Meet the Mets: 1962
@MetsRewind begins its chronological look at Mets franchise history. We begin at Genesis: 1962.
“It was one of the honors of my life to be an Original Met.” - Joe Christopher
The $300,000 facility was modest, yet charming; modern, yet classic; broken in, but not yet broken down. Years later, heat, rain, and sun warped the ballparks features, making it an eyesore.
But not in 1962. Not on this magical day.
Al Lang Stadium bristled with excitement on March 10, 1962. A silky sea breeze blew from the southeast over the green blades out the outfield grass and swirled across the dusty diamond making the rows of palm trees gently sway in the distance. The scent of peanuts and hot dogs filled the breezeway and box seats as families and baseball-hungry fans settled into their seats along the baselines.
All eyes were on the Mets dugout, watching and waiting for Casey Stengel to appear. The new Mets manager would soon make the short walk from his small office, past the clubhouse, along the concrete wall, up the steps and into a burst of sunlight.
The New York Mets were minutes away from making history, and the fresh-faced young New York Times reporter Robert Lipsyte was eager and curious to learn about this treasured rite of spring.
“I learned that if you get to the bar early and stood at his (Casey Stengel) elbow, and listened, you would get an education in baseball,” said Lipsyte. “I think he was a genius in terms of how to manipulate ballplayers. But he talked in a kind of a babble. The important baseball writers would breeze in and out, catch 10 minutes of that talk at the bar and then go off and write a story about the ‘nutty professor.’ But if you listened you could put the dots together. It was an incredible education that I was desperate for.”
“I learned a lot from Casey about salesmanship, taking care of your customers, that I used for years after that,” said Jay Hook. “After every game, he’d call the writers into his office and tell them stories. He knew the way to get to the fans was through the sportswriters. We were the worst team in baseball, yet they really supported us. They never quit on us. I’ve never forgotten that.”
The highlight of the first Mets spring training came on March 22 in St. Petersburg when the team hosted the crosstown rival and defending World Series champion New York Yankees.
The Bronx Bombers approached the game as just another spring training exercise, but Stengel and GM George Weiss were desperate to crush their former employers.
Roger Craig held the Yankees to two runs over six innings. With the score tied 3-3 in the 9th, Stengel pinch hit Richie Ashburn, who delivered a game-winning single.
Despite the thrill of beating the Yankees, the “New Breed” of National League baseball in New York set a tone in spring training. The theme may have been called weird and wonderful.
The Mets were clearly looking for any angle to attract fans including one experiment where a fan — John Pappas — was granted a tryout.
Pappas, a 21-year old Astoria, Queens native, purchased a $66 plane ticket to Florida, hoping to get a tryout and a contract with a new franchise.
On February 20, 1962, Pappas arrived at Miller-Huggins Field wearing jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers, clutching his glove under his arm.
It’s unknown how or what he did to get Mets scouting director Johnny Murphy’s attention, but he did. Pappas told Murphy he had been cut by his high school team, but rest assured, he had been working out back in New York, throwing baseballs under the Triborough Bridge. He was ready.
The next morning, a modest group of baseball writers gathered around Murphy. For the next 18 minutes, Pappas pitched until Murphy finally raised his hand, shouting “Stop!” The tryout was over and Pappas’ 15 minutes (err, 18 minutes) of fame ended.
Pappas led to Howie Nunn, a renowned musician and vocalist; 67-year old baseball fanatic, George Sifflard; Dawes Hamilt, loosely described as an “unkempt” third base prospect; and Sherman “Roadblock” Jones, hoping the fledgling Mets would be the right place to hit the reset button on his career.
“New York was the greatest place on earth to play. A team knee-deep in money, a legend for a manager, great fans. All I had to do was win a percentage of my games. But the club was not put together to win games. It had to have names. Gil Hodges. Gus Bell. When these names couldn't do it any more, it was too big a job for us fringe players.'' — Sherman “Roadblock” Jones
Jones’ extra work in winter ball followed by a strong performance in spring training caught Stengel’s attention. The Mets had him penciled in to start the season opener in St. Louis, but another freak accident sidelined Jones after the flint of a match flew into his eye as he was trying to light a cigarette.
Jones did start the Mets home opener at The Polo Grounds. After making franchise history by recording the team’s first hit at home, Stengel pinch hit for Jones in the fifth inning. Jones confronted Stengel about the decision in front of the team. “Never show me up like that again “ Stengel would later tell Jones in private.
Jones lost four games in April before being sidelined with a shoulder injury. He never pitched another game for the Mets, or the major leagues.
Robert Lipsyte on Spring Training:
“It was all really very kind of loose. I was able to do things, of course, that I would never, ever be able to do again: I could actually go out into the outfield. I had brought my glove. I did go out there and I drifted under what they used to call a soft fly ball, but a soft fly ball even off the bat of a coach hitting fungos, when it landed in your glove, it felt like a hand grenade and was coming with great velocity.”
“These guys were different. It was a different species. I was able to get up to bat, but not against a real pitcher. I think it was Cookie Lavagetto. I stood up there and I never saw the ball. It was in the catcher's glove before I realized he'd thrown it. These were professional athletes; a whole another species of human being. I think they all really deserve respect.”
THE TEAM
In addition to Stengel, the New York Mets signed Gil Hodges, Ralph Kiner as play-by-play broadcaster, Howard Cosell hosted the pre-game show for the flagship radio station WABC, Roger Craig, Frank Thomas, and 17-year Brooklyn native Ed Kranepool.
Bill Ryczek on Gil Hodges:
I'll tell you an interesting story. Rod Kanehl told me about ‘69 and the Hodges and he said, ‘Somebody asked me after the ‘69 World Series if the Mets won because of Gil Hodges? And in 1970, whether the Mets would not win because of Gil Hodges?’ He had a bunch of guys who'd never done anything before and he convinced them to do things his way. But Gil's going to be exactly the same. He's going to be the same way he was in ‘69, but they're not going to respond the same way because they've had a taste of winning. That's exactly what happened in ‘70 and ‘71.
Bill Ryczek on Ed Kranepool:
Duke Snider was working with them one day and he said, ‘Hey, you're getting jammed a lot. Here's what I think you should do …’ And Kranepool turned to Snider and said, ‘What do you know?’ He really had an uppity attitude, and he was the bonus guy. He tended not to listen.
He just never seemed to have that drive that made for a great ballplayer. You look at players like Derek Jeter. He was really talented, but Jeter had incredible work ethic. Most of the great players just have that work ethic. Kranepool didn't seem to have it. He was kind of lethargic. He was just always an enigma.
Bill Ryczek on Roger Craig:
Roger Craig of course is known as a great loser. He was a really good pitcher and he just lost so many games.. It seemed like every time they lost the game because of bad luck, Craig was pitching, in ‘63 especially he was 5-22 when he lost 18 straight decisions.
He was a professional. And the one thing everybody remembers about Roger Craig is his pickoff move; he had the best pickoff move. He would throw over the first six, seven times in a row. If Maury Wills got on base against him, it was a battle. It was a duel. He just kept throwing over there. He picked off a lot of players. He was like the right-handed Andy Pettitte.
Everybody felt sorry for him. You had the losing streak. He changed his number. He did all these things to change his luck. But, I finally got out and ended up in the World Series, pitching one great game against the Yankees. Then he became famous for teaching the split finger fastball as a pitching coach and became a legend as a manager and a coach.
Bill Ryczek on Frank Thomas:
Bill Ryczek: When I was interviewing players, I threw out the name Frank Thomas, and the reaction cannot be printed. Frank was not a really well-liked guy. He was an odd guy. Players would needle each other but Frank didn't know where the off switch. Frank said, ‘I just do it to keep people loose,’ but he ended up getting traded out of Pittsburgh because they just didn't like him. When he got to the Mets, the same thing.
His big thing was he could catch anyone bare handed. He would bet anyone that they could throw as hard as they could. And he'd catch him with his bare hands. Hey, he won money from Willie Mays. He won. Yeah, they could, they could run just 60 feet away. Just throw it as hard as you can. I'll catch it. Bare handed.
He was really good to the fans, always accommodating, but players didn't like him. Frank is the only person who ever complained about what I wrote about him. I got this long handwritten letter. He was upset, one, because I didn't put a picture of him in the book and, secondly, because I said he was a bad fielder … he wrote this very long letter, it wasn't angry, but he was very upset.
Bill Ryczek on Al Jackson:
Bill Ryczek: He had good, low breaking stuff. What he would do is stand in front of the dugout during spring training and throw the ball under the bench, trying to get the ball to break down low.
The Mets only had four shutouts all year: Al pitched all four. He only had eight wins. He was another guy like Craig, they just didn't get a break and while their ERA’s were high, earned runs can be a result of bad fielding too — balls dropping in that shouldn't have dropped in, players getting confused, throwing to the wrong base, that type of thing.
Bill Ryczek on Marv Throneberry:
Bill Ryczek: Marv is remembered for two things,: Light Beer commercials and the ‘62 Mets. He was supposed to be the next Mickey Mantle. He was hitting 40 home runs a season. I believe he was MVP of the American Association one year when Roger Maris was there. He imitated Mickey Mantle. He wore a socks like Mantle. He had a batting stance like Mantle. He tried to talk like Mantle. He wanted to be the next Mickey Mantle and the other players would kid him about it … But then he got to the Yankees and he didn't make it. He was just another failed phenom, then he got traded to the Mets and he found a new life there.
He had no personality. He was just a quiet, humble guy and Ashburn built him up. The fans built him up and he was known for making errors. There's all the stories about him. Craig Anderson told me a story about him when they were playing in Buffalo. Kirby Farrell was the manager and Throneberry made an error. The ball went through his legs and landed like 20 feet behind him. The winning run scored and Kirby smashed chairs in the locker room and started crying. Throneberry was just kind of smoking a cigarette at his locker and he turned to Anderson and said, ‘I've done some bad things before, but that’s the first time I ever made anybody cry.’ He just took it all in stride. No matter what happened. He was the most low-key guy you could ever imagine. He became a cult hero in spite of himself. I had to cover my mouth for not laughing out loud.
Joan Payson was a wealthy 60-year old woman who loved horse racing, art and baseball, especially Willie Mays. Like so many New York baseball fans, Payson was heartbroken when her New York Giants abandoned the city for the West Coast.
When William A. Shea led a group to bring National League baseball back to New York, Joan Payson stepped up and bought the rights to the franchise.
“She was the perfect person,” said Bill Ryczek, Mets historian and author of The Amazin’ Mets: 1962-1969. “There was no mention of Mr. Payson. It was just her. She owned the team. She was a fan. She was a great symbol, this plump white haired, old lady who just was very nice.”
Just pause and consider the influence Payson made on the game. Baseball had never seen a woman own a sports franchise, especially in what was then considered a male-driven industry. Baseball was a man’s game, until Joan Payson arrived.
“That was the day when baseball teams were bought for hobbies,” noted Ryczek. “There were a few baseball owners who made their money from baseball, but most of them were gone. They bought baseball teams because partly out of civic pride...”
The New York Mets were the people’s team. Baseball writer Dick Young dubbed Mets fans, “The New Breed.” Despite the futility, nearly one million tickets were sold in 1962. A Mets game was an event and fans arrived at the gates with noisemakers, banners and a happy-go-lucky spirit. Win or lose, a Mets game was fun.
“Their offense was okay. Their pitching wasn't good. Their defense wasn't good. But if you look at the statistics, they weren't that much worse than the other teams in the league. But, no, they were not as bad as their 40-120 record. Teams are going to win or lose games because a ball lands two inches inside the foul line instead of two inches outside the foul line, a pop foul just goes into the stands. And then, then the next pitch is a home run. It seemed like in 1962 every one of those went against the Mets.” - Bill Ryczek
After the 1962, the Mets named Richie Ashburn the team’s MVP. The team celebrated by presented him with a new boat equipped with a galley and sleeping facilities for six.
“I docked the boat in Ocean City, New Jersey, and it sank,” said Ashburn.
In hindsight, that event characterized everything about the 1962 New York Mets.
1962 TIMELINE
APRIL
April 10: The Mets first-ever scheduled regular season game against the St. Louis Cardinals was rained out, but it wasn’t without fanfare.
April 11: Roger Craig starting against the Cardinals Larry Jackson. Gil Hodges hit the Mets first home run ever. His ex-teammate from the Dodgers Charlie Neal followed up with a second. But Craig, another Dodger cast off, could not make it past the third inning. Final score: Cardinals 11, Mets 4.
RADIO BROADCAST
April 13: Friday the 13th and 12,447 fans braved snow flurries to bare witness to New York baseball history. The Pirates won, 4-3, after a pair of wild pitches by Ray Daviault. But the fans were thrilled by the Mets in the gritty plays.
April 23: After starting the season 0-9, the Mets finally captured their first win in team history, a 9-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Jay Hook throws a complete game five-hitter and the Mets popped open the champagne to celebrate.
April 24: Commissioner Ford Frick levies a $500 fine on Mets manager Casey Stengel for appearing in a beer ad.
April 26: Catcher Harry Chiti is traded to the Mets from the Cleveland Indians for a player to be named later. Two months later, in June, New York ships Chiti back to Cleveland as the “player to be named later,” completing the deal.
April 28: The Mets score six times in the sixth inning and Roger Craig pitches three shutout innings in relief as New York beats Philadelphia, 8-6, to win for the first time at the Polo Grounds.
April 29: During the seven-run fourth inning at the Polo Grounds, Frank Thomas ties a MLB record by being hit twice with a pitch in one inning.
MAY
May 9: Marv Throneberry is acquired from the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for Hobie Landrith and cash.
May 12: The Mets, who lost 17 of their first 22 games, celebrate their first doubleheader sweep against the Milwaukee Braves, 3-2 and 8-7, at the Polo Grounds. The pair of wins also mark the first time a major league team has accomplished the feat with two walk-off homers, thanks to the ninth-inning heroics of Hobie Landrith and Gil Hodges.
May 30: The Dodgers return to New York for the first time and sweep a doubleheader from the Mets in front of 54,360 fans, the NL’s largest crowd of the year. The Mets turn their first-ever triple play in the sixth inning of Game Two. 56,000 fans flocked to see the returning exiles of Flatbush. It was the largest baseball crowd of the year and the largest at the Polo Grounds since 1942.
During that homestand George Weiss ordered the security staff to confiscate all banners. He believed the signage was “undignified,” “unsportsmanlike,” and were obstructing the view of the game. Stengel argued the banners were more interesting than the Mets, and Leonard Koppett pointed out the signs were barely visible to fans across the field. But not on a TV screen, where the banners were visible to millions of viewers. Weiss eventually conceded.
JUNE
June 8: Jay Hook pitches eight innings, allowing three runs to lead the Mets to a 4-3 win over the Chicago Cubs in the first game of a doubleheader. The win snaps the Mets 17-game losing streak.
June 17: In a play that became emblematic of the struggling Mets, Marv Throneberry triples becomes an out after an appeal play claiming Throneberry missed second base. When Stengel questions the call, the umpire replies, "Don't bother arguing, Casey, he missed first base, too." Gene Woodling becomes the first player to play for both the Yankees and the Mets. In his National League debut, Woodling goes 2-for-4, scoring two runs.
June 22: Al Jackson throws a one-hitter, beating the Houston Colt .45s, 2-0, at the Polo Grounds. Joey Amalfitano's line drive single in the first inning is the lone Houston hit.
June 27: Monroe High School star Ed Kranepool signed a free agent contract with the New York Mets. Kranepool, 17, would spend his entire 18-year career with the franchise, establishing multiple records.
June 30: Sandy Koufax pitches the first no-hitter of his career, beating the Mets 5-0 at Chavez Ravine. Koufax struck out 13, including the first three Mets — Ashburn, Kanehl and Mantilla — on nine straight pitches.
AUGUST
August 29: The Philadelphia Phillies rally to beat the Mets 3-2 in 10 innings at Connie Mack Stadium, handing the Mets their 100th loss of the season.
SEPTEMBER
September 30: Frank Thomas hits his 34th home run of the season to set a club record that stood until 1975. Mets finished 1962 with 40 wins and 120 losses (60 ½ GB in last place in the National League), a team record for futility that still stands today.