The Narrative of the 1969 MLB Season

The 1969 MLB season was a seminal one in the history of baseball. Since the first World Series in 1903, the Fall Classic had simply pitted the first-place finisher in the American League against the first-place finisher in the National League. But the addition of four new expansion franchises for ’69 brought the total number of teams to 24. The league’s higher-ups decided it was time to break into divisions. Each league was split into an East and a West. You still had to finish in first place to qualify for the postseason. But for the first time, there would be a League Championship Series round to settle each league’s pennant.

In the American League, the East would include the defending World Series champion Detroit Tigers, the up-and-coming Baltimore Orioles, the New York Yankees, the Washington Senators (soon to become the Texas Rangers), Boston Red Sox, and Cleveland Indians.

The new AL West only had two teams who finished over .500 in the 10-team American League of 1969. The Minnesota Twins and Oakland A’s were there to set the tone in a division that included subpar teams in the California Angels, Kansas City Royals, Chicago White and Seattle Pilots (soon to become the Milwaukee Brewers, eventually flip divisions with Texas, and ultimately end up in the National League by 1998)

In the National League, the St. Louis Cardinals had won the last two pennants. They were situated in the East, as were the contending Chicago Cubs. It was a quirk of geography that had the potential to make life harder for the other four teams—the Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies and Montreal Expos (today’s Washington Nationals).

And in the West, you had the San Francisco Giants and Cincinnati Reds. Based on 1968 finishes, the Giants and Reds would have been the early favorites. But the Atlanta Braves were respectable, and the Los Angeles Dodgers couldn’t be counted out. The West was rounded out by the Houston Astros (a National League team prior to 2013) and San Diego Padres.

Baltimore would explode in 1969 and roll to a 109-win season, running away from Detroit and Boston in the AL East. Mike Cuellar won the Cy Young Award for the Orioles, while Boog Powell and Frank Robinson finished 2-3 in the MVP voting.

Over in the West, Minnesota pulled away from Oakland behind an MVP year from Harmon Killebrew, a batting title from Rod Carew and 20 wins from rotation ace Jim Perry.

The NL West had the most exciting race. For half a season, the Braves, Giants, Dodgers, and Reds stayed in the mix. San Francisco had the league MVP in Willie McCovey. But it was Atlanta who finally prevailed. Brave workhorse Phil Niekro was runner-up in the Cy Young voting. And the great Henry Aaron was 35-years-old, but he still hit 44 home runs and finished third in the MVP tally.

No one saw the New York Mets coming in the NL East. For the first seven years of their existence, the Mets had been under .500. They were still under .500 on Memorial Day this year. But with Tom Seaver rolling off a Cy Young season to lead a great starting rotation, the Mets caught fire. The Cardinals fell by the wayside, and New York and Chicago dueled into September. Ultimately, the Cubs collapsed and the Mets pulled away with room to spare.

The first edition of the League Championship Series was anticlimactic. While there were exciting individual games, the Orioles and Mets both rolled through in sweeps of what was then a best-of-five round.

When Baltimore took the opener of the World Series, no one was expecting any drama. Even though New York was a 100-win team, the Birds were a heavy favorite. But Met pitching kicked into another gear. They completely locked down the great Oriole lineup over the next four games. Baltimore pitching was tough in its own right, but it was New York’s year. The Mets got the key hits, and they won the next four games. It was a championship team that would take its place in baseball lore as “The Amazin’ Mets.”

You can read about all four division-winning teams at the links below. There are also separate articles on the ALCS, NLCS and World Series, each one doing a game-by-game narrative. Taken together, these seven other articles tell the story of this historic year in baseball from the eyes of its best teams.