[stylin19a]

My son got me "David Claerbaut, The Greatest Team That Didn't Win: Durocher's Cubs" for my birthday. Great Read.
The Mets played hellaceous ball..period ! in Sept/Oct 24-8

Of course you are right.. it's NOT Tommie Agee out/safe that started the downfall...everybody KNOWS it was the black cat ! :)

..shoot, had the season lasted a week longer, the Pirates & the Cards would have overtaken the Cubs.

[BluesDuke]

..shoot, had the season lasted a week longer, the Pirates & the Cards would have overtaken the Cubs.

I'm not entirely sure how true that is. The Mets took the East with an eight-game lead. Another week might have seen the Pirates and the Cardinals make a stab at it, but the Cardinals were rent by dissent all season long, caused by owner Gussie Busch apparently turning on their "greedy" selves (his preseaon lecture to the team is a classic of the kind of paternalistic condescension that caused no few players to distrust no few owners in those days) and a few injuries (not to mention the unloading of Orlando Cepeda) while the Pirates, if I remember, had enough inconsistencies down the stretch that trying to catch up to the Mets with that super pitching staff would have been almost a pipe dream. If the Mets had any advantage, it was having a manager who was as no-nonsense as Durocher was merely reputed to be and left Durocher completely in the dust for handling a pennant contending team in 1969. I only wish I could remember if Gil Hodges was named Manager of the Year for that season...