1973 World Series

The 1973 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1973 season. The 70th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion (and defending World Series champion) Oakland Athletics and the National League (NL) champion New York Mets. The Athletics won the series in seven games for their second of three consecutive World Series titles and their seventh championship overall. This was the third consecutive World Series to go the full seven games.

The Mets won the NL East division by 1+1⁄2 games over the St. Louis Cardinals, then defeated the Cincinnati Reds, three games to two, in the NL Championship Series. The Athletics won the AL West division by six games over the Kansas City Royals, then defeated the Baltimore Orioles, three games to two, in the AL Championship Series.

This was the first World Series in which all weekday games started at night. This was the last World Series in which each team produced and sold its own game programs for its home games.

Reggie Jackson was named the World Series MVP. Jackson batted .310 with seven hits and six RBIs and a home run and scored three runs. Jackson was only the second player to be named league MVP and World Series MVP in the same year. Sandy Koufax was the first in 1963. Koufax was the NL MVP and WS MVP in that year's World Series.

The 1973 Mets' .509 season winning percentage is the lowest posted by any pennant winner in major league history. Injuries plagued the team throughout the season.

The team got off to a promising 4–0 start, and went .600 for the month of April. Before long, however, the team was soon beset with injuries and fell in standing, just as with their previous season. Stumbling through the summer in last place, the Mets got healthy and hot in September, ultimately winning the division with a mere 82 victories, 1+1⁄2 games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals. This marked the only time between 1970 and 1980 that neither their rival Philadelphia Phillies, nor the Pittsburgh Pirates, won the division.

At 82–79, the 1973 New York Mets had the worst record of any team to play in a World Series. They had only the ninth-best record in the 24-team major leagues, behind the Oakland A's, the Cincinnati Reds (who they beat in the National League Championship Series), the Baltimore Orioles (who were defeated by Oakland in the American League Championship Series), the Los Angeles Dodgers, the San Francisco Giants, the Boston Red Sox, the Detroit Tigers and the Kansas City Royals (none of whom made the postseason).

The 1973 New York Mets had the lowest winning percentage (now the second-lowest) of any postseason team (the San Diego Padres finished 82–80 in 2005). 1969 holdovers Bud Harrelson, Jerry Grote, Wayne Garrett, Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, and Tug McGraw and Cleon Jones joined forces with the Mets' farm-system alumni John Milner and Jon Matlack and trade-acquired Rusty Staub, Félix Millán, and Willie Mays, now 42 years old. Don Hahn and Mays alternated in center field, although they both batted right-handed.