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The New York Mets and the Baltimore Orioles met for the 1969 World Sequence, and everybody was anticipating the Orioles would show to be the stronger crew. Not solely had been they one of many groups that was anticipated to compete within the World Sequence from early within the season, however the Mets weren’t even anticipated to get this far! It was outstanding they’d made the World Sequence, and now they had been anticipated to lose out to a vastly superior crew. Nonetheless, the likes of Donn Clendenon and coach Yogi Berra had different concepts.
Why was this such a tremendous triumph? If we’re going to speak concerning the 1969 World Sequence in isolation, you might be questioning that truth. The Mets received 4 out of the 5 video games. There have been a ton of World Sequence occasions that had been nearer than this matchup. The Mets proved they had been the superior crew, and so they bought their first World Sequence as a franchise. On that document, you’d suppose it was an uneventful win. Then why does everybody confer with that season as a Cinderella story? Why are the Mets typically thought to be one of many biggest upset groups in baseball historical past?
To grasp these characterizations, we have now to take a look at the Mets historical past. It is a crew that was nonetheless new to the baseball world. This was a crew that had by no means achieved a profitable season earlier than 1969. That’s proper – each season for the Mets earlier than 1969 was a dropping season. That they had some promising rosters prior to now, however they’d all the time lose extra video games than they’d win. All of that modified in 1969, and it modified in essentially the most dramatic method potential. Not solely did the Mets lastly have a profitable season, however they went on to win all the pieces.
The Mets had been an growth crew within the league. They nonetheless maintain the document as the primary growth crew to ever win a World Sequence. That they had solely existed for eight years after that season concluded. The earlier seven had been dropping seasons, as they had been nonetheless attending to grips with Main League Baseball. There have been a number of groups in a greater place to win the World Sequence. And if anybody anticipated a New York win, it was the Yankees they fancied, not the Mets. However that may be the Mets’ yr!
It was a outstanding season for the Mets, the place they completed with 100 wins and 62 losses. Even main as much as the World Sequence, they’d misplaced extra video games than the Orioles. They had been the underdogs, the crew that was simply meant to benefit from the event and let the extra seasoned competitors get the win. However their gamers knew it was a particular roster, that Mets crew. They knew their camaraderie, crew spirit and techniques had been ok to win. And that’s exactly what they did. They confirmed us their finest qualities, and so they emerged as World Sequence winners of their eighth yr of being a baseball crew!
