1966 New York Mets season explained

New York Mets
Season:	1966
League:	National League
Ballpark:	Shea Stadium
City:	New York
Record:	66-95
League Place:	9th
Owners:	Joan Whitney Payson
General Managers:	George Weiss, Bing Devine
Managers:	Wes Westrum
Television:	WOR-TV
Radio:	WHN (Ralph Kiner, Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy)

The 1966 New York Mets season was the fifth regular season for the Mets. They went 66–95 and finished ninth in the National League. They were managed by Wes Westrum. They played home games at Shea Stadium.

1966 marked the first season in which the Mets avoided a last place finish, as well as the first time they did not lose at least 100 games. It was also the first time their record was above .500 at any point of the season, as they stood 2-1 after taking two of three games in the opening series with the Atlanta Braves.

Offseason

• October 20, 1965: Charley Smith and Al Jackson were traded by the Mets to the St. Louis Cardinals for Ken Boyer.^[1]
• November 29, 1965: Al Luplow was purchased by the Mets from the Cleveland Indians.^[2]
• November 30, 1965: Joe Christopher was traded by the Mets to the Boston Red Sox for Ed Bressoud.^[3]
• January 6, 1966: Gary Kroll was traded by the Mets to the Houston Astros for Johnny Weekly and cash.^[4]

Regular season

• September 11, 1966: Pitcher Pat Jarvis of the Atlanta Braves becomes the first of 5,714 strikeout victims of Nolan Ryan's career.^[5]

Notable transactions

• April 3, 1966: Tom Seaver was signed as an amateur free agent by the Mets.^[6]
• June 4, 1966: Galen Cisco was released by the Mets.^[7]
• June 7, 1966: Duffy Dyer was drafted by the Mets in the 1st round (9th pick) of the 1966 Major League Baseball draft (secondary phase).^[8]
• June 10, 1966: Bob Shaw was purchased by the Mets from the San Francisco Giants.^[9]
• August 6, 1966: Ralph Terry was purchased by the Mets from the Kansas City Athletics.^[10]

Roster

1966 New York Mets
Roster
Pitchers		Catchers Infielders		Outfielders Other batters		Manager Coaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C		120	317	75	.237	3	31
1B		146	464	118	.254	16	57
2B		132	479	138	.288	3	33
SS		133	405	91	.225	10	49
3B		136	496	132	.266	14	61
LF		112	342	76	.222	8	50
CF		139	495	136	.275	8	57
RF		111	334	84	.251	7	31

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
	108	254	71	.280	2	14
	76	220	47	.214	1	12
	65	199	49	.246	5	32
	65	166	32	.193	5	20
	58	160	38	.238	4	16
	63	143	28	.196	1	11
	84	135	31	.230	3	13
	53	109	19	.174	3	12
	33	99	22	.222	0	4
	31	87	19	.218	4	13
	12	33	7	.212	0	0
	13	32	6	.188	1	5
	6	16	3	.188	0	0
	9	13	2	.154	0	0
	5	5	0	.000	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	38	230.0	11	14	3.68	127
	39	188.1	11	9	3.20	84
	26	167.2	11	10	3.92	104

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	57	148.2	6	13	3.93	93
	41	133.2	4	8	5.12	74
	22	86.0	5	8	4.40	30
	30	80.2	4	6	4.24	58
	15	62.1	2	9	5.34	34
	17	43.1	3	3	3.74	28
	8	24.0	1	2	3.00	9
	4	8.1	0	2	7.56	7
	2	3.0	0	1	15.00	6

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
	37	3	3	0	3.52	25
	31	2	0	1	4.87	23
	29	2	3	0	4.45	27
	23	1	1	0	4.67	14
	15	0	2	1	9.16	15
	11	0	1	1	4.74	14
	4	0	0	0	5.40	1

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball.

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Auburn, Marion

References

• 1966 New York Mets at Baseball Reference
• 1966 New York Mets team page at www.baseball-almanac.com
• Book: Johnson. Lloyd. Wolff. Miles. The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball. 2nd. Durham, North Carolina. Baseball America. 1997. 978-0-9637189-8-3.

Notes and References

1. https://www.baseball-reference.com/s/smithch04.shtml Charley Smith page at Baseball Reference
2. https://www.baseball-reference.com/l/luploal01.shtml Al Luplow page at Baseball Reference
3. https://www.baseball-reference.com/c/chrisjo01.shtml Joe Christopher page at Baseball Reference
4. https://www.baseball-reference.com/k/krollga01.shtml Gary Kroll page at Baseball Reference
5. Baseball's Top 100: The Game's Greatest Records, p. 32, Kerry Banks, 2010, Greystone Books, Vancouver, BC,
6. https://www.baseball-reference.com/s/seaveto01.shtml Tom Seaver page at Baseball Reference
7. https://www.baseball-reference.com/c/ciscoga01.shtml Galen Cisco page at Baseball Reference
8. https://www.baseball-reference.com/d/dyerdu01.shtml Duffy Dyer page at Baseball Reference
9. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1917&dat=19660611&id=7WhGAAAAIBAJ&sjid=L-kMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3866,2110619&hl=en Mets buy Bob Shaw from Giants
10. https://www.baseball-reference.com/t/terryra01.shtml Ralph Terry page at Baseball Reference