Q&A: with Matthew Silverman, The Miracle Has Landed
Here is a quick Q&A with Matthew Silverman, author of The Miracle Has Landed, “which celebrates the loveable Mets like no other book, complete with photos and artifacts of the time.”
- Matthew Cerrone: They were known as the Miracle Mets, and, to a certain extent, that became the team’s brand for a long while. However, the last few seasons have really tried the faith of Mets fans, I think. Do you feel the idea of ‘Ya Gotta Believe,’ and the ‘Miracle Mets’ may no longer resonate with modern fans?
- Matthew Silverman: That’s a good question. The ’69 Mets were of a different time–even different from the ’73 Mets fans whose sacking of Shea seemed more sinister than the joy that inspired the ’69 pillaging. I think a lot of fans today, especially those who grew up mostly hearing about the ’86 and even ’99-2000 teams, sometimes don’t identify with the ’69 team. That’s one of the things that made me want to get involved in this project. It should resonate with every mets fan. The ’69 team is as good as it will probably ever got. Certainly the most pure. We’re all a little cynical after the last few years–who wouldn’t be?–but I think there are a lot of fans who’d like to see the Mets go back to their roots. Look at what’s just been said about the recent uniform change. Imagine if they went back to the way they developed players back in the 1960s–Seaver, Koosman, Ryan, McGraw…all these guys had drawbacks initially (17 teams couldn’t be bothered with the 1966 special draft for Seaver). The Mets took a chance, had internal debate, and made great choices.
- Matthew Cerrone : I recall during the 1969 Celebration in Citi Field last season, hearing from people who work for the team, who were disappointed with the turn out and lack of media attention the event was getting, despite so much clamoring from fans early last year about the team ignoring its history. I felt it was a result of a) the poor results in the standings at that time, and b) most fans are no longer old enough to have first-hand memories of that team. For instance, I respect the 1969 Mets, but I LOVE the 1986 Mets, because they are the team I grew up cheering for, they made me love baseball.
- Matthew Silverman: Honestly, I’m surprised the Mets pay as much attention to the 1969 Mets as they do… Time does move on, but doing this book I realized even more that the 1969 team represents everything this franchise still stands for. I loved the mid-80s Mets and getting to work with Keith Hernandez on Shea Goodbye last year is something I’ll always remember. I traveled across five states from college to get to Shea for the ’86 NLCS and I’ll never forget it, but a Mets team that wins 108 games and has the title won by July… that seems so unMets-like. W here’s the angst? The ’86ers got their Mets mojo back to just pull out the NLCS and World Series, but the ’69 team came so out of nowhere and was so young and nobody gave them a chance at any point in their journey. That team had every reason to melt whenever they came up against adversity. They did what was needed as well as any Mets team and had probably the best manager in franchise history in Gil Hodges. Whether it happened four years ago or 40, the 1969 team should always be the touchstone. That was one of the purposes of this book, to let people get in touch with it and to let me, who was a toddler at the time, immerse myself in the Miracle.
To purchase Silverman’s The Miracle Has Landed, go here.
To learn more about his other books, go here.
