1969 World Series

Outfielder Cleon Jones hit a (then) club-record .340 and finished third in the National League batting race, while his lifelong friend and outfield mate Tommie Agee hit 26 home runs and drove in 76 runs to lead the club; they were the only players on the team who garnered more than 400 at bats.

In the first League Championship Series, the normally light-hitting Mets, once again considered underdogs despite having a better regular-season record than their opponent, put on a power display by scoring 27 runs in sweeping the favored Atlanta Braves in three games.

The Orioles were led by star sluggers Frank Robinson and Boog Powell, who each hit over 30 home runs and drove in over 100 runs; third baseman Brooks Robinson, perhaps the best-fielding hot-corner player in baseball history; and pitchers Mike Cuellar, Dave McNally, and Jim Palmer, who combined for 63 victories.

Don Buford hit Tom Seaver's second pitch of the game for a home run, which just evaded Ron Swoboda's leaping attempt at catching it.

Koosman had trouble finishing the game, as he issued two-out walks in the bottom of the ninth to Frank Robinson and Boog Powell.

With two out in the fourth and Oriole runners on first and third, Agee raced to the 396-foot (121 m) sign in left-center and made a backhanded running catch of a drive hit by Elrod Hendricks.

In the seventh, the Orioles had the bases loaded with two out, but Agee made a diving grab of a line drive hit by Paul Blair in right-center.

Nolan Ryan, making the only World Series appearance of his Hall of Fame 27-year career, pitched the final 2+1⁄3 innings (benefiting from Agee's second catch) and earned a save.

Tom Seaver's photograph was used on some anti-war Moratorium Day literature being distributed outside Shea Stadium before the game, although the pitcher stated that his picture was used without his knowledge or approval.

New York City Mayor John Lindsay had ordered flags flown at half staff to observe the Moratorium Day and honor those who had died in Vietnam.

Once again, Donn Clendenon provided the lead with a homer in the second off Game 1 winner Mike Cuellar, who allowed just that run over seven solid innings.

In the third inning, after arguing ball-strike calls too strenuously with plate umpire Shag Crawford, Earl Weaver of the Orioles became the first manager since 1935 to be ejected from a World Series game.

Brooks Robinson then hit a sinking line drive towards right that Mets right fielder Ron Swoboda dove for and caught just inches off the ground.

Replays showed Martin running inside the first-base line, which appeared to hinder Richert's ability to make a good throw and Orioles second baseman Davey Johnson from catching it.

Hodges quickly looked down, grabbed a ball that had a black streak on it, and walked it out to the home plate umpire, who then awarded first base to Jones.

Swoboda then scored when Jerry Grote's grounder was mishandled by first baseman Boog Powell, whose throw to first was then dropped by pitcher Eddie Watt in an unusual double error.

With two outs in the top of the ninth inning, Koosman faced Orioles second baseman Davey Johnson (who, coincidentally, later managed the Mets to their second World Series championship in 1986).

After taking a pitch of two balls and one strike, Johnson hit a fly-ball out to left field which was caught by Cleon Jones.

[12] Bill Gleason, a sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, alleged that this feat would not repeated again until Disco Demolition Night,[13] an event which saw many people rush onto the playing field in Comiskey Park just before the second game of a doubleheader between the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers was scheduled to begin on July 12, 1979.

Boog Powell led the Orioles with five hits and a .263 average—but all were non-scoring singles (although one advanced Frank Robinson to third base to set up Swoboda's defensive heroics).

The Mets won despite below-average performances from Jerry Grote, who went 4-for-19, Tommie Agee, who went 3-for-18, Cleon Jones, who went 3-for-19, Bud Harrelson, who went 3-for-17 and Ed Charles, who went 2-for-15.

Earlier in January, the Jets, led by Joe Namath, upset the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in the Super Bowl, which also aired on NBC.

1969 Mets shortstop Bud Harrelson earned a second World Series ring as the club's third-base coach in 1986.

However, Mets pitcher Tom Seaver was on the losing end in 1986, as a member of the Boston Red Sox (he did not appear in the 1986 World Series due to a knee injury).

In the ALCS, they swept the Minnesota Twins for the second straight year to return to the World Series, this time, they were victorious in five games over the Cincinnati Reds.

In a 1999 episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray and his brother Robert travel to the National Baseball Hall of Fame to see a ceremony honoring the 1969 Mets.

The clairvoyant alien character Griffin (played by Michael Stuhlbarg) asserts, among other things, that the baseball pitched by Jerry Koosman was "aerodynamically flawed" because the horsehide tanner's wife had left him, that Davey Johnson only became a baseball player because his father "couldn't find a football to give him for his eighth birthday," and that Cleon Jones would have been born a woman had his parents not had "an extra glass of wine before going to bed."

Meanwhile, Games 3–5 exist in their original color videotape quality from "truck feeds", including the pre-game coverage with Simpson, Koufax and Mantle.