 The New York Mets are a professional team based in Flushing , New York . The team was founded in 1962. The Yankee dynasty continued through the early 1960s, as the team won the AL pennant from 1961 to 1964 and World Series crowns in 1961 and 1962. The team could not perform well in the next few sessions. It was in the year 1965 the Mets lost more than 100 games with a record of 50-112, as onetime New York Gaints catcher Wes Westrum took over for Casey. The Mets ended their first decade on a high note of their own, though, as the 1969 team, dubbed the "Amazin' Mets" or "Miracle Mets", posted not only their first winning season, but their first NL pennant and World Series championship, upsetting the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles 4 games to 1. In the season 1969, the Mets won 100 games as they ended 8 games better then the deflated Cubs. The Mets faced the Atlanta Braves in the very first NLCS, surprisingly it was no contest as the Mets swept the Braves to claim their first ever NL Pennant.
The Mets won the game 5-3 to complete the biggest upset in World Series history. The Mets ended the season with an 83-79 record. The pitching continued to be strong as Tom Seaver ties a Major League record with 19 strikeouts in a game. In 1973, the Mets won an extremely weak NL East, finished only three games above .500. Despite this, they defeated the Cincinnati Reds in the NLCS became the team with the worst regular-season winning percentage ever to play in the World Series. Dave Kingman hit 36 home runs in 1975 and 37 in 1976, catcher John Stearns who won the Gold Glove in 1980, pitcher Craig Swan and 1979 phenom Lee Mazzilli. 1980: One of Doubleday's first moves as owner was to hire Frank Cashen to be the club's General Manager. Cashen had past success in building the powerful Baltimore Orioles teams of the 60's and 70's. One of the 1st moves Cashen made was drafting Los Angeles High School star Darryl Strawberry with the 1st overall pick. While the move was for the future, the Mets played solid baseball for most of the season hanging around .5 00, before fading in the end to finish with a 67-95 record.
The Mets continued to struggle not challenging for first place in either half of the spilt season as they ended the season 1981 with a record of 41-62. The Yankees missed postseason play from 1982 until 1995, as Steinbrenner changed managers numerous times. Don Mattingly emerged as a top player and was named 1985 MVP after driving in 145 runs, the most by an AL player in 32 years. The Florida Marlins won the World Series in 1997. After the 1998 trade, the Mets played well but missed the 1998 postseason by only two games. In 1999 they defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks to advance to their first NLCS since 1988, only to lose to the Atlanta Braves in 6 games. In 2001 New York added top pitcher Mike Mussina and again reached the World Series, but the Yankees lost their title to the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4 games to 3. The New York won AL championships in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2003. |
