1966: Escape from the Cellar

Nineteen Sixty-Six was a year of firsts for the Mets, and unlike their earlier seasons, not in a bad way. It was the first year they reported to spring training without Casey Stengel as manager. It was the first season that they lost less than 100 games (okay, they did drop 95, but it still is worth noting). And it was the first year that they escaped the cellar, finishing ninth, a solid eight games ahead of a Chicago Cubs team that under the direction of its own first-year legendary manager with a New York history, Leo Durocher, would lose 103.

But perhaps the best indication that the Mets’ fortunes were looking up came before the start of the season, and not on the field but in the office of the baseball commissioner, retired Gen. William (Spike) Eckert. On April 3, Eckert picked the Mets’ name out of a hat, allowing them to sign a college pitcher whose initial contract with the Braves’ Richmond farm team Eckert voided because he had already started his season at the University of Southern California. The Mets paid George Seaver, as he was referred to in newspaper accounts of the day, a $40,000 signing bonus and $11,000 to complete his college education. The Mets sent him directly to their AAA farm club; by 1967, Tom Seaver was in the Mets’ starting rotation and would be for the next decade.

The Mets began the season with a competition for starting catcher among Choo-Choo Coleman, the incumbent of sorts; Greg Goossen, about whom Stengel said, “He is 19 years old and in 10 years he has a good chance of being 29;” Hawk Taylor, whose main contribution that year would be to hit the team’s first pinch-hit grand slam on August 17; and a player acquired from the Astros. Jerry Grote would catch 120 games for the 1966 Mets and, while he only hit .237, would demonstrate his defensive abilities and leadership qualities to stake his claim on the position, also for some years to come.

Two other offseason acquisitions promised to increase the team’s home run production but instead demonstrated that general manager George Weiss, in what would be his last season before joining Stengel in retirement, had not fully learned his lesson about trading for over-the-hill former all stars. Ken Boyer, who two years previously was the NL’s most valuable player with the Cardinals, manned third base and hit a respectable .266 with 14 homers, but was still a shell of his former self. Dick Stuart, who hit 28 home runs and batted in 95 for the 1965 Phillies, mustered only four homers and 13 RBI in 31 games for the 1966 Mets and was such a defensive liability that baseball writers nicknamed him “Dr. Strangeglove.” Manager Wes Westrum occasionally paired him with Chuck Hiller, a second baseman whose fielding shortcomings earned him another film-related nickname, “Dr. No,” a reference to the villain in the original James Bond film who had no hands. The Mets released Stuart in June.

Ed Kranepool, banished to the outfield to make room for Stuart (another disastrous experiment), was re-installed as the regular first baseman, where he fielded more than competently and hit .254 with 16 home runs. Cleon Jones, another up-and-coming player, played center field and hit .275. He, of course, would fully blossom as a star in 1969.

Before the season started, manager Westrum told the Daily News, “I think we have the best group of young pitchers I’ve ever seen, and pitching is 75 percent of the game.” A bit of hyperbole, perhaps, but the staff did include Tug McGraw, originally a stater before he found his niche in the bullpen; Dick Selma; Jack Fisher, best known for surrendering Roger Maris; 60th home run in 1961; and Jack Hamilton, obtained from Tigers in the offseason. Three starters won 11 games: Fisher, Bob Shaw and Dennis Ribant, all of whom had sub-four ERAs.

On May 4, Hamilton pitched a gem against St. Louis, limiting the Cardinals to one hit: a fourth-inning bunt single by opposing pitcher Ray Sadecki (who four years later would be traded to the Mets). Ron Swoboda and Ed Bressoud hit home runs in an 8-0 Mets victory. It was the second one-hitter in Mets history. The next would come three years later, Seaver’s near-perfect game broken up in the ninth by the Cubs’ Jim Qualls.

Fans continued to support the team. The Mets' home attendance was 1,932,693, a stark contrast to what was happening in the Bronx, where Yankees fans unused to losing shunned a team that would finish 70-92 and end up in last place. Yankee attendance hit its nadir on Sept. 22, when only 413 paying customers saw the Yankees lose to the White Sox on a rainy afternoon (a game that included an inside-the-park home run by future Met Tommy Agee).

Fans certainly supported the Mets on June 27, when 56,367  showed up at Shea Stadium for the Mayor’s Trophy Game, an annual contest that in the pre-interleague play era  took on significance beyond its exhibition status as the battle for bragging rights to the city. The Bronx Bombers hit three home runs and beat the Mets, 5-2, with many fans expressing the sentiment that while they wanted to see mayor’s trophy, they did not want to see the mayor, John Lindsay.

The Daily News’ Red Foley described it: “The 90-degree temperature brought out the best in the Yankees and the worst in the customers…The idiots who lobbed the cherry (bombs) and firecrackers, many of which exploded in the packed stands, represented what was bad, unbelievably bad. A non-throwing segment used the occasion for a political rally,  chanting, ‘Lindsay is a bum, Lindsay is a bum.’ “

Seemingly tone deaf to the behavior that left some paying customers shell-shocked, Mets management nevertheless took out an ad the next day thanking fans for the SRO turnout.

The Mets also whiffed, big time, with the first choice in the annual draft, selecting catcher Steve Chilcott. Plagued by injuries, Chilcott ended up being one of three players to be drafted first overall never to play in the major leagues, along with Brien Taylor and Brady Aiken. In selecting Chilcott the Mets passed on an outfielder the Athletics selected with the second choice, someone who would later relish New York’s bright lights as a Yankee: Reggie Jackson.

September had three milestones. First was the major league debut of a 19-year-old fireballer, Lynn Ryan Jr., who, like Seaver, was known by his middle name. On Sept. 11, Nolan Ryan entered a game against the Braves in the sixth inning. He struck out the first batter he faced, Pat Jarvis, and the third, Eddie Mathews, sandwiched around a Felipe Alou fly-out. In the seventh, he gave up a home run to Joe Torre but also struck out Dennis Menke.

A week later, Ryan made his first major league start, and he didn’t get past the first inning. While he did strike out the side, he walked two, threw a wild pitch and gave up four hits and four runs. He would not return to the majors until 1968.

The other two came on September 20 and 25. In the first, Jack Fisher hurled a complete-game shutout to beat the Astros, 3-0, for the team’s 63rd win, ensuring they could lose no more than 99. And on September 25, Bud Harrelson and Cleon Jones each rapped out three hits as the Mets came from behind to beat the Reds, 8-4 in Cincinnati, clinching ninth place. It was the first game of a doubleheader, and the second was rained out.

Seems sort of fitting.