‘Twas a year to forget in N.Y. sports
Looking back, the photo of those two legends could represent bookends for Big Apple misery. Namath debuted in 1965, one of the worst years in New York sports history; Jeter, of course, closed out his career this year. Five decades ago, Namath’s emergence provided a glimpse of a sunrise in a gloomy sports scene, just as Jeter’s farewell allowed for a tiny bit of light as a storm of defeats enveloped the city’s ballparks and arenas.
Despite Jeter’s farewell tour, 2014 now sits alongside 1965, 1966 and 1979 as the worst years in the past half-century of New York sports.
“This was a no-hope year,” said Newark Star-Ledger columnist Jerry Izenberg, who has covered New York sports for more than six decades. “This is probably one of the most, if not the most, hopeless sports years in the history of New York City.”
Still, history can be the greatest teacher. The lesson? In this case, seeds of hope might be found in the despair.
In 1965, Namath arrived, which led to a Super Bowl III victory in 1969. Part of the core of the 1969 World Series champion Mets included names such as Ron Swoboda, Jerry Grote, Cleon Jones and Bud Harrelson from the 1966 club. In April of 1966, the Mets won the three-team lottery for Tom Seaver, a key part of the Miracle Mets and, to this day, the franchise’s all-time greatest player.
So maybe a Masahiro Tanaka or a Jacob deGrom will lead New York out of the abyss.
“Odell Beckham is obviously a special player,” Pulitzer Prize winning sports columnist Dave Anderson said about the Giants’ rookie wide receiver. “Whether he will be surrounded by players that will help him win a championship, who knows? He certainly has the look of a guy who is going to be a great player. By that I mean a Hall of Fame player.”
How about the Jets?
“I don’t see any Hall of Fame players on the Jets,” Anderson said. “I’m pretty sure that Geno Smith is not going to be a Hall of Fame player.”
The Jets, though, might even have some hope. It seems Woody Johnson is going to clean house. With new management comes a chance for reinvention, if done right.
“They are all games of cycles, but bad front offices make cycles last longer,” Izenberg said.
The worst year, at least statistically, over the past 50 was 1966. The lone team in town to finish .500 was Namath’s 6-6-2 Jets. The Giants finished 1-12-1.
The 1966 Yankees, with aged stars named Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Elston Howard, lost 89 games to free fall to the American League basement for the first time in the club’s history.
If you are looking for a bright side, the Mets were better in 1966 than they were in 1965, improving from 112 to 95 losses and rising a slot above last place for the first time in their history. The Knicks, if anything, were consistent — going 30-50 in 1966 after posting a 31-49 record in 1965. The Rangers finished in fifth and sixth places in ’65 and ’66, respectively.
Just as they were in 2014, the Blueshirts were the saving grace of 1979, advancing to the Stanley Cup finals. But 1979 featured tragedy with the death of Thurman Munson. Meanwhile, the Mets, two years after trading Seaver, fell into irrelevancy.
“If you grew up a Met fan, like I did, you just mention, ‘1979’ and watch their faces scrunch up,” Knicks historian Dennis D’Agostino said. “They’re like, ‘Ooooh.’ That was the worst. That was just horrible, horrible.”
The Mets finished 63-99, but the good news was that few people saw it — Shea Stadium drew less than 800,000 fans that season.
D’Agostino pointed out that Jesse Orosco made his debut in 1979. In his first home game, a late April loss in front of less than 20,000 fans, Orosco, brought in to pitch by manager Joe Torre, tossed the final two innings of an 8-3 loss to the Dodgers. Seven years later, Orosco would throw his glove to the heavens on a magical, packed Shea night in October.
The beauty of sports is that you just don’t know. Marty Appel, the former Yankees publicist and author of “Pinstripe Empire,” is often asked what the retirement of Jeter and the rest of the Core Four will mean in the Bronx.
“What I get asked a lot is, ‘Oh my God, is it the end of a dynasty that ran from Ruth to Jeter?'” Appel said. “‘There was always somebody who was the face of the franchise. Now, where are we?’ My answer to that is: No one saw Don Mattingly coming.”
So maybe the Yankees, who missed the playoffs for a second straight year in 2014, will stay healthy in 2015. Maybe the Mets will have five of their young pitchers come together for something special after six straight losing seasons. The Giants, who haven’t made the playoffs since winning Super Bowl XLVI, might have a rebirth, with Beckham leading the way. The Jets, who haven’t won since Namath, might have a new executive who changes the direction of the franchise. The Knicks, who are off to the worst start in franchise history, could get lucky in the lottery. The Rangers and Islanders, who have done their part, could keep trucking on.
The flip side, based on what the city learned from 1965 to 1966, is that it can get worse, at least temporarily.
Fortunately, the lousy years are easiest to forget.
Years like 1969, 1973, 1986 and all the Yankees championship seasons stick out, while the bad memories of the down years wash away.
When you look at that picture of Namath and Jeter, it does represent 50 years of New York sports — with the first and the last being two of the worst — but the misery will never be your first thought. You’ll remember Broadway Joe’s Super Bowl III guarantee and The Captain’s five World Series rings.
So, as bad as this year was outside of ice night at the Garden, it can’t help but improve relatively soon. Right?