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1969 World Series
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1969 World Series
The 1969 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1969 season. The 66th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Baltimore Orioles and the National League (NL) champion New York Mets. The Mets won the series, four games to one, to accomplish one of the greatest upsets in Series history, as that particular Orioles team was considered to be one of the finest ever. The World Series win earned the team the sobriquet "The Miracle Mets". This was the first World Series of MLB's divisional era.
The Mets became the first expansion team to win a division title, a pennant, and the World Series, winning in their eighth year of existence, and for decades remained the fastest expansion team to win a World Series up to that point. Two teams eventually surpassed the latter record, as the Florida Marlins won the 1997 World Series in their fifth year (also becoming the first wild card team to win a World Series) and the Arizona Diamondbacks won the 2001 World Series in their fourth year of play. The 1969 World Series was the first World Series since 1954 to have games played in New York that did not involve the New York Yankees. It was also the first World Series in which neither the New York Giants nor Brooklyn Dodgers (as both teams had moved to California in 1958) represented New York from the NL; all subsequent World Series with a New York-area NL team participating have involved the Mets, who have been the only NL baseball team located in New York City since that era.
This was the fourth meeting between teams from Baltimore and New York City for a major professional sports championship, which previously occurred in the 1958 and 1959 NFL Championship Games, and Super Bowl III earlier in the year (in which the New York Jets famously upset the Baltimore Colts).
The New York Mets, who had never finished higher than ninth place (next-to-last) nor won more than 73 games in a season since joining the National League in 1962, were not highly regarded before the 1969 season started. In fact, the best that could be said for them was that because the National League was being split into two divisions that year (as was the American League), the Mets were guaranteed to finish no lower than sixth place. The fact that the Mets began the season by losing 11–10 to the then-expansion Montreal Expos seemed to confirm this.
With three weeks to go in the season, the underdog Mets stormed past the Chicago Cubs, who had led the Eastern Division for most of the season, winning 38 of their final 49 games for a total of 100 wins and becoming the first National League Eastern Division champions. Third-year pitcher Tom Seaver won a major-league-leading 25 games en route to his first Cy Young Award; the other two top Mets starting pitchers, Jerry Koosman and rookie Gary Gentry, combined to win 30 more games. Outfielder Cleon Jones hit a (then) club-record .340 and finished third in the National League batting race, while his lifelong friend and outfield mate Tommie Agee hit 26 home runs and drove in 76 runs to lead the club; they were the only players on the team who garnered more than 400 at bats. Manager Gil Hodges also employed a platoon system like the Yankees of the Casey Stengel era, in which Ron Swoboda and Art Shamsky became a switch-hitting right fielder who hit 23 home runs and drove in 100 runs, and Ed Kranepool and Donn Clendenon added up to a switch-hitting first baseman who hit 23 more homers and knocked in another 95 runs.
In the first League Championship Series, the normally light-hitting Mets, once again considered underdogs despite having a better regular-season record than their opponent, put on a power display by scoring 27 runs in sweeping the favored Atlanta Braves in three games.
The Baltimore Orioles, by contrast, were practically flawless and featured stars at almost every position. They breezed through the 1969 season, winning 109 games (the most games won since the 1961 Yankees) and became the first American League Eastern Division champions by 19 games, then brushing aside the Minnesota Twins three games to none in the ALCS to win their second pennant in four years. The Orioles were led by star sluggers Frank Robinson and Boog Powell, who each hit over 30 home runs and drove in over 100 runs; third baseman Brooks Robinson, perhaps the best-fielding hot-corner player in baseball history; and pitchers Mike Cuellar, Dave McNally, and Jim Palmer, who combined for 63 victories.
NL New York Mets (4) vs. AL Baltimore Orioles (1)
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1969 World Series AI simulator
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1969 World Series
The 1969 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1969 season. The 66th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Baltimore Orioles and the National League (NL) champion New York Mets. The Mets won the series, four games to one, to accomplish one of the greatest upsets in Series history, as that particular Orioles team was considered to be one of the finest ever. The World Series win earned the team the sobriquet "The Miracle Mets". This was the first World Series of MLB's divisional era.
The Mets became the first expansion team to win a division title, a pennant, and the World Series, winning in their eighth year of existence, and for decades remained the fastest expansion team to win a World Series up to that point. Two teams eventually surpassed the latter record, as the Florida Marlins won the 1997 World Series in their fifth year (also becoming the first wild card team to win a World Series) and the Arizona Diamondbacks won the 2001 World Series in their fourth year of play. The 1969 World Series was the first World Series since 1954 to have games played in New York that did not involve the New York Yankees. It was also the first World Series in which neither the New York Giants nor Brooklyn Dodgers (as both teams had moved to California in 1958) represented New York from the NL; all subsequent World Series with a New York-area NL team participating have involved the Mets, who have been the only NL baseball team located in New York City since that era.
This was the fourth meeting between teams from Baltimore and New York City for a major professional sports championship, which previously occurred in the 1958 and 1959 NFL Championship Games, and Super Bowl III earlier in the year (in which the New York Jets famously upset the Baltimore Colts).
The New York Mets, who had never finished higher than ninth place (next-to-last) nor won more than 73 games in a season since joining the National League in 1962, were not highly regarded before the 1969 season started. In fact, the best that could be said for them was that because the National League was being split into two divisions that year (as was the American League), the Mets were guaranteed to finish no lower than sixth place. The fact that the Mets began the season by losing 11–10 to the then-expansion Montreal Expos seemed to confirm this.
With three weeks to go in the season, the underdog Mets stormed past the Chicago Cubs, who had led the Eastern Division for most of the season, winning 38 of their final 49 games for a total of 100 wins and becoming the first National League Eastern Division champions. Third-year pitcher Tom Seaver won a major-league-leading 25 games en route to his first Cy Young Award; the other two top Mets starting pitchers, Jerry Koosman and rookie Gary Gentry, combined to win 30 more games. Outfielder Cleon Jones hit a (then) club-record .340 and finished third in the National League batting race, while his lifelong friend and outfield mate Tommie Agee hit 26 home runs and drove in 76 runs to lead the club; they were the only players on the team who garnered more than 400 at bats. Manager Gil Hodges also employed a platoon system like the Yankees of the Casey Stengel era, in which Ron Swoboda and Art Shamsky became a switch-hitting right fielder who hit 23 home runs and drove in 100 runs, and Ed Kranepool and Donn Clendenon added up to a switch-hitting first baseman who hit 23 more homers and knocked in another 95 runs.
In the first League Championship Series, the normally light-hitting Mets, once again considered underdogs despite having a better regular-season record than their opponent, put on a power display by scoring 27 runs in sweeping the favored Atlanta Braves in three games.
The Baltimore Orioles, by contrast, were practically flawless and featured stars at almost every position. They breezed through the 1969 season, winning 109 games (the most games won since the 1961 Yankees) and became the first American League Eastern Division champions by 19 games, then brushing aside the Minnesota Twins three games to none in the ALCS to win their second pennant in four years. The Orioles were led by star sluggers Frank Robinson and Boog Powell, who each hit over 30 home runs and drove in over 100 runs; third baseman Brooks Robinson, perhaps the best-fielding hot-corner player in baseball history; and pitchers Mike Cuellar, Dave McNally, and Jim Palmer, who combined for 63 victories.
NL New York Mets (4) vs. AL Baltimore Orioles (1)