1965 New York Mets

The Mets were a terrible baseball team in 1965. They lost 112 games. Still like all seasons, 1965 was an interesting year. Here are some of the highlights and lowlights of the campaign.

The Mets finished the season 50-112 for a .309 winning percentage.  Finishing in 10th place (last) in the National League, 60 games behind the first place Dodgers.

Their 112 loses are the sixth most losses in a season in MLB history. They share the honor with the 1952 Pittsburg Pirates.

They had an eleven game losing streak, two ten game losing

streaks and an eight.

The Mets longest winning streak was four games from May 31st to June 4th taking two from the Cubs and two from the Pirates.

In late August, they took three of four from the league leading and eventual pennant winning Dodgers.

In '65, the Mets didn't win a series the entire season and were 4-14 against the Houston Astros. The 'Stros lost 97 games.

It was Casey Stengel's last season as a MLB manager. On July 25th, at a Mets' party at Toots Shor's, Stengel fell and broke his hip. He retired on August 30th. His record with the Mets was 175-404. He was replaced by Wes Westrum.

Greg Goossen, a rookie catcher/first baseman, came up from the minors for a cup of coffee. He batted thirty-two times and hit a respectable .290.  Stengel was unimpressed. 'This is Greg Goossen' he said one day to a group of reporters. 'He is twenty years old and in ten years he has a chance to be thirty'. He played a few seasons for the Mets and went on to play for the Seattle Pilots, Milwaukee Brewers and Washington Senators.  After baseball,
 he worked as a private detective, boxing trainer and a Hollywood movie actor. Some of his roles include, Officer #1 in "The Heist", Drunk #2 in "The Replacements" and  Vietnam Veteran in "The Firm". He also was a stand-in on many pictures for actor Gene Hackman.

Three future hall of famers were on the roster. In addition to Stengel, Yogi Berra and Warren Spahn played that year for the Mets. Both were player/coaches. Berra only played in four games and the forty-four year old Spahn went 4-12 and was released in July.

Jack Fisher and Al Jackson lost 24 and 20 games respectively.

Jackson lost 73 games in four years with the Mets. In 1966, he was traded to the Cardinals for Ken Boyer. He returned to the Mets for one more season in 1968.

Future Mets stars Tug Mcgraw, Ron Swoboda and Bud Harrelson were all rookies in 1965. Swoboda hit 19 home runs, the most by a Mets rookie until Daryl Strawberry hit 26 in 1983.  All three would go on to play key roles on the 1969 World Series winning team.

The Mets drew 1,768,389 fans, third best in the Majors.

--Casey Redmond
   September, 22 2018
   Shangri-La, Ohio

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