By STEPHEN McGUIRE

"We have beaten the best what is in the National League in September. Why should they stop playing bad now which they are hitting harder than they ever hit . . . I tell you, the way these young men is hitting they built the ballpark too small it takes ‘em too long to play the game. I think they are going to move the fences back."

—former Mets Manager Casey Stengel on the Mets, before game one of the World Series in October1969

Like the words of baseball great Casey Stengel, the answer to the question of how the Mets made it to the 1969 World Series didn’t make much sense.

Queens’ Boys of Summer have blasted their fair share of hits over the wall at Shea Stadium. Tribune Photos By Ira Cohen

With the city haunted by ghosts of the Polo Grounds and the apparitions of an entombed Ebbets Field lurking about the city, the New York Mets were created in 1962 to soothe the souls of those mourning the departed Big Apple teams of yesteryear.

But in their first year, the Mets gave former Giants and Dodgers fans a taste of more loss – a record 120 of them — and in the seasons that followed it looked like the home of winning baseball in New York would forever be in the Bronx.

A glimmer of hope did come in 1964, when the Mets were given the shiny new Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadows.

But what really needed polishing was the lackluster baseball skills of this rag-tag team of loveable losers.

Season after season the fans grew accustomed to the team’s blunders on the diamond.

The fans that did show up knew what to expect – often it wasn’t good news.

Loss after loss came for the fans in Flushing.

But in 1969, what can only be described as a miracle happened.

As the world’s attention was focused on men walking on the moon and turmoil in Southeast Asia, the Mets quietly got better.

The low down Mets began to win, and the word of the victories began to spread.

As more fans began to show up at Shea and optimism about their chances of winning was growing, the Mets captured the hearts of the city when they clinched the National League East Championship on Sept. 24.

"Amazin’ Amazin’ Amazin’ Amazin," waxed Stengel, – the former Mets skipper.
In the first game of the playoffs the Mets faced the Braves in Atlanta.

In the eighth inning the Amazin’s rallied a total of five runs.

They won 9-5.

The win in the first game set the tone for the rest of the playoffs.

The Mets swept the Braves.

Unbelievably, the team in the baseball basement just seven years before was in the World Series.

With their ears glued to transistor radios, everyone in the city and across the country – from school kids to stockbrokers – was captivated by "Mets Magic."

But in game one Tom Seaver wasn’t so terrific.

Seaver, a one-time resident of Bayside, couldn’t hold off the blazing bats of the Baltimore Orioles.

However, in game two, the Mets bounced back against the Birds and came out on top – just barely.

They won in the ninth by a score of 2-1.

Thanks to the magnetic glove of Tommy Agee, the Mets again captured a win in game three.

Game four saw yet another win for the Mets and in game five the pendulum of loss swung in the opposite direction of Mets destiny.

Pushing a city right out of the graveyard and straight into baseball heaven, the Mets won the World Series.

For a short-lived moment the win gave the tumultuous world of 1969 a breather – a moment to rejoice.

After the Mets win, Casey Stengel said of the team, "They come from behind by runnin’ out the ball and hittin’ it over the fences which the manager platoons them amazin’ly that he has an old team on the bench and a young team on the bench and they all came through for him."

Even after all the team had been through, old Casey still wasn’t making sense.

But baseball in New York sure did.