Photograph by James Drake

"'When I came to the Mets there was an aura of defeatism on the team; a feeling of let's get it over with. I could not accept that. Being brought up in California I was unaware of the legend of Marvelous Marv Throneberry. That lovable loser stuff was not funny to me.'"

Text by William Leggett
Issue Date: December 22, 1969

In 1969 hard-throwing righthander Tom Seaver was the ace of the pitching staff that lifted the Miracle Mets to the World Series championship. Seaver's 25-7 record, 18 complete games, 208 strikeouts and 2.21 ERA earned him the first of three Cy Young awards.