Four years after their 1969 miracle, the New York Mets had another mini-miracle. They weren't a very good team this year; the pitching was good, but the hitters were dreadful. But the East Division was also dreadful; only five games separated the top five teams, so when the Mets folded in mid-season, they still weren't far out of the race. The team President held a clubhouse meeting, and told them "Ya gotta believe", a phrase that became the team's motto. The Mets surged near the season's end, and won the division. In fact, they were the only team in the division with a winning record!
        That's when things began to get spooky. Having won the division, the Mets then defeated a mighty Cincinnati team, the not-quite-Big Red Machine. In the World Series, they faced a great Oakland team, and almost won; but the Athletics came back to win the final two games, and the Series. Still, it was a pretty good year for Mets fans.

         The Mets' biggest asset was their superstar pitcher, Tom Seaver, who was the best pitcher of his generation. Seaver was clearly the best pitcher in the NL this year, and won his second Cy Young Award. Seaver was now 28 years old; he had been in the league for seven years, and had been an All Star seven times. For his first seven seasons, he had averaged 19 wins per year, along with 276 innings pitched and 236 strikeouts. It was perhaps the best start to a career that any pitcher has ever had. Seaver had an off-year in 1974, then piled together another string of outstanding seasons, on his way to 311 career victories.
        Don Sutton also had one of his best seasons. Sutton did everything Seaver did, only not quite as well. He was still a pretty good pitcher, though, and even managed to win 324 games in his career, 13 more than Seaver. Sutton never got a lot of respect when he was active, and had to wait a long time to get into the Hall Of Fame. This year, he received only seven votes in the Cy Young balloting, finishing behind Jack Billingham, Ron Bryant, and Mike Marshall. Those guys all had pretty good years, but I would rather have Sutton. He was a power pitcher with good control, he was durable, and he won. What more do you want?
        Neither Billingham nor Bryant was a power pitcher. This was Billingham's best season; he pitched for 13 years, and had 145 career wins. He was a very inconsistent pitcher, had some solid seasons, but also some poor ones; pitching for a great Cincinnati team helped his record a lot. Bryant was a one-year wonder; in 1974 he struggled badly, posting a 3-15 record that effectively ended his career.
        The Montreal Expos had two pitchers who had memorable seasons. Steve Rogers was a rookie, only 23 years old. Incredibly, he did not win the Rookie Of The Year Award (which was won by Gary Matthews). The Expos quickly began to work Rogers as hard as they could; he struggled in 1974, and lost 22 games, but rebounded to have a very good career. Rogers won 158 games, and was still at his peak when arm problems prematurely ended his career.
        Mike Marshall was a 30-year-old journeyman pitching with his fourth team. He had struggled ever since his good rookie season in 1967, but the expansion Expos needed pitchers; Marshall had a good year in 1972, and this year they used him as often as they could. Marshall set a record for games pitched in a season; in the MVP vote, Marshall actually received more votes than Seaver, though he finished second in the Cy Young vote. I'm not exactly sure how good Marshall was, but 14 wins and 31 saves for a weak team seems like a good performance to me. In 1974, Marshall was dealt to the Dodgers, where he pitched in 106 games. As of 1999, Marshall is still the only pitcher to ever appear in 100 games in a season.