This book is an excellent read.
BY JOSEPH STONE
STACHE WRITER
After watching another L get added to the column the other night, I decided, oh gentle reader, that instead of rehashing what is becoming a such a tired mantra, you know, the “These guys are finding new ways to suck” one, I would replace it with the rehashing of words other (Read: better) writers have put to print about our favorite baseball team in past incarnations.
It just so happens, Steve over at the Kranepool Society decided the same damn thing. I guess we both got tired of watching this team self-destruct, and turned to the bookshelves. He beat me to the punch, but one of his covered a Yankee, so his don’t count. (Hall of Famer or not, still a YANKEE!!)
So, instead of trying to figure out how the hell this current slow boat to China can get turned around and smashing a keyboard or two in frustration during the attempt, we’ll just go back and look at two excellent books the have been penned on that ever so rare subject, Your Two Time World Champion New York Metropolitians. Without further ado…
The first book is on the ‘69 Miracle Mets, entitled “The Year the Mets Lost Last Place”. It was written by Paul Zimmerman and the late, great Dick Schaap. For you young ‘uns out there who never got to hear Schaap on TV or read his prose, do yourself a favor and go find “Instant Replay,” and you will quickly see what the fuss was all about with the old namedropper. Schaap still holds the world record for most celebrity names mentioned in a sentence, but he could sling some ink.
He and Zimmerman bring their skills to covering the experience of what it felt like in the summer of 1969 in and around the world of the Mets. The book focuses on nine days that held New Yorkers both Metsmerized and Amazed.
On July 8th, the first place Chicago Cubs swept in to Shea holding a 5 game lead and all the cards. They almost got swept out. Not one pundit gave the Mets a chance to finish in the top half of the division, let alone first place.
Over the next week and a half, Gil Hodges’ boys held their own through six games against the Cubs and three against the Expos. Granted, the Expos were terrible, but bad teams sandwiched between clashes against a first place team is always a dangerous spot for a letdown. This set of games is where the groundwork was laid for the second half charge that put the Mets on the map and into the hearts of millions.
The book follows each of the nine days with little log entries of the interesting tidbits that occurred at that time of day. It recalls the feel of the stadium as it roars, the bygone fever that gripped both major cities during the summer as the temperatures and the pennant chase heated up.
Rabid fans would show their pride by hand painting anything that wasn’t nailed down and parading it through the stadium, urging their team on. Interspersed throughout the commentary are commercials for Rheingold beer and Vitalis using Mets players and logos, reminding you that baseball was business, even then. The microcosm of a budding rivalry building between two teams that, in retrospect, never really happened as they were about to go in opposite ways is captured on every level.
The vignette that follows the murder of a housewife by her husband in a New York neighborhood during the game is probably the oddest narrative, however, it shows the shocking sadness that can mirror a game meant as enjoyment and is essentially for kids. Reading this book will make you feel as if you are sitting there with the team pulling for every ball Agee hits to find a hole or every Seaver pitch to miss a bat, especially during the no-hit bid. This book should definitely be required reading for any Met fan.
The same can be said about our next book, as well. “The Bad Guys Won!”, by Sports Illustrated scribe, Jeff Pearlman, captures the heart, and the corroded soul, of a champion. Harkening back to a time when nobody gave a damn about the Yankees, it is the tale of the best Met team to ever brawl on or off the field. The book even manages to recount a game or two.
For those of you who watched this team, it brings back every one of your favorite moments, from the “Teufel Shuffle” to Orosco’s signature pose of the triumph. I was too young to ever get to watch Seaver deal in his prime, but do I remember watching Dr. K get nasty. The fact that in 86 he wasn’t even the best pitcher on the squad still gives me shivers. The personnel that made up that team was, simply put, awesome. The Kevin Mitchell stories alone are worth the price of admission.
In opening, Pearlman frames the story with the epic cross country flight from Houston after the greatest playoff game ever. The extra inning barn burner that was game six wore down every last nerve attached to every last body that was attached, physically or emotionally, to the Mets. The team had to return to New York to prepare for the World Series, and to unwind, they did what the always did when needing unwound, they got trashed and thrashed things. In Biblical proportions. The love you feel for the team is leveled with the disgust and sympathy you feel as a human for the crew of that plane. Just like the season. You feel for the human detritus the team leaves in its wake as it destoys every obstacle in its way.
The team should have become a dynasty, but devastating injuries in 87, (sound familar?) Orel Hershiser in 88, and age coupled with free agency in 89, sent the living monolith that was 86 into the bin of one year wonders. All in all, at least there was that one year when the whole entire world revolved around Metsopotamia, the cradle of baseball.
Both these books are excellent references as well as great reads. If you are a Mets fan, and if you’re reading this you would have to be, pick them up. It maybe another generation until a third championship book can be added to the cannon.
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