1969 New York Mets team photo 

I don't know when you become a fan of a team. I know it was my Dad, who encouraged me to root for a particular team. It was an expansion team in 1962. The were call the Metropolitans or Mets, and Bill Shea, an alumnus of my High School, brought a national league franchise back to New York  after the Giants, and the Dodgers left for San Francisco and Los Angeles respectively in the late 1950s. Bill Shea had a stadium named after him The Mets played there from 1964 to 2008.

My ex-wife worked with a guy who named his daughter Casey Shea. He was a hardcore Mets fan.

From day one, they were a team of something borrowed and something blue. The NY logo was lifted from the old NY Giants Baseball cap. The team colors the Royal Blue of the Dodgers, the Orange of the Giants, and the pinstripes from the Yankees composed their uniforms.

Their first manager, Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel was a successful manager of the Yankees in the 1950s, and many of the first year players were famous names in the 50s from other ball clubs. Richie Ashburn, Gil Hodges, Choo-Choo Coleman, Jim Hickman, Al Jackson and Don Zimmer were all draftees from other clubs.

While this might have sounded like a receipe for success it turned into a prescription for disaster as the Mets lost 120 games that season, a major league record.

They were not on a path of continous improvement, either, being cellar dwellers or finishing ninth right through the 1968 season.

They had new young prospects in 1969, Gil Hodges in his second year as manager, and high hopes.  Up until September, the surprise team of 1969 was the Chicago Cubs, a team whose last world championship came in the first decade of the 20th Century.

Led by flamboyant, acid tongued manager Leo "the Lip" Durocher, the Cubs were in first place throughout most of the year into the month of August. Durocher known for his rapier wit, coined the phrase "Nice guys finish last."

When managing the New York Giants in the 1950s in an exhibition game against the cadets at West Point, Durocher was being razzed from the Army dugout. After hearing, "Hey Durocher, how did you ever manage to sneak into the major leagues?" Leo faced the dugout and responded without missing a beat, "My Congressman appointed me!"

The Cubs had some great players. Ernie (let's play two) Banks, Billy Williams, Don Kessinger, Glenn Beckert, Ron Santo, and the pitcher known as Ferguson Jenkins (and his orchestra).

The Cubs were up nine games over the second place Mets in mid August but by the end of the month they started to fade.

As a rabid 14 year old baseball, my interest in the Mets was intense that August. With September a few days away, I thought something special was going to happen.

End of part one.