Remembering Mets History (1969) Mets Sweep Dodgers- Win Streak at Seven

-

Monday June 2nd 1969: A modest crowd of 22600 came out to Shea Stadium on this Monday night, to see Gil Hodges Mets host the former "Bums from Brooklyn", now the Los Angeles Dodgers (28-20). The Mets had swept a series from the Dodgers in June of the 1968 season.

Trivia: The 1969 Dodgers led by manager Walt Alston, were 85-77 finishing in fourth place in the NL West. Alston was in his 16th year as Dodger manager, he would manage the team for 23 years, winning four World Series titles & seven NL Pennants. 

The Dodger pitching staff consisted of two twenty game winners in Claude Osteen & Bill Singer. 

Trivia: Don Drysdale was still on the staff (going 5-4 in 12 games) & would retire at the end of the year, to begin a popular broadcast career that lasted until his death in 1993.

Hall of Famer Don Drysdale one of the most intimidating pitchers of his era, he was known for his brush backs & led the league in hit by pitches five times. He was a two time twenty game winner who led the league in strike outs three times, starts three times & won a 1962 Cy Young Award. He & Sandy Koufax were one of the best one two combos ever.

Starting Lineups

This would be a fine pitching matchup, with the Mets Jerry Koosman going up against  the Dodgers' Claude Osteen. Koosman, making his first start since his ten inning, 15 K performance five nights earlier. 

 On this night, he would pitch one of his 16 complete games of the season, allowing just one run, a HR to rookie short stop Bill Russell. He gave up just five hits & struck out eight. The win got him to 2-3 with a 2.22 ERA.


Quotes- Jerry Koosman: "I didn't have my good curve & my fastball while it was good, wasn't going where I wanted it to. I didn't have my rhythm. But I will say, when they got that man to third, I was able to reach back & fire".



In the home 4th, Tommie Agee singled & Ed Charles walked with two outs. Jerry Grote then singled home the Mets first run & Al Weis' double brought in the Glider with run #2. It was 2-0 Mets.

Osteen didn't give up any other runs, going  seven innings scattering seven hits, with three walks 7 three Ks. Pete Mikkelsen pitched a scoreless 8th. METS WIN STREAK @ 5.


Tuesday June 3rd 1969: On this Tuesday night it was Tom Seaver's turn again in the rotation. A crowd of 24212 came to Shea Stadium as Seaver & the Mets went up against Alan Foster. 

Starting Lineups

Seaver, the 1969 Cy Young winner was amazing once again. He allowed two runs on just three hits, as he struck out nine Dodgers & walked two in eight innings of work. 

 The Dodger runs were scored on Andy Kosco's two run HR. Kosco would lead the Dodgers with 19 HRs & 74 RBIs in 1969. 

 Seaver lowered his ERA to 2.51 while earning his 8th win of the year. Tug McGraw pitched a perfect 9th inning, earning his second save. 

In the 5th inning, Ed Kranepool led off with a HR, the first hit Alan Foster had given up. In the 6th inning, Wayne Garrett singled & was brought in by Cleon Jones. Jones tripled, his third of the year. Jones was one of the NL's leading hitters all season, he was batting an NL best .358 at this time.

Kranepool followed hit his second HR of the game. For Kranepool it was his 5th HR of the season with his RBI total up to 23.

 The Mets added some excitement in the 8th inning, when Wayne Garrett stole home, topping off the 5-2 win. METS WIN STREAK @ 6

Quotes- Gil Hodges: "They are playing ball the way I thought they might be able to". When asked if it was time to break out the champagne Gil said with a semi smile: " Maybe there will be a time soon, to consider it".

The fans were ecstatic & the papers thought the Mets were nuts, being this good, this far into the season. It had never happened in their short seven year history.

Wednesday June 4th 1969: As the Mets went for the sweep of the Dodgers, a good mid week crowd of 31331 came to watch the Mets Jack DiLauro take the hill against the Dodgers' Bill Singer. Tonight's' game turned out to be a legendary pitchers duel, staying scoreless for 14 innings.

Starting Lineups


Jack DiLauro gave up a double in each of the first two innings then did not allow hit for the next seven innings, retiring 19 in a row before he exited.

In the 10th inning, Tug McGraw came on & pitched four scoreless innings of relief to get to the 13th. Ron Taylor came on shutting down Los Angeles for two more frames.

 The Dodgers pitching was just as good, Brewer also allowed just two hits through nine innings & he fanned ten Mets. Jim Brewer pitched two more scoreless innings getting to the 11th. Al McBean pitched three more innings allowing no runs & one hit. 

Alston brought in Pete Mikkelson in the 15th. He gave a lead off walk to Bud Harrelson, Tommie Agee then grounded out erasing Harrelson. Next the Amazing Met magic struck again, Wayne Garrett singled to center, centerfielder Willie Davis made an error on his throw, allowing the quick footed Agee to score all the way from first base. Quite an exciting walk off win.

 The Mets swept the Dodgers, getting to two games above .500 at 25-23. The Mets were now in second place one game over the Pittsburgh Pirates & eight & half in back of the Cubs. METS WIN STREAK @ 7



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Remembering Vixen Founder / Guitarist; Jan Kuehnemund (1961-2013)

-
Image
centerfieldmaz was shocked to learn of the sudden passing of Jan Kuehnemund, the founding member of the all female metal band Vixen. Jan was a fantastic guitarist, song writer & women pioneer in Heavy Metal. I am a huge fan of hard rock all girl bands & Vixen were one my long time favorites. Janice Lynn Kuehnemund was born November 18th, 1961 in St. Paul Minnesota. The female guitarist formed one of the first all female Metal bands in Minnesota with singer Janet Gardner while in high school in 1980. By 1985 they moved the band to Los Angles California, to be part of the Heavy Metal scene. In 1987 the classic Vixen line up of Jan Kuehnemund (lead guitar) Janet Gardner (vocals/ guitar) Share Pederson (bass) & Roxy Petrucci (drums) formed & released their debut album the following year. Vixen 1988 In a world of all male Heavy Metal bands during its heyday, Vixen were groundbreaking in being an all female metal band. The Runaways, with Joan Jett & Lita Ford
Read more

Remembering Bobby Ojeda's Tragic Boating Accident (1993)

-
Image
Steve Olin, Tim Crews & Bob Ojeda March 22 nd 1993: was an off day from Spring Training, for three Cleveland Indians pitchers; Former Mets 1986 World Champion pitcher; Bobby Ojeda, Tim Crews & Steve Olin. The three friends, took out an 18-foot open-air bass boat & went out fishing & gator hunting in the darkness of the evening on Lake Nellie in Clermont, Florida. Tragedy struck, when the boat rammed into a private dock that jutted out some 250 feet into the still waters. Two other Cleveland Indians personnel had arrived to meet the fishing party just as the horror took place. They heard Bob Ojeda saying they needed help. The two men jumped into the water and called out for someone to call 911. 27 year old pitcher; Steve Olin was killed instantly. 31 year old pitcher; Tim Crews was alive but was struggling to breathe suffering from massive head wounds. Bobby Ojeda was in & out of shock, he was suffering from head lacerations but was coherent. The
Read more

The 1970's Oakland A's Ball Girls- (MLB's First)

-
Image
In the days of the early seventies the Oakland A's won three straight Championships & changed the face of baseball forever.  The team's controversial owner was known to be cheap in paying his star players & known to meddle in the teams on field affairs. He drove managers crazy & even had Dick Williams resign after winning his second straight World Series. But Finley also revolutionized baseball in many other ways. He was instrumental in getting the designated hitter in the American League & have the World Series played at night, so fans could attend after work. He gave his players fancy names like Catfish, Blue Moon & True Blue.  When his star Reggie Jackson refused to shave his beard, he encouraged the whole team to grow facial hair by paying them $200 each.  The A's team even grew their hair long, a sign of the times. But before that baseball players had not had facial or long hair since the 1800's.  He introduced bright colored yello
Read more

The Story of the New York Mets Logo

-
Image
On November 16, 1961 cartoonist Ray Gotto (1916-2003) unveiled the circular New York Mets logo, a symbol which has virtually gone unchanged since its birth 55 years ago. Gatto was the illustrator of the "Ozark Ike" & "Cotton Woods" comic strips as well as having drawn many classic sports cartoons for the Sporting News. He won a contest that the club sponsored in order to start up a fan base beating out over 500 other entries for his design. The prize was not only to have his logo used but also $1000.  Artist Ray Gotto The original New York Mets team colors are blue and orange, the colors represent the two former National League teams who left New York for the West Coast. The orange represents the former New York Giants & the blue represents the Brooklyn Dodgers. Blue & orange are also the official colors of New York State. T he logo design is a round baseball with orange stitching and the Mets orange script lettering outlined in white ac
Read more

Legendary Mets Broadcaster Ralph Kiner- A Real Ladies Man Back In His Day

-
Image
I recently watched the original 1951 movie "Angels In The Outfield". The movie focuses on the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates, whose fortunes change when an orphan girl prays to the angel Gabriel. The angel speaks to the teams grumpy manager and the Pirates start to win & eventually take the NL pennant. The story becomes national news, covered by a pretty female reporter, played by Janet Leigh. Footage of #4, slugger Ralph Kiner blasting a HR & rounding the bases is seen in the film. Through the years, people knew Ralph as the legendary Mets announcer known for his malapropisms. But most people don't know how popular & kool Kiner was in his playing days. Especially with the ladies, beautiful & famous ladies at that. First off, Kiner led the major leagues in HRs, a record six straight years. He also led the N.L. a record seven times. If he had played in New York on an actual winning team, he'd be bigger than that Ruth character.   That said, Kin
Read more