It wasn’t so much a pennant race as it was two teams passing each other in the midst of their respective, opposing late-season streaks.
From August 16 through September 23, the New York Mets — which spent its initial seven years in or near the National League cellar — won 32 of 42. The Chicago Cubs — who held first place for much of ’69 — went 14-23.
Greeting and effectively, the Mets took care of the Cubs with an early September sweep at Shea. One night later, New York was in first place for good.
Gil Hodges‘ club kept its distance with one mini-miracle after another. The Mets won both ends of a doubleheader in Pittsburgh in which the only runs were produced by their starting pitchers. The Mets won in spite of Steve Carlton baffling them to the tune of 19 strikeouts.
But New York’s pitching was even more marvelous as Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman collectively went 19-4 over the final two months.
With the magic number at one, it would be another promising young arm — rookie Gary Gentry — who culminated the Mets’ remarkable regular season with a brilliant 6-0 shutout performance that ensured the NL East title.
Once again, New York hitters were up against Steve Carlton. But this time, Carlton didn’t stand a chance.
Just as fitting as it was for a Mets pitcher to dominate the evening, so too was the batter who carried the offense. Donn Clendenon — the key acquisition at the trade deadline that helped ignite the team’s summer charge — delivered a pair of homers. He opened the scoring with a three-run homer to center field.
The Mets eventually put up a five spot in that inning. Veteran third baseman Ed Charles snapped his career-long postseason drought with a two-run blast of his own.
Just like the division, the Mets weren’t giving this lead back. Gentry displayed no first-year tendencies, allowing the Cards only four hits while continuing to string together zeroes.
With one out and one on in the top of the ninth, Joe Torre grounded to Bud Harrelson at shortstop. Harrelson tossed to Al Weis covering second base. Weis threw to Clendenon at first to complete a division-clinching double play that opened the floodgates.
It’s a cliche to “act like you’ve been there before.” But for the celebratory Mets and their fans who ambushed the Shea Stadium turf on a Wednesday night, there was truly no precedent.
Those final outs were recorded at 9:07 p.m. For baseball’s edition of Cinderella, midnight was nowhere in sight.
