Art Shamsky and Erik Sherman- AFTER THE MIRACLE The Lasting Brotherhood of the ’69 Mets

The 1962 New York Mets set a record for futility in baseball, losing 120 games, a record that stands to this day. Seven years later, after languishing in the National League cellar year after year, the Mets won the World Series. The “Lovable Losers” suddenly became the “Miracle Mets” in perhaps the greatest worst-to-first transformation in sports history. Art Shamsky played right field for the 1969 Mets. In AFTER THE MIRACLE: The Lasting Brotherhood of the ’69 Mets (Simon & Schuster, March 19, 2019) he draws on conversations with his former teammates as well as his own recollections to explain how the Mets turned it all around in one year. In 2017, Shamsky organized a trip with former teammates Bud Harrelson, Jerry Koosman, and Ron Swoboda to visit ailing star pitcher Tom Seaver in California, where the men reminisced about how the Mets did it and what has happened to them and their teammates since. Their good-natured banter lets readers eavesdrop on how the players themselves remember the highlight of their careers. For anyone who remembers this extraordinary event – and for those who have only heard about it – AFTER THE MIRACLE is the inside story, a fan’s dream come true.