Saturday Seasons: The 1970 Mets, the Year After the Miracle

The 1970 season began with the Mets in an unfamiliar position, as defending World Champions.

After the miraculous 1969 season, the expectations for the Mets had gone through a metamorphosis. The former laughing stocks of baseball were facing the challenge of becoming the first team to repeat as champions since the 1961-1962 Yankees.

The Mets began the season at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh on April 7th and did something they had not done before by winning the opening game.

Tom Seaver went eight innings, while Steve Blass tossed ten innings for the Pirates, but the game was tied at three after ten. In the top of the 11th, Donn Clendenon’s two run single gave the Mets a 5-3 lead.

Tug McGraw retired the Pirates in the 11th and the Mets had the first opening day win in franchise history.

The home opener was on April 14th and it was a day of pomp and circumstance at Shea. Over 41,000 fans were on hand to see the Mets raise the World Championship banner.

The only downer was that the Pirates returned the favor as they scored two runs off of McGraw in the top of the 10th to hand the Mets a disappointing 6-4 loss.

Seaver blanked the Philadelphia Phillies by scattering eight hits to give the Mets their first home win of the season on April 17th.

The next day, Nolan Ryan, who was making his first appearance of the season, gave up an infield single to Phillies second-baseman Denny Doyle to lead off the game, but that would be the only hit he would allow.

The fire balling right hander would go the distance on a 1-hitter and set a franchise record for a nine inning game with 15 strikeouts as the Mets shutout the Phillies for a second straight game. (Jerry Koosman struck out 15 in a ten inning game in May, 1969).

Ryan walked six but struck out three batters three times including the first inning when he left the bases loaded but his team record would not last long.

Four days after Ryan’s gem, Tom Seaver would make baseball history at Shea.

On April 22nd, the Mets hosted the San Diego Padres in what was seemed like a normal Wednesday afternoon game. A sparse crowd of 14,197 had no clue they would be witnessing an historic performance.

Seaver tied a Major League record with 19 strikeouts as the Mets beat the Padres, 2-1. (St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Steve Carlton struck out 19 Mets in September, 1969 but lost the game). Before the game, Seaver accepted his 1969 Cy Young Award and he celebrated in style.

I had the privilege of interviewing Seaver about this game for a book I wrote (“162-0, Imagine a Mets Perfect Season”) and he said, “I had great stuff and location. Shadows and other stuff helped.”

Somehow, the Padres got two hits off of Seaver who threw 135 pitches (chew on that number, thank you Baseball-Reference.com) and was brilliant that day. “Tom Terrific” walked two and struck out the final ten Padres hitters.

Every Padres starter struck out at least once, except for shortstop Jose Arcia.

Padres left fielder Al Ferrara led off the top of the second with a home run to account for one of the two hits and the only run. Dave Campbell’s single in the top of the fourth was the only other hit.

The Mets scored a run in the first on Ken Boswell’s RBI double. Bud Harrelson snapped a 1-1 tie in the third with an RBI triple to complete the scoring. From there, it was Seaver’s show.

Seaver had nine strikeouts through five. With two out in the sixth, Seaver got Ferrara looking to begin his historic finishing stretch.

Seaver struck out the side in the seventh and eighth innings to give him 16 Ks.

In the ninth, Seaver blew a fastball past Van Kelly and caught Cito Gaston looking to give him 18 strikeouts.

Ferrara, who had homered, was the final batter. Seaver admitted that he had the home run on his mind. “I was still worried I’d make a mistake, and Ferrara might hit it out, but when I got two strikes on him, I thought I might never get this close again so I might as well go for it.”

Seaver threw two sliders and two fastballs to fan Ferrara for the record tying strikeout.

According to Campbell, who got one of the two Padres hits, of the final ten strikeouts, only one player even made contact for a foul ball. Seaver’s catcher Jerry Grote set a record for backstops with 20 putouts.

In mid-May, the Chicago Cubs took three of four from the Mets at Shea to exact a small measure of revenge for what happened in 1969. On the final day of the month, the Mets swept a doubleheader from the Houston Astros at Shea that left them in second place, two games behind the first place Cubs.

In June, the Mets trailed the Cubs by 3.5 when they began a five game series at Wrigley.

In the opener, the Mets trailed 3-0 but rallied for a 9-5 win. Tommie Agee’s three run homer off of Ferguson Jenkins in the fifth inning gave the Mets the lead and they never looked back.

The Mets went on to sweep the five game series as they jumped into first place, a game and a half ahead of Chicago. The Cubs weren’t providing the only competition for the division. The Pittsburgh Pirates were beginning to become a factor.

At the All Star break, the Mets were in second place, but they were a game and a half behind the Pirates who had won 10 of 12 in July.

All summer long, it was a three team race in the NL East.

On August 15th, the Mets were four games out after the Atlanta Braves beat Seaver with a walk off, 3-2 win at Atlanta Stadium.

At the end of August, three teams in the NL East were separated by a game and a half. The Pirates were on top, followed by the Cubs and Mets in second and third place respectively.

On September 10th, the Mets beat the Phillies 3-2 in 14 innings on Cleon Jones’ walk off, RBI triple. The win left the Mets in a flatfooted tie with the Pirates with identical 76-67 records, while the Cubs were in third place, a game behind with a 75-68 mark.

On September 18th, the Mets began a crucial four game series against the Pirates at Shea. Entering the series, the Mets were 1.5 games behind but the Pirates won three of four to go 3.5 up with nine games left in the season.

The Mets had one more chance as they opened a three game series in Pittsburgh on September 25th. The Mets were 2.5 games behind so they needed to win all three, but the Pirates swept the series with three, one-run wins.

The Mets finished the season with four meaningless games against the Cubs at Shea.

On the final day of the season, over 48,000 loyal Met fans showed up only to see them drop a 4-1 decision to finish the season with an 83-79 record.

Seaver went 18-12 with a league leading 2.82 ERA and a league leading 283 strikeouts.

Tommie Agee led the team with 24 home runs, Donn Clendenon had a team leading 97 runs batted in, and Art Shamsky hit a team leading .293.