1969 Miracle Mets

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.

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 Foreword Introduction: The glory of their times The true New York Sports Icon The 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 Icon After 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 grace Plato's retreat and subsequent comeback The empire strikes back Whatever happened to . . .? Those Amazin' Mets A shining city on a hill NotesBibliography Index