October 16 1969 World Series Game 5 New York Mets vs Baltimore Orioles

Dave McNally shut out the Mets through five innings and helped himself with a two-run homer in the third inning. Frank Robinson homered in the inning as well, and the Orioles looked to be cruising with a 3–0 lead.

The Mets, however, benefited from two questionable umpire’s calls. In the top of the sixth inning, Mets starting pitcher Jerry Koosman appeared to have hit Frank Robinson with a pitch, but plate umpire Lou DiMuro ruled that the pitch hit his bat before hitting him and denied him first base. Replays showed, however, that Robinson was indeed hit first — the ball struck him on the hip, then bounced up and hit his bat.

In the bottom of the sixth, 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 DiMuro, 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 record for a five-game World Series that was tied by the Phillies’ Ryan Howard in the 2008 Classic and by Boston’s Steve Pearce in the 2018 Series) to cut the lead to 3–2.

However, the renowned “shoe polish” incident may not be such a simple, straightforward matter. On August 22, 2009, at the 40th anniversary celebration of the Mets’ 1969 Championship, held at their new stadium, Citi Field, Jerry Koosman stated in several media interviews[11] that, in actuality, Hodges had instructed him to rub the ball on his shoe, which he did, and after that Hodges showed the ball to the umpire. Koosman’s claim does not necessarily mean that the ball did not strike Jones on the foot, nor does it even mean that the polish on the ball seen by the umpire was put there by Koosman — it is certainly conceivable that there was already a genuine spot of polish on the ball, which easily could have escaped Koosman’s notice as he hastily created the fraudulent one. In any case, Koosman’s allegation at the very least adds an intriguing layer of uncertainty and possible chicanery to an already legendary event. Koosman was known for his sense of humor, and his love of practical jokes when he was an active player. Therefore, his claim of having scuffed the ball against his own shoe could be a ruse. Besides, there are other stories which have been told about that incident, by other players who were in the Mets dugout that day. One of those stories comes from Ron Swoboda, who said during an interview on the Mets 1986 25th Anniversary video, that when the ball came bounding into the Mets dugout, it hit an open ball bag under the bench, and several batting / infield practice balls came spilling out on the dugout floor. According to Swoboda, one could not distinguish the actual game ball from any of the ones that spilled out of the bag. Hodges quickly looked down, grabbed a ball that had a black streak on it, and walked it out to the home plate umpire, who then awarded first base to Jones. In any case, this incident provided baseball with yet another entertaining legend, about which the absolute truth will probably never be known.

The Mets then tied the score in the seventh on a home run by the unheralded and light-hitting Al Weis. Weis hit only seven home runs in his big league career; this was the only home run he hit at Shea Stadium and, in fact, was the only home run he hit playing for the home team in any major league park. Weis led all batters in the series with a .455 average.

The winning runs scored in the eighth as Game 4 defensive hero Ron Swoboda doubled in Jones with the go-ahead run. Swoboda then scored when Jerry Grote’s grounder was mishandled by first baseman Boog Powell, whose throw to first was then dropped by pitcher Eddie Watt in an unusual double error. Jerry Koosman got the win, his second of the series. With two outs in the top of the ninth inning, Koosman faced Orioles second baseman Davey Johnson (who, coincidentally, later managed the Mets to their second World Series championship in 1986). After taking a pitch of two balls and one strike, Johnson hit a fly-ball out to left field which was caught by Cleon Jones.[12] After a shaky third inning, Koosman settled down to retire 19 of the next 21 batters he faced, giving up a single and a walk.

Karl Ehrhardt, a Mets fan known as “the sign man” at Shea Stadium, held up a sign that read There Are No Words soon after the final out was made. The sign made an appearance in the Series highlight film. Immediately following the victory, thousands of fans rushed onto the field and the Mets were forced to retreat to their locker room.[12] Bill Gleason, a sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, alleged that this feat would not repeated again until Disco Demolition Night,[13] an event which saw many people rush onto the playing field in Comiskey Park just before the second game of a doubleheader between the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers was scheduled to begin on July 12, 1979.[13]

In all four Mets victories, their starting first baseman hit a home run: Donn Clendenon in Games 2, 4 and 5, and Ed Kranepool in Game 3. The expression, “Good pitching defeats good hitting”, was never more evident than in this World Series; Baltimore collected only 23 hits for a .146 batting average, both team lows for a 5-game series. After winning Game 1 in which the Orioles had only six hits, Baltimore only managed a .134 batting average (17-for-127) over the next four games. Boog Powell led the Orioles with five hits and a .263 average—but all were non-scoring singles (although one advanced Frank Robinson to third base to set up Swoboda’s defensive heroics). Don Buford collected two hits in four at-bats in the opening game, including a lead-off home run against Tom Seaver, but went 0-for-16 over the next four games. Paul Blair went 2-for-20, Davey Johnson 1-for-16, Frank Robinson 3-for-16, Brooks Robinson 1-for-19, and Mark Belanger 3-for-15. The Orioles offense only managed four extra-base hits off Mets pitching in the five-game series, all in the first and last games. The Mets won despite below-average performances from Jerry Grote, who went 4-for-19, Tommie Agee, who went 3-for-18, Cleon Jones, who went 3-for-19, Bud Harrelson, who went 3-for-17 and Ed Charles, who went 2-for-15.Folks I hope you enjoy todays game. As I always say take this on a walk with you, play it in the back ground, invite a few friends over to listen. Find a way to embrase these treasures.

Check out our getting started document here and what to expect with the broadcasts, If you want to score the game you can download a scoresheet here:

Scoresheet & Get Started Guide

If you want to see the box score, go to retrosheet and get the box and play by play of todays game (I would suggest doing that after wards)

Box Scores

If you want to research the players and their career highlights go to:

This Day In Baseball

Audio Credit goes to Internet Archieve