The Mets are a team known for warming hearts one day and breaking them the next. Nothing has ever come easy for the National League’s third franchise in New York. Even the miraculous championship year of 1969 didn’t occur without seven preceding years of futility. And in the dominant 1986 regular season, the road to an expected World Series title didn’t happen without gut-wrenching, precipice-of-defeat dramatics in the playoffs.
There have been fair measures of wondrous and woeful in the franchise’s history, but this book’s 57 game summaries–coinciding with the number of Mets years through 2018–are strictly for the eternal optimist. All, with the exception of one valiant defeat, end in triumph for the orange and blue. The selection process for these games involved various criteria including the time in the season, the dramatic level, and the impact in shaping franchise history.
The games are recounted here thanks to the combined efforts of 32 SABR members. They run the gamut of the team’s lifespan, beginning with its very first victory in April 1962 at Forbes Field, running through Tom Seaver’s Imperfect Game in July ‘69 and the unforgettable Game Sixes in October '86, the Grand Slam Single in the 1999 NLCS, then concluding with extra-inning heroics in September 2016 at Citi Field that helped ensure a wild-card berth.
April 23, 1962: Mets First Victory Tony Valley
June 26, 1963: Tim Harkness Game-Winning Slam Alan Raylesberg
May 31, 1964: Longest Doubleheader Alan Cohen
July 9, 1969: Seaver’s Near-Perfect Game Alan Raylesberg
September 15, 1969: Swoboda Is Carlton’s Achilles Heel Richard A. Cuicchi
October 15, 1969: Seaver/Swoboda Beat Baltimore Thomas J. Brown Jr.
October 16, 1969: First Expansion Team to Win a World Series Thomas J. Brown Jr.
April 22, 1970: Seaver Strikes Out 19 Batters Thomas J. Brown Jr.
May 14, 1972: Willie Mays Homers in Mets Debut
Kevin Larkin
September 2, 1972: The Kind of a Night You Dream About Irv Goldfarb
September 20, 1973: All the Good Bounces Brian Wright
October 10, 1973: Ya Gotta Believe Steven C. Weiner
October 14, 1973: Say Hey One Last Time Frederick C. Bush
October 18, 1973: Koosman, McGraw Shutout Takes Series Frederick C. Bush
June 14, 1980: The Steve Henderson Game Tom Cuggino
April 5, 1983: Tom Seaver’s Return Bruce Slutsky
September 7, 1984: Dwight Gooden One-Hits Cubs Joseph Wancho
April 9, 1985: Gary Carter HR Debut Bruce Slutsky
July 4, 1985: Fire(works) & Rain Brian Wright
September 12, 1985: Hernandez Walk-Off Joseph Wancho
October 1, 1985: Strawberry’s 11th-Inning Wallop Richard A. Cuicchi
July 22, 1986: Extra-Inning Slugfest w/Brawl & Home Run
Michael Huber
23 October 11, 1986: Dykstra’s Homer Ends G3 NLCS Rory Costello
October 14, 1986: Carter’s Single Wins G5 NLCS Rory Costello
October 15, 1986: 16-inning Battle for Pennant Rory Costello
October 25, 1986: Buckner Error Matthew Silverman
October 27, 1986: Game Seven Matthew Silverman
August 11, 1988: McReynolds’ Grand Slam Brian M. Frank
October 4, 1988: Mets Steal G1 of NLCS Paul Hofmann
October 8, 1988: Mets Beat Dodgers, Weather Tara Krieger
July 25, 1990: Mets Survive Six-Run Ninth Michael Huber
July 28, 1993: Walk-off Ends Young’s 27-game Losing Streak Kevin Larkin
and many more!
