Ya Gotta Believe

By Jay Horwitz

Tug McGraw screamed out his historic rallying cry “Ya Gotta Believe!” 50 years ago today.

It came at the end of a clubhouse meeting and Tug was trying to get his teammates pumped up that all was not lost. Yogi Berra’s team stood at 35–46, in last place, 11.5 games out of first.

Well, a funny happened. The Mets did believe and came back to win an improbable pennant, only to lose the World Series in seven games to Oakland.

My message to our fans today is keep the faith There are still over 70 games left and there is no doubt in my mind that we can duplicate what our 1973 team did.

Look at the hole that team was in. On August 14, we were 52–65, 8.5 games from the top. As late as August 26,the Mets were 58–70, still in last place, 6.5 games behind.

We kicked it in gear over the last month going 24–9 to take the pennant the last week of the season in Chicago.

Time is on our side. So as Tug said 50 years ago at Shea “Ya Gotta Believe!”