looked around the league and we saw one or two teams better than us, the Cubs and Pittsburgh and said we could easily finish third.

“As the season progressed, (Manager) Gil (Hodges) said we were better than them all. We played like winners and by July and August we felt we could win.”

The Mets trailed the Cubs by 9 1/2 games Aug. 13 but swept past Chicago by winning 38 of their next 49 games.

“A few of us were standing around in the batter’s cage one day before the game and we told them (the Cubs) we were going to catch them,” said Jones. “They didn’t believe us. We didn’t really believe it at the time either, but we did it.”

Donn Clendenon, acquired by the Mets from Montreal on the June 15 trading deadline, was the final piece to the championship team. The veteran first baseman bolstered the offensive attack as well as providing experience and leadership.

“When I got here they were saying ‘next year,”’ recalled Clendenon, 49, who hit three home runs against Baltimore in the Series. “I said, ‘What about this year?’ It’s not over yet.’

“Chicago had a 9 1/2-game lead. But it was like a track race. You can’t maintain speed when you’re looking over your shoulder.”

The 42-year-old Jones, who works with children in Mobile, Ala., and Clendenon, now a Pittsburgh lawyer, joined a group of their former Amazin’ teammates to sign autographs at a June baseball card convention that helped benefit the New York Heart Assn.’s Gil Hodges Memorial Fellowship.

Also present were Agee, first baseman Ed Kranepool, pitchers Don Cardwell, Cal Koonce and Jim McAndrew, second baseman Al Weis, and outfielders Art Shamsky and Ron Swoboda.

Jones said he still follows the Mets and thinks they are capable of going all the way.

“They’ve got a good club,” said Jones. “They have the potential to be better than any club they’ve ever had there.”

When asked how the ’85 Mets stack up against the ’69 team, Jones said the clubs are close, but gave the edge to his team because of the pitching.

“Position-by-position, the players match up pretty good,” said Jones. “We might have had more depth. We also had more experience in the bullpen. That’s one thing they’re short on right now. Our guys were good and could do the job. I also think their frontline pitching is a little short.”

Shamsky, who does occasional reporting for a local TV sports show, said this year’s Mets don’t compare with the ’69 club.

“They’re winning, but we won,” said Shamsky, 43, who works in real estate. “We had an excellent team. We won 107 games, 100 in the regular season.”

But Shamsky, who split time in right field with Swoboda, does think the ’85 Mets are good enough to win the NL East.

“I think they’re capable of winning the division,” said Shamsky. “They realize there is no dominant team in that division. No team is going to run away with it.