The Bristal All-Stars, softball players in their 80’s and 90’s who play two doubleheaders a week in the New York Senior Softball Association (NYSSA) held their annual All-Star game at Cangtiague Park in Hicksville. The players who range in age from 80 to 93, and reside in Nassau, Suffolk, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens commemorated the 55h anniversary of the 1969 World Series between the New York Mets and the Baltimore Orioles.
The 1969 Mets defeated the Orioles in five games. The score of the All-Star Game was Mets 4, Orioles 0.
Among the Bristal All-Stars whowere featured in the game: 80-year-old Pat Klammer, a North Merrick resident who taught Phys-Ed in the Seaford School District for 36 years. She is a former professional Women’s softball player who has been playing in Senior Men’s leagues on Long Island since 2006, she will play for the Orioles. Klammer played for the Buffalo Breskis in a professional Women’s league in the 1970’s. Other Bristal All-Stars have undergone knee and hip replacements, and a number of All-Stars will be running the bases thanks to their pacemakers. 93-year-old Carmine DiStefano is the Captain of the Orioles. 91-year-old Ray Turner is the Captain of the Mets.
History of the 1969 World Series:
The 1968 Mets finished in 9th place, 16 games under 500. The 1969 Mets opened the season with an 11-10 loss to the expansion Montreal Expos, so not much was expected of the Mets in 1969. However, with three weeks to go in the season, the underdog Mets stormed past the Chicago Cubs, who had led the Eastern Division for most of the season, winning 38 of their final 49 games for a total of 100 wins and becoming the first National League Eastern Division champions.
Tom Seaver won a major-league-leading 25 games enroute to his first Cy Young Award; the other two top Mets starting pitchers, Jerry Koosman and rookie Gary Gentry, combined to win 30 more games. Outfielder Cleon Jones hit a (then) club-record .340 and finished third in the National League batting race, while Tommie Agee hit 26 home runs and drove in 76 runs.
Manager Gil Hodges employed a platoon system in which Ron Swoboda and Art Shamsky became a switch-hitting right field duo combining for 23 home runs and driving in 100 runs. While Ed Kranepool and Donn Clendenon added up to a switch-hitting first baseman combo that hit 23 homers and knocked in 95 runs.
- The Orioles won 109 games and won the A.L. East by 19 games and were heavily favored to win the World Series. They beat Tom Seaver in the first game 4-1, but after that the Miracle Mets lived up to their name.
- In game two, Jerry Koosman pitched six innings of no-hit ball.
- In the third game Tommie Agee led off the game for the Mets with a home run off Jim Palmer, then saved at least five runs with two historic defensive plays.
- The highlight of game four was Ron Swoboda’s incredible catch.
- The fifth and final game will be remembered by the infamous shoe polish incident. When Oriole pitcher Dave McNally bounced a pitch that appeared to have hit Mets left fielder Cleon Jones on the foot, then bounced into the Mets' dugout. McNally and the Orioles claimed the ball hit the dirt and not Jones, but Mets manager Gil Hodges showed the ball to the home plate umpire who found a spot of shoe polish on the ball and awarded Jones first base. McNally then gave up Series MVP Donn Clendenon's third homer of the series.
A number of the 1969 Mets have passed away including: Tom Seaver, Bud Harrelson, Jerry Grote, Tommie Agee, Ed Charles and Donn Clendenon, who if alive today would range in age from 80-89, the age of the Bristal All-Stars on the field today.