List of New York Mets seasons

Posted on by

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The exterior of a baseball stadium, which has a round brown entrance area with a white and orange

The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in Flushing, Queens, New York City. They compete in the East Division of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) National League (NL). The team’s current home stadium is Citi Field, after playing two years at the Polo Grounds and 45 years at Shea Stadium.[1] Since their inception in 1962, the Mets have won two World Series titles and five NL championships. As of the end of the 2022 season, the Mets have won more than 4,600 regular season games, a total that ranks 19th among MLB teams and third among expansion teams.[2]

The Mets lost 120 games in their inaugural season, the most by a post-1900 MLB team.[3] After six more years in which their best league finish was ninth, the Mets won the World Series in 1969, defeating the Baltimore Orioles in five games to earn what is widely considered one of the biggest upsets in baseball history.[4][5] Four seasons later, the Mets returned to the World Series, where they lost to the Oakland Athletics in seven games. After winning two NL championships in five years, New York struggled for the next decade, not coming within 10 games of the NL East leader until 1984.

In 1986, the team posted 108 wins, the most in franchise history, and defeated the Houston Astros in the National League Championship Series (NLCS) to advance to the World Series. Trailing three games to two in the series, the Mets were one out from defeat in game six before coming back to win 6–5; they won game seven two days later to earn their second World Series championship.[6] After a second-place finish in 1987, the Mets won the NL East the next year, but lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. The Mets’ next playoff appearances were their back-to-back wild card-winning seasons of 1999 and 2000; in the latter year, they won their fourth NL championship, but lost to the cross-town New York Yankees in the “Subway Series”.[7] The 2006 Mets earned an NL East title, before the St. Louis Cardinals defeated them in the NLCS. In 2007 and 2008, the team was eliminated from playoff contention on the last day of the regular season.[8] The Mets won the NL East in 2015, and swept the Chicago Cubs in four games to win the NLCS and advance to the World Series for the first time since 2000;[9] they lost the Series to the Kansas City Royals in five games. The following year, they returned to the playoffs with a wild card berth, but lost the 2016 NL Wild Card Game to the San Francisco Giants. In the most recent season, 2022, the Mets secured a postseason berth before losing to the San Diego Padres in the NL Wild Card Series.

Table key[edit]

A man walking with a hand in his pocket. He is wearing a black and orange baseball cap and jacket.

Year by year[edit]

Note: Statistics are correct as of October 9, 2022.

World Series champions † NL champions * Division champions ^ Wild card berth (1995–present) ¤

All-time records[edit]

Record by decade[edit]

The following table describes the Mets’ MLB win–loss record by decade.

Decade Wins Losses Pct
1960s 494 799 .382
1970s 763 850 .473
1980s 816 743 .523
1990s 767 786 .494
2000s 815 803 .504
2010s 793 827 .490
2020s 204 180 .531
All-time 4662 4988 .483

These statistics are from Baseball-Reference.com’s New York Mets Team History & Encyclopedia,[11] and are current as of October 9, 2022.

Postseason record by year[edit]

The Mets have made the postseason ten times in their history. Their first appearance was in 1969 and the most recent was in 2022.[12]

  • a This is determined by calculating the difference in wins plus the difference in losses divided by two.
  • b In 1969, the National League split into East and West divisions.[24]
  • c The 1972 Major League Baseball strike forced the cancellation of the Mets’ first six games of the season.[25]
  • d Matlack and Bill Madlock were co-winners of the award.[17]
  • e The 1981 Major League Baseball strike caused the season to be split into two halves.[26] The Mets finished with a 17–34 record in the first half of the season, and a fifth-place finish in the National League East. After the strike was resolved, the team had a 24–28 record in the second half, placing them fourth in the division.[27]
  • f The 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike, which started on August 12, led to the cancellation of the rest of the season.[25]
  • g The 1994–95 MLB strike lasted until April 2, causing the 1995 season to be shortened to 144 games.[25]
  • h The Mets finished the 1999 season tied with the Cincinnati Reds for the National League wild card playoff berth. In a one-game tie-breaker, the Mets defeated the Reds 5–0 to win the wild card.[28]
  • i The 2020 season was shortened to 60 games by the COVID-19 pandemic.[29]

References[edit]

General
Specific
  1. ^ “New York Mets Attendance, Stadiums, and Park Factors”. Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved April 21, 2009.
  2. ^ “List of all the Major League Baseball Teams”. Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
  3. ^ Donovan, John (September 4, 2003). “The (dis)honor roll: Tigers have plenty of company among all-time worst teams”. CNN Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on April 13, 2008. Retrieved August 26, 2018.
  4. ^ “List: Biggest baseball playoff upsets”. ESPN. Retrieved April 22, 2009.
  5. ^ Leggett, William (October 27, 1969). “Never Pumpkins Again”. Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on March 19, 2004. Retrieved August 26, 2018.
  6. ^ Fimrite, Ron (November 3, 1986). “Good To The Very Last Out”. Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on March 25, 2009. Retrieved September 23, 2017.
  7. ^ Johnson, Dirk (October 25, 2000). “Baseball: Subway Series; New York Swaggers, But America Shrugs”. The New York Times. Retrieved April 22, 2009.
  8. ^ Cothran, Jeremy D. (September 29, 2008). “After another choke ends the season, choked-up Mets ponder what-ifs”. The Star-Ledger. Retrieved October 17, 2017.
  9. ^ Kestin, Olivia; Brand, Anna (October 22, 2015). “The New York Mets are headed to the World Series (!)”. MSNBC. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  10. ^ “Gary Carter”. Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved April 22, 2009.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h “New York Mets Team History & Encyclopedia”. Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved October 11, 2021.
  12. ^ a b “World Series and MLB Playoffs”. Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
  13. ^ a b c d e f “All-time winners: Rookie of the Year”. Major League Baseball. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g “All-time winners: Cy Young”. Major League Baseball. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
  15. ^ Leggett, William (June 15, 1970). “A Boo-boo Or Baby For Bowie”. Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on December 2, 2012. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
  16. ^ “Donn Clendenon”. Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved June 28, 2009.
  17. ^ a b “All-Star MVPs”. Major League Baseball. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  18. ^ “Sports People; Coming and Goings”. The New York Times. December 2, 1986. Retrieved April 19, 2009.
  19. ^ “Ray Knight”. Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved June 28, 2009.
  20. ^ “Rangers’ Palmeiro named Sporting News Player of Year”. ESPN. October 18, 1999. Retrieved September 27, 2017.
  21. ^ Cothran, Jeremy D. (October 23, 2008). “New York Mets outfielder Fernando Tatis wins National League Comeback Player of the Year award”. The Star-Ledger. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
  22. ^ “All-time winners: Comeback Player of the Year”. Major League Baseball. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
  23. ^ “MLB Manager of the Year Award Winners”. Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved November 23, 2022.
  24. ^ Leggett, William (April 14, 1969). “One Hundred And One”. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  25. ^ a b c “Baseball stoppages date back to 1972”. ESPN. Associated Press. August 29, 2002. Retrieved April 20, 2009.
  26. ^ Kirshenbaum, Jerry, ed. (October 5, 1981). “Scorecard”. Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on October 6, 2008. Retrieved September 23, 2017.
  27. ^ “1981 Season”. ESPN. Retrieved April 21, 2009.
  28. ^ Battista, Judy (October 5, 1999). “The Mets Erase Cincinnati, the Doubts and Frustration”. The New York Times. Retrieved April 20, 2009.
  29. ^ Gonzales, Mark (June 23, 2020). “Column: A 60-game MLB season might not sound like much. But pulling it off with the coronavirus still out there would be a major feat”. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 30, 2020.