Miracle In New York: The Story of the ’69 Mets from Thor Neureiter on Vimeo.

Video courtesy of ABC News Video Source YouTube Channel.

1-5 See Video Above
6. J Koosman
7. D Wright
8. J Reyes
9. G carter
10. Bill Shea
11. E Alfonzo
12. J Franco
13. R Darling
14. M Wilson
15. E Kranepool
16. A Leiter
17. D Cone
18. J Orosco
19. S Fernandez
20. F Cashen
21. C Stengel
22. J Matlock
23. H Johnson
24. C Jones
25. B Harrelson
26. R Staub
27. K McReynolds
28. B Jones
29. R Reed
30. J Santana
31. Davey Johnson
32. R Ventura
33. P Martinez
34. C Swan
35. T Agee
36. T Mcgraw
37. T Hundley
38. J Olerud
39. T Zeile
40. F. Viola
41. Bobby Valentine
42. L Mazzilli
43. C Floyd
44. R McDowell
45. D Kingman
46. W Backman
47. C Beltran
48. A Benitez
49. C Delgado
50. G Hodges

Here is the press release from MSG:
Tonight at 10:00 p.m., catch the premiere of MSG’s new four-part series about the 1986 New York Mets called “Summer of ’86: The Rise and Fall of the World Champion Mets.” The series continues tomorrow night at 10:30 p.m. and on Thursday at 10:00 p.m., and concludes Friday night at 10:30 p.m.

Each 30-minute episode of the series will feature interviews with players and coaches from the ’86 team, as well as New York celebrities, dignitaries and writers as they reflect on one of the most memorable baseball teams and seasons in the history of the game.

Watch and share a preview of the series here:

http://video.msg.com/Home/The-Summer-of-86-Preview

http://video.msg.com/Home/Watch-The-Summer-of-86-on-MSG

Below are quotes from the program:

DARRYL STRAWBERRY: “We were gettin drunk, we would drink and pass out, and then we would wake up and do it again.”

WALLY BACKMAN: “We were cocky. We were confident. We were arrogant. We expected to win every day we went out there and when we lost games we took it personally.”

RAY KNIGHT: “If you’re gonna challenge me then I’m going to respond. I’m not going to push anybody, but when I’m pushed, I was raised to respond to that.”

MOOKIE WILSON: “I thought that we fell short of what that team could have accomplished. Why? You can point fingers at players, at management, whatever the reason…I don’t think the legacy of that team was ever realized.”

Additional interview subjects include: Doc Gooden, Gary Carter, Kevin Mitchell, Manager Davey Johnson, General Manager Frank Cashen, Michael Rapaport, John Turturro, John Leguizamo, Gary Dell’Abate, Carl Banks, Ed Koch, Ray Kelly, Lou Dobbs and more.

Steve Keane’s comments on retiring Ed Kranepool number 7:

I’ve always been on board when it comes to retiring Kranepool 7. The man played his full 18 year carer as a Mets player and is an original Mets played on the’69 WS champs as well as the “73 NL champs. Even though he was not a great player he still holds the Mets record for games played, hits, and is top ten in every other hitting category even triples (where Ed ranks 9th all time with 25, three more than Lee Mazzilli who has 22)

More than that, Kranepool was a team player, when Donn Clendenon came to the team in ’69 it cut Eddie’s playing time but he never complained as the club got better and was winning. He even took an assignment to the minors late in his career as a plus where he worked on his hitting and came back to the big leagues as a premier pinch hitter.

I met Ed this past summer at Citi Field and he is still a Met as he’s very active in the Mets Alumni and working as a anyalst on some Brooklyn Cylcones games on SNY .

It would be great as part of the 50th Anniversary of the franchise for the Mets to retire #7 (as well as Jerry Koosman’s 36)

Thanks to Steve for the comments and please be sure to check him out over at the Kranepool Society. For more on the Mets current retired numbers go here.

Post Update: December 28, 2010 1:17pm:
A lot of discussion going on about this topic over at Mets Police. A few comments that the Mets can’t retire #7 because Jose Reyes wears that number.

My thoughts:
In my opinion the idea of not retiring #7 Kranepool because Jose Reyes wears that number is not a good enough reason. Either – 1. Grandfather Reyes in and let him continue to wear it but no one else wears it after him or 2. Make Reyes change his number. Kranepool changes his number from 21 to 7 when Warren Spahn joined the team.

Also, here is a highlight video recapping the game.

Video courtesy of RoleModelsForDummies YouTube channel.

Mets Links From Around The Net:

Video courtesy of the kylierocksful YouTube channel.