50th Anniversary of the 1969 Mets: Mets Sweep Back to Back Doubleheaders (Day 1)

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50th Anniversary of the 1969 World Champion "Amazing Mets"

Saturday August 16th 1969: Back in the heat of the Summer of '69,on the weekend the Woodstock concert was going on in Upstate New York, in Queens the second place Mets were taking some giant steps forward. 

 Although still nine 1/2 games back of the Chicago Cubs, the Mets were eyeing Gil Hodges first goal & that was to win 85 games.
Preston Gomez' last place San Diego Padres (35-82) rolled into Shea Stadium for a weekend of back to back double headers. Music all weekend upstate at Woodstock, & Mets winning baseball all weekend at Shea. Today 19940 fans came to Shea Stadium to cheer on their Mets.

Starting Lineups




Game one: Tom Seaver was continuing on his Cy Young season again, as he threw eight innings of shutout ball allowing only four Padre hits & two walks as he won his major league leading 17th victory of the year. It was the most wins of Tom's young career up to that point.

 Seaver did tire in the eighth, and Ron Taylor was brought in to close the door. Taylor threw a perfect 9th inning earning his 11th save.


The Met bats didn't exactly help much in offense, but in the home 5th, Bud Harrelson singled & was moved over on Tom Seaver's sacrifice bunt. with a single in the 5th inning. Tommie Agee then singled, scoring Harrelson.

 Bobby Pfeil was inserted in the line up  of this first game to play third base. In the 7th after Jerry Grote walked & moved to second when Tommie Agee was walked intentionally. Pfeil drove in one of his ten Mets career RBIs with a base hit to right field. (The reserve infielder Pfeil, played in 62 games for the Mets in 1969 hitting .232.)
second game-

Starting Lineups




Nightcap: This was to be another pitchers duel in which five Pardre pitchers (Dick Kelley, Gary Ross, Dave Roberts, Jack Baldschun & Frank Reberger) held the Mets down to only four hits. 

 The Mets Jim McAndrew held the Friars down to only one run on three hits over seven innings, himself. 

 McAndrew struck out seven, walking two while earning his 4th victory (4-5) of the season. Tug McGraw came on pitching the last two frames, allowing no runs on a hit with two strike outs. McGraw earned his 8th save of the season.

In the Mets 4th inning , one of the NL's leading hitters, Cleon Jones who was batting .350, launched his 12th HR of the year to tie the game. Then in the home 7th inning, it was a crazy chess match between Gil Hodges & Preston Gomez. 

 There were three pitching changes & three pinch hitters used. Ron Swoboda reached on an error, after pinch hitters Wayne Garrett & Ed Kranepool made outs, Swoboda got all the way to third base. Gomez brought in Dave Roberts to pitch, & then Jerry Grote singled to drive Swoboda, in what was to be the winning run. The Mets went on to a 2-1 win.

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