Amazon.com: Customer reviews: They Said It Couldn't Be Done: The '69 Mets, New York City, and the Most Astounding Season in Baseball History

Top positive review

4 1/2 Stars

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2019

I bought this book first and foremost because the author is one of my brother's childhood and lifelong friends. But I also remember the 69 World Series--I was a senior in high school and people actually brought TVs to school to watch the games. That was a real commitment in those days. I remember what a big deal it was that the Mets even got to the World Series. I enjoyed the history of the time Wayne included in the book--John Lindsay, the moon landing, Woodstock. I have never followed baseball closely but recognized so many of the names--probably because my brother and friends collected baseball cards and talked about baseball all the time. There was more play by play description throughout the book than I needed. But I found this well written and pretty fast paced. Also bought the Audible narration so I could listen while driving 8 hours to Maine, and that was excellent, too. Finally, I never knew Wayne had a piece of the ball field in his backyard or had been at the last game. That was icing on the story.

4 people found this helpful

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Michael Walter

Interesting But Too Many Interruptions

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2019

I enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it (I was 3 in 1969 so have no recollections of the Miracle Mets) but my biggest frustration as how often Coffey interrupted the narrative to insert some backstory about a player. It might have been best to do more of that early in the book because once his descriptions of the post season games began I found myself skimming to get back to the action.

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From the United States

jebavonct

4 1/2 Stars

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2019

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4 people found this helpful

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Jim Defilippi

An Original Fan Gets a Chance to Enjoy

Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2019

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A dedicated Mets fan from the beginning, I was in Basic Training in the fall of 1969, so I missed the “Miracle.” It was a pleasure to experience that season and Series almost pinch by pitch in this well-researched, well-written book.

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Dan O'Connell

It Was Done

Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2019

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Very nice review of one of the most amazing teams of all time. Book explains why the 1969 Mets were not a miracle, just a good fundamental team that had great pitching and excellent defense. The Mets won 107 games in 1969 not too shabby.

One person found this helpful

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Burt

Easy Reading

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2020

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Moves along well but somewhat repetitious

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MikeD0908

NY Mets Championship Season

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2019

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Fun and nostalgic read especially if you’re a NY Mets fan with a lot of inside information on the miracle season.

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ROBERT EWING

Sports Book

Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2019

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I like reading sports books

One person found this helpful

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Francis CAllery

Great nostalgic book

Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2019

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It’s for all Mets fans growing up in the 60’s

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Wait, it's 50 years? What a memorable season, even for those of us who don't remember it.

Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2019

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

I didn't care about baseball, as a child. Nobody in my family followed sports, although I grew up 4 miles from Shea Stadium. But as an 11-year-old during the summer of 1969, even I was aware of the "Amazing Mets" -- or at least of the passion of everyone around me. None of my siblings recall my grandfather paying attention to baseball (though there's a famous family anecdote about his brush with Babe Ruth), but I have a shimmering full-sensory memory of my grandfather cuddled up next to his old wooden radio, listening intently to a game. It's only recently that I realized it must have been the Mets in the 1969 World Series.

Understandably, the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Miracle Mets, considered "the most improbable World Series champions in baseball history," is getting a lot of media attention. Among the nostalgic memorabilia is this reporting from Wayne Coffey, who did his best to capture _what happened_, particularly because the number of "I was there" survivors is diminishing.

I didn't pay attention to baseball until the next "improbable" World Series in 2001, and then I became an avid fan (GO DBACKS!). So I never knew the details of the Mets season, unless you count the mostly-indirect references in the movie Frequency (which is a fun movie with Dennis Quaid and James Caviezel; you should watch it). I know there have been a lot of books about the 69 Mets over the years, but I never looked at any of 'em, so I cannot compare them to Coffey's book. I just know I enjoyed this.

About half the book describes the season; the other half focuses on the competition for the NL title (Atlanta was considered the NL west?!) and the series against the Orioles. I was a little dubious about that division, when I first saw it, but it works. One reason it does is that Coffey intersperses player histories with game plays -- because there's just so long you can read about individual at-bats before your eyes glaze over. ("McNally dropped a sweeping curve on the inside corner to get ahead 0-1 on Charles and then came with another. Charles swung so hard he spun all the way around.")

And it's in those moments of "who these people are" that the book really shines. I had no idea that Joe Agee and Cleon Jones came from the same high school -- or the road that they each had to travel to make it to the major leagues. I certainly didn't know that Clendenon was all set to accept a UCLA scholarship before his "big brother" convinced him to stay home and attend Morehouse -- said Big Brother being Martin Luther King, Jr. When Clendenon was demoted to the minor leagues because there were "too many black players" on the team, Branch Rickey Jr showed up at his family's home to convince him not to quit. If he played in Idaho, Rickey promised to pay him $100 for every point he hit over .300. That worked out pretty well. "The extra $5,600 was a handsome salary bump," Coffey writes.

We also see the series from others' eyes, such as the bat boys and soon-to-become broadcasters. Not to mention the context of its time, with Vietnam war protests, landing on the moon, and Woodstock. By winning, that season, "they embodied possibility," the author writes, "a belief that things could get better and would get better."

It's an enjoyable read for any baseball fan. I think you'll like it.

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Nostalgic Summer Read

Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2019

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

Wayne Coffey’s They Said It Couldn’t Be Done, is a wonderful summer read, perfect for any fan of the game, but especially for those that grew up in the shadow of Shea Stadium and it’s tenants, the New York Mets. As a Mets fan who inherited her love of the game and the team from her grandmother, I can say without a doubt that this book transported me back in time to a team that I loved while adding an adult’s perspective on what that ‘69 team meant to baseball, New York, and society.

Coffey doesn’t just tell the story of the ‘69 Mets. He takes readers back to the beginning, showing us where this team started, how it was the joke of the league, and how bad luck was the only luck the expansion Mets knew. He builds the momentum for the summer of ‘69 perfectly, painting a picture that shows how these Mets weren’t a miracle, but a team that came together in a perfect storm led by a manager that was a maestro at bringing his team together.

Since that summer, I’ve seen coaches/managers do what Gil Hodges did that season and I marvel at the beauty of it. Readers learn exactly who Hodges was and how he coached his team of 25 players to a championship with the “platoon” method, coaxing the talent from each player, letting each one know that JC Martin was as important to the team as Tom Seaver. And, while anyone can look up the statistics and details, Coffey spells this out with interviews and passion, leaving me with a feeling of awe that I haven’t experienced since the Pittsburgh Penguins 2016 Stanley Cup run.

In 1969, America was just a year past the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and They Said It Couldn’t Be Done is very much about the state of racial inequality that plagued the country. The Mets had many outstanding African Americans on that ‘69 team, including World Series MVP, Donn Clendenon. He,Tommie Agee, Cleon Jones, and Ed Charles had all had much different experiences in their youth than their white counterparts on the team, but all four faced the ugliness that they encountered with resilience and honor. On Gil Hodges’ Mets, there was no inequality and in many ways this championship team was an example of how society could aspire to greatness.

There are so many other things to love about this book. Coffey balances (for the most part) team and player anecdotes with game play by play. There were moments that the narrative dragged as too much detail was given about a particular inning or game, but I adored the history of the players. Coffey tells stories like Cleon Jones becoming a switch hitter because as a right-handed hitter he kept hitting the ball into windows of the houses beyond left field. To the right, there was just open field and lots of room for his homeruns. In another story, pitcher Ron Taylor tells of how he became a right-handed pitcher because his mother feared that throwing with his left would exacerbate a cardiovascular condition he had.

They Said It Couldn't Be Done is also nostalgic, taking readers back to a simpler time in professional sports. With the country at war, many players took time off during the season for military service. Money wasn’t thrown at them they way we see it now; players asked for time off to observe religious holidays and they lived in the community rather than in penthouse apartments, neighbors instead of untouchable celebrities. All these things made the 69 Mets exactly what New York, and maybe the entire country, needed.

4 stars for They Said It Couldn’t Be Done.

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Jason G

a solid remembrance of the 69 Miracle Mets

Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2019

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

Now 50 years since 1969, the achievement of the World Series winning 'Miracle Met's' bring back a fond memory of a loser turned into a winner, during a tumultuous time in American history.

They Said It Couldn't Be Done: The '69 Mets, New York City, and the Most Astounding Season in Baseball History by sportswriter, Wayne Coffey is well researched account, with many personal recollections of one of Major League Baseball's great stories. With the social upheaval of the late 60's as a backdrop, this account of the Mets run towards a championship sticks mostly to the story of the season. The events of the era, like Woodstock and the moon landing, are in the background. A solid portion of the text deals with the first ever NL championship series vs Hank Aaron's Braves and the World Series versus the Orioles. The season itself functions as a prelude to those few weeks in early October.

Coffey was a young man in 69 and a long-suffering fan of the Mets, stunned as much as anyone at what he saw on the field. His recollections add to the narrative of the story. His follow up interviews with the players decades later, and the effect of that season on their lives is added at appropriate moments in the story.

This book is a good recollection for fans of the Mets and that era of baseball.

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