1969 National League Championship Series
| 1969 National League Championship Series | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | |||||||||||||
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| Dates | October 4 – 6 | ||||||||||||
| Umpires | Al Barlick, Augie Donatelli, Ed Sudol, Ed Vargo, Chris Pelekoudas, Mel Steiner | ||||||||||||
| Broadcast | |||||||||||||
| Television | NBC | ||||||||||||
| TV announcers |
Jim Simpson and Sandy Koufax (Game 1) Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek (Games 2–3) |
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| Team (Wins) | Manager | Season | |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York Mets (3) | Gil Hodges | 100–62, .617, GA: 8 | |
| Atlanta Braves (0) | Lum Harris | 93–69, .574, GA: 3 |
The 1969 National League Championship Series was a best-of-five match-up between the East Division champion New York Mets and the West Division champion Atlanta Braves. The Mets defeated the Braves three games to none, becoming the first team ever to sweep a best-of-five postseason series in baseball. They did not sweep a playoff series again until 2006 as they swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series in three games.
At that time, the New York Mets became the fastest expansion team to win a National League Pennant with only seven years of existence. 28 years later in 1997, the Florida Marlins would break that record by reaching and winning the World Series with only five years of existence. Four years after the Marlins, the Arizona Diamondbacks would break that by reaching and winning the World Series in just their fourth year.
Nolan Ryan played for the Mets at the time, but he did not play until Game 3, which was the first playoff victory of his career.
The Braves finally avenged their 1969 loss 30 years later, by beating the Mets in that year's NLCS four games to two.
This was the first year of the two-division format in Major League Baseball, after 99 consecutive years of straight non-divisional play.
This was the year of the "Miracle" Mets. The team had finished only one game better than last the year before, had never finished better than ninth in their seven-year history, were generally picked for third or fourth in the new six-team National League East Division, and were a 100-to-1 longshot to win the World Series. In third place and 10 games behind the division-leading Cubs on August 13, the Mets rallied to win the East Division title by eight games, winning exactly 100 games.
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