1969!!!!!!

[roger_that]

OK, this is it, the 1969th thread on the CPF Baseball Forum, which I declare devoted to discussing the 1969 Mets. I'm posting this now to keep anyone else from slipping a new thread into this slot. More later.



On Edit: Actually no rush to sign off, since I can edit this, the glorious initial post in the 1969th thread, for at least a while (not sure of the edit window, if any) but I just wanted to note that this squad has gone beyond myth into ur-myth for me, and its events have taken on a significance in my life that exceeds fanship and sports.



For example, I have instructed my kids that my mental acuity is to be appraised, and found wanting, on the first day I am unable to recite the names of all 25 1969 Mets within two minutes' time.



And I immediately faced a problem there, because I discovered that, in fact, I couldn't actually perform that feat of mental legerdemain. I could recite the names of 27 or 30 Mets who played in 1969, no problem, but nailing down the identity of the 25th man on the World Series roster was a sticky point that I was unable to resolve easily.



What I did remember was that Bobby Pfeil, their third-string third baseman, was left off the Series roster in order to get it down to 25, and I remembered this as a sign of Gil Hodges' managerial style since, feeling that Pfeil had been a part of his team all season long, he allowed Pfeil to suit up, despite being ineligible to play in the Series.



What I can't quite remember-- and baseball-reference is very little help here because it lists only those who actually played in the Series, not the eligible players who didn't get into a game-- is who was and who wasn't on the Series squad. Which could be a problem, as my kids may be eager to have me put into an old age home.



The pitching staff is of course memorable, not only for its big 1-3 (Seaver, Koosman, Gentry) but also its little 4-6 (Ryan,Cardwell, McAndrew), all very capable starters, and its middle reliever, Koonce, and its closers or firemen or whatever relief aces were called back then (I'm guessing "relief aces"), Taylor and McGraw--that's nine. And Jack DiLauro makes 10, which sounds right. But may not be. We'll return to the pitching staff.



Catchers were Grote and Dyer and Martin, so that's 13, and the infield was Kranepool and Clendenon, Boswell and Weis, Harrelson, and Charles and Garrett, bringing us up to 20. So five outfielders, Jones and Agee, and then in RF we have Shamsky, Swoboda, and Gaspar. So that's twenty-five, and I believe that's right.



Because the Mets used only six pitchers in the series, though, I'm not completely sold on Jack DiLauro, and I can't quite nail down his place on the Series squad. Since I've made this the test of my mental acuity, I'd like to be completely confident that DiLauro was in fact the final piece of the puzzle, and merely being in uniform for the Series doesn't quite cut it (Pfeil). Can anyone confirm DiLauro's eligibility for me and help me stave off being put into assisted living before I'm willing to concede the point? Could Amos Otis have been eligible? Or Jim Gosger? Pretty sure it's DiLauro, but I want to be more than pretty sure.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Great. I cant wait for the part where you start insulting everybody that joins in.



You counted every thread, almost 2,000 of them? (No comment, thread. Make your own assumptions. )

[whippoorwill]

My dad had back surgery in1969. He spent his recovery watching the WS.

He got me hooked on the Mets in 1972 and the rest is history

[Fman99]

I was destined to be a Mets fan. My folks were married in '69 and I was born in '73.

[batmagadanleadoff]

=whippoorwill post_id=97579 time=1656422570 user_id=79]
My dad had back surgery in1969. He spent his recovery watching the WS.

He got me hooked on the Mets in 1972 and the rest is history

[kcmets]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=97577 time=1656422109 user_id=68]You counted every thread, almost 2,000 of them? (No comment, thread. Make your own assumptions. )

[whippoorwill]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=97581 time=1656423137 user_id=68]
=whippoorwill post_id=97579 time=1656422570 user_id=79]
My dad had back surgery in1969. He spent his recovery watching the WS.

He got me hooked on the Mets in 1972 and the rest is history

[batmagadanleadoff]

Jack DiLauro was on the post-season roster. 100% certain of that. Not a shred of doubt. I had to get this post in here as quick as possible before somebody else beat me to it, so that the thread-starter wouildn't go off on a rant, declaring that I'd never heard of Dilauro because I wasn't the first to set the record straight on his '69 post-season eligibility.

[roger_that]

Does anyone have anything resembling evidence of DiLauro's place on the 1969 World Series roster? Memories are pretty unreliable, mine as well as everyone's else, so what I'm looking for is documentation.

[kcmets]

Does anyone have this book?



https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3376833-the-miracle-has-landedThe Miracle Has Landed: The Amazin' Story of How the 1969 Mets Shocked the World

by Matthew Silverman (Goodreads Author) (Editor)



I have it but can't find it. Pretty sure a couple of regulars here contributed. Pissing

me off because all my Mets books are in one place and it's a large book kind hard

to misplace...

[Willets Point]

=Fman99 post_id=97580 time=1656422939 user_id=86]
I was destined to be a Mets fan. My folks were married in '69 and I was born in '73.

[batmagadanleadoff]

=roger_that post_id=97591 time=1656426240 user_id=128]
Does anyone have anything resembling evidence of DiLauro's place on the 1969 World Series roster? Memories are pretty unreliable, mine as well as everyone's else, so what I'm looking for is documentation.

[Edgy MD]

Neither of the "Mets from Mobile" were actually literally from Mobile. Tommie Agee was born in Magnolia, a tiny unincorporated community and actually closer to Montgomery. Cleon Jones was from Pleateau/Africatown (aka AfricaTown) just north of town. The 1969 Met who literally hailed from Mobile was Amos Otis.



The city of Mobile and surrounding area are nonetheless ridiculously fertile as far as producing baseball greats, analogous to San Pedro de Marcoris. Just counting Hall-of-Famers (and only those born within city limits), you've got Hank Aaron, Ozzie Smith, Willie McCovey, and Satchell Paige. A whole lot of Tommy Davises supplement those four, and once you bring in the outlying communities, you've got a powerhouse. Birmingham is almost as scary if you give them Willie Mays, born just west of the city in Westfield. Current Met and future Hall-of-Famer Locke St. John is also a Birmingham native.

[seawolf17]

Does anyone have anything resembling evidence of DiLauro's place on the 1969 World Series roster? Memories are pretty unreliable, mine as well as everyone's else, so what I'm looking for is documentation.

Knew I'd seen this somewhere, but I found the citation.



https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/2022/01/28/jack-dilauro-akron-autograph-requests-mail-amazin-miracle-new-york-mets-1969-world-series-mlb/6570864001/https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/2022/01/28/jack-dilauro-akron-autograph-requests-mail-amazin-miracle-new-york-mets-1969-world-series-mlb/6570864001/



DiLauro didn't appear in the playoff games vs. Atlanta, nor the World Series vs. the Orioles. Not because he was in the doghouse. The Mets starters mostly dominated, so he wasn't needed in relief.



"If I'd have pitched, that would have meant we were in trouble; and we never really were," he explained.



DiLauro was in the bullpen when Jones, the Mets' leftfielder caught a fly ball off the bat of Dave Johnson to end Game 5 of the World Series. Jones famously went down on one knee to celebrate the title.



Shea Stadium erupted. Fans stormed the field. DiLauro and the pitchers headed to the clubhouse. That fall, he and other players made personal appearances throughout the New York area.

[batmagadanleadoff]

The 1969 Mets are one the most beloved teams in baseball history. Still are even though it's likely that the majority of fans who saw this squad play in real time, live, are no longer with us.





And here's some proof of their still-lasting popularity. I snapped a shot of this street graffiti a few months ago and have been meaning to post the photo on this forum ever since. I just couldn't figure out where to post it and I wasn't in the mood to start a new thread. But this thread presents the perfect opportunity.





[FIMG=333]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52180019465_44f8d565db_k.jpg[/FIMG]

[batmagadanleadoff]

=seawolf17 post_id=97598 time=1656427198 user_id=91]


DiLauro didn't appear in the playoff games vs. Atlanta, nor the World Series vs. the Orioles. Not because he was in the doghouse. The Mets starters mostly dominated ....

[roger_that]

Does anyone have anything resembling evidence of DiLauro's place on the 1969 World Series roster? Memories are pretty unreliable, mine as well as everyone's else, so what I'm looking for is documentation. Knew I'd seen this somewhere, but I found the citation. https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/2022/01/28/jack-dilauro-akron-autograph-requests-mail-amazin-miracle-new-york-mets-1969-world-series-mlb/6570864001/https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/2022/01/28/jack-dilauro-akron-autograph-requests-mail-amazin-miracle-new-york-mets-1969-world-series-mlb/6570864001/

Thank you. Close enough for me to feel confident that I'll pass my own test for mental acuity, though it is kind of amazin' that solid official evidence is so hard to come by, isn't it?



As to Jones' and Agee's hometown, there's some interesting history there--the last slave ship from Africa landed there, or near there, and there's an entire Africa-town community there that Jones, I believe, contributes to. I'll see if I can find the story on my hard drive somewhere.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I collected the 1970 Topps set when I was a kid and had many doubles of Met Bobby Pfeil's Mets card pictured below. Pfeil's baseball card photo had to have been taken in 1969 because that was his lone season with the Mets. To this day, I'm still very familiar with Pfeil's card, his only Topps Mets card, because I had many copies of it and because Pfeil's card came out in the 1st series, and so I would have looked at it, held it, handled it and played with it more than with other cards from that set that were released later in the calendar year.



The Mets traded Pfeil to Philadelphia early in the '70 season so, logically, Pfeil's '70 Mets stint would've been brief anyways. That is, if Pfeil even had a Mets stint in 1970. He didn't. At least not with the big club. Pfeil's entire '70 Met stint was spent in the minors.



So me and my fellow Mets fan friends (not that there were many Yankees fans my age in NYC in 1970) never got to see Pfeil live and in real time in a Mets uni in 1970. Eventually, an urban legend began to spread in my neighborhood and at the school I attended that the reason Pfeil was no longer on the Mets was that during the wild 1969 World Series celebration, some fan stole Pfeil's batting helmet and so the Mets, suddenly unable to properly clothe Pfeil, were forced to trade him, an absurd tale, but maybe one that a grade schooler might fall for. Anybody else ever heard this tale?

[batmagadanleadoff]

=roger_that post_id=97605 time=1656429502 user_id=128] it is kind of amazin' that solid official evidence [of Dilauro's post-season eligibility] is so hard to come by, isn't it?

[Edgy MD]

To judge by appearances, the special seating erected behind Cleon was reserved for service members, including what appear to be a group of young wounded vets returned from the field.



Props to any adult wheelchair-bound fan who still brings his glove to the game.



https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C5ybgGfVAAAMpCC.jpg:large>

[whippoorwill]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=97601 time=1656427376 user_id=68]
=seawolf17 post_id=97598 time=1656427198 user_id=91]


DiLauro didn't appear in the playoff games vs. Atlanta, nor the World Series vs. the Orioles. Not because he was in the doghouse. The Mets starters mostly dominated ....

[batmagadanleadoff]

=whippoorwill post_id=97585 time=1656424490 user_id=79]
=batmagadanleadoff post_id=97581 time=1656423137 user_id=68]
=whippoorwill post_id=97579 time=1656422570 user_id=79]
My dad had back surgery in1969. He spent his recovery watching the WS.

He got me hooked on the Mets in 1972 and the rest is history

[roger_that]

=whippoorwill post_id=97612 time=1656430831 user_id=79]


Is he the one they called ‘Moms' or something like that?

[whippoorwill]

These days he'd be considered an ace

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Does anyone have this book? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3376833-the-miracle-has-landedThe Miracle Has Landed: The Amazin' Story of How the 1969 Mets Shocked the World by Matthew Silverman (Goodreads Author) (Editor) I have it but can't find it. Pretty sure a couple of regulars here contributed. Pissing me off because all my Mets books are in one place and it's a large book kind hard to misplace...

I have a copy on the shelf right behind me. Some shitty writers contributed to that one

[Frayed Knot]

Is he the one they called ‘Moms' or something like that? Yeah, he was a real, soft-spoken, modest sort of guy and they teased him about that. I thought he got jobbed by the tyranny of W-L records--he lost a bunch of games that the Mets didn't score for him and he never really got a shot a full-time starting job, I think, in large part because of that.

We heard that Jim was a the type to hang around the Post Office and catch up on the gossip kind of guy when back in his home town.

But he wasn't there when we dropped by

Instagram

WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM

[whippoorwill]

Ach not an instagram member

[Edgy MD]

Me clicking an Instagram link:



"Well, I haven't really been to Instagram in a long time. Might as well see what this is abou ... HOLY SHNIKEE!! I'm being followed by a LOT of well endowed young women! I wonder what triggered their interest in me!"

[whippoorwill]

It's your smile

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

[bLOCKQUOTE]So me and my fellow Mets fan friends (not that there were many Yankees fans my age in NYC in 1970) never got to see Pfeil live and in real time in a Mets uni in 1970. Eventually, an urban legend began to spread in my neighborhood and at the school I attended that the reason Pfeil was no longer on the Mets was that during the wild 1969 World Series celebration, some fan stole Pfeil's batting helmet and so the Mets, suddenly unable to properly clothe Pfeil, were forced to trade him, an absurd tale, but maybe one that a grade schooler might fall for. Anybody else ever heard this tale?[/bLOCKQUOTE]

No-- but this is great story