About the New York Mets

1) As a counter measure to the formation of a new Major League, the Continental League, Major League Baseball decided to expand. They made a deal with the Continental League that ensured their folding. One of the four teams that were created was the New York Mets. The owners of the new National League franchise the decided to name the team the Mets, as a shorten form of the existing corporate name, “New York Metropolitan Baseball Club, Inc.”. In the 1880’s there was also an American Association team that played in New York using the name Metropolitans and it was seen as a good fit. The team decided when they went through the expansion draft to stock their roster to select players who had played on the Dodgers, Giants and Yankees as a way to appeal to fans’ nostalgia. In 1962 the teams first year of play they went on to have one of the worst records ever recorded in Major League baseball winning only 40 of 160 games. They lost over 100 games in each f their first four seasons.

2) During the first 7 years of the Mets existence, they were not a very good team. But they also were building a team for the future by drafting good young players. Tom Seaver won the Rookie of the Year in 1967 and Jerry Koosman in 1968, his rookie year, won 18 games. In 1969 the Mets began their season in the same usual fashion. On August 14 they were behind the Chicago Cubs, in the newly formed National League East division by 9 ½ games. The Mets went on to win 38 of their last 49 games and ended with a record of 100-62. The Cubs had a bad September going 8-17. The Met won the division. They went to sweep the Atlanta Braves in the first national League playoffs. They were considered underdogs against the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles had gone 109-53 in the regular season and included future Hall of Fame players Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson and Jim Palmer. Even though the Mets lost the first game pitched by Tom Seaver. Their pitching led them to win the next 4 games and the series.

3) The Mets have won 5 Divisional titles and received 2 Wild Card berths. They have won 4 National League pennants going on to win 2 World Series titles.

4) The team has retired the following uniform numbers; 14-Gil Hodges, 37-Casey Stengel and 41-Tom Seaver. Seaver is the only one of these to have played for the Mets, with Stengel and Hodges both being managers.

5) The Team plays their home games in Shea Stadium. The Stadium opened in 1964 and named after William A. Shea, the man who bought baseball back to the National League. It has a capacity of 55,601.

6) The team is owned by Fred Wipon and at the beginning of the 2007 season Willie Randolph is their Manager.

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