A Magic Summer: The Amazin' Story of the 1969 New York Mets

by Stanley Cohen

“Mr. Cohen… brings special insight to his views of sports.”— The New York Times

1969 was an amazing year for Mets fans, and for all of baseball. Just seven years after bumbling their way through one of the worst years in baseball history as an expansion team, the New York Mets became champions of the world.

Managed by Gil Hodgers, one of Brooklyn’s “Boys of Summer,” the Mets cleared every obstacle in their way, including a talented Cubs team and an Orioles team stacked with first class pitching.

A Magic Summer tells of that remarkable season by chronicling the major events as viewed twenty years later. Interviews conducted twenty years after with members of the team—provide immediacy and, with that, fascinating updates and insights. Relive the glory days of Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman, of Ed Kranepool and Donn Clendenon, of Ron Swoboda and Tommie Agee.

This is a unique record and celebration of a season that Mets fans—and all baseball fans—will not soon forget.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

There are more than one Stanley Cohen author.

*Stanley Cohen (1922-): USA biochemist
*Stanley Cohen (1928–2010): USA crime novelist
*Stanley Cohen (1934-): USA sport writer
*Stanley Cohen (1937-): USA biologist
*Stanley Cohen (1942–2013): South Africa-British sociologist

Reviews

[Alex Abboud · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look back at the “Miracle Mets”, the surprising 1969 World Series champion. The book, written in the late ‘80s, chronicles that season, and also follows up on many of their players, detailing the rest of their careers and their post-career lives as of the time of writing. Baseball fans will enjoy this retrospective.

[Jacob Westrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a good book to read because for one, I enjoy reading about sports. My favorite sport to play and watch is baseball. Also, I'm a New York Mets fan and to read a book about their season in 1969 was a good experience.

[Tom Gase · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Just what I was looking for in a story in the 1969 Mets, which won the World Series just seven years after fielding the worst team in the history of the game. Author Stanley Cohen does a great job of writing and research in this one, which takes the reader through the entire season, starting in spring training and ending in the World Series against the Baltimore Orioles. Along the way, Cohen spends time to catch up with just about every single player on the team and tell their story of what they did before 1969 and after up to about 1986, when this book was written. Loved all the game-by-game action as well as stories on Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Jerry Grote, Tommy Agee, Cleon Jones, Nolan Ryan, Al Weiss, etc. An absolute must for Met's fans and I'd basically say the same for fans of baseball in general. The author also weaves in important events that were going on in the world at the time (or out of this world with the moon landing). Great stuff. Worth the read and it's not too long at 300 pages.

[Josh Sutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for any Mets fan

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did, since the Mets aren't necessarily my team of preference. But the 1969 Mets were such a cinderella sports story, winning the World Series in their 8th year of existence and in their first season that they finished above .500, that delving into this Amazin' season makes for great reading. I really like the format, where Cohen intersperses a chronological account of the season with two or three pages that will focus on a specific player from the team, what he brought to the table in 1969, what brought him to the '69 Mets, and what he has been doing since (the book was written in 1986 and Cohen interviewed almost all of the surviving Mets players) Usually the weakness of a book that focuses on a season is a reliance on game by game descriptions, almost as if the book was derived solely from boxscores. But this one strikes a great balance between the events of 1969 and the personalities that made up the team. Definitely one of the better "season-focused" baseball books I've ever read.

[Ron Kaplan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mets

[The Master · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yay Metsies!