Remembering Mets History (1969): Tommie Agee Hits Longest HR Ever Hit at Shea Stadium

Thursday April 10th, 1969: In just the third game of what was to be the amazing season, there were already some positive vibrations around the 1969 New York Mets. 

On this afternoon the Mets hosted one of MLB's brand-new expansion teams, the Montreal Expos, led by manager Gene Mauch. The Expos were the first MLB team to play their home games outside of the United States, as they began playing at Jary Park in Monreal, Quebec Canada.

Montreal had been home to the baseball Royals, which were the AAA affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1939 to 1961. After the team moved to Syracuse NY, the bids were put in for an MLB franchise which was awarded to the city in 1969. The Expos were named after the Expo 1967 World's Fair.

The Expos beat the Mets on Opening Day & the Mets took the second game of the series.

On this Wednesday afternoon, a small crowd of just 8,606 came to Shea Stadium, for the rubber match of the series. Mets Gil Hodges sent his 22-year-old rookie pitcher, Gary Gentry to the mound for his MLB debut. 

Gentry had gone 12-8 with a 2.91 ERA at AAA the previous year. He would be a big part of the Mets outstanding pitching staff in 1969, the number three man behind Tom Seaver & Jerry Koosman. The young right hander would add 13 wins (13-12) to the Mets victory total in 1969, making a career high 35 starts, second most on the staff. His 154 strikeouts were third on the staff to Seaver (208) & Koos' (180).

Today Gentry would go up against Montreal's Larry Jaster, who had just come over from the NL Champion St. Louis Cardinals. Jaster had won nine games in each of the previous two seasons in St. Louis along with two pennants & a championship, but he would win one game with the 1969 Expos. In his career at Shea Stadium, Jaster was 4-1 & had taken a no hitter in the 8th inning the previous year.

In the bottom of the 1st, after Jaster recorded the first two outs, the Mets collected four straight singles from Ken Boswell, Cleon Jones, Ed Charles & Ron Swoboda putting the Mets up 2-0. 

In the top of the 2nd, Montreal's John Bateman answered with a solo HR making it 2-1.

In the bottom of the 2nd inning, the Mets Tommie Agee stepped in against Larry Jaster whom he had been very successful against. In his career Agee was 5-8 vs. Jaster with four HRs. 

Agee blasted a tremendous HR, into the left field upper deck, a place where no one had ever hit one before or ever since in the 44-year history of Shea Stadium.

There is no film clip or highlight reel to commemorate the moment. The only people who saw it were the players & fans at Shea on that day.

Shea Stadium Trivia: Eventually in 1994 a painted marker was placed at the approximate spot where the ball hit on that day. Most likely no one was sitting up there on that day in 1969, since there was such a small crowd in attendance. My guess is no one really knows the exact spot where it had landed.

The third base umpire; Stan Landes said the ball was above the foul pole when he called it a HR. The left field foul pole at Shea Stadium was over 100 feet high. The ball eventually bounced off the upper deck seats & landed in left field where the Expos Mack Jones tossed it to a fan. History says the fan reportedly returned it to Agee.

Quotes- Cleon Jones:  "That ball was hit 599 feet, only God can hit them 600 feet".
Quotes- Rod Gaspar: Gaspar was on deck when Agee hit the HR. "I've never seen a ball hit like that, just incredible."

Quotes- Bud Harrelson: "It wasn't coming down when it hit those seats - it was just a line drive that kept on going,"

Quotes- Ron Swoboda: "Agee's homer would have hit the bus in the parking lot if it hadn't hit the seats, it just seemed to hang up there so long."

Quotes- Ken Boswell: "You knew he hit it good, but to land up there, man, nobody's ever hit it up there. Tommie was so strong, this was before weights and steroids and all those things, just a real strong guy. He just turned his hands and went - he was such a good athlete and a real good friend."

Expos pitcher Larry Jaster: "It was a low fastball, kind of in &he hit it almost like a golf ball. A lot of times, you don't watch 'em. That one I had to watch because I knew it was hit pretty good."

After the game, Agee complimented his Manager Gil Hodges for believing in him after a bad 1968 season: 

Quotes- Tommy Agee: "This meant a lot to me. Not a lot of managers would have had enough faith to go with me after the year I had." 

In the 7th inning, Agee added a second HR off of Jaster, this one didn't go as far as the first. It was quite a day for Mr. Agee, who already had three HRs in the young season just three games in. He would lead the Mets with 26 HRs on the year & be second on the club with 12 steals.

Gary Gentry pitched into the 9th inning, after the 2nd inning HR to Bateman he held down the Expos into the 9th inning. After retiring Rusty Staub on a line drive, Mack Jones singled. Bob Bailey was then out on a force play but Gentry couldn't close the door. Bateman singled & manager Gil Hodges had seen enough, he brought in Cal Koonce. 

Koonce walked Manny Mota but got former Met, Don Bosch to line out to centerfield to end the game.  Gentry earned his first career win on this day as well.