The 69 Mets are universally regarded as the "Miracle Mets", probably because they sealed the deal with a championship, but the 73 team was more of a miracle team. As you point out, they were twelve games back in early July, and still six games back, with several teams to leap over, as September began. They had a line-up which scared nobody, and both Koosman and Matlack were out with injuries for long periods of time. Still, somehow this team overcame the other NL East teams to win the division (with the worst winning percentage of any division winner in history), beat the Big Red Machine(replete with Hall of Famers Bench, Morgan and Perez, not to mention Hall of Fame-worthy Pete Rose) in 5 games, then took the fabled Oakland A's dynasty team (with Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue, Joe Rudi, Sal Bando and Bert Campaneris) to seven games in the World Series and came oh so close to knocking them off as well. It was as amazing, if not more so, than the 69 miracle.
Tom Seaver had a great year, winning his third Cy Young award, but he was the only Hall of Famer on the team, other than Willie Mays, who was so far past his prime that his role was extremely minor. As I said previously, Koosman missed a large part of the year, as did Matlack. They were both back for the stretch run, and were excellent in September and October. George Stone rose from mediocrity to win 13 games. And then there was Tug McGraw, who struggled most of the year, and then became unhittable in September and coined the "Ya gotta believe" mantra that defined the team.
Yes, the 73 Mets were very much a miracle team, and should be remembered and revered just like the 69 team.
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