How Tim McGraw’s Father Tug McGraw Coined The Mets’ “Ya Gotta Believe!” Rallying Cry That Still Inspires 50 Years Later

If you're following the MLB playoffs, you might notice that the New York Mets — left for dead by most in early June when they sunk to 24-35 — have continued their improbable surge in the postseason to reach the National League Championship Series. Should they take care of business against the winner of the Dodgers-Padres NLDS duel, the Mets will punch their ticket to the World Series. We could see another Subway Series with the Yankees, provided the Pinstripes defeat either the Tigers or Guardians in the ALCS. The only prior Subway World Series was in 2000, oddly enough when the Mets had country music icon Garth Brooks as a player at spring training . But the focus here is on another country legend, Tim McGraw — and more specifically, how his father, the late Tug McGraw, sparked a movement that carries over to this day. Tug was an excellent relief pitcher who played 19 MLB seasons for the Mets and later joined the Phillies. His Mets-related catchphrase might be what he's most famous for, though. It's as ubiquitous as to be the title of Tug's autobiography and MLB X/Twitter's caption for the Mets' final NLDS out: https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1844175416673919192 Kind of a banger line here, too, by The Athletic 's Mets beat writer Tim Britton. He uses Tug's rallying cry to underscore the resilience and heart of this year's team. https://twitter.com/TimBritton/status/1843866225983795373 So what's the story behind this? Well, it's eerily similar to what's happening with the 2024 Mets in a lot of ways. As brilliantly told by Bill Ladson of MLB.com , the season was 1973. The Orange and Blue were floundering with a 36-46 record. Mets chairman M. Donald Grant did his best to gas up the players at a team meeting, imploring them to believe in themselves in order to turn the season around. Tug McGraw popped up, totally convicted in the moment, and shouted, "YA GOTTA BELIEVE! That's right!" The funniest part is that Grant took it as a slight, as if McGraw was mocking him. Eventually, McGraw's roommate Ed Kranepool convinced him to go to Grant's office to apologize. "Mr. Grant wasn’t used to people interrupting a meeting and his speech, and he looked at Tug kind of strange...I thought this was not a good ending, because Grant walked off annoyed. I went over to Tug and said, 'Tug, I think you better apologize to Grant. He is not used to people screaming uncharacteristically.' McGraw said, 'No, no, I'm just rallying the players. I meant nothing by it.' So I said, 'Let’s go over and let him know that, because I don’t want the team to trade my roommate.'" Thankfully, Grant heard McGraw out and understood his perspective. They shook hands. No harm, no foul. And from there, the rest as they say is history. At the time, the Mets trailed the Chicago Cubs by 12 games in the NL East, only to explode up the standings and take the division crown with an 82-79 mark. Bear in mind, too, that this was back when there were only the East and West divisions in each league. The playoffs went straight to the Championship Series between the four division winners. There was no Wild Card or even Divisional Series or anything like that. These '73 Mets knocked off the 99-win Cincinnati Reds in the NLCS. That's especially impressive since the Big Red Machine would win World Series titles in 1975 and 1976 — and had made the Fall Classic in 1970 and 1972. The '73 Mets unfortunately lost the World Series in seven games to the Oakland A's (RIP) . They had a 3-2 series lead before dropping the final two, which makes it sting even more. Their only World Series triumph since then came in 1986. However, without Grant's speech and Tug McGraw's legendary, "Ya Gotta Believe!" slogan, they likely never would've gotten that far. We'll see if this year's club can really ride the "Ya Gotta Believe!" ideology all the way to lifting the Commissioner's Trophy. Regardless, it's pretty awesome to see a team this many years later still honor the spirit of Tug McGraw's fighting spirit. Another fascinating detail to all this: Tim McGraw didn't meet his biological father until he was 11 years old. Rather than turning a cold shoulder to Tug — which he'd have been fully justified in doing — Tim looked up to him right away as an MLB pitcher. His dad essentially gave him hope that he could achieve extraordinary things despite "barely getting by " with his mom in Louisiana at the time. The father and son duo even teamed up in 2000 for a classic Bud Light commercial . File that under things you love to see. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_3pApb9H70 Being a Jets-Mets-Nets enthusiast in the Big Apple is among the most daunting undertakings a sports fan could ever imagine. At least as the Nets are sputtering in NBA No Man's Land and the Jets try to fight back from a 2-3 start, the Mets are making these persevering New Yorkers believe in something good.