Meet the Mets, bleep the Mets
50 years later, 1969 collapse still triggers anxiety
Woodstock and the moon landing served as minor diversions from Cubs Fever. The Cubs built an
8 1⁄2- game division lead and, well, you know the rest.
There’s no need to go into specifics of the collapse. It has been the subject of countless books and magazine and newspaper articles, usually on the 10th, 20th, 30th and 40th anniversaries. Google it please, millennials.
New York will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the “Miracle Mets” next weekend at Citi Field, thankfully playing host to the Braves — whom the Mets defeated that year in the first National League Championship Series — instead of the Cubs.
The Cubs, meanwhile, will have a retro 1969 jersey giveaway later in the season and are making some sort of video about the ’69 season that’s hush-hush. But you won’t be seeing any celebrations at Wrigley, even for a team as fondly remembered as the ’69 Cubs.
They broke a lot hearts, but they made some fans for life.
Maybe it’s just as well the Cubs low-key the 50th anniversary of ’69, a marketing opportunity the Rickettses would typically embrace, like their selfdescribed “Party of the Century” during the rebuild in 2014.
Insufferable Baby Boomers have obsessed over the ’69 Cubs forever, boring their children and grandkids with the story of the black cat that crossed Ron Santo’s path in the on-deck circle on Sept. 9 at Shea Stadium. (The Mets have an engraved brick outside Citi Field marking the incident.) But are they any worse than Gen Xers revisiting the events of the Bartman Game in 2003?
Game 7, or whatever shorthand you prefer for the World Series-clinching game in Cleveland in 2016, was supposed to erase all of those miserable moments Cubs fans have clung to like a dog to his favorite fire hydrant. And mostly it has done the job.
But just when you think it’s over and there’s nothing more to say about ’69, former Chicago newspaperman Ron Rapoport writes an Ernie Banks biography, “Let’s Play Two,” that recalls a trash-talking Mets clubhouse celebration at Wrigley after a 9-5 win on July 14, 1969.
Rapoport writes the
Mets “giddily burlesqued Santo clicking his heels and (Dick) Selma’s towel-waving” cheers with the Bleacher Bums.
“Let’s hear it for Leo.” “(Bleep) Leo.”
“Let’s hear it for Santo.” “(Bleep) Santo.”
“Let’s hear it for Ernie.” “(Bleep) Ernie.”
“Let’s hear it for the Bleacher Bums.”
“(Bleep) the Bleacher Bums.”
This was a different era, of course, when players talked about the game after the game instead of checking their phones for texts and Instagram comments. And it would be silly for a modern-day Met to curse a Cub anyway, as they might wind up playing together someday or perhaps even going on strike together.
The Cubs-Mets rivalry should’ve been supersized by their meeting in the 2015 NLCS, in which the Cubs were swept in four games. But they’ve since gone in opposite directions, and the Mets are in disarray again after firing their pitching and bullpen coaches Thursday.
Asked why the Cubs have been able to remain contenders and the Mets have not, Cubs manager
Joe Maddon replied: “Aw, man, I don’t know. I read the New York papers. That’s all I know.”
That’s all he needs to know, though he should be paying close attention in case his bosses don’t agree on his value to the organization after the season. If the Mets are looking for a new manager in 2020, Maddon is made for the New York media and is tabloid-compatible too.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The Cubs are unpredictable on a daily basis but still in charge in the NL Central. The Mets still have some talent and a chance to get into the wildcard race if everything falls into place.
New pitching coach Phil Regan, a member of the ’69 Cubs, can attest that anything can happen in baseball.
Hopefully the CubsMets rivalry will one day return to its hate-filled past and the trash talking will return in earnest:
“(Bleep) Mr. Met.”