Amazon.com description: Product Description: REVISED! ... SABR Award Winner! ... Long Before The Miracle charts the dawn of the New York Mets baseball franchise which manifested five years after the dual defection of the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants to the west coast after the 1957 season. A prologue details just why Walter O'Malley and Horace Stoneham moved their teams to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively. As for the Mets, the book details who was responsible for influencing Major League Baseball to consider expansion into New York. It talks about who would fund the enterprise. It talks about the principal leaders of the organization. Lastly, character sketches on the Original Mets and many players of the early-to-mid 60s detail the personal side of those who wore the pinstripes in Queens in both the Polo Grounds and Shea Stadium. Conversations with family members of deceased Mets players are sure to charm the reader ... as it did the author.