The Greatest Teams (according to TCMA) - 1969 Mets

 

Edit: This is a series of posts about TCMA's set from 1987 highlighting some of the best ever teams in MLB history.

The Miracle Mets of 1969 finished with a 100-62 record, good for first place in the NL East.  They swept through the playoffs defeating the Braves 3-0 and won the World Series by defeating the Orioles 4-1.  The starting lineup was a bit underwhelming with only two players that finished with a .300 BA or above.  This may be the only team in this series without a hall of fame fielder.

  Cleon Jones led the team hitting .340 with 12 HR's.  Art Shamsky was the other batter who hit .300.

For some reason TCMA included this nice card of three key players from the Mets.

The real story of this team was the fabulous pitching staff that finished with a sub 3.00 team ERA (2.99) and led the league in complete game shutouts.

In my opinion, TCMA missed the mark with this team set.  Where's Tom Seaver?  He only led the team with a 25-7 record and a 2.21 ERA.  And don't collectors deserve a card of Nolan Ryan?  No card of Don Cardwell either (doesn't that sound like a good name for a blog)?  A card with the coaches would have been nice since Gil Hodges and Yogi Berra are HOFers.

This is yet another team that I would question including as one of baseball's greatest.  Maybe they were just lucky?  Whatever the case, someone at TCMA made the call.  However, I do like the design of these cards.  The border matches the team color and the stars help the '69 Mets' label pop.

That concludes this series.  Prior to obtaining this, I hadn't heard of this set. It was fun paging through this little booklet and checking out the history of these teams.  If I had to pick a favorite, I'd probably go with the '27 Yankees set just because I like the fancy design.  I also did a quick internet search but couldn't find if this booklet was a mail-in offer or if someone just stuck these cards in a random binder.  Either way its a nice way to store these cards.  Thanks for reading!