Saturday Seasons : The 1974 New York Mets: A Season of Missed Opportunities and Endurance

After falling one game short of a second World Series title in five years in 1973, the New York Mets entered the offseason flush with overconfidence. Despite a glaring need for an impact offensive player—particularly a center fielder to replace the retiring Willie Mays—General Manager Bob Scheffing and the front office balked at trading frontline starters Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, or Jon Matlack. A proposed deal with the Houston Astros for power-hitting outfielder Jimmy Wynn, in exchange for pitchers George Stone and Craig Swan, was turned down. Instead, Wynn joined the Los Angeles Dodgers for an aging Claude Osteen, leaving the Mets without the offensive spark they needed. Mays, who announced his retirement in September 1973, effective after the season, left a void filled by the untested Dave Schneck and Don Hahn.

If ever an Opening Day presaged a season’s fate, it was April 6, 1974, at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium. The Mets, largely unchanged from their 1973 pennant-winning roster, held a 4–3 lead in the bottom of the ninth, poised for a fifth consecutive Opening Day win—a streak unbroken in the 1970s after a winless 1960s. Tug McGraw, the charismatic closer whose “Ya Gotta Believe” rallied the 1973 team, took the mound to close it out. But a streaker’s bizarre dash across the field in the top of the ninth disrupted the game’s rhythm. McGraw, rattled, allowed a leadoff single, followed by a walk-off two-run homer by a then-emerging Mike Schmidt, handing the Phillies a 5–4 victory. This gut-punch loss, with McGraw faltering against a future Hall of Famer, foreshadowed a season of squandered leads and missed opportunities.

The Mets struggled early, limping to an 8–13 record in April and a 12–18 mark in May. Injuries ravaged the roster, with catcher Jerry Grote (broken wrist, ~40 games missed), shortstop Bud Harrelson (ankle/back, ~50 games), left fielder Cleon Jones (knee/shoulder, ~38 games), and center fielder Dave Schneck (hamstring, ~30 games) sidelined for significant stretches. Rusty Staub (shoulder/knee, ~10 games missed), Tom Seaver (sciatica/hip), and McGraw (fatigued, no major injury) underperformed, compounding the team’s woes. July offered a brief reprieve with a 15–12 record, and a 14–15 August kept the Mets one game under .500. Entering September, fans clung to hopes of a 1973-style miracle, but lightning didn’t strike twice. The Mets finished fifth in the NL East with a 71–91 record, 17 games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The season’s futility was epitomized in a grueling 25-inning marathon against the St. Louis Cardinals on September 11, 1974, at Shea Stadium—the longest game in Mets history and the second-longest in MLB history at the time. Trailing 3–1 in the ninth, the Mets tied the game on a John Milner two-run homer, only to squander chances in extra innings. The game dragged past midnight, with Hank Webb taking the loss in the 25th when Bake McBride scored on a single after a misplay by Cleon Jones. The 4–3 defeat, lasting 7 hours and 4 minutes, was a microcosm of the Mets’ lost season: flashes of resilience undone by defensive lapses, bullpen failures, and an anemic offense that stranded 19 runners.

The Mets’ offense, ranked 10th in the NL with 398 runs, lacked the punch Wynn (20 HR, .271 with L.A.) could have provided. McGraw’s season was a disaster, posting a 6–11 record, 4.16 ERA, and 3 saves—down from 25 in 1973. His screwball lost its bite, and early blown saves, like the Opening Day debacle, shattered his confidence. A desperate July experiment as a starter (0–3, 5.40 ERA in 4 starts) backfired, further destabilizing the bullpen (3.78 ERA, 8th in NL). Seaver, the Mets’ ace, endured a frustrating 11–11 campaign with a 3.20 ERA, a far cry from his 1973 Cy Young form (19–10, 2.08 ERA). Sciatica and a hip flexor strain, starting in spring training and worsening by August, sapped his fastball velocity (93–94 mph vs. 95–97 mph) and slider sharpness. He allowed 199 hits (vs. 161 in 1973) and 22 homers (vs. 17), with 10 quality starts resulting in no-decisions due to meager run support (3.5 runs/game). A June 15 loss to the Dodgers (3–2, 8 IP, 2 ER, no-decision) and a July 10 blowup against the Cardinals (7 ER in 5 IP) underscored his struggles, though his 236 innings and 201 strikeouts showed grit.

The pitching staff’s bright spots were Jerry Koosman and Jon Matlack, who provided stability amid the chaos. Koosman, a reliable lefty, went 15–11 with a 3.36 ERA over 265 innings, starting 35 games and completing 13. His durability and knack for clutch outings, like a 3–1 win over the Pirates on May 26, kept the Mets competitive in games Seaver couldn’t dominate. Matlack, a rising star, posted a 13–15 record with a stellar 2.41 ERA across 265.1 innings, starting 34 games and tossing 14 complete games. His tough-luck losses, such as a 2–1 defeat to the Cubs on August 10, reflected the offense’s inability to back his brilliance, but his 195 strikeouts and 7 shutouts (2nd in NL) cemented his role as a cornerstone. Together, Koosman and Matlack combined for 27 wins and 530.1 innings, masking some of Seaver’s and McGraw’s shortcomings.

The Mets’ failure to bolster their offense, coupled with McGraw’s collapse, led to a pivotal trade on December 3, 1974. McGraw, Don Hahn, and Dave Schneck were dealt to the Phillies for outfielder Del Unser, pitcher Mac Scarce, and catcher John Stearns. This move, like the 1971 trade of Nolan Ryan for Jim Fregosi, became another regrettable chapter in the Mets’ 1970s missteps. Postseason, the Mets embarked on a goodwill tour to Japan from October 19 to November 10, 1974, playing 18 exhibition games against Japanese professional teams. Led by Seaver, Koosman, and Matlack, the Mets went 9–7–2, drawing large crowds (e.g., 45,000 in Tokyo) but losing the series finale 5–4 to the Yomiuri Giants. The trip, meant to promote baseball globally, offered little solace for a fanbase reeling from a 71–91 campaign.

The 1974 season, marked by injuries, underperformance, and missed opportunities, stood in stark contrast to the 1973 miracle. The 25-inning loss to St. Louis, like the Opening Day defeat, encapsulated a year where resilience fell short against relentless adversity. Had the Mets landed a star like Wynn or avoided the injury bug, their fate might have been different. Instead, 1974 remains a sobering reminder of a team that couldn’t recapture its “Ya Gotta Believe” magic.

The unraveling of the 1974 season marked the beginning of a long, painful descent for a franchise that had come so close to recapturing championship glory just a year earlier. What began with missed opportunities and mounting injuries would eventually spiral into deeper dysfunction and decline. For fans who lived through it—and for those curious about how a team could fall so far so fast, pick up my book From First to Worst which tells the complete story. Tracing the Mets’ remarkable surge to the 1973 World Series and the frustrating seasons that followed, the book offers an unflinching look at a team that lost its way, taking readers behind the scenes, into the clubhouse, and through the defining moments of a forgotten but fascinating chapter in Mets history.