The New York Mets were added to the National League as an expansion franchise in 1962. Their addition was a response to two different baseball issues: the exodus of the Giants and Dodgers from New York and the formation of a third baseball league, the Continental League.
The National League—which in those days operated more independently from the MLB as a whole—decided to expand by two teams and offered ownership of a New York franchise to the Continental League’s ownership group.
This group included Joan Payson and her husband Charles Shipman and also William Shea George Herbert Walker Jr. (uncle of President George HW Bush).
Everything about the Mets was homage to the baseball history of New York City. The name itself, while picked for its resemblance to the company that was to manage the team New York Metropolitan Baseball Club, INC., was also the name of a New York team from the late 1800s who had a short-lived history in the old American Association.
Even the Mets colors, Orange and Blue, were from the Dodgers and Giants who had recently left the city for California. The Mets even adopted the home pinstripes of the in-city rival...
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