Art Shamsky shares the spirit of '69 in Queens with Mets fans

New York Mets 1969 World Series hero Art Shamsky, along with some help from the Mets Alumni Association Presented by Citi, brought cheers and smiles to Middle Village on Tuesday for the 100-plus supporters that showed up for photos and autographs.

“It’s great to come out and see the people and the kids. Citibank and the Mets have a great relationship and I am proud to be part of whatever I can do to maintain that,” Shamsky said. “It’s great. It gives me a chance to talk about 1969 ... even kids who weren’t born then know about that team.”

Art Shamsky (r.) with teammate Wayne Garrett / N. Diunte

As a member of the 1969 team, Shamsky watched as Tom Seaver was one out away from pitching the first no-hitter in Mets history when it was broken up by Jimmy Qualls of the Chicago Cubs with two outs in the ninth inning. It took the Mets 43 years to make it happen when Johan Santana did it earlier this month. Shamsky listed Seaver’s “almost” no-hitter as one of a series of unthinkable events that were part of their championship season.

“He [Seaver] was so close," he said. "That’s baseball; things happen. I did make the last out of a no-hitter pitched against us that year against Pittsburgh. I’ve seen a few and been part of a few. Looking back on that year, so many crazy things happened: an almost perfect game, to a black cat running on the field, to Steve Carlton striking out 18-19 in a game and us beating him. There were a lot of things happening that year that was unexplainable, but they happened.”

The 70-year-old Shamsky has been duly impressed with R.A. Dickey’s outstanding performance this season. When asked about how he would approach Dickey at the plate, Shamsky offered a patient method of attack, one he felt was lacking from the Orioles lineup on Monday. He should know a thing or two about hitting the knuckleball, as he batted .314 (11-35) against Hall of Famer Phil Niekro during his career.

“I watched a little bit of the game last night and I think the approach a hitter should take, is that you should try to hit the ball right back at the pitcher, give yourself the whole field to work with," he said. "The ball is so unpredictable especially if somebody has good stuff that night. I watched a couple of these batters for Baltimore, and they looked like they were trying to pull it like it was a fastball. They have to have more patience … it’s not easy; he had good stuff last night to his credit. It looks like he’s hot and become a better knuckleball pitcher over the year than he was when he was younger.”