Greg W. Prince - Amazin Again: How the 2015 New York Mets Brought the Magic Back to Queens

Copyright 2016 by Greg W. Prince

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Tom Lau

Cover photos courtesy of AP Images

All photos in insert courtesy of AP Images

ISBN: 978-1-61321-945-4

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-61321-946-1

Printed in the United States of America

F OR S TEPHANIE , S UZAN, AND C HARLES.

The Princes are a pretty good team, too.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

I ve always appreciated the talents of baseball beat writers. They work on strict deadlines, and have to present a coherent, well written, comprehensive account of a ballgame, including quotes from the participants within a short time after the games conclusion. Were talking minutes here, not hours or days. Their product is generally outstanding.

As I write the foreword to this book, we are nearly two months removed from the conclusion of the New York Mets 2015 National League Championship season and Im still not sure how to even begin to explain what happened, never mind do it in a coherent, well written and comprehensive fashion.

Thankfully, thats not my job. Thats where Greg Prince comes in. Hes the trained professional here. He might not work on deadline, but his blog, Faith and Fear in Flushing , co-written with Jason Fry, is simply the most intelligent, well written and thought-provoking of its kind; clearly written by adults for adults. Hes the perfect person to recount the events of one of the most memorable of the Mets fifty-four National League seasons, in a manner that will no doubt leave you trying to figure out how they crammed so many twists and turns into just one year.

Several times during the stretch drive I remarked on the air how it felt as though the Mets had experienced three or four different seasons within the six months allocated for just one. The Jerry Blevins era seemed a lifetime ago by the time the Mets nailed down the Eastern Division title on that memorable afternoon in Cincinnati. Along the way, events started to feel eerily similar to me to other epochal moments from championship seasons past.

When the Phillies Jeff Francoeur hit that line drive off the leg of Carlos Torres who hacky-sacked the ball to Daniel Murphy, who somehow made a perfect flip to Torres covering first for the out, were you not somehow reminded of the Pirates Dave Augustines ball off the wall in 1973? If you go back that far, and you felt at the time that plays like that are not wasted on second place finishes, wasnt that the tipoff that the division was the Mets to be won, just as it was forty-two improbable years earlier?

Truthfully, though, a lot of what transpired during the 2015 season reminded me more of 1969 than it did any other year. The Washington Nationals (formerly the Montreal Expos, who were born and played their first game against the Mets in 69) were the Mets opening day opponents. Sure, Max Scherzer had them no-hit into the sixth inning, but of course, the Mets found a way to win, largely thanks to a couple of Ian Desmond errors. One game, one omen. Nearly six months later, in the penultimate game of the regular season, Scherzer actually did no-hit the Mets. Just as a fellow named Bob Moose of the Pittsburgh Pirates had done to them on September 20, 1969, four days before the Mets clinched the division crown.

Five days before that, on September 15, 1969, the Cardinals Steve Carlton dominated the Mets en route to setting a then-major league record with 19 strikeouts. Of course, Ron Swoboda hit a pair of two run homers and the Mets won, 43. In early September 2015, with the Mets attempting to sweep the Nationals in a three game series for the second time in a little over a month and grab firm control of the division, Washingtons Stephen Strasburg was similarly dominating the Mets, who trailed late by a run. No sooner did I reflect on the air about 1969 and say that the way things were going, I half expected Ron Swoboda to pop out of the dugout and take Strasburg deep, Kelly Johnson went full-out Swoboda and hit the next pitch out for a game-tying pinch-hit homer, the prelude to more Yoenis Cespedes magic which enabled the Mets to take out the broom.

On the afternoon that the Mets finally clinched the division in Cincinnati, just as Lucas Duda came to the plate in the first inning, I told my listening audience that in the 1969 division clincher, the Mets broke the game open with five first-inning runs (against Carlton and the Cardinals at Shea) on home runs by Donn Clendenon and Ed Charles, and wouldnt it be great to end the suspense early against the Reds? Duda cooperated by hitting a grand slam. Surely this had to mean something special was going on here.

Okay, you want another eerie connection to 1969? Remember one of the low points of the 2015 season? The game they lost in the rain to the San Diego Padres after leading 71 at Citi Field probably made you wonder exactly what evil forces were working against the Mets and why? That game was played on July 30. On that very same date forty-six years earlier I was sitting in the left field loge at Shea Stadium as Gil Hodges marched from the dugout to just in front of my friends and me to remove Cleon Jones from the game as the Mets were being walloped in a doubleheader by the Houston Astros. That is widely considered a bottoming out moment for the eventual World Champion Mets of that year.

In the end, despite the chronological similarities, the Mets of 2015 fell three wins short of accomplishing what their 1969 brethren did, but as the T-Shirt says, The Pennant Will Rise at Citi Field with the hope that the Mets can complete their unfinished business next season in the manner that the Kansas City Royals did their own on that Sunday night in Flushing. Before that takes place, however, enjoy a far more detailed reflection on the Mets fifth National League Championship season written by a man who takes each Mets win and loss and finds just the right words to tap into emotions that somehow relate to every fan who reads his work. Its consistently outstanding work, in fact, and this book serves as a wonderful testament. Enjoy the memories, and heres to taking that one final step.

Howie Rose

Broadcaster, New York Mets

WOR Radio, 710 AM

December, 2015

HERE WE GO

OUR PRONOUN OF CHOICE

I f you collect baseball cards, yet you dont have one of me, dont fret. Your set is still complete. If you havent seen me in your official yearbook, no matter how revised the edition, it wasnt a misprint. Fast-forward or rewind through any game youve saved on your DVR. You wont find me in action.

I say this because if you dont know me and start to read what Ive written in the pages ahead, you might be confused, because I tend to slip in and out of a certain pronoun of the first-person plural kind.