New York Mets

The Mets' 1962 inaugural season was historically bad - 40 wins and 120 losses, the worst record in modern baseball history. Under manager Casey Stengel, the expansion Mets were lovable incompetents who packed the Polo Grounds with fans drawn more to the team's endearing failures than its rare successes. "Can't anybody here play this game?" Stengel famously asked.

In 1964, the Mets moved into Shea Stadium in Flushing, Queens, which would be their home for 44 years. The franchise's transformation began with the development of young pitching - Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, and Nolan Ryan formed a staff that would alter the franchise's trajectory forever. Seaver, acquired in a 1966 lottery, became "Tom Terrific," the best pitcher in the National League.

The 1969 Miracle Mets are one of baseball's greatest stories. After spending seven years as the league's laughingstock, the Mets surged past the collapsing Cubs to win the NL East, swept the Braves in the NLCS, and stunned the heavily favored Orioles in five games to win the World Series. The "Miracle" label was earned - few teams in sports history have gone from so bad to so good so quickly.

After a 1973 pennant behind Seaver and Tug McGraw's "Ya Gotta Believe" rallying cry, the Mets declined through the late 1970s. The franchise's revival began when Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon purchased the team in 1980 and invested in both free agency and player development. Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden emerged as two of the most exciting young players in baseball.

The 1986 Mets were dominant and swaggering, winning 108 games behind a roster that included Strawberry, Gooden, Keith Hernandez, and Gary Carter. The postseason was unforgettable: a six-game NLCS against the Astros that featured a 16-inning Game 6, followed by the World Series against the Red Sox. In Game 6, with the Mets one strike away from elimination, a series of events culminating in Bill Buckner's error at first base gave New York a miraculous victory. They won Game 7 to claim the championship.

The late 1980s saw the team remain competitive but unable to recapture the 1986 magic. Substance abuse issues plagued both Strawberry and Gooden, cutting short two of the most promising careers in Mets history and adding a bittersweet element to the era.

Mike Piazza arrived in 1998 and became the most popular Met since Seaver. His post-9/11 home run against the Braves in the first game in New York City after the attacks - a moment of catharsis for a grieving city - transcends baseball and remains one of the most emotionally significant moments in the sport's history.

The 2000 Mets reached the World Series in the first "Subway Series" against the Yankees since 1956. They lost in five games, but the October nights at Shea Stadium were electric. The franchise struggled through much of the next decade, with the catastrophic collapse of 2007 - blowing a seven-game lead with 17 games to play - and the revelation that owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz had been ensnared in Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme draining both finances and fan confidence.

Citi Field opened in 2009, replacing the aging Shea Stadium, but the new ballpark initially felt like a monument to the Dodgers (with its Jackie Robinson Rotunda) rather than a celebration of Mets history - a source of early fan frustration.