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Why people still talk about it.
The 1962 Mets played 160 games and finished with a 40–120 record. The expansion Mets arrived at the Polo Grounds and earned their first win on April 23.
The record was bad, but there were still players and moments worth keeping.
How 1962 actually went.
01The Mets began as more than a normal expansion team. They were New York’s answer to the Giants and Dodgers leaving for California, so the blue and orange carried pieces of both lost clubs. Casey Stengel managed a roster filled with aging names, castoffs, and players asked to do more than they could. The baseball was often poor, but the team’s reason for existing was powerful from the first day.
02The season opened with nine straight losses and never became competitive. Marv Throneberry’s mistakes, Stengel’s sharp one-liners, and a defense that gave away too many outs helped create the image of the lovable losers. Richie Ashburn and Frank Thomas had useful seasons, while Al Jackson gave the rotation real effort. Jay Hook finally earned the first win on April 23, beating Pittsburgh and ending the fear that victory might never arrive.
03The final 40–120 record remains the worst in modern National League history, yet the Polo Grounds still filled with people who chose to care. That loyalty is the real result of 1962. The first Mets did not build a winning standard, but they created a personality: strange, funny, stubborn, and completely New York. Every later miracle means more because this was where the trip began.
The record was awful. The birth of the Mets was still a win for New York.
The part you rememberWhy 1962 still matters.
The record was brutal, but judging 1962 only by 40 wins misses the whole point. New York had lost the Giants and Dodgers after the 1957 season, and the Mets gave National League fans a team of their own again. They borrowed blue from Brooklyn, orange from the Giants, moved into the old Polo Grounds, and somehow felt familiar even though everything about the franchise was new.
Casey Stengel turned a historically bad expansion club into a show people wanted to watch. The Mets lost their first nine games, made mistakes that became legends, and still drew fans who treated every small success like a playoff victory. Jay Hook’s complete-game win on April 23 finally ended the wait and gave the club the first result it could call its own.
Nothing about the season looked like a championship beginning. That is exactly why it matters. The affection built during all those losses became part of the Mets’ identity: funny, stubborn, loyal, and always ready to believe the impossible might happen next.
It was the worst team in baseball and the beginning of something New York was ready to love anyway.
Wins40
Losses120
Win percentage.250
Home parkPolo Grounds
The moment everybody remembersThe expansion Mets arrived at the Polo Grounds and earned their first win on April 23.
Where it turnedJay Hook’s complete game against Pittsburgh on April 23 gave the Mets the first victory in franchise history.
How it endedThere was no postseason, but 1962 created the team, the colors, and the loyal fan base that made every future triumph possible.
Where it fitsThe Expansion Years
The Mets were losing constantly, Casey Stengel was making jokes, and New York still showed up. The personality came before the winning.
Better or worse?This was the first season in Mets history, so there was no earlier Mets team to compare it with.
Then came...In 1963, the Mets finished 51–111. Duke Snider hit the 400th home run of his Hall of Fame career. Go to 1963 →
