'Miracle Mets'? Nope, just great scouting

The Summer of 1969 was not supposed to be the stuff of legends. The St. Louis Cardinals were expected to pull off a three-peat. Who knew that Vada Pinson was an old 30 and that the man he was traded for, Bobby Tolan, would have 3 monster years in a row for Cincinnati? How could they give 372 at bats to a shortstop (Maxvill) who hit .175? Everyone else had an average year but there were precious few career years. And, as we know, bad trades and average years result in no pennants.

But the Mets had it all, and it was no miracle. They made good trades, they got lucky with a trade, but more important, they grew their own and somebody in that organization knew a pitcher when he saw one. The really good trade was the one that brought Donn (why two n's?) Clendenon to the Mets for pretty much no one. Clendenon anchored an awesome bench and preceeded to have two more very nice years for the Mets. His power off the bench and in subbing roles was crucial to the pennant drive. Throw in Art Shamsky's similar role, and you had a Mets bench that outshone any other that year--and contributed 39 HRs!

Then there was the lucky trade that brought Tommie (ie? what is this?) Agee over from the luckless Cubbies with Super Sub Al Weiss for Tommy Davis. The trade preceded the 1968 season and, at first, it looked like a dud. Davis tore the cover off the ball in Chi-town while
Agee hit an anemic .217. But just wait: In 1969, Agee had what was for him a career year, hitting .273 with 22 HRs and 44 SBs. (The guy finished his career with 999 hits. How can you do that?) And Weiss turned out to be a post-season hitting monster that year, which overshadowed his many day in, day out contributions during the campaign. Davis and Agee had one thing in common: They loved to crash into walls, a habit which shortened both careers, Agee's more than Tommy's.

But the key to the "miracle" was just good scouting. Nearly every regular that year was homegrown: Harrelson, Kranepool, Garrett, Swoboda, Cleon Jones (another career year player), Gaspar, Boswell. Then there was the pitching staff: Seaver, Koosman, Ryan, Gentry, McAndrew, McGraw. With the key career years from Agee and Jones, solid fielding and admirable management of the pitching staff by Gil Hodges, the Mets finished 8 games ahead of the Pythagorean Theorum 92 wins they "should" have had.

No, not a miracle at all. The miracle is that they didn't win more pennants with that pitching staff. But as with all organizations, the Mets squandered their bounty, the farm system stopped producing, and Gil Hodges died in 1972--just before another pennant he set up, but too soon to keep the machine running smoothly.