The Miracle Has Landed: The Amazin' Story of How the 1969 Mets Shocked the World

by Matthew Silverman (Editor)

Seven seasons after the Mets debuted with the most losses in modern baseball history, the franchise was still seen as a laughingstock, with 100-to-1 odds to win the World Series when 1969 began. The first year of divisional play started out as the Cubs' year, while most onlookers figured the Mets would be happy if they could play .500 ball. Tom Seaver's "Imperfect Game" against Chicago showed that the Mets could play with the big boys, but the Cubs still had a double-digit lead on the Mets in the middle of August. The Cubs stumbled, plagued by worn-out players, black cats, and bad luck, and magnificent Mets pitching turned the tide.
The Miracle Has Landed celebrates the loveable Mets like no other book, complete with photos and artifacts of the time. A project of the Society for American Baseball Research, this volume gathers the collective efforts of more than thirty SABR members and features profiles of every player, coach, broadcaster, and significant front-office member connected to that great Mets squad. Included are Hall of Famers Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan, beloved manager Gil Hodges, the talented outfield of Cleon Jones, Tommie Agee, and Ron Swoboda, drill sergeant backstop Jerry Grote, crucial mid-season acquisition Donn Clendenon, scrappy shortstop Bud Harrelson, and a pitching staff that went far deeper than just Seaver and Ryan. Forty years later the Miracle Mets are still revered, the first world champion expansion team and the club that stole New York's heart.

Genres: Baseball

402 pages, Paperback

First published March 30, 2009

About the author

Author of
Out of a Dog's Mouth: A Novel (under pseudonym McNally Berry)
Shea Stadium Remembered
One-Year Dynasty
Swinging '73
Best Mets
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...
100 Things Mets Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die
New York Mets: The Complete Illustrated History
Mets Essential
Baseball Miscellany
--Co-Author of
Mets by the Numbers
Red Sox by the Numbers
Cubs by the Numbers
--Former associate publisher at Total Sports Publishing
--Managing editor of Total Baseball, Total Football and ESPN Baseball and Pro Football Encyclopedias

Reviews

[Scott Breslove · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was more like a 1969 Mets encyclopedia, rather than a book about the '69 Mets. Although I do have to say that it was a good encyclopedia, but I would not recommend trying to read it cover to cover like I did. Since this boo....I mean encyclopedia basically covers the '69 Mets you have a relatively narrow frame of reference (one baseball season). So, while each player has their own biography a lot of the facts are repeated through each players story and although there is a lot of new and interesting information, it stops being new and interesting after you read it in Cleon Jones' story, and then again in Jerry Koosman's story, and then in Tom Seaver's story, and on and on. If you don't know much about the '69 Mets and want to learn more, this is the encyclopedia for you. Even if you know a bit about the '69 Mets I'd still recommend picking it up, just take your time reading it, read a story or two, read another book, and then go back to it for another story or two, it'll be well worth it.