Even if the competition wasn't quite the Boys of Summer Dodgers, the Mets edition of 1973 was sufficiently reminiscent of Bobby Thomson's rags-to-riches '51 New York Giants. Of course, it has to be admitted that they looked more like a poor man's version of the courageous club managed by Leo Durocher. When the Durocher Giants stared at a 13 1/2-game gap looming between themselves and the front-running Dodgers on August 11, 1951, they certainly didn't have to hang their heads because of the way they had played most of the summer. They were seven games over .500 themselves at the time, and the width of the Brooklyn lead had mostly to do with the Dodgers' torrid 70-35 clip, which had obliterated all competition up to that point of the pennant race. Then, down the stretch, the surprising Giants suddenly grew so hot themselves that everything simply withered in their sight, the front-running Dodgers included. This was not quite the case with the last-to-first Mets team two decades later. It would not be too far off the mark to suggest that the Yogi Berra ball club actually backed into the division top spot on its last-minute dash, which at times was more like a crawl, out of the league basement.

The Mets escaped the East Division cellar for the final time on the final day of August. But when they did, they were suddenly staring at only a very small slope between themselves and the mountain's summit. Writer Roger Angell referred at the time to the dwindling divisional race as being most like "a crowded and dangerous tenement." Heading into September, only the front-running Cardinals even had their heads above water. The other five struggling clubs were all sub-.500 losers. Only 6 1/2 games separated first from worst, and each new day brought another shuffling of positions among the combatants. The Phillies were the first to drop dead along the wayside, but the rest of the contenders and pretenders remained locked in a hopeless death grip. After the Mets won three of four from the moribund Phillies and moved into the fourth slot, there were only 21 games left on the schedule. Berra attempted the final three-week stretch run with a four-man rotation of Seaver, Koosman, Matlack, and George Stone. But Tug McGraw, out in the bullpen, was Berra's real ace in the hole. The effusive lefty appeared in 19 games down the stretch, winning 12 and saving five. Only twice did he falter under the pressures of relief duty. Delaying his first victory of the season until August 22, McGraw now posted an ERA of 0.88 and rang up 38 strikeouts in 41 tense late-game innings. It was one of the most remarkable season-ending bullpen steaks anywhere on record.

The Mets found a second hero in catcher Jerry Grote, who had returned from the injury list on August 21. Once the steady veteran backstop had regained control of the Mets' staff, New York pitchers seemed to find a newly inspired confidence. They threw eight shutouts once Grote was again calling signals behind the plate. And Grote's bat was also a factor, as he hit .300 and drove in 18 big runs over the final 18-game stretch. Two other saviors down the stretch were Cleon Jones, who reserved 17 of his year's total of 48 RBIs for the final dramatic month, and Wayne Garrett, who also drove in 17 and hit .333 across the final four weeks. Yet, even for all the heroics by McGraw and Grote and a large supporting crew, it looked for all the world like the race to the wire might nonetheless end in an improbable five-way tie.

When the Mets, behind Tom Seaver, tromped the Pirates at Shea on September 21 to finally gain first place, the same game also miraculously marked the team's first climb above .500. It was that kind of an unprecedented finish, a delight for casual fans perhaps, but nothing short of a nigsource.htmare to baseball purists. The Mets had come to life when it most counted, but neither they nor anyone else exactly burned up the league during the final wild month of sometimes botched baseball. Only one team in the bunch won even half of its games in September, and that was Berra's crew, which managed to take 19 of the final 27 contests. The Mets had not shown much of an ability to win consistently all season long. But they were, fortuitously, the one team that did so when the victory line was finally looming within easy sight.

» NEXT