1962 New York Mets season: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

The '''1962 [[New York Mets]] season''' was the first regular season for the Mets, as the [[National League (baseball)|National League]] returned to New York City for the first time since 1957. They went 40–120 (.250) and finished tenth and last in the National League, {{frac|60|1|2}} games behind the NL Champion [[1962 San Francisco Giants season|San Francisco Giants]], who had once called New York home. The Mets were the latest team to be 60+ games behind in a division before the [[2018 Baltimore Orioles season|2018 Baltimore Orioles]] finished 61 games behind the [[2018 World Series|World Series Champion]] [[Boston Red Sox]]. The Mets' 120 losses were the [[List of worst Major League Baseball season records|most losses in modern MLB history]] until the [[2024 Chicago White Sox season|2024 Chicago White Sox]].<ref name="MostLosses">{{cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/white-sox-mlb-record-losses-rcna172288|title=Chicago White Sox lose 121st game this season, most in baseball history|date=September 27, 2024|accessdate=September 27, 2024|first=Rohan|last=Nadkarni|work=NBC News}}</ref> The Mets' [[starting pitcher]]s also recorded a new major league low of just 23 [[Win–loss record (pitching)|wins]] all season.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/tiny/2mOUa|title=Pitching Game Finder: From 1908 to 2018, Pitcher Won, as Starter, sorted by smallest Performances matching selected criteria by a Team |work=Baseball Reference|access-date=August 29, 2018}}</ref>

The team lost its first game 11–4 to the [[1962 St. Louis Cardinals season|St. Louis Cardinals]] on April 11, and went on to lose its first nine games. Having repaired their record to 12–19 on May 20 after sweeping a doubleheader against the [[1962 Milwaukee Braves season|Milwaukee Braves]], the Mets lost their next 17 games. They also lost 11 straight from July 15 to July 26, and 13 straight from August 9 to August 21. Their longest winning streak of the season was three.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teamstats/schedule.php?y=1962&t=NYN|title=1962 New York Mets Schedule by Baseball Almanac|website=Baseball Almanac}}</ref>