[PLEASE NOTE: These comments first ran in Forgotten Hits on August 19th, 2009 ... we welcome your NEW comments after reviewing our synopsis of The Story Of The Year when it comes to Baseball, 1969 ... and will run them in an upcoming post. - kk]
Kent:
God,
it was athletic poetry. Sadly, it was the last great hurrah. August 19,
1969, dawned hot and muggy in Chicago with the Cubs and Kenny Holtzman
going head to head against the Atlanta Braves.
The Cubbies were so
rich with new-found success that players were already talking about how
they'd distribute play-off tickets. Keep in mind, this club hadn't been
to a World Series since 1945. By the way, the last time I checked the
meter, this club STILL hadn't been to a World Series since, uh, 1945.
Hey, any club's entitled to a bad century.
How could you blame the
Cubs for feeling like acne-faced, 12 year old little girls, screaming
about The Monkees? Nobody west of Time Square thought the Mets, under
the venerable Gil Hodges, had a chance in the old National Legaue East
to catch up to the Cubs ... the gap was just too great. Cub Power wasn't
just in vogue, it was becoming a way of life.
Sports Illustrated threw Ron Santo on a cover in July with the caption, "Chicago's Raucolus Cubs."
Do
you remember the drive by Henry Aaron deep in sixth or seventh inning
of that Cubs - Braves ballgame? The Hey - Hey man Jack Brickhouse, also
the Godfather of my daughter, was behind the mic for WGN. Jack broadcast
a number of no-hitters and thought he had another in his grasp until
the Aaron blast. Brick actually said, "There goes the no hitter" as Bad
Henry's fly ball appeared to be headed toward a face to face meeting
with an apartment building across Waveland Avenue.
Now, this just had
to be an act of God or ex-Cubs boss P.K.Wrigley. At the last instant,
the ball just died ... flat out hit an invisible shield and was caught
by Billy Williams in the "well" in left. You had to see it to believe it
and I was fortunate enough to be part of the act.
As a young
reporter, I was dispatched to Cubs park by the news department at WFLD
TV to interview Holtzman. Kenny was obvioulsy thrilled. His blood
pressure had to be running about 190 over 130. But I'll never forget his
last few remarks to me.
"You know this is great," Holtzman told me. "But just imagine how our fans will react when we get to the playoffs."
So
bring on the Titanic. Bring on the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The
Cubs, as I recall, were 8 games up on the Mets following the day's
action.
About three weeks later, they were Max Schmeling on the
canvas after he rematched Joe Louis. The Cubs epic collapse took the
life out of this city during a wonderful summer.
It also set the table for a lousy Bears club, a club that invented bad breaks and bad karma, to go 1 and 13.
The Cubbies, despite 92 regular season wins, weren't a winner. They were Norman Bates' mother in "Psycho."
Yet, to this day, that team is still beloved, deified by baseball fans in our town.
Ernie,
Ron, Billy, Rebel Hundley, Fergie Jenkins ... they all deserved a
better fate. It just wasn't in the cards. The Mets down the stretch were
trip aces ... The Cubs were Jake La Motta getting pounded by Sugar Ray
Robinson.
It shouldn't have been that way ... but it was ...
No reason ... it just was.
Still hurts.
Always will.
Chet Coppock
Thanks, Chet, for that account ... as only YOU could deliver it!!!
Don't forget to order a copy of Chet's brand new book, "Fat Guys Shouldn't Be Dancing At Half Time". More info here: Click here: ChetCoppock.com
Hey Kent,
Love your new segment on the year of "69".
Being
12 years old back in that glorious year, I have many memories. I
remember sitting in front of the TV watching Walter Cronkite when they
landed on the moon. I went outside with binoculars to see the astronauts
on the moon (what a dumbass I was, huh?).
But, I will say my biggest
memory of "69" was the Chicago Cubs. Ernie Banks with his slogan for
the year of " The Cubs will Shine in '69" had the Cub fans hoping.
The
season started out so great with Willie Smith hitting a pinch homer in
the opener and Jack Brickhouse letting out a huge " HEY-HEY that-a-boy,
Willie".
(Not exactly a PC comment nowadays!).
Yes, the Cubs season was underway with a great victory!
And
as the season went on, the victories continued ... the Cubs were in 1st
place until September 9th, when on that night a black cat walked past
Ron Santo in the on deck circle at Shea Stadium ... uh-oh, our lead was
fading and now the dreaded black cat -- could this be happening? ...
Although
the Cubs did win the game that night to stay in 1st place, that was the
end and the Cubs would never see 1st place again.
A team called the
Mets came from behind to overtake the Cubs and even go on to win the
series. Cub fans still look back and say WTF happened!!!
Yes, the Mets, a team that lost 120 games their first year in the majors only 7 years earlier, go on to win the series.
Cub
fans do have one good Mets memory from that year. A guy named Jimmy
Qualls in a July game at Shea Stadium earlier that year broke up Tom
Seaver's perfect game in the 9th inning with a base hit. The season
ended and the hope faded, but hey, wait 'til next year!!!
Well, I've been a Cubs fan for 43 years and I'm still waiting for that year arrive.
Don't laugh, Met fans ... your boys aren't doing so hot this year either.
But
all kidding aside, the Cubs and Mets have a great rivialry because of
that year. Here it is 40 years later and we're still talking about it,
the Mets fans for winning it and the Cubs fans for what might have been.
Mike Mertes
C'mon,
enough already!!! Cub fans have been hiding behind the excuses of black
cats and billy goats for DECADES now!!! Somehow they just seem to
collapse under pressure ... yet they have always been baseball's "lovable
losers"!!!
Quite honestly,
in 1969 they probably just burned themselves out ... their season PRIOR
to September was exemplary ... they literally could do no wrong. Maybe
they got a little over-confident? Maybe they just got tired. Maybe it
just wasn't their year ... but a 17-game spread turn-around at the end
of the season wasn't something you typically saw ... so the Cubs'
collapse ... and the rise of The Mets became the focal point of the
nation that summer.
Personally,
I hated to see Tom Seaver lose his perfect game ... it would have just
made for just one more incredible highlight in a pretty inexplicable
season. (Ironically, outfielder Jimmy Qualls was only in the line-up
that day because Cubs Manager Leo Durocher had benched regular
outfielder Don Young for dropping a routine fly ball the day before that
Durocher said his thirteen year old son could have caught!!!)
The
bottom line is, The Mets' statistics for 1969 are truly nothing short
of amazing. Dubbed by The New York Media as "The Lovable Losers", The
Mets set the record for the most games EVER lost by a major league team
in a single season when they dropped 120 games in their inaugural
season. It's a record that STILL stands to this day, giving whole new
meaning to the phrase "From Worst To First"!!! In fact, The Mets
finished dead last in five of their first six seasons. Previously their
best season (the first under new manage Gil Hodges) saw them finish
sixteen games below .500. But, as mentioned yesterday, even these
depressing statistics don't accurately paint the picture of just how
consistently horrible they really were.
The
Mets had never been more than two games above .500 during their first
seven seasons ... and had never been more than ONE game over .500 past
the first week of any previous season! And, quite honestly, 1969 didn't
start out any more promising. The Mets lost their season opener to The
Montreal Expos ... an expansion team that didn't even EXIST the year
before ... that's right, a team that had never even played a Major
League Game before came out and defeated our Lovable Losers! In fact,
they lost seven of their first ten games. Meanwhile, The Cubs won their
first four games and eleven out of their first twelve. Without question,
they were shaping up as the team to beat.
Whereas
The Mets didn't really have a "star" player in their line-up, the
entire Cubs infield of Ernie Banks, Glenn Beckert, Don Kessinger and Ron
Santo was named to The National League All-Star Team that season, along
with catcher Randy Hundley. Their pitching staff included Ferguson
Jenkins, Kenny Holtzman and Bill Hands ... and they had the great Billy
Williams in the outfield! HOW could THIS team lose?!?!? At The All-Star
Break, The Cubs held a commanding eight game lead over The Mets.
What
The Mets may have lacked in offense, they more than made up for with an
INCREDIBLE pitching staff ... and many of these "also-ran" position
players had career seasons. Little by little, they whittled away at The
Cubs lead ... and, when the dust finally settled, they pulled off a
seventeen game turn-around, going from being 9 1/2 games behind to winning the division by eight games. TRULY AMAZING!!! (kk)
Hi Kent.
You asked for some Mets memories from 1969. I was only eleven, so don't have much.
I
lived in Queens, and with my best friend, would take the bus into
Jamaica, the E or F train to Roosevelt Avenue, then transfer upstairs to
the Flushing Line to Shea. And we did this by ourselves!
We
saved ahead of time to buy field level box seats for a doubleheader
against the Cardinals that summer. Great seats near first base (I
believe the tickets were $6.50). I can't tell you who won the games.
About the only thing I remember is that Tommie Agee struck out five
times.
The
other doubleheader we went to was Banner Day, which we tried to go to
every year. Between games, the fans got to go on the field with their
homemade banners. They would enter in center field, walk across to home
plate, then around the sidelines back to the outfield. Prizes were given
for the best ones. Had to have been hundreds of people marching around
the field. A lot of fun, actually going on the field. After the game we
would wait around by the players parking area and get autographs as they
left. Still have some of them.
Again, not much for you. We were just kids.
Also, have to give a mention of the Jets winning the Superbowl earlier that year.
Rich
Thanks, Rich ... yes, we'll cover some of the OTHER sports headlines of 1969 tomorrow in Forgotten Hits! (kk)
When
I think of 1969 I can't help but think of the recent movie "Frequency".
It's one of our top favorites, blending so many elements that I'm
interested in. Heck, you have a hot woman, kids and bicycles, baseball,
ham radio, cops and firefighters, time travel, imperfect people
struggling to figure life out, some great acting - and the good guys
win! (That's not a comment on the Series: I didn't have a favorite.) Too
far off the beaten path for Forgotten Hits?
David Lewis
Not
at all ... "Frequency" is one of OUR favorite recent movies, too ...
and I had forgotten how big a part 1969 played in the film. (In fact,
the Cleon Jones / shoe polish incident becomes a MAJOR part of the
drama!!!) If you haven't seen this film, it's well worth renting ...
it's also been playing on cable quite a bit recently. (kk)
Regarding
The '69 Mets ... In those days, all the World Series games were played
during the day, so that meant during school hours for weekday games.
Normally, in my northern New Jersey high school, bringing a transistor
radio to school was frowned upon, but the excitement surrounding the
Mets in the Series that year was so high that for most of my classes I
was allowed to listen to the game through my radio's earpiece and, at
the end of each inning, update the score on the blackboard.
- Randy Price
I
had forgotten about that ... being all day games, I mean!!! I guess I
went to a pretty progressive school ... I remember the teachers having
the radios on IN THE CLASSROOM ... Shop Class in particular ... so that
we, too, could listen in to the games. The whole city was pretty much in
a Cubs Frenzy for most of the season ... 155 days in first place will
do that to a team that hadn't won a World Series in over sixty years!!!
So when The Mets finally overtook the Cubs and headed into Post Season
Play, we pretty much collectively went from frenzy to funk ... a LOT of
people refused to watch or listen to the games at all! (Chicago's kinda
like that!!! lol) kk
THIS JUST IN:
I just found this posted regarding former Chicago White Sox Infielder
(and Mets World Series Hero) Al Weiss ... sounds like a reunion is in
the works for the '69 team ... and just look who's planning to attend!
Click here: Former Mets infielder Al Weis is always in the Spirit of '69
