History of The New York Mets Baseball Team

New York Mets are a Major League Baseball Team that plays in the National League. The full name of the team is the New York Metropolitans and they are located in Flushing, New York in the borough of Queens in New York City. The New York Mets are part of the Eastern Division within the National league along with the Atlanta Braves, Florida Marlins, Washington Nationals and Philadelphia Phillies.

The New York Mets history begins in 1962 when Major League baseball made them an expansion team. The New York Mets filled the void in New York for a National League team to offset the American League New York Yankees that was created when the two National League teams left in 1957. The Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles and the New York Giants moved to San Francisco.

In 1959 the attorney William Shea (for which the stadium gets its name) created the Continental League which was abandoned the next year. When the league abandoned four team franchises were created and they would be split between the National and American Leagues. One of the National League teams was given to owner John Payson and her husband Charles Shipman Payson. After considering several names such as the Continentals, Burros, Jets, and Bees, the owners decided on the name Metropolitans which was abbreviated to Mets.

The first year of the franchise was 1962 where the Mets lost their first nine games and finished the season 40-120. The New York Mets spent the first couple years playing in the Polo Grounds while Shea Stadium was being built. The Mets were unable to produce a winning record for any of their first eight seasons before they finally made a big splash. The 1969 New York Mets team, which is referred to as the Miracle Mets or Amazing Mets got hot at the end of the season passing the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the National League Pennant and then win the World Series. The team coached by legendary manager Casey Stengel had superstar pitcher Tom Seaver and future superstar Nolan Ryan.

The up and down seasons of the New York Mets during the 1970’s featured fan favorites like John Stearns, Lee Mazzilli, Craig Swan, and Dave Kingman. During the 1970’s the New York Mets made one trip to the World Series. The 1973 World Series the New York Mets lost to the Oakland Athletics in seven games with the final out coming on Wayne Garrett’s infield pop fly.

The New York Mets of the 1980’s was defined by the fan favorites that played for them during this period. Baseball stars Dwight ‘Doc’ Gooden who was a fastball throwing right hander, right fielder Darryl Strawberry who was a tremendously exciting power hitter, captain Gary Carter a talented catcher, and captain Keith Hernandez who added offense and defense at first base led the 1980’s New York Mets teams. The up and down seasons of the 1980’s are mostly remembered for the 1986 World Series triumph over the Boston Red Sox in seven games. With the Boston Red Sox winning 3 games to 2 games and losing in the 10th inning, the New York Mets had an amazing comeback that is remembered for Mookie Wilson’s ground ball that inexplicably went through Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner’s legs scoring the winning run in game 6. The Mets again came from behind in game 7 and earned their 2nd World Series Championship in franchise history.

The latter part of the 1980’s exposed many of the Mets superstars in controversy. Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden got involved with cocaine addiction while hanging around Kieth Hernandez who also had cocaine issues, and Lenny Dykstra was caught doing steroids and had his gambling problems exposed. These off the field issues tore the team apart and led to a long dry spell in the success of the New York Mets teams through much of the 1990’s.

The 1990’s were rebuilding years for the New York Mets who signed aging stars like sluggers Eddie Murray, and Bobby Bonilla, base stealer Vince Coleman and starting pitchers Bret Saberhagen and Frank Tanana. However, rebuilding was a slow process that was hampered by many of these players often injured and on the disabled list and others struggling to adapt to the media scrutiny in New York that surrounded them when they failed to live up to their expectations. The bright spot of the 1990’s New York Mets were the catchers. First, Todd Hundley emerged as a power hitting catcher that helped lead the team back to respectability. Later when Todd Hundley was injured, the New York Mets traded for Mike Piazza who helped score more runs with his powerful bat but lacked defensive abilities which helped other teams steal bases. The New York Mets made a playoff run in 1998 beating the Arizona Diamondbacks but lost to the Atlanta Braves in the National League Championship Series.

The 2000′s New York Mets teams have been very exciting and have been full of young, fast, and powerful hitters that have made the lineups some of the best in the National League. The turn of the century New York Mets team rode a wild card berth in the playoffs that included a National League Championship Series win over the St. Louis Cardinals all the way to the 2000 World Series where they faced cross town rival the New York Yankees. Called the Subway Series because of the short distance between the two stadiums that could be reached riding short distances on the New York Metropolitan Subway System was a dream match-up for fans of both teams. The historic match-up resulted in the New York Yankees winning the World Series in 5 games, but the NY Mets scored only 3 runs less then the NY Yankees during the very close series.

After that the Mets General Manager Steve Phillips brought in top talent from other teams like Jeremy Burnitz, Roberto Alomar, Roger Cedeño, and Mo Vaughn. These players all significantly under performed and none of them even came close to meeting the expectations of Mets fans. The NY Mets regular season record was one of the worst in history and as a result Steve Phillips took the blame for the disappointing players and was fired.

The New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon hired Latin General Manager Omar Minaya in 2004 and he has turned the team into a favorite to contend for the World Championship every year. Omar Minaya hired Willie Randolph as head coach and signed several Latin American free agent superstars like Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, and Pedro Martinez. Omar Minaya also added a reliable top closer to the bullpen in Billy Wagner and the Mets minor league system produced two great players in Jose Reyes and David Wright.

In 2007, the Mets signed multiple Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana to a multi-year deal to become the ace of the Mets pitching staff. Johan Santana joins Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez, the consistently solid John Maine, and hard throwing, emotional, and superstitious Oliver Perez as the Mets play the 2008 MLB season.

The 2008 season looks very promising for the Mets, with their fast and powerful lineup to compliment their talented pitching staff the New York Mets are a clear front runner to win the National League and advance to the World Series.

The New York Mets Uniform colors are Black, Orange, and Blue. The color orange symbolizes the New York Giants that left for San Francisco and the blue color represents the Brooklyn Dodgers who left New York for Los Angeles. Coincidentally, blue and orange are the official colors of New York City flag.

The primary logo of the New York Mets displays the word Mets in orange cursive writing over top a blue skyline of New York City. In addition, the bridge under the Mets name represents the return of National League Baseball to New York City. The entire design is overlaid with orange stitching that represents baseball. The New York Mets cap Logo was designed by Ray Gatto. The cap logo design shows connected letters ‘N’ and ‘Y’ on top of each other written in orange. The background is usually blue, but alternate designs have included black as the background or as the letters. The ‘N’ and ‘Y’ stand for New York.

The New York Mets theme song “Meet the Mets” was written in 1963 by Bill Katz and Ruth Roberts. Other songs like, “Lets Go Mets Go” are also regularly played at Shea Stadium during NY Mets home games.

The New York Mets mascot is Mr. Met. Mr. Met’s wife, the mascot Mrs. Met is occasionally seen as well and sometimes together with their mascot Met children.

The Mets are seen on Cable TV on their new network, Sports Net New York. Some games are broadcast on channel 11, WPIX. The New York Mets radio station is WFAN, 660 AM and the team is discussed 24/7/365.