Met-rospectives

The Mets are a team known for warming hearts one day and breaking them the next. Nothing has ever come easy for the National League's third franchise in New York. Even the miraculous championship year of 1969 didn't occur without seven preceding years of futility. And in the dominant 1986 regular season, the road to an expected World Series title didn't happen without gut-wrenching, precipice-of-defeat dramatics in the playoffs.

There have been fair measures of wondrous and woeful in the franchise's history, but this book's 57 game summaries--coinciding with the number of Mets years through 2018--are strictly for the eternal optimist. All, with the exception of one valiant defeat, end in triumph for the orange and blue. The selection process for these games involved various criteria including the time in the season, the dramatic level, and the impact in shaping franchise history.

The games are recounted here thanks to the combined efforts of 32 SABR members. They run the gamut of the team's lifespan, beginning with its very first victory in April 1962 at Forbes Field, running through Tom Seaver's "Imperfect Game" in July '69 and the unforgettable Game Sixes in October '86, the "Grand Slam Single" in the 1999 NLCS, then concluding with extra-inning heroics in September 2016 at Citi Field that helped ensure a wild-card berth.

April 23, 1962: Mets First Victory

Tony Valley

June 26, 1963: Tim Harkness Game-Winning Slam

Alan Raylesberg

May 31, 1964: Longest Doubleheader

Alan Cohen

July 9, 1969: Seaver's Near-Perfect Game

Alan Raylesberg

September 15, 1969: Swoboda Is Carlton's Achilles Heel

Richard A. Cuicchi

October 15, 1969: Seaver/Swoboda Beat Baltimore

Thomas J. Brown Jr.

October 16, 1969: First Expansion Team to Win a World Series

Thomas J. Brown Jr.

April 22, 1970: Seaver Strikes Out 19 Batters

Thomas J. Brown Jr.

May 14, 1972: Willie Mays Homers in Mets Debut

Kevin Larkin

September 2, 1972: The Kind of a Night You Dream About

Irv Goldfarb

September 20, 1973: All the Good Bounces

Brian Wright

October 10, 1973: Ya Gotta Believe

Steven C. Weiner

October 14, 1973: Say Hey One Last Time

Frederick C. Bush

October 18, 1973: Koosman, McGraw Shutout Takes Series

Frederick C. Bush

June 14, 1980: The Steve Henderson Game

Tom Cuggino

April 5, 1983: Tom Seaver's Return

Bruce Slutsky

September 7, 1984: Dwight Gooden One-Hits Cubs

Joseph Wancho

April 9, 1985: Gary Carter HR Debut

Bruce Slutsky

July 4, 1985: Fire(works) & Rain

Brian Wright

September 12, 1985: Hernandez Walk-Off

Joseph Wancho

October 1, 1985: Strawberry's 11th-Inning Wallop

Richard A. Cuicchi

July 22, 1986: Extra-Inning Slugfest w/Brawl & Home Run

Michael Huber

23 October 11, 1986: Dykstra's Homer Ends G3 NLCS

Rory Costello

October 14, 1986: Carter's Single Wins G5 NLCS

Rory Costello

October 15, 1986: 16-inning Battle for Pennant

Rory Costello

October 25, 1986: Buckner Error

Matthew Silverman

October 27, 1986: Game Seven

Matthew Silverman

August 11, 1988: McReynolds' Grand Slam

Brian M. Frank

October 4, 1988: Mets Steal G1 of NLCS

Paul Hofmann

October 8, 1988: Mets Beat Dodgers, Weather

Tara Krieger

July 25, 1990: Mets Survive Six-Run Ninth

Michael Huber

July 28, 1993: Walk-off Ends Young's 27-game Losing Streak

Kevin Larkin

and many more