In the 1977 movie "Oh, God!," George Burns, playing the deity, is asked to prove his divinity by performing a miracle. Burns replies, "The last miracle I did was the 1969 Mets. Before that, I think you have to go back to the Red Sea." This book tells the tale of the single most impossible, unbelievable, and wonderful sports story of all times--of the 1969 "Amazin' Mets" and their incredible spring, summer, and fall. But it does much more than simply recount how the worst sports franchise ever ascended to greatness in a few short months. "The 1969 Miracle Mets" is the story of tumultuous times: the 1960s. Against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, the New York Mets proved to be a metaphor for a changing America and, in retrospect, the catapult for the eventual comeback of a battered-yet-unbowed Metropolis. Tom Seaver and his teammates come alive in these pages as the final symbols of an innocent age, an age when the greatest icons in American culture--New York sports heroes--mounted the stage in awesome splendor, before Watergate, before free agency, before the mercenaries took over.

In the popular 1977 movie "Oh, God " George Burns, playing the deity, is asked in a courtroom to prove His divinity by performing a miracle. Burns tells the attorney, "The last miracle I did was the 1969 Mets. Before that, I think you have to go back to the Red Sea." Man has engaged in athletic competition at least since the ancient Greeks. Baseball has been played, according to legend, since Abner Doubleday invented it at Cooperstown, New York in 1839. Through the travail of ages, in the entire history of sports, the 1969 "Amazin' Mets" remains the single most impossible, unbelievable, improbable and wonderful sports story of all times. This book tells the tale of that incredible spring, summer and fall, but it does much more than simply recount how the worst sports franchise ever ascended to the very heights of greatness in a few short months. The Last Miracle is the story of tumultuous times: the 1960s. Amidst the backdrop of the Vietnam War, the Mets remained the last, best hope of a city on the verge of bankruptcy. Through the lens of time we now can view them as a metaphor for a changing America, and in light of the Big Apple's phoenix-like comeback over the years, the catapult for this battered-yet-unbowed Metropolis. Somehow, while the Mets became the mods of baseball, the "new breed" athlete, Tom Seaver and his teammates are viewed herein as the final symbols of an innocent age; an age when the greatest icons in American culture - New York sports heroes - mounted the stage in awesome splendor; before Watergate, before free agency, before the mercenaries took over. Here they are: Seaver and Harrelson; Hodges and Stengel; Grote and Swoboda; Jones and Agee; all the characters ofthe greatest comedy act ever performed, all the while upstaging a tempestuous Mayoral race, President Nixon's "secret plan," a Moonshot, and Woodstock.