"They Said It Couldn't Be Done - The '69 Mets, New York City, and the Most Astounding Season in Baseball History" by Wayne Coffee - 1st EDITION 1st PRINT Softcover (VERY RARE UNCORRECTED PROOF - with a letter from the publisher) - Published in 2018 by Crown Archetype - 289 pages - NEAR MINT condition. In 1962, the New York Mets spent their first year in existence racking up the worst record in baseball history. Things scarcely got any better for the ensuing six years--they were baseball's laughingstock, but somehow lovable in their ineptitude, building a fiercely loyal fan base. And then came 1969, a year that brought the lunar landing, Woodstock, nonstop antiwar protests, and the most tumultuous and fractious New York City mayoral race in memory--along with the most improbable season in the annals of Major League Baseball. It concluded on an invigorating autumn afternoon in Queens, when a Minnesota farm boy named Jerry Koosman beat the Baltimore Orioles for the second time in five games, making the Mets champions of the baseball world.  It wasn't merely an upset but an unprecedented, uplifting achievement for the ages. From the ashes of those early scorched-earth seasons, Gil Hodges, a beloved former Brooklyn Dodger, put together a 25-man whole that was vastly more formidable than the sum of its parts. Beyond the top-notch pitching staff headlined by Tom Seaver, Koosman, and Gary Gentry, and the hitting prowess of Cleon Jones, the Mets were mostly comprised of untested kids and lightly regarded veterans. Everywhere you looked on this team, there was a man with a compelling backstory, from Koosman, who never played high school baseball and grew up throwing in a hayloft in subzero temperatures with his brother Orville, to third baseman Ed Charles, an African-American poet with a deep racial conscience whose arrival in the big leagues was delayed almost a decade because of the color of his skin.  In the tradition of The Boys of Winter, his classic bestseller about the 1980 U.S. men's Olympic hockey team, Wayne Coffey tells the story of the '69 Mets as it has never been told before--against the backdrop of the space race, Stonewall, and Vietnam, set in an ever-changing New York City. With dogged reporting and a storyteller's eye for detail, Coffey finds the beating heart of a baseball family. Published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Mets' remarkable transformation from worst to best, They Said It Couldn't Be Done is a spellbinding, feel-good narrative about an improbable triumph by the ultimate underdog. Again, this RARE UNCORRECTED PROOF (see if you can even find another one of these) is in NEAR MINT condition.  No collection of New York Mets items is complete without this VERY SCARCE editionof this book. Check out the scans for the cover and so you can judge the condition for yourself (unlike many other booksellers, who post generic scans, the book in my scan is the one you will get).  You can try to buy this book for less money from one of those eBay booksellers with hundreds, if not thousands of negatives (you know the ones I refer to) and be lucky if the book is delivered to you in the stated condition (if you even get it at all), or you can buy it from me and be assured of a prompt delivery and of receiving an item true to the condition indicated.  You won't be disappointed. Don't get left out; this book is long out of print! All previous buyers of my baseball books have been completely satisfied. I have many others available; please inquire. The book will be sent via media mail in the USA to minimize shipping costs. I will combine shipping to reduce charges for multiple items.  Please see my auctions and my eBay store for a wide variety of sports and non-sports collectibles. All items are packed with care to insure safe delivery. Please contact me if you have any questions.

12-25-21  --  19.8