Bill Sullivan

New York Mets fans will welcome Bill Sullivan's second edition of Long Before the Miracle...the Making of the New York Mets, launched in December 2022. Included are 20 new stories and photographs filling 143 additional pages. Sullivan wanted a second edition since he sought to omit no original or early Mets player from his book.

The first edition won a Society for Baseball Research (SABR) award for reporting on the Brooklyn Dodgers. Sullivan's prologue charts the impasse between Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley and New York City power broker Robert Moses which led to O'Malley moving his team to Los Angeles after the 1957 season. Peter O'Malley, Walter's son, called Sullivan's prologue "the most accurate account (of the move, West) we have seen."

In 2018, Sullivan was chosen to participate in the National Baseball Hall of Fame's ``Sumer Author Series" in Cooperstown, where authors talked about and signed their books.

The 566-page second edition (as well as the first edition) was expertly edited by Greg Forrer who wrote stories on Art Shamsky, Ron Swoboda and Mets former public relations guru, Jay Horwitz.

Basically, Long Before the Miracle is a history book on the founding and early days of the Amazin' Mets. I don't think you'll find a more comprehensive and entertaining work out there.