Miracle Year 1969

by Bill Gutman

Author	: Bill Gutman
Publisher	: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages	: 284
Release	: 2016-07-12
Genre	: Sports & Recreation
ISBN	: 1613218664

GET BOOK

Sports fans in New York will always remember the incredible events of 1969. It was the year that two of the city’s underdog teams would rise above all expectations to be crowned world champions. On January 12, 1969, the underdog New York Jets faced the heavily-favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. Up to this point, no former AFL team had ever won a Super Bowl. Leading the Colts were future Hall of Fame coach Don Shula and quarterback Johnny Unitas (also a future Hall of Famer).The team looked unbeatable finishing the season with a 13–1 record. But then, in historic fashion, “Broadway Joe” Namath, the quarterback of the Jets, made an incredible “guarantee” that the Jets would be victorious. And behind Namath’s strong arm they were, as he led his team to a 16–7 victory. For a city that had not housed a championship team since the Dodgers in ’65, one championship was more than enough. But who would have expected that just seven months later, another New York team would rise to stardom? The New York Mets completed their first season in 1962 and would go down in history with the worst record ever recorded at 40–120 (a record still unbroken). They averaged over 100 losses in their first seven seasons and were seemingly permanent cellar dwellers of the National League. That was until the ’69 season, when the Mets—led by Tom Seaver (a future Hall of Famer) and Jerry Koosman—would complete an improbable run by not only leading their team to a winning record (which they’d never done before), but by defeating the Baltimore Orioles 4 games to 1 for their first World Series championship. Miracle Year 1969 tells the story of how two teams defied almost insurmountable odds to win it all for a city that has always loved champions, underdogs, and its heroes. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation; whether you are a die-hard Green Bay Packers or Dallas Cowboys fan; whether you root for the Kentucky Wildcats, Louisville Cardinals, UCLA Bruins, or Kansas Jayhawks; whether you route for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or Los Angeles Kings; we have a book for you. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

After the Miracle

by Art Shamsky

Author	: Art Shamsky
Publisher	: Simon & Schuster
Total Pages	: 336
Release	: 2020-03-17
Genre	: Sports & Recreation
ISBN	: 1501176536

GET BOOK

“A great and insightful” (Keith Hernandez, New York Mets legend and broadcaster) New York Times bestselling account of an iconic team in baseball history: the 1969 New York Mets—a last-place team that turned it all around in just one season—told by ’69 Mets outfielder Art Shamsky, Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver, and other teammates who reminisce about that legendary season and their enduring bonds decades later. The New York Mets franchise began in 1962 and the team finished in last place nearly every year. When the 1969 season began, fans weren’t expecting much from “the Lovable Losers.” But as the season progressed, the Mets inched closer to first place and then eventually clinched the National League pennant. They were underdogs against the formidable Baltimore Orioles, but beat them in five games to become world champions. No one had predicted it. In fact, fans could hardly believe it happened. Suddenly they were “the Miracle Mets.” Playing right field for the ’69 Mets was Art Shamsky, who had stayed in touch with his former teammates over the years. He hoped to get together with star pitcher Tom Seaver (who would win the Cy Young award as the best pitcher in the league in 1969 and go on to become the first Met elected to the Hall of Fame), but Seaver was ailing and could not travel. So, Shamsky organized a visit to “Tom Terrific” in California, accompanied by the #2 pitcher, Jerry Koosman, outfielder Ron Swoboda, and shortstop Bud Harrelson. Together they recalled the highlights of that amazing season as they reminisced about what changed the Mets’ fortunes in 1969. In this “enjoyable tale of a storybook season” (Kirkus Reviews), and with the help of sportswriter Erik Sherman, Shamsky has written the “revealing” (New York Newsday) After the Miracle for the 1969 Mets. “This heartfelt, nostalgic memoir will delight baseball fans of all ages and allegiances” (Publishers Weekly). It’s a book that every Mets fan must own.

They Said It Couldn't Be Done

by Wayne R. Coffey

Author	: Wayne R. Coffey
Publisher	:
Total Pages	: 312
Release	: 2019
Genre	: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN	: 1524760889

GET BOOK

In 1962, the New York Mets spent their first year in existence racking up the worst record in baseball history. Things scarcely got any better for the ensuing six years--they were baseball's laughingstock, but somehow lovable in their ineptitude, building a fiercely loyal fan base. And then came 1969, a year that brought the lunar landing, Woodstock, nonstop antiwar protests, and the most tumultuous and fractious New York City mayoral race in memory--along with the most improbable season in the annals of Major League Baseball. It concluded on an invigorating autumn afternoon in Queens, when a Minnesota farm boy named Jerry Koosman beat the Baltimore Orioles for the second time in five games, making the Mets champions of the baseball world. It wasn't merely an upset but an unprecedented, uplifting achievement for the ages. From the ashes of those early scorched-earth seasons, Gil Hodges, a beloved former Brooklyn Dodger, put together a 25-man whole that was vastly more formidable than the sum of its parts. Beyond the top-notch pitching staff headlined by Tom Seaver, Koosman, and Gary Gentry, and the hitting prowess of Cleon Jones, the Mets were mostly comprised of untested kids and lightly regarded veterans. Everywhere you looked on this team, there was a man with a compelling backstory, from Koosman, who never played high school baseball and grew up throwing in a hayloft in subzero temperatures with his brother Orville, to third baseman Ed Charles, an African-American poet with a deep racial conscience whose arrival in the big leagues was delayed almost a decade because of the color of his skin. In the tradition of The Boys of Winter, his classic bestseller about the 1980 U.S. men's Olympic hockey team, Wayne Coffey tells the story of the '69 Mets as it has never been told before--against the backdrop of the space race, Stonewall, and Vietnam, set in an ever-changing New York City. With dogged reporting and a storyteller's eye for detail, Coffey finds the beating heart of a baseball family. Published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Mets' remarkable transformation from worst to best, They Said It Couldn't Be Done is a spellbinding, feel-good narrative about an improbable triumph by the ultimate underdog.

The Wonder Year

by Bert Flieger

Author	: Bert Flieger
Publisher	:
Total Pages	: 216
Release	: 2017-08-25
Genre	:
ISBN	: 9781547241996

GET BOOK

Imagine you're a ten-year-old suburban New York kid, growing up on a dead-end street with dozens of sports-crazed friends. Your daily routine burns thousands of calories, playing in the street every minute your parents allow, imitating your favorite players from your local sports teams. But while the games are fun to watch, your teams are not so good, at least not good enough to raise a trophy at the end of the season. Then it all changes, when not one but three underdog teams chase-and catch-glory. Fantasy movie script? No, this was very real. Framed by the first lunar landing, the legendary Woodstock festival, the tragedies of the Vietnam War, and the tribulations of Catholic school, this funny and nostalgic chronicle written through the eyes of a ten-year-old enthusiastically recounts the high emotions of this special year in the history of the country. It reveals the closeness and camaraderie that shined through in all aspects of family and community life. The Wonder Year transports the reader to a place that for some is long forgotten, but can now be fondly remembered-and to a time that in some ways was very simple, but simultaneously extraordinary. It captures the spirit of the times: the family values, neighborhood friendships, the common and comfortable rituals, the shared experiences. In short, 1969 was nothing short of The Wonder Year.

Here's the Catch

by Ron Swoboda

Author	: Ron Swoboda
Publisher	: Thomas Dunne Books
Total Pages	: 208
Release	: 2019-06-11
Genre	: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN	: 1250235677

GET BOOK

In time for the 50th anniversary of the Mets' miraculous 1969 World Series win, right fielder Ron Swoboda tells the story of that amazing season, the people he played with and against (sometimes at the same time), and what life was like as an Every Man ballplayer. Ron Swoboda wasn’t the greatest player the Mets ever had, but he made the greatest catch in Met history, saving a game in the 1969 World Series, and his RBI clinched the final game. By Met standards that makes him legend. The Mets even use a steel silhouette of the catch as a backing for the right field entrance sign at Citi Field. In this smart, funny, insightful memoir, which is as self-deprecating as a lifetime .249 hitter has to be, he tells the story of that magical year nearly game by game, revealing his struggles, his triumphs and what life was like for an every day, Every Man player, even when he was being platooned. He shows what it took to make one of the worst teams in baseball and what it was like to leave one of the best. And when he talks about the guys he played with and against, it’s like you’re sitting next to him on the team bus, drinking Rheingold. Here's the Catch is a book anyone who loves the game will love as much.

Miracle on Second Avenue

by Mukunda Goswami

Author	: Mukunda Goswami
Publisher	: Torchlight Publications
Total Pages	: 0
Release	: 2016-01-10
Genre	:
ISBN	: 9781937731199

GET BOOK

Miracle on Second Avenue is a short, carefully researched documentary book written in a you-are-there style, that catalogs the start and growth of the Hare Krishna movement. The work is a memoir of Mukunda Goswami, one of the pioneers of the religious group that is now known throughout the world formally as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Miracle on Second Avenue is a series of historical events that include the movement's founder, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and his interactions on two continents with the author over the three-year period from August 1966 until December 1969. Mukunda Goswami's book Miracle on Second Avenue won the 2012 National Indie Excellence Award, as their 2012 Biography-General prize winner.

1969 Miracle Mets

by Steven Travers

Author	: Steven Travers
Publisher	: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages	: 209
Release	: 2006-03-17
Genre	: Sports & Recreation
ISBN	: 1461746736

GET BOOK

In the 1977 movie Oh, God!, George Burns, playing the deity, is asked to prove his divinity by performing a miracle. Burns replies, “The last miracle I did was the 1969 Mets. Before that, I think you have to go back to the Red Sea.” This book tells the tale of the single most impossible, unbelievable, and wonderful sports story of all time—of the 1969 “Amazin’ Mets” and their incredible spring, summer, and fall. But it does much more than simply recount how the worst sports franchise ever ascended to greatness in a few short months. The 1969 Miracle Mets is the story of tumultuous times: the 1960s. Against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, the New York Mets proved to be a metaphor for a changing America and, in retrospect, the catapult for the eventual comeback of a battered-yet-unbowed Metropolis. Tom Seaver and his teammates come alive in these pages as the final symbols of an innocent age, an age when the greatest icons in American culture—New York sports heroes—mounted the stage in awesome splendor, before Watergate, before free agency, before the mercenaries took over.

Turning Two

by Bud Harrelson

Author	: Bud Harrelson
Publisher	: Macmillan
Total Pages	: 288
Release	: 2012-04-10
Genre	: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN	: 1429941391

GET BOOK

In Turning Two, Bud Harrelson delivers a team memoir as he takes fans through the early seasons, sudden success, lean years, and return to glory. Only one man, Harrelson, can say he was in uniform for both New York Mets world championships: as the shortstop who anchored the infield of the 1969 "Miracle Mets" and then as the third-base coach for the storied 1986 team. Born on D-day 1944, the Alameda County, California, native made his Major League debut with the Mets in 1965. At 147 pounds he was the team's Everyman--a Gold Glove, All-Star shortstop who won the hearts of fans with his sparkling defensive skills and trademark brand of gritty, scrappy baseball. Harrelson recalls how the gentle yet firm guidance of manager Gil Hodges shaped a stunning success story in ‘69. Bud remembers the game's legends he played with and against, including Hall of Famers Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Roberto Clemente, Bob Gibson (against whom he compiled a .333 career batting average), and his idol, Willie Mays--Harrelson's teammate on the 1973 "Ya Gotta Believe" team. Harrelson writes of his famous fight with Pete Rose in the playoffs that autumn as the Mets upset the Cincinnati Reds to win the National League pennant and squared off against the mighty Oakland A's in a dramatic seven-game World Series. After retiring as a player, Bud returned to Shea Stadium as Davey Johnson's third-base coach in 1985 and waved Ray Knight home for the winning run in the unforgettable Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. Harrelson takes us in the dugout and on the field as he tells thrilling tales from his career and speaks candidly of the state of the game today. Turning Two is the ideal souvenir from the first half-century of the New York Mets--and from the pre-steroid era when players played the game the right way and did the little things to help their teams win. Bud Harrelson in Turning Two On Gil Hodges "Hodges accomplished his goal with compassion and a gentle hand and attained discipline simply by being such an imposing physical specimen. He rarely lost his temper, but on the few occasions that he did, you can bet he got our attention." On Battling at the Plate "I have always said I'll take God to three-and-two and take my chances. I might foul two off before He gave me ball four." On 1969 "Torre hit a smash to me at short and I'm thinking, Don't screw up the throw; don't rush it. I knew I could catch it. I just wanted to be sure to make a good, firm throw right at the chest of Al Weis at second base. I tossed it to Weis and he turned it over to Clendenon at first for the double play and we had won the Mets' first title. We were the first champions of the National League East." On Playing with Willie Mays "I reached up to catch the ball and as I did, I stepped on Willie's foot. Oh, no! ‘Hey, Pee Wee, what are you doing out here?' he squealed. ‘I didn't hear anything,' I said. ‘I don't call for the ball,' he said. ‘Well,' I said, ‘if you don't want to get stepped on again, you better start calling for it.' The next time he was in center field and there was a pop fly, he called for it." On Tom Seaver to M. Donald Grant "Mr. Grant, you know why we're doing so well? See that little guy in the corner over there"--and he was pointing right at me--"that guy whose salary you cut? He's the reason we're winning." On Game 6 "I leaned over to Mitchell and reminded him to be alert and be ready to take off if Stanley threw one in the dirt."

1969

by Rob Kirkpatrick

Author	: Rob Kirkpatrick
Publisher	: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages	: 508
Release	: 2011-01-24
Genre	: History
ISBN	: 1626366179

GET BOOK

For the fortieth anniversary of 1969, Rob Kirkpatrick takes a look back at a year when America witnessed many of the biggest landmark achievements, cataclysmic episodes, and generation-defining events in recent history. 1969 was the year that saw Apollo 11 land on the moon, the Cinderella stories of Joe Namath’s Jets and the “Miracle Mets,” the Harvard student strike and armed standoff at Cornell, the People’s Park riots, the first artificial heart transplant and first computer network connection, the Manson family murders and cryptic Zodiac Killer letters, the Woodstock music festival, Easy Rider, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, the Battle of Hamburger Hill, the birth of punk music, the invasion of Led Zeppelin, the occupation of Alcatraz, death at Altamont Speedway, and much more. It was a year that pushed boundaries on stage (Oh! Calcutta!), screen (Midnight Cowboy), and the printed page (Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex), witnessed the genesis of the gay rights movement at Stonewall, and started the era of the “no fault” divorce. Richard Nixon became president, the New Left squared off against the Silent Majority, William Ayers co-founded the Weatherman Organization, and the nationwide Moratorium provided a unifying force in the peace movement. Compelling, timely, and quite simply a blast to read, 1969 chronicles the year through all its ups and downs, in culture and society, sports, music, film, politics, and technology. This is a book for those who survived 1969, or for those who simply want to feel as alive as those who lived through this time of amazing upheaval.