History of the NY Mets

Something every NY Mets fan should read. This will be a multiple part story as originally it was just waay too long. :)

I hope you all enjoy it.


When the Dodgers left Brooklyn in 1957, I thought I would never find another team to fill my baseball heart. However, that magically changed when in 1962 the Loveable Losers came to Queens to start a long lasting love affair with New York baseball fans. The NY Mets have given us so much pleasure and even more pain. In 1969 and 1986 they captivated baseball fans with their magically heroics and amazin last minute comebacks. Unfortunately, there have been so many more years when they made us weep and disappointed us with their follies. However, each year Mets fan cheer and root for their team in hopes that this year will be our year. Last year was a great season but the team fell short of bringing Queens another World Championship. Hopefully, in 2007 with players like Wright and Reyes, Delgado and Beltrand, we will be celebrating in October the NY Mets’ rise to the top of the Major League and once again bring home the World Series crown to Shea Stadium. Please read below the article i came across on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, titled, history of The NY Mets.

Origins:
In 1957, the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants abandoned New York for California, leaving the largest city in the United States without a National League franchise. Two years later, on July 27, 1959, attorney William Shea announced the formation of a third major baseball league, the Continental League. After a contentious year, in 1960, Shea and the other Continental League organizers reached a deal with the established major leagues. In exchange for abandoning the new league, four new expansion franchises were created — two in each league. New York City received one of the National League teams with Joan Whitney Payson and her husband Charles Shipman Payson, former minority owners of the Giants, as the principal owners, along
with George Herbert Walker, Jr. (uncle of President George H. W. Bush), who
served as vice president and treasurer until 1977. Former Giants director M. Donald Grant, the only member of the board to oppose the Giants' move West, became chairman of the board. The new team required a new name and many were suggested. Among the finalists were "Bees", "Burros", "Continentals", "Skyscrapers", "Jets", as well as the eventual runner-up, "Skyliners". Although Payson had admitted a preference for "Meadowlarks," the owners ultimately selected "Mets" because it was closely related to the club's already-existing corporate name "New York Metropolitan Baseball Club, Inc.", it hearkened back to "Metropolitans", a historically significant name used by an earlier New York team in the American Association from 1883 to 1887, and because its brevity would naturally fit in newspaper headlines. The name was received with broad approval among fans and press.

1962-1968: Lovable losers
In October, 1961, the National League held an expansion draft to stock the rosters of the Mets and the Houston Colt .45s with players from other clubs. 22 players were selected by the Mets, including some with notable previous success such as Roger Craig, Al Jackson, Frank Thomas and Richie Ashburn. But rather than select talented young players with future potential, Mets management preferred to sign faded stars of the Dodgers, Giants and Yankees to appeal to fans' nostalgia. Legendary Yankees manager Casey Stengel was hired out of retirement to lead the team, but his managerial acumen wasn't enough to overcome the severe deficiency of talent among the players. The Mets began their on-field play in 1962, losing their first nine games en route to a 40-120 record. Their .250 winning percentage was the third worst by any major league team since the beginning of the 20th Century.

Throughout major league history only the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (20-134) lost more
games in a single season than the 1962 Mets. It wasn't until 2003 that
the record would be threatened by the Detroit Tigers, who finished the
season at 43-119. The ineptness of the Mets during their first year is chronicled
in colorful fashion in the 1963 book Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?, written by New York columnist Jimmy Breslin. Beloved by New York fans despite their losing ways — or perhaps because of them — the Mets of the early 1960s became famous for their ineptitude. Journeyman players like the ironically nicknamed "Marvelous Marv"
Throneberry became icons of athletic incompetence. Ex-Dodger and Giant pitcher Billy Loes, who was selected by the Mets in the 1961 expansion draft, was credited with this ungrammatical quotation: "The Mets is a good thing. They give everybody jobs. Just like the WPA." Even the Mets proved to have standards, however. In 1962, Cleveland Indians catcher Harry Chiti was purchased by the Mets for a player to be named later in the season. That "player to be named later" ended up being Harry Chiti. Chiti is the only player ever to be sent back to his original team in a trade in Major League history.

In 1964, the Mets, who played their first two seasons in the old Polo Grounds, the former home of the Giants, moved to the newly constructed Shea Stadium, a 55,300 seat multipurpose facility built in the Flushing neighborhood of the Borough of Queens, adjacent to the site of the 1939 and 1964 New York World's Fairs. One high point of Shea Stadium's first season came on Father's Day, when Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jim Bunning threw a perfect game against the Mets, the first in the National League since 1880. For perhaps the only time in the stadium's history, the Shea faithful found themselves rooting for the visitors, caught up in the rare achievement, and roaring for Bunning on every pitch in the ninth inning. His strikeout of John Stephenson capped the performance. Another high point was Shea
Stadium's hosting of the 1964 All-Star Game. The Mets' image as lovable losers was wearing a little thin as the decade progressed, but things began to change slowly in the late '60s. The Mets acquired top pitching prospect Tom Seaver in a lottery and he became the league's Rookie of the Year in 1967, despite the team finishing last again. Even though the Mets remained in last place, Tom Seaver was a sign of good
fortune to come. He was originally signed by the Atlanta Braves in February 1966 out of the University of Southern California, but his contract was voided by Commissioner William D. Eckert on the basis that the USC season had already started when Seaver signed. In order to resolve this issue, the Mets, Indians, and Phillies were all placed in a hat since they were the only teams willing to match the Braves offer, and the Mets were fortunate enough to win the drawing. In addition to Seaver, two other young players were catcher Jerry Grote and shortstop Bud Harrelson. This trio of youth formed a new, determined clubhouse nucleus that had no interest in
losing, lovably or otherwise. By the 1968 season, Wes Westrum would be replaced as
manager by Gil Hodges. Pitcher Jerry Koosman joined the staff and had a spectacular rookie season in 1968, winning 19 games. Left fielder Cleon Jones developed as a batter and exciting center fielder Tommie Agee came over in a trade. But although much improved, the 1968 team still finished the season in 9th place.

Part II this Thursday.
LET’S GO METS!!!!!!