The History of the New York Mets: Every Era, from the First Season to Today
The New York Mets in eras, from the 120-loss expansion team of 1962 through the Miracle Mets, the 1986 champions, the Subway Series, 2015 and the club's recent playoff returns.
The New York Mets began play in 1962 as one of two National League expansion clubs, and they started badly enough to become a legend. They lost 120 games that first season, 40-120, and lost 100 or more in each of their first four. Seven years later, in 1969, they won the World Series. That jump, from 120 losses to a championship in eight seasons, is the foundation of everything the franchise has meant since.
Through the 2025 season the historical record shows 64 seasons, a record of 4,899 wins and 5,227 losses (a .484 winning percentage), five pennants and two World Series titles. The totals hide how varied the club has been, and the story is as much about how particular teams were built as about the record: a pitching-heavy champion in 1969, a deep and combative champion in 1986, a catcher-led pennant team in 2000, a young rotation in 2015.
This history runs era by era. If you want the players ranked by position, see the best players in New York Mets history; for the best individual teams and every playoff series, see the best Mets seasons and every October run.
Why New York got a second National League team
The Dodgers and Giants left New York for California after the 1957 season, which left the country's largest city without National League baseball for four years. The league's answer was expansion. The Mets and the Houston Colt .45s, now the Astros, joined in 1962, and the new New York club took its name from the Metropolitan Base Ball Club, a 19th-century team. The team colors, blue and orange, were borrowed from the two departed clubs.
The first home was the Polo Grounds, the Giants' old park, which the Mets used in 1962 and 1963. The club drew 1,080,108 fans there in its best season, which is a respectable figure for a team that lost 120 games and shows how much the city wanted the sport back. Casey Stengel, who had won seven World Series as manager of the Yankees, was hired to run the club and managed it through 1965. His record with the Mets was 175-404.
Four hundred and fifty-two losses in four years, 1962 to 1965
The first four seasons were awful in a specific way. The Mets went 40-120 in 1962, 51-111 in 1963, 53-109 in 1964 and 50-112 in 1965. Add those up and the club won 194 games and lost 452, a .300 winning percentage over four years. Each of those seasons finished tenth in the ten-team National League.
The losing did not stop the club from becoming popular. The Mets moved into Shea Stadium in 1964, a new park in Queens, and their fan culture, in which eager crowds cheered a team that mostly failed, developed there. Shea would be their home for 45 seasons, through 2008, and its best attendance, 4,042,045 in 2008, is still the club's single-season record.
The first signs of improvement came in 1967 with the arrival of Tom Seaver, a right-hander out of the University of Southern California who was named Rookie of the Year that year. Jerry Koosman joined him in the rotation, and the two would anchor the staff for a decade.
The Miracle Mets, 1968 to 1973
Gil Hodges became manager in 1968 and managed through 1971, with a record of 339-309. In 1969 the Mets went 100-62 and won the first National League East title, finishing first in the new division. Seaver won the Cy Young Award. They swept the Atlanta Braves 3-0 in the first NLCS and then met the Baltimore Orioles, a 109-win club, in the World Series. The Mets won four games to one, and the nickname Miracle Mets was permanent.
It was not a one-year accident. The 1973 Mets, under Yogi Berra, won the division again and beat Cincinnati 3-2 in the NLCS before losing the World Series to Oakland in seven games. Seaver won two more Cy Young Awards, in 1973 and 1975, and Jon Matlack was the 1972 Rookie of the Year. Seaver's 198 wins, 2,541 strikeouts and 44 shutouts for the Mets remain club records. His Mets career ended in a trade to the Reds in June 1977, a deal that angered fans and the press and began a long decline.
The lean years, 1977 to 1983
Joe Torre managed the club from 1977 to 1981 and won 286 games while losing 420. The team had little hitting, though Dave Kingman, who hit 154 home runs for the club across two stints, supplied some power. New ownership, led by Fred Wilpon and Nelson Doubleday, took over in 1980 and began rebuilding through the draft and trades.
Hernandez, Gooden, Strawberry and 1986
Two trades turned the club around. Keith Hernandez came from St. Louis in 1983, and Gary Carter came from Montreal in a deal after the 1984 season. Hernandez hit .297 for the Mets, the best career average among Mets with 3,000 at-bats, and Carter is one of eight Hall of Famers who spent at least four seasons with the club.
Around them were two young stars from the Mets' own system. Darryl Strawberry was the 1983 Rookie of the Year, and Dwight Gooden won the same award in 1984 and the Cy Young Award in 1985. Davey Johnson became manager in 1984 and won 595 of his 1,012 games with the club, the best winning percentage of any Mets manager with 500 games.
The 1986 team went 108-54, the most wins in club history. It beat the Houston Astros 4-2 in an NLCS full of extra innings, then met the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. Boston led three games to two and was one strike from a title in Game 6, and the Mets won it on a ground ball that went through Bill Buckner's legs. After a rainout, they won Game 7. The Red Sox view of the same series is in our history of the Boston Red Sox.
The 1988 Mets went 100-60 and won the division again but lost the NLCS to the Dodgers, 3-4. After that the club slid. The 1993 team went 59-103, the fifth-worst record in club history.
Valentine, Piazza and the Subway Series, 1996 to 2002
Bobby Valentine managed the Mets from 1996 to 2002 (536-467), and he led the club to two consecutive playoff berths as a wild card. In 1999 the Mets beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-1 in the Division Series and then lost the NLCS to the Braves, 2-4. In 2000 they beat San Francisco 3-1, beat St. Louis 4-1 in the NLCS and reached the World Series for the first time since 1986.
The opponent was the Yankees, and the series was the first Subway Series since 1956. The Mets lost it 1-4, though the series was closer than that result suggests. The catcher was Mike Piazza, who joined the Mets in 1998 and hit 220 home runs for them, and who is the subject of our profile of Mike Piazza. The infielders Edgardo Alfonzo and Robin Ventura and the left-hander Al Leiter were other leaders of that team.
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Mets hosted the first major-league game in New York since the attacks, a win over the Braves, and Piazza's eighth-inning home run in it is one of the best-remembered moments in the club's history.
The Reyes and Wright years, 2003 to 2008
From the mid-2000s the Mets built around two young infielders. Jose Reyes, who stole 408 bases for the club, a franchise record, and David Wright, who holds the franchise records for hits (1,777), RBI (970), runs (949) and walks (762), were at the center of the team that won the division in 2006 with a 97-65 record. Willie Randolph was the manager, and Carlos Beltran, who hit 149 home runs for the club, was in center field.
The 2006 Mets swept the Dodgers in the Division Series and lost a seven-game NLCS to St. Louis, 3-4. That was the last postseason series for the franchise until 2015.
The next two seasons are remembered for how they ended. In both 2007 and 2008 the Mets were in position to win the division late in the season and failed to do so, in the final weeks. Randolph was dismissed in June 2008 (his 302 wins and 555 games rank him eighth among Mets managers by games), and the club closed Shea Stadium on September 28, 2008, with a loss. Shea's final season drew 4,042,045 fans.
Citi Field and the 2015 pennant
Citi Field opened in 2009 next to the old stadium. The site's reference data lists 335 feet down the left-field line, 408 to center and 330 down the right-field line, and a capacity of 41,922. It drew 3,184,570 in its best season through 2025. The park is covered in more detail in our Citi Field guide.
The first years there were poor, but in the middle of the decade the club's pitching developed. R. A. Dickey, a knuckleball pitcher, won the Cy Young Award in 2012. Then Jacob deGrom, the 2014 Rookie of the Year, led a rotation that carried the team to the 2015 pennant under Terry Collins, the club's longest-serving manager by games (551-582 in 1,133 games, 2011 to 2017). The Mets won the Division Series 3-2 over the Dodgers, swept the Cubs 4-0 in the NLCS, and lost the World Series to the Kansas City Royals, 1-4.
DeGrom won the Cy Young Award in 2018 and 2019, and his 2.52 ERA is the best of any Mets pitcher with 1,000 innings, a hair ahead of Tom Seaver's 2.57. The 2016 club reached the wild-card game and lost 0-1 to San Francisco.
New ownership and the recent years
Steve Cohen bought the club from the Wilpon family in 2020, and the team added Francisco Lindor from Cleveland the next winter. Lindor hit 141 home runs in his first five seasons with the club. Pete Alonso, the 2019 Rookie of the Year, passed Darryl Strawberry as the all-time Mets home run leader and had 264 through 2025. Edwin Diaz, with 144 saves, is third on the club's list.
In 2022 the Mets went 101-61, one of the best records in the club's history, but finished second in the division and lost the wild-card series to San Diego, 1-2. In 2024 they got back through: they beat Milwaukee 2-1 in the wild-card series, beat Philadelphia 3-1 in the Division Series and lost to the Dodgers 2-4 in the NLCS. The historical data lists no postseason series for the club in 2025.
The managers, in one table
The ten men who have managed the most games for the Mets show how different the eras were.
| Manager | Years | Record with the Mets | Games |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terry Collins | 2011-2017 | 551-582 | 1,133 |
| Davey Johnson | 1984-1990 | 595-417 | 1,012 |
| Bobby Valentine | 1996-2002 | 536-467 | 1,003 |
| Joe Torre | 1977-1981 | 286-420 | 709 |
| Gil Hodges | 1968-1971 | 339-309 | 649 |
| Yogi Berra | 1972-1975 | 292-296 | 588 |
| Casey Stengel | 1962-1965 | 175-404 | 582 |
| Willie Randolph | 2005-2008 | 302-253 | 555 |
| Dallas Green | 1993-1996 | 229-283 | 512 |
| Jerry Manuel | 2008-2010 | 204-213 | 417 |
Only Johnson, Valentine, Hodges and Randolph have winning records among those ten, and Berra finished four games under .500. Hodges and Johnson won the World Series, while Berra, Valentine and Collins each won a pennant. The table also shows how much of the franchise's history was spent in rebuilding mode: Stengel and Torre between them managed 1,291 games and won 461 of them.
The franchise by the numbers
| Category | Leader | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Home runs | Pete Alonso | 264 |
| Hits | David Wright | 1,777 |
| RBI | David Wright | 970 |
| Stolen bases | Jose Reyes | 408 |
| Wins | Tom Seaver | 198 |
| Strikeouts | Tom Seaver | 2,541 |
| Saves | John Franco | 276 |
Two things stand out. First, none of the eight leading home-run hitters in club history began his Mets career before 1975, which says something about how little power the early teams had. Second, pitching is the franchise's best claim: Seaver, Gooden, Koosman and deGrom are the top four in career strikeouts, and Seaver, Koosman and Matlack lead the shutout column.
Common questions
How many World Series have the Mets won? Two, in 1969 and 1986. They lost the series in 1973, 2000 and 2015.
Which was the best Mets team? By record the 1986 team (108-54) was the best. The 1969 team (100-62) is the most famous, and the 1988 team (100-60) was the second-best by winning percentage.
Which Hall of Famers played for the Mets? Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza have the most seasons with the club, 12 and 8. Gary Carter, Nolan Ryan, Jeff Kent, Tom Glavine, Billy Wagner and Pedro Martinez also played at least four seasons for the club.
Who are the club's biggest rivals? The Atlanta Braves, who beat the Mets in 1999, and the Philadelphia Phillies are the main division rivals, and the Yankees are the cross-town rival. Their histories are in the Atlanta Braves history and the Philadelphia Phillies history.
Where to go next
For the current standings, schedule and roster, visit the New York Mets team page and the Citi Field page. The fellow National League East club the Miami Marlins has a shorter history, and the history of the World Series places the Mets' two titles in context.