NEW YORK (AP) — In the 1960s, the idea of the Mets winning a World Series was as farfetched as man walking on the moon. Just 88 days after Neil Armstrong took his giant leap, the Amazin’s were champions.
Now Tyler Clippard is convinced an extraterrestrial has led the Mets back to the Fall Classic.
“He’s not human. He’s not on this planet right now,” Clippard said about Daniel Murphy. “Another life form jumped into his body.”
Heading into a World Series matchup that opens in Kansas City or Toronto on Tuesday night, it seems as if it is in the stars whenever the Mets are successful.
In 1969, there were hard-to-fathom catches by Tommy Agee and Ron Swoboda in the Series against Baltimore. Cleon Jones reached first base on a hit batsman call during a Game 5 rally when manager Gil Hodges showed a ball with shoe polish to an umpire.
In 1986, there was Mookie Wilson’s grounder that went through Bill Buckner’s legs at first base to cap a three-run, 10th-inning rally in Game 6 against Boston after the Mets were twice down to their season’s final strike.
Now there’s Murphy, who has seven home runs in nine playoff games, setting a major league record by going deep in each of his last six. His first-inning home run in Game 2 against the Cubs was on a pitch a Lilliputian 1.064 feet above the ground, according to MLB’s Pitch f/x system. Only one home run in the entire major leagues this year came on a ball hit lower.
“This is special. This is special. I can’t stop saying it,” captain David Wright exclaimed. “The ‘69 Mets, the ‘86 Mets, the 2000 Mets — we are amongst the best Mets teams to ever play, and I couldn’t be more proud.”
New York’s players arrived back at Citi Field at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, two motorcycle police in front and two more behind the team’s two buses. Standing about 150 feet from the auto chop shops across the street from right field, about 50 fans greeted the team in the parking lot.
Long the second team in town, the Mets won their fifth pennant to the Yankees’ 40. They were nicknamed the Amazin’ Mets by Casey Stengel, their first manager, and became the upstarts, first at the Polo Grounds for their first two seasons, then at windy Shea Stadium from 1964-2008. Jane Jarvis played the organ, Ralph Kiner, Bob Murphy and Lindsey Nelson entertained fans in the broadcast booth, the Rheingold jingle played at the ballpark and Karl Ehrhardt lauded players with homemade signs from 1964-81. “THERE ARE NO WORDS” was his message after Jones caught the final out against the Orioles.
