Reversal of Misfortune...A Mets Dynasty

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The Mets ride into June with a 27-22 mark, good enough for second place in the National League. They sit five games back of the San Francisco Giants.




Here is how the offense looks....


And, what our arms have accomplished to date...



Mets went 18-14 in May
Attachment 952062

Big series on the horizon as the Mets host the Giants on their first homestand in June.

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A hyperextended knee that was orginally diagnosed as day-to-day has yet to heal for 1B Donn Clendenon, who was placed on the 15-day IL. 1B Dave Campbell was called up from Buffalo to fill the void.

PS...the Mets have won 6 of 7 and are 28-22, good enough for 2nd place in the NL and 4 1/2 back of the Giants.

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The Mets and highly-anticipated showdown have yet to be mentioned in the same sentence...until now.

With excitement around the 1965 crew starting to brew, New York had the chance to answer the burning question that's being of asked of them for the first time in the franchise's infancy: Are the Mets legit?

The ideal test arrived in Flushing in the form of the first-place San Francisco Giants and, after dropping the first game of the three-game set, the Mets responded by taking the next two contests, stamped by a gem from Larry Dierker, who has firmly established himself as the current staff ace.

The win in the series finale pushed the Mets to 32-26 - their highwater mark above .500 - and closed the gap on San Fran to three games.

#LFGM

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Pretty impressive homestand as Mets sandwich a five-game win streak between losses to open and close there stay at Shea.

Even more impressive? This young crew revealed its grit, outlasting San Francisco, 3-2 in 14 innings before the Dodgers arrived for a four-game set.
The Mets took Friday night's matchup, 4-3, in 12, got a Rich Herrscher sac fly in the bottom of the 16th to walk off with a 2-1 triumph and grabbed the first game of a doubleheader, 6-5, in 13 innings.

Notable feats of the homestand

Herscher had the walkoff RBI single in the Friday as well as the decisive sac fly in the 16th to top LA.

Dave Campbell, who is hitting .368 since being called up to replace injured Donn Clendenon, launched a solo homer to stamp the 14-inning affair with SF.

In the 16-inning epic against a Los Angeles cast that leads all of Major League Baseball with 78 steals - fueled by Maury Wills and Junior Gilliam - Mets' catcher Pete Embry offset four stolen bases by throwing out four runners.

Mets reached their highwater mark with the win over LA in the opener of the doubleheader, improving to 35-26, before dropping the nightcap. Nevertheless, we're coming.

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Mets go 17-13 in June, run their overall mark to 43-35 and reside in 2nd place - tied with the Cubs - 5 1/2 games behind the Giants.



How we're doing at the plate...


And, on the bump...


A 1-5 swing through San Francisco and Los Angeles brought us slightly back down to earth but Mets recovered to finish the month on a four-game win streak. The closing run included two more triumphs in extra innings; the Mets are 9-4 in games that have gone into extra innings.

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A salute to Roberto Clemente, who was elected by the fans to be the starting right fielder for the National League in the upcoming All-Star Game.



Clemente went 1 for 3 with a double in the first inning as the National League won, 5-0.
Larry Dierker tossed a scoreless inning and Lew Krausse recorded the game's final out to stamp the victory.

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A brutal six-game losing skid at the end of July muted a lot of the good vibes from earlier in the month.

The Mets were 12 games over .500 at one point and just three games back of the Giants, but their sudden fall to end the month put a bitter of a damper on what was a really encouraging stretch of baseball.



Gotta pick things up in August.

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The good times of mid summer...being involved in a pennant chase, boasting a record well above .500, a pitching staff shoving on a daily basis...gave way to the brutal dog days of August. And, with them came a slow, gradual collapse.

The Mets imploded, going 9-19, in August, including a string of six successive losses.We were outscored, 38-12, during that abysmal stretch.



Losing to the Giants is something you can live with, but bowing to the Dodgers, Pirates and Cardinals, all teams we were in the mix with, just plunged us into a tailspin. And, dropping 2 of 3 to lowly Houston is unacceptable.

So, as of Sept. 6, the Mets - once on the heels of the San Francisco Giants for the NL pennant - are now 68-71 and a painfully disappointing 20 1/2 games back.


Maybe the sting of disappointment is good. This was the Mets first actual taste of competing at a higher level since we popped on the scene in 1962. I have to take that as a positive sign. We just have to build our organization to sustain the fight for the long haul.

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The 1965 regular season is complete. It will be the Detroit Tigers against the San Francisco Giants in the World Series.

As for the Mets, a sincerely bitter conclusion to what was shaping up to be something special.



Looks like we will have the 6th pick in the draft, another rich pool that will feature Reggie Jackson and Tom Seaver at the head of the class. Highly doubtful either last far enough for us. We will probably be looking at possibly Rollie Fingers, Dave Cash or Aurelio Rodriguez.

We go 8-16 in September (17-35 over the final two months) to complete the unraveling. We lose 14 of 16 at one point. Just absolutely painful.

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San Francisco claimed the 1865 World Series, downing the Detroit Tigers in six games.

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The 1965 Mets finished 75-87, well above their 50-112 mark IRL.

Dawg Days
Mets went 32-52 from July til the end of the season.

Final team rankings


Final offensive stats


Final pitching stats

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MVP
NL: Willie Mays, San Francisco
AL: Carl Yastrzemski, Boston

CY YOUNG
NL: Sandy Koufax, Los Angeles
AL: Jim Bunning, Detroit

MANAGER OF THE YEAR
NL: Alvin Dark, San Francisco
AL: Bob Scheffing, Detroit

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
NL: Bert Campaneris, San Francisco
AL: Ron Swoboda, Boston

RELIEVER OF THE YEAR
NL: Stu Miller, San Francisco
AL: Eddie Fisher, Chicago

[jksander]

Fun read, man! I will definitely keep following

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Originally Posted by jksander

Fun read, man! I will definitely keep following

Much appreciated!

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First the draft...and the bad news

The Franchise himself, Tom Seaver, was the first overall pick to the Houston Astros. Can't lie...that one stings.

But, with the sixth pick in the first round, the Mets land 19-year-old reliever Rollie Fingers from Oregon State. We are happy to "settle" for this arm that has the potential to someday etch a plaque in Cooperstown.

In the second round, we reeled in RP Reggie Cleveland followed by LF Gene Clines in the third.

Not the most exciting draft to date, but we think we stocked some quality dudes.

In the Rule 5 Draft, we grabbed 23-year-old Cuban 1B Tony Perez who was left unprotected by the Pittsburgh Pirates. He and Donn Clendenon should give us exceptional day to day depth at first.

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We are in March 1966 and getting some spring training action in while polishing the edges on the crew that will be heading north.

The Mets have traded the unique RP/C Choo Choo Colemand to the Minnesota Twins in exchange for 2B Bernie Allen.
The Mets have traded 3B Rick Herrscher to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for RP Joey Jay.

New York is in the process of exploring a few more minor moves.

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As the Mets gear up for the 1966 season, they say goodbye to utility infielder Bernie Allen, who was traded to Philadelphia for 19-year-old OF Willie Crawford.

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The Mets traded 30-year-old 1B Don Clendenon to Cincinnati in exchange for 24-year-old LHP Wilbur Wood.

Mets trade 30-year-old LHP Al Jackson to Atlanta and get 23-year-old LHP Grant Jackson in return.

Mets call up 21-year-old 1B/OF Ed Kranepool from Triple A Jacksonville.

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Here is what our daily lineup will look like...


And, what how our rotation and pen set up...