- OnTheBlack.com reviews: The Miracle Has Landed
- Subway Squawkers reviews: The Miracle Has Landed
- Faith and Fear in Flushing reviews: The Miracle Has Landed
- The Eddie Kranepool Society reviews: The Miracle Has Landed
- At Home Plate reviews: The Miracle Has Landed
- AmazinAvenue.com reviews: Mets By The Numbers
- Faith and Fear in Flushing reviews: Mets By The Numbers
OnTheBlack.com reviews: The Miracle Has Landed
November 23, 2009 by Kerel Cooper
As I mentioned to you guys in a previous post, here is Part I of my book review: The Miracle Has Landed: The Amazin’ Story of How the 1969 Mets Shocked the World. Part II (which I will post tomorrow) of my book review is an email interview with one of the books editors, Matthew Silverman.
Below is Part II of my book review for: The Miracle Has Landed: The Amazin’ Story of How the 1969 Mets Shocked the World. This is an email interview I did with one of the books editors Matthew Silverman. This is a two part interview (I will post the second part tomorrow).
Matt is a big time Mets fan and has authored, co-authored and edited a number of baseball and sports related books and publications. Please check out the interview below and leave a comment! Also remember, if interested in the book it can be purchased here.
Question: A little background on you and your role in the book?
Answer: I’ve worked on some books on the Mets (Mets Essential, 100 Things Mets Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die, Maple Street Press Mets Annual, Mets by the Numbers with Jon Springer, and Shea Goodbye with Keith Hernandez). I grew up in White Plains in the 1970s and got to see a couple of years of Tom Seaver, Jerry Grote, Jerry Koosman, Wayne Garrett, and Bud Harrelson before they were scattered across the earth by the narrow-minded and clueless front office. I can’t even begin to tell you how unpopular the Mets were then (though there’s an epilogue in the book by Jason Kanarek that does a good job of it). My role for The Miracle Has Landed was as editor–Ken Samelson was in charge of proofing with help from Len Levin and Bill Nowlin–and we coordinated biographies on every Met who played on the 1969 team, plus coaches, the owner, GM, chairman of the board, and of course, the announcing crew of Kiner, Murphy, and Nelson, written by the leading writer in the field, Curt Smith. Even if they pitched two innings (as Jesse Hudson did), a full bio is included and their baseball card. I wrote a lot of smaller pieces as well as biographies of Tug McGraw, Don Cardwell, and Cal Koonce and helped out with a couple of others. My Q&A with Ralph Kiner about broadcasting in 1969 is also in there.
Question: How did the idea of the book come about?
Answer: The Society of Baseball Research (SABR) has commissioned several books on different championship teams–including two teams that preceded the ‘69 Mets in the World Series: the 1967 Red Sox and 1968 Tigers. SABR is an organization with a few thousand members and there was no shortage of people who wanted to help. It’s a volunteer project, so the people were really into and did a great job. Maple Street Press served as publisher and they made the ideas work on paper.
Question: Beginning to end, how long did the book take to come together?
Answer: I was first contacted in March 2007 and I saw the last page proof just as the 2009 season ended…so that’s two and a half years. It was done piecemeal at times and the publisher and I agreed to put it out in the fall because there would be less competition, it would be in stores for the holidays, and the extra time allowed us to get in some of the festivities they had for the 40th anniversary in 2009.
Question: You have Authored, Co-Authored and been Editor in numerous other baseball books. What was the one thing that stands out or was most enjoyable about this book?
Answer: I started in newspapers and the aspect of being a sports editor I miss most is laying out art and text and figuring out how to present things on a page. I got to write a lot of the sidebars that appear at the end of many bios and essays–snippets of stuff that wouldn’t fit in a longer piece–and it let me play around with subjects like the ‘68 Jets and ‘70 Knicks, who won world championships before and after the Mets, plus what the Yankees were doing in ‘69 (finishing fifth–that felt therapeutic), where the Mets were for the Moon landing, future Mets born in 1969, the ‘69 Mets Vegas lounge act, and about 30 other subjects.
Tomorrow I will post Part III of this book review which will be a continuation of this interview.
Below is Part III of my book review for: The Miracle Has Landed: The Amazin’ Story of How the 1969 Mets Shocked the World. This is an email interview I did with one of the books editors Matthew Silverman. This is a continuation (second part) of my interview with Matthew Silverman. If you missed the first part of the interview, please click here.
Special Thanks to Matt for taking the time out to do this interview and to The Society For American Baseball Research for contacting me about this book.
Question: Within the acknowledgments section, there is mention of a number of Mets related blogs. How big of a role did Mets Blogs play in the research and information gathering of the book?
Answer: There have been many times in Mets history where you had to wonder, “Am I the only person who cares about this? It’s 10-1, they’re 20 games out, and I’m worried that they’re using a reliever for the third night in a row.” Blogs are unequivocal proof that we are not alone. While a few people I thought would be anxious to help weren’t, just about every blogger I asked–most of whom aren’t even in SABR–couldn’t wait to be a part of it. And bloggers like yourself writing about the finished product and furthering the discussion on this great team also helps get the word out. People with questions about the book can contact me at my blog at metsilverman.com.
Question: In your words, why should a young Mets (or general baseball fan) not alive in 1969 read this book?
Answer: Well, first of all I actually missed the 1969 season–and 1973. At age four in ‘69, I remember seeing the show Underdog but not the Underdog Mets. I didn’t start following the Mets until it was too late (1975–the ship was starting to go down–and the team was horribly run). I always wanted to know everything I could about the time I missed, like a dynamic relative you heard so much about but you never got to meet. The more you look at the ‘69 season, the more you realize it will never be duplicated. Not just by the Mets, but by any team. The Mets were so hideously bad in their early years, losing 100 games five out of seven seasons–plus the worst record of the century–and then bam: 100 wins and a World Series title against a 109-win Orioles team filled with All-Stars and future Hall of Famers (as were the Cubs). That Mets lineup was not what you call power-laden, but their manager made sure they knew how to play. Gil Hodges used everyone on the roster. They all had career years or were platooned perfectly by Hodges. The ‘69 Mets are not just some legend. It’s your team. They may win another World Series someday, but it will never be anywhere close to this level of hysteria…even with ESPN, the Internet, MLB channel, and twittering till your thumbs fall off. The ‘86 team was an echo of the ‘69 club–only that was a club of All-Stars that did the unMetly feat of running away with a division–yet even they needed divine intervention. There had to be a little 1969 mojo in the air at Shea for that ‘86 team to win three times in their last at-bat in the NLCS or the Game 6 and 7 comebacks against Boston. I’m just hoping these 23 long years since ‘86 are building up to some other celestial jackpot we can’t yet see.
Question: Give me one or two things you learned from the book that you didn’t already know about the 69 Mets?
Answer: Rain and doubleheaders. The ‘69 Mets actually benefited from a lot of rainouts. The Mets had a really tight early schedule, no days off–and back then they played almost all day games until May (what a concept). So the rainouts happened when the team was struggling and they benefited from the time off. Then in August and September, the Mets had all these doubleheaders, the pitching was at its peak, and they charged past everyone. They went 11‑3‑8 in doubleheaders, including six sweeps in their last nine twinbills, fueling their 38-11 finish. The Cubs had the worst record in the league over the same period and lost a double-digit lead. A Chicago blogger and an Orioles fan were gracious enough to write what it was like being a kid and seeing this upstart Mets team crush their dreams. It’s a feeling modern Mets fans can understand, but it’s reassuring to know it can happen to someone else.
Question: Closing thoughts or anything additional you want to add?
Answer: Thanks for your interest, Kerel. The books is available at local bookstores for under $25 and for even less at Amazon–in Mets dollar terms: for less than the price of a sandwich and beer run for one person at Citi Field. It’s for a good cause and a great team and the book, if I dare say, will have you saying “wow” more than a few times. And when was the last team the current Mets made you say that in a good way. There’ll never be another team like the ‘69 Mets.
http://www.ontheblack.com/2009/11/23/book-review-the-miracle-has-landed-part-i/
http://www.ontheblack.com/2009/11/24/book-review-the-miracle-has-landed-part-ii/
http://www.ontheblack.com/2009/11/25/book-review-the-miracle-has-landed-part-iii/
Subway Squawkers reviews: The Miracle Has Landed
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Interview with Matthew Silverman – co-editor of new 1969 Mets book ‘The Miracle Has Landed’
The Miracle Has Landed: The Amazin’ Story of How the 1969 Mets Shocked the World is a new book celebrating the Miracle Mets. The book is a project of SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) that contains biographies of every player, coach, broadcaster and signficant front office member of the 1969 Mets. It also features essays on the greatest moments of the season, including perspectives from fans of the Cubs and Orioles, as well as rare photos and images of 1969 baseball cards.
I have not read the entire book yet (it is almost 400 oversized pages), but I have read more than enough of the essays and sidebars to recommend it highly to any Met fan. If you are familiar with 1969, the book will bring back many great memories, but you are likely to learn many new facts as well. If you are not familiar with 1969, this book is a great place to start.
“Miracle” co-editor Matthew Silverman has written numerous books about the Mets, including “Shea Good Bye” (co-written with Keith Hernandez) and “100 Things Met Fans Should Know Before They Die.”
Silverman agreed to answer some questions from Subway Squawkers on the Miracle Mets:
While reading the book, I learned that Jerry Koosman avoided getting released in 1966 because he owed Met farm director Joe McDonald $50. What did you learn from doing this book that you did not know before?
First, thanks for having me. I also want to mention that The Miracle Has Landed is a compilation of about 40 writers, along with co-editor Ken Samelson, who put in their time for free to benefit this book for the Society of American Baseball Research. That said, here’s a few of my favorite things I learned about ’69 in the last year:
–That the Mets lost four of Tom Seaver’s first five starts in 1969, but between the end of April and mid-July, Seaver won 13 of 14 starts with seven complete games. (He’d finish 25-7 and would complete each of his last eight starts.)
–That Gil Hodges used almost 100 different batting orders during the season. If you look at the postseason batting orders, Hodges, who advocated using all his players, had one lineup against a right-hander and a second order against a lefty. During the season, though, he changed the order on a nearly nightly basis–even sitting slugger Donn Clendenon a lot of the time. It worked.
–That the Mets schedule originally had them playing without a day off for most of the first month, but it rained a lot that spring–and for much of ’69–so the Mets benefited from a lot of rainouts while the Cubs got off a scalding start. Those games were made up in August, when the Mets were hot and their pitching unstoppable. The Mets swept six of the nine doubleheaders they played in the final weeks of the season while the Cubs floundered.
Most Met fans are familiar with such legendary 1969 games and moments as Tom Seaver’s “imperfect game” and the black cat that walked in front of the Cubs’ dugout. What lesser-known game or event from 1969 would you point to as further evidence of what a special year it was?
There are probably a dozen games from that season Mets fans still remember, like the 1-0 wins where the pitchers drove in both runs in the doubleheader in Pittsburgh; Cardinal Steve Carlton 19-strikeout game he lost on two Ron Swoboda home runs; and even the Mets getting no-hit by Bob Moose at Shea two weeks before the season ended, but there was a remarkable win at the end of August at a time when the Mets could have faded.
The Mets had won 12 of 13 to go from 10 back to 2 1/2 behind, but Juan Marichal skunked them in San Francisco while the Cubs won in Atlanta to go back up by four. The next afternoon, August 30, the Cubs had already won when the Mets allowed a game-tying double to Willie McCovey (NL MVP in ’69). It looks like the Giants will win in the ninth when McCovey hits another double, this time the other way against the “McCovey shift,” but left fielder Rod Gaspar makes a desperation thrown to the plate and gets Bob Burda.
The catcher, Jerry Grote, thinks it’s the third out and rolls the ball onto the field. First baseman Donn Clendenon races over, grabs it, and throws to third to get McCovey. So Willie Mac doubles into a double play! Clendenon homers the next inning. The Mets finish 26-9 while the Cubs won just 10 of their last 28.
What 1969 Met player does not get the recognition he deserves?
A few of the guys have faded a bit from the public’s appreciation, like Cleon Jones, who hit .340 in ’69, but most Mets fans still know and love him. An important player who is often forgotten is reliever Ron Taylor. The starters on the Mets were superb and had more than 50 complete games, but when they couldn’t go the distance, they called on Taylor. He was also the only Met with postseason experience (as a 1964 Cardinal) and he got the last out in the first World Series win in Mets history in Game Two.
He helped Tug McGraw adapt to a new role in the bullpen and between them they were magnificent down the stretch. Taylor is among the last of the ’69 Mets still affiliated with a major league team. The only non-American on the ’69 club, the Toronto native became a doctor after he retired and has been team physician for the Blue Jays for 30 years.
If Tampa Bay had won the World Series in 2008 after never coming close to a winning season in the franchise’s first ten years, do you think that would that have been as big a miracle as the 1969 Mets?
There was no ESPN, Internet, Twitter, or other methods of instant hype in 1969 and to tell you the truth the fact that there wasn’t probably makes the ’69 Mets more of a legend. The Rays were more of a fact while the ’69 Mets seemed like the stuff of fiction. The ’08 Rays were a remarkable story, but they were created during a time when there were many ways for an expansion club to help itself, such as free agency, while the Mets had to rely almost solely on players other teams didn’t want.
The Rays screwed up repeatedly and were terribly run. No one thought their losing lovable, as Mets fans had of their club in the early years. And I don’t mean to sound provincial, but if you have a New York Miracle or one in Tampa, I think the New York one probably wins out in people’s perceptions.
New Hall of Famer Whitey Herzog was an important part of the Mets’ organization in 1969. How do you think Met history would have been different had Herzog become Met GM or manager in the early 1970s?
I like to think there’d be more than one world championship banner since ’69 if Whitey had been kept around. We have a piece in The Miracle Has Landed on Herzog following the M. Donald Grant bio. Those two couldn’t stand each other. As Mets farm director, Herzog belittled Grant, the board chairman, because Whitey wanted him to stop meddling. He wasn’t subtle about it. So when GM Johnny Murphy died a couple of months after the world championship, the replacement was blundering Bob Scheffing (the guy who traded Nolan Ryan against Herzog’s advice) because Grant wasn’t about to let Herzog get it.
When Gil Hodges died in ’72, Herzog wasn’t even considered as replacement. Herzog left and started a managing career that was good enough for the Hall of Fame. Herzog is one of the great “ifs” in Mets history. He made the Royals into a three-time division champ in the late 1970s and then he took the Cardinals to three World Series (two at the Mets’ expense). He still might be the only guy I can think of who could make the 2010 Mets legitimate contenders because Whitey knew how to build a team around a big ballpark in St. Louis. It’s not easy, but Herzog made it look that way.
Next season, the Mets will display their history more prominently at Citi Field. Aside from what has already been announced, how would you like to see 1969 commemorated at Citi Field?
I was disappointed the Mets wore a mock-up of an old New York Giants baseball uniform–against San Francisco!–but no one thought that maybe during the 40th anniversary season they should wear the ’69 uniforms, with the Major League Baseball logo patch (1969 was the first year for that). I’d still like to see them do that and I think a lot of Mets fans wouldn’t mind seeing that as the alternate uniform instead of the one the team recently announced to groans throughout the tri-state area.
I really liked the 80-foot tall ’69 tribute they had at Shea above the Mets bullpen. I could certainly live with a tribute where everyone could see it, such as in the food court area or maybe on the roof of the Robinson Rotunda, along with some words that explained who they were and why that was the touchstone moment for this franchise. No matter how many years ago it was, 1969 was the year the Mets had their confirmation, bar-mitzvah, what have you. No expansion team had ever won a championship before the ’69 Mets and none would again until 1985. The ’69 Mets are always worth remembering and celebrating.
http://subwaysquawkers.blogspot.com/2009/12/interview-with-matthew-silverman-co.html
Faith and Fear in Flushing reviews: The Miracle Has Landed
Miracles Never Cease
by Greg Prince on 20 December 2009 3:55 am
Back when Bob Costas was an up and coming broadcaster whose every other utterance was cheekily charming (as opposed to now, when he comes off as curmudgeonly condescending), he made a characteristically cute remark about wanting to follow the Gideons into hotel rooms so he could place the Elias Baseball Analyst alongside their Bibles in every hotel room in America.
That’s how I feel about The Miracle Has Landed. If I could, I would put this Good Book that details like no other the mitzvahs committed by the 1969 World Champion New York Mets in the hands of every single Mets fan. I can’t, but I can urge every citizen of Metsopotamia to bless himself or herself — as well as a loved one — with a copy. The Miracle Has Landed is undoubtedly the definitive Word on the definitive moment in the Genesis of the modern Mets.
This book is a near-religious experience. I preach its Gospel to the village elders who remember first-hand the Old Testament of Casey Stengel, and I preach its Glory to the Met-aphorical child Who Does Not Know How To Ask. For the wise and mature Mets fan, The Miracle Has Landed offers depth that outdistances even the 410 feet between home plate and deepest center field at the late, lamented Shea Stadium. For the youngster among us who wonders why such a fuss continues to be fomented over a team from forty years ago, The Miracle Has Landed provides an answer that could have been brewed straight from the Maxwell House Haggadah:
It is because of what the almighty Gil Hodges did for us when we left ninth place.
I could continue to get spiritual with you about this book, but better you should know what’s actually in it so you’ll be suitably convinced to secure it.
It has everything.
It has everything you could possibly want to know about the 1969 Mets. It is a most friendly encyclopedia on what stands, still, as the most improbable championship baseball has ever known. It is a library of biography, a repository of history, a stream of curiosities and a stage for eternal drama. It is a parade of perspectives. It is an endless sense of wonder.
It is 1969 come to life and come to stay. Invite it in to your home and to your heart.
Me, I invited Matt Silverman to tell me a little more about it.
The Miracle Has Landed offers not one voice but dozens of full-throated articulations of what made 1969 the incandescent year it remains. The Society for American Baseball Research, under whose auspices the book was produced, had the good sense to seek out an expert conductor to turn the choir into a vocal symphony rather than a cacophony. That would be Matt, an experienced sports author and editor, particularly where the Mets are concerned. SABR asked Matt to put this project together in 2007, and he would spend the next two years of his life devoted to its cause and deadlines. It took a lot of work, but Matt saw a bright side, particularly in the past year. See, while the rest of us were mired in the misery of the disabled and the diminished, Matt got to take frequent side trips to a happier, more miraculous place.
Matt tells me he’d be watching a game last summer, would see the Mets fall behind some random opponent 4-1, feel the deficit widening and adjourn to his office to work on captions or one of the many sidebars he personally contributed. “What a wonderful escape from 2009,” he says.
Any year is a good year to journey back to 1969. “It’s the touchstone,” Matt believes. “It’s the Met moment. It’s when they really became a franchise.” It’s also when The Franchise earned the only World Series ring he’d ever wear. “They really made Tom Seaver’s career,” Matt says. “They made everybody’s career.” After living with them for more than two years, the editor takes a step back and marvels at his subject matter.
“Whenever I look at the ‘69 Mets,” Matt says of their statistics, “I still ask, ‘how did this team win?’ Even if pitching is 90% of the game, the Mets didn’t even have enough hitting for the other 10%.”
Seaver would go on to approximate his 1969 performance several times. Nolan Ryan would famously exceed what he accomplished, while Jerry Koosman would later win 20 games twice and Tug McGraw would become one of the game’s top closers. But, to Matt’s point, that’s basically it. “Most of those guys would never have another year like 1969,” Matt notes. Most of them never had a year like it before 1969. For instance, “Art Shamsky had had one great week with the Reds,” recalling his four home runs in four consecutive at-bats in 1966. “Otherwise, he was just good.” Yet Art (a .538 hitter in the inaugural NLCS) and his 1969 Met teammates, together, became immortal.
Matt draws one overarching conclusion for why it all merged so miraculously: “Gil Hodges made all these pieces work. Even when he got Donn Clendenon, he still platooned him with Ed Kranepool, who at that point wasn’t the most reliable player the Mets had except that you knew he’d be on the roster every year.”
They’re all champions now, just as they were all champions then, and you’ll read about each of them in The Miracle Has Landed. You’ll read about everybody who had something to do with 1969, from Seaver the Cy Young and Clendenon the World Series MVP to the bit Mets who exist less in memory than agate type. All 35 men who were 1969 Mets are profiled. That includes Amos Otis, then a young man who failed a couple of tryouts (before being shipped off to stardom in Kansas City in exchange for the doomed Joe Foy); Al Jackson, a 1962 refugee who redeparted as the miracle was finding its footing; Kevin Collins, an ultimately lost component of the pre-’69 Youth of America; and Jessie Hudson, who threw exactly two innings for the Mets in his only major league appearance on September 19, 1969. The bio of Clendenon is spectacularly epic. The bio of Hudson is relatively brief. But all of the biographies are lovingly and carefully crafted.
Silverman’s all-volunteer army of writers came from diverse baseball backgrounds. Some (like yours truly, who contributed two original pieces) were high-voltage Mets fans. Others were baseball historians who recognized a good story when they saw it. A couple came at it from the perspective of not being happy the miracle in question was pulled off. Everybody took the assignment at hand to heart. “The guys hit it pretty well,” Matt agrees, happily adding the writeups “didn’t have that cookie cutter feel.”
In addition to the player bios, there are profiles of Hodges, his coaches, the owner and front office poobahs (even M. Donald Dastardly) and articles/sidebars galore on every aspect of ‘69. For example, did you realize that in the midst of widening their September lead over the Cubs and, four days from clinching the first-ever National League East crown, that the Mets were no-hit in the last no-hitter ever thrown at Shea? That the Mets were inundated by rain early in the schedule when they were yet to gel and had to play a boatload of doubleheaders later, when they were perfectly coalesced? That a roll of film from a Seaver start at Wrigley Field — the week after Jimmy Qualls made himself infamous — lay undeveloped for forty years, until it was developed for this book?
You’ll see the pictures. You’ll read the stories. You’ll step out of the path of the black cat so he can go haunt the visitors from Chicago. You’ll find yourself lost in a year like no other. “It’s your team,” Matt says to every Mets fan who harbors any doubts about what made 1969 so incredibly Amazin’. “There will never be another team like it.”
And there may never be another book quite like this.
The Miracle Has Landed is available from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, other online booksellers and New York-area retailers.
http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2009/12/20/miracles-never-cease/
The Eddie Kranepool Society reviews: The Miracle Has Landed
The Miracle Has Landed: The Amazin’ Story Of How The 1969 Mets Shocked The World
Even me, the Mets fan Prince of Darkness, has to take a step back sometimes to remember when the Mets ruled the baseball roost in these parts and one way to put a smile on a Mets fan’ face is to say “1969”
Ahhhhhhh yes, The Amazin’ Mets of 1969. Last summer the lone bright spot at $iti Field was the celebration of the World Champion Mets of that year and just to see all those players back together again was thrilling and exhilarating, but as I looked around at the faces of some of the fans in attendance that night, I saw a lot Mets fans who really have no connection to this team because (gasp!!!) they were to young to witness this great accomplishment.
There were 30 year old Mets fans with their children there who like their kids, had no real attachment to this team. They never saw the black cat run by the Cubs dugout and look right at Leo Durcocher as if to say, “it’s all over Leo, surrender is near”, or cried themselves to sleep after watching Tom Seaver lose his Perfect game to a Jimmy Qualis single in the 9th inning. No cable TV, no 24-HR sports talk radio just the Daily News, NY Post (the essential newspaper for the West Cost scores as the Post was an afternoon paper in those days) and of course WOR to find all our Mets information.
When I’m asked about that ’69 season I remember those events I’ve mentioned plus things like Opening Day, a game that featured the Mets against the brand spanking new Montreal Expos team staring Mack Jones, Adolfo Philips and a young Le Grande Orange and the Mets losing 11-10, a 9th inning rally falling short.
Now I know there are some of you who also remember that year as vividly as I do and would love to relive that season and then there are a good number of you who wish you could find out more of what it was like that season. That’s why the book The Miracle Has Landed is an essential book to add to your Mets and baseball book collection.
Matthew Silverman and Ken Samelson have done a fabulous job of getting a collection of writers together to compile essay’s on the players of the ’69 Mets, the front office, the broadcasters, the owner (bow your heads) Mrs. Joan Payson and Manager Gil Hodges and his coaching staff (Where have you gone Rube Walker ? Mets pitchers turn their lonely pitching arms to you) and my favorite chapter on Mets scout Red Murff, who should be in the Mets Hall of Fame (if they ever build one) Murff was the scout who signed Jerry Koosman, Jerry Grote, Ken Boswell and a kid out of Alvin Texas named Nolan Ryan (to name a few)
Do yourself a favor, don’t wait for someone to get you this book for Hanukah, Christmas, Festivus or whatever holiday you celebrate buy this for yourself as a Mets fan you will cherish this book and read it from cover to cover and in these dire uninspiring times as a Mets fans, The Miracle Has Landed will make you proud to be a Mets fan again.
The Miracle Has Landed is published by Maple Street Press in conjunction with The Society of American Baseball Research
At Home Plate reviews: The Miracle Has Landed
Book Review: The Miracle has Landed
Written by Richard Coreno December 07, 2009
Leave it to southpaw star Jerry “The Kooz” Koosman to deliver a perfect pitch for the spectacular The Miracle Has Landed: The Amazin’ Story of How the 1969 Mets Shocked the World: “This year, 1969, is broken down into minute stories, with detailed biographies of players and coaches and their thoughts from the great season and how it compared with other memorable moments of their careers and lives.”
Edited by Matthew Silverman and Ken Samelson, the October 2009 release is a collaborative effort between Maple Street Press LLC and the Society for American Baseball Research. It features a wealth of essays over the 393 pages from more than 30 SABR members and other baseball historians. There are biographies of 35 players, the five members of the coaching staff — including manager Gil Hodges and coach Yogi Berra — top brass in the front office and announcers — Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy, Ralph Kiner — along with sections covering the history of the club to the closure of Shea Stadium in 2008 and a variety of perspectives on the championship season.
“The Mets finished the ’69 season with a record of 100-62. The pitching staff threw 28 shutouts, including six by Koosman (then age 26), who ended the season at 17-9 with a 2.28 ERA, 180 strikeouts, and a second All-Star appearance,” writes Irv Goldfarb. “He struck out 15 San Diego Padres in 10 innings on May 28 and piled up 23 consecutive scoreless innings in June. He won eight of his last nine decisions.”
While the lineup card is filled with top guns like The Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year winner Tommie Agee, National League Cy Young Award honoree Tom Seaver, slick-fielding shortstop Bud Harrelson, top hitter Cleon Jones (.340 batting average) and bullpen aces Ron Taylor and Tug McGraw — who combined for 25 saves — there is enough room in this diamond gem for players like Jack DiLauro, Danny Frisella, Bob Heise and Les Rohr.
And then there is first baseman Donn Clendenon, who was acquired in a June 15 deal with the Montreal Expos. His role expanded, after being platooned with Ed Kranepool, as the pennant race began to heat up with the Chicago Cubs. In 72 games, he batted .288 and swatted 12 homers. His three homers in the World Series earned him the coveted Most Valuable Player Award.
“Victory is fleeting, and Clendenon received a call at the stadium (after the World Series) informing him that nothing of value was left in his apartment,” writes Edward Hoyt. “‘Fans’ had broken in and taken almost everything – clothes, dishes, even wallpaper.”
Wins were few when the Mets began play in 1962; they immediately set a new standard in Major League Baseball futility, losing 120 of 160 games, while finding a cozy home in the cellar (10th place) in the National League. Through 1968, the club would only claw into ninth place twice — 1966, 1968 — and were dismissed at 100-1 odds to win the 1969 World Series when spring training opened up.
The season marked the 100th anniversary of professional baseball — honoring the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first pro team — which delivered substantial changes: four expansion teams (Seattle Pilots, Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres, Expos) and the “Division Era,” as the 12-team leagues were each divided into two divisions. Not to “disappoint,” the Mets started the season with a thud.
“One of the key elements of drama for a baseball miracle is that the team in question should walk out on stage for the first time as if nothing has changed, as if nothing will ever change. So the 1969 Mets lost (11-10) to the brand-new Montreal Expos with their star pitcher (Seaver) on the mound on Opening Day,” Silverman writes. “It also put the Mets into the category of scoring double-digits against a team that had never played before…and losing. The loss made it eight straight Opening Day losses, dating back to the franchise’s first game in 1962. The first scene of the play had gone off flawlessly.”
Muddling along at 18-23, the club powered to an 82-39 record over the final 121 games, which included capturing 39 of the last 50. Trailing the Chicago Cubs by 9.5 games in mid-August, the Mets would win the East Division by a comfortable eight games over the pacesetters and 12 over the Pittsburgh Pirates. The bases are loaded with neat tidbits on the chase, with the infamous black cat in Shea during a Mets-Cubs game receiving “purrfect” treatment.
Sweeping the Atlanta Braves in the NL Championship Series in three games, the Mets were huge underdogs to the American League’s Baltimore Orioles, who coasted to the East Division title and swept the Minnesota Twins to march with confidence into the World Series. With starters Mike Cuellar (co-AL Cy Young Award winner), Dave McNally and Jim Palmer combining for 59 of the 109 regular-season wins and sluggers like Frank Robinson and Boog Powell, it was no surprise that the Orioles won the first game by a 4-1 tally on October 11 in Memorial Stadium.
There is a grand slam of coverage for the next four games — October 12, 14, 15, 16 — as the Mets swept past the Orioles by the scores of 2-1, 5-0, 2-1 in 10 innings and 5-3. With the front pages of newspapers dominated by major stories like Apollo 11, the Vietnam War, border clashes between the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China, the New York Jets winning the Super Bowl, the Charles Manson cult, Woodstock Festival and the John Lennon/Yoko Ono Bed-Ins, it seems fitting that the “National Pastime” would deliver a curve ball for the ages.
“The Amazin’ Mets had cast off the mantle of lovable losers,” writes Ron Kaplan. “‘This is the summit,’ said (third baseman) Ed Charles, who retired after the World Series. ‘We’re number one in the world and (it) just can’t get any better than this.'”
AHP Rating: 4 Balls
AtHomePlate.com writes its book reviews with the following rating scale in mind:
Four Balls: An exceptional book that truly earns a walk straight to the local book store to get a copy.
Three Balls: This book stands out from its peers and is highly recommended.
Two Balls: A book worth reading/owning and is usually above average.
One Ball: This book has something to say but is nothing special.
http://www.athomeplate.com/reviews/book-review-the-miracle-has-landed.html
AmazinAvenue.com reviews: Mets By The Numbers
by Eric Simon on Apr 8, 2008 12:15 AM EDT in Reviews
There are probably dozens of new Mets books published every year, and most of them are redeeming to varying degrees. I recently* got my hands on a copy of Mets By The Numbers, the softcover companion piece to the wonderful Mets By The Numbers website and blog.
*This is a lie. It’s been sitting on my desk for a couple of months. I regret not writing it up sooner, but one thing or another always seemed to push it off my plate. I apologize to the authors and especially to their publicist Jen, who has made it her life’s work to make sure that this write-up gets posted. Thanks, Jen!
Mets By The Numbers (MBTN) is, at its essence, the history of the Mets. Where MBTN differs — and ultimately sets it apart from other Mets histories — is its format. As you can probably gather from the title, MBTN is about numbers. Not stats, but uniform numbers, and the stories of the men who wore those numbers. So, rather than telling the story of the Mets chronologically, the book’s authors — Jon Springer and Matthew Silverman — use ascending numeric delineation to weave their narrative. In other words, one chapter per uniform number.
Given the book’s unique structure, it would have been very easy for each chapter to devolve into a tired roll-call, blandly cataloging every player to don a particular uniform. The authors deftly avoided that particular pratfall by interjecting humor with history, and leaving us with a chapter-long capsule for every number ever worn.
The book really shines when its spotlight is on the also-rans. Anyone can make Tom Seaver or Mike Piazza seem interesting, but one of the most enjoyable parts of the book for me was reading and subsequently ruminating on the tales of the less-than-stars. Some examples:
On Luis Lopez (#17):
Luis Lopez (1997-99) filled in for Rey Ordonez at shortstop, out-hit Rey-Rey as a Met (.250 to .245), and punched the Gold Glover on the team bus, which was something everyone wished they’d done when Ordonez later called the Shea fans “stupid”. Lopez was part of two shocking developments on September 14, 1997. First, he started the game wearing 17 on “Keith Hernandez Day” when many fans hoped the number might be put in storage to honor Mex (it was the same year Jackie Robinson’s 42 was retired at a Shea ceremony). Second, the banjo-hitting Lopez socked a homer for the only run in a 1-0 win that afternoon.
On Pete Harnisch (#27):
Pete Harnisch (1995-97) briefly assumed No. 1 starter duties, but he was no Tom Seaver. He was no Craig Swan (ed note: also #27), even. The Long Island native battled depression and tobacco withdrawal while clashing badly with manager Bobby Valentine.
On Jeff Innis (#40):
Sidearmer Jeff Innis (1987-93) was a beguiler in the Mets’ bullpen and [a] good clubhouse interview. He was the first Met whose last name began withI, and while, of course there’s no “I” in team, there was plenty of team in Innis, who gamely led the Mets in appearances during the sorry seasons of 1993-93.
Of course, the book has great stories about David Wright, Howard Johnson, Gary Carter et al, so if you want to read about the big boys they’re definitely in there.
If you’re looking to bone up on your Mets history, want to share the team’s stories with a friend or family member, or just want some Mets reading to pass the time when there’s nothing new to read here, go pick up Mets By The Numbers. It’s ten bucks at Amazon, a steal at twice the price.
http://www.amazinavenue.com/2008/4/8/390708/review-mets-by-the-numbers
Faith and Fear in Flushing reviews: Mets by the Numbers:
The Book for Mets Fans Who Like to Count
March 03, 2008:
One afternoon five years ago, I’m walking by a desk occupied by a writer for the magazine I was editing in those days.
“Hey,” the writer asks amid several sheets of legal pad paper (none of which have anything to do with the magazine we’re supposed to be producing), “which uniform number would you guess has the most homers in Mets history?”
Immediately thinking Darryl, I reply, “It’s not 18?”
“18 is up there, but there one’s that higher.”
“Uh,” going from career Met home run champ Strawberry to single-season Met home run champ Hundley, “9?”
“Good guess. 9 is up there, too, but that’s not it.”
“Hmmm,” the wheels grinding so as to add HoJo plus Agee plus current unfortunate occupant Jeromy Burnitz, “20?”
“Yup, 20. More Met home runs have been hit by players wearing 20 than any other number.”
So forgive me if I’m not blown away when I open Mets By The Numbers to page 107 to learn that the three most powerful numbers in Mets history are 20 (384 homers through 2007), 18 (377) and 9 (314). It’s not because I had the sneak peek five years ago, though — it’s that I think about this stuff, albeit in a less specifically numerical way than does the book’s co-author, Jon Springer. He is my former co-worker and a longtime friend but someone with whom I would feel a baseball kinship even if I’d never actually met him because of the way he writes about our team.
But don’t for a second think that I’m not blown away by this book, Mets By The Numbers, because it is perhaps the most incredible repository of Mets data, Mets trivia and Mets Zeitgeist you will ever find between two covers. And, in all sincere immodesty, if someone like me can be blown away by this kind of Mets book in this manner, I can only imagine the absolute tsunami effect it will have on Mets fans who are every bit as committed as I am, maybe just not as…let’s say obsessed.
We speak often in this space of our regard for the Web site Mets By The Numbers. When Jon told me he and Matt Silverman, author of last year’s excellent Mets Essential, were going to create a book based on it, I was excited at the potential outcome but just the least bit wary. The site was already the blue and orange standard. How could a book, static in nature, compete with that?
Answer: It doesn’t. It somehow exceeds it. Jon and Matt have burnished the best of MBTN and built on it. All the vital info is there, but so are new stories and fresh perspectives. It’s part almanac, part encyclopedia, part bible for Mets fans. If you love the Mets the way I do, it’s practically the Komiyama Sutra.
Why? Because it gets it. It totally gets what being a Mets fan is about, even though it is not specifically about the Mets fan experience. Every word, however, is informed by the Mets fan experience, and Jon and Matt are experienced Mets fans, falling inside that blessed demographic that came along when the franchise had already taken root but not before they could absorb most of its history already in progress. Like Jason and me, they listened to Bob Murphy and fastened their seatbelts. They’ve been along for the wild ride of Mets baseball for more than 30 years and now they steer us across more than minutiae. It may as well be a way of life.
Theoretically, the publishers could have hired two crack researchers and said “go find who wore every Mets number” and a handy reference guide might have resulted. But that wouldn’t be this. That wouldn’t have 1/58th (58 for Luis Rosado, natch) the soul that Mets By The Numbers brings to the Picnic Area table. That’s why I love this book as I’ve loved few Mets books. It was so obviously written by Mets fans. It’s not cheerleading, mind you. It’s one loving but clear-eyed micro-biography of one Met after another, and if that Met disappointed, Jon and Matt don’t pretend he didn’t. If, on the other and rarer hand, he ignited, he thrilled, he lit our candle, then he gets his due.
And we find out what number he wore, and why, and why it was important. Let’s not lose sight of the mission of the book. You don’t need a book to tell you Mike Piazza wore 31…you may not even need to be reminded Mike Vail wore 31 (I mindlessly place him in 23 for his incandescent rookie hitting streak)…but it sure is sweet to have it all in one place. It’s explosively gratifying to open to a chapter titled “#10: THEY BROUGHT THE FUNK” and think without even thinking, “Shingo Takatsu!” It would be too much in any other setting to read “#19: HE’S CRAFTY” and wonder, “Beastie Boys…Bobby Ojeda…right?…right?” but not here. Would it be too much to expect an in-depth examination of the Willie Mays/Kelvin Torve controversy or the evolution of the patches on the Mets’ sleeves or which numbers have been worn by the most catchers?
Nope, not here. That’s what you get in Mets By The Numbers. There isn’t a Mets fan alive (certainly not among Faith and Fear readers) who won’t be happier because they read this book. Honestly, you would be poorer to live without it.
http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2008/03/03/the-book-for-mets-fans-who-like-to-count/