Why Hasn't Jerry Koosman's Number Been Retired?

Photo by Walter Kelleher/Daily News

I was recently doing research for another piece when I came across the career numbers of three pitchers - Bert Blyleven, Randy Jones and Don Wilson.  In particular, I focused on what Blyleven achieved during his 11 seasons in Minnesota, as well as what Jones did in eight years with the Padres and what Wilson accomplished in his nine years with the Astros.

As many of you know, Bert Blyleven is a member of the Hall of Fame.  Randy Jones and Don Wilson are not.  In fact, Jones and Wilson combined to win fewer games than Blyleven won on his own in his illustrious 22-year career.  So what's their connection and why are they relevant to this piece?

Let's look at the career numbers for Blyleven, Jones and Wilson, focusing solely on what they did while they were members of the Twins, Padres and Astros, respectively.  And while we're at it, let's stick in Jerry Koosman's career numbers as a Met, just for comparison's sake.

Player	Wins	Losses	Win %	ERA	WHIP	CG	SO	K
Bert Blyleven	149	138	.519	3.28	1.186	141	29	2035
Randy Jones	92	105	.467	3.30	1.208	71	18	677
Don Wilson	104	92	.531	3.15	1.212	78	20	1283
Jerry Koosman	140	137	.509	3.09	1.219	108	26	1799

There's not that much of a disparity between the players, is there?  Koosman had the lowest ERA of the foursome and finished close to Blyleven in wins, winning percentage, WHIP and shutouts.

Koosman was superior to Randy Jones, finishing with 48 more wins, 37 more complete games and 1,122 more strikeouts.  The only category in which Jones fared better than Koosman was in WHIP and that was very close.

Don Wilson trailed Koosman in wins, ERA, complete games, shutouts and strikeouts.  Wilson had the best winning percentage of the two (although he was only 12 games above .500 during his tenure with the Astros) and barely edged Koosman in WHIP.

So why am I making such a hubbub about what these four pitchers did for the teams they're most associated with?  The answer is quite simple, especially if you noticed the title of this piece and have the sleuthing skills of the Scooby Gang.

• Bert Blyleven's uniform number has been retired by the Minnesota Twins.
• Randy Jones' uniform number has been retired by the San Diego Padres.
• Don Wilson's uniform number has been retired by the Houston Astros.
• Jerry Koosman's uniform number is being worn by Collin McHugh.

"I'm so confused.  I thought the Mets had already retired Jerry Koosman's number."

It's understandable why Blyleven's number has been permanently removed from circulation in the Twin Cities.  After all, he had a Hall of Fame career and is most associated with Minnesota's ballclub, collecting more than half of his 287 career victories as a member of the Twins.  But his numbers as a Twin are quite similar to those achieved by Koosman as a Met.  Also, Blyleven made the All-Star team as a Twin once and never finished higher than seventh in the Cy Young Award vote as a Twin (he did finish third in 1985 when he split the season between Cleveland and Minnesota, but made most of his starts as an Indian that year).  Blyleven won two division titles in Minnesota (1970, 1987) and one World Series as a Twin (1987).  Koosman knows the feeling, as he won two pennants and one World Series championship with the Mets.

As for Jones and Wilson, their uniform numbers were retired solely because of where they rank on their respective teams' all-time pitching leaderboard.  And in Wilson's case, a tragic incident also contributed to his digits being taken out of circulation.

Randy Jones is in the Padres' top ten in wins (T-2nd), ERA (8th), WHIP (7th) and strikeouts (8th).  He is also the team's all-time leader in starts, innings pitched, complete games and shutouts.  Jones was selected to two All-Star teams, had two 20-win seasons, and won the 1976 NL Cy Young Award (with Koosman finishing second).  Jones was the runner-up for the 1975 NL Cy Young Award, finishing behind Koosman's teammate, Tom Seaver, for the coveted prize.  But if you take out Jones' 1975 and 1976 numbers, the rest of his Padres' résumé isn't very impressive.

During Jones' other six years in San Diego, he went 50-79 with a 3.71 ERA and 1.30 WHIP.  In other words, he pitched like Craig Swan, only slightly worse.  (Swan was 59-71 as a Met with a 3.72 ERA and 1.27 WHIP.)

Don Wilson pitched two no-hitters as an Astro and once struck out 18 batters in a single game.  That's three games out of a career in which he made 245 starts.  Wilson's career would have been longer had it not been for his accidental death at the age of 29 (Wilson and his five-year-old son died of carbon monoxide poisoning).  The Astros immediately retired his number at the beginning of the 1975 season.

Wilson never won more than 16 games in any of his nine seasons with the Astros and only made one All-Star team.  He also had losing records in each of his last two seasons before his untimely death.  Although Wilson surely would have added to his cumulative career numbers had he not passed away, he is currently in the Astros' top ten in wins (7th), ERA (7th), starts (8th), innings pitched (5th), complete games (3rd), shutouts (4th) and strikeouts (7th).

Now let's look at the career of one Jerome Martin Koosman and see where he ranks on the Mets' all-time pitching leaderboard.

Ed Charles is still waiting to dance at Jerry Koosman's uniform retirement ceremony.

Jerry Koosman was the runner-up to Johnny Bench for the 1968 NL Rookie of the Year Award.  He was also a two-time All-Star, received MVP votes in three seasons (1968, 1969, 1976) and was the runner-up to Randy Jones for the 1976 NL Cy Young Award.  Koosman was a part of two pennant winners and was on the mound when the Mets won the 1969 World Series.  In addition, Koosman never lost a postseason game for the Mets, going 4-0 in six starts.

Koosman ranks highly in just about every career pitching category for the Mets.  He's in the team's top ten in wins (3rd), ERA (5th), starts (2nd), innings pitched (2nd), complete games (2nd), shutouts (2nd) and strikeouts (3rd).  Jesse Orosco and Jon Matlack both had lower ERAs than Koosman.  Otherwise, Koosman would be the team's all-time leader in every category for left-handed pitchers.

Clearly, Koosman had more individual success than Randy Jones and Don Wilson.  He also had better success on a team level, as Jones and Wilson never reached the postseason for their respective teams.  And Koosman's numbers as a Met were quite similar to what Bert Blyleven produced in his two stints with Minnesota.  But that's not enough to get Koosman's number on the outfield wall next to Casey Stengel's No. 37, Gil Hodges' No. 14 and Tom Seaver's No. 41.

Jerry Koosman wasn't perfect on the field.  He also hasn't been perfect off it, as he has been involved in legal troubles and other unfortunate situations.  But none of that should have kept his No. 36 off the Shea Stadium and Citi Field outfield wall for as long as it has.  If Bert Blyleven, Randy Jones and Don Wilson can have their numbers retired by their respective teams, then why can't Koosman have his number retired by the Mets?  It's a travesty that been ignored for too long.

But it could be worse.  At least the Astros haven't retired former Met Mike Scott's number, right?  What?  They have?  Ah, crap.

R.A. Dickey, 20-Game Winners And Losing Teams

Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images North America

On Saturday, R.A. Dickey pitched seven strong innings to defeat the Houston Astros by the final score of 3-1.  In doing so, Dickey improved his record to 16-4.  Despite the win, the Mets are still 11 games under .500 with a 58-69 mark.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece on R.A. Dickey accomplishing two things that had never been done by a Mets pitcher in their 50-year history.  He could become the first starting pitcher for the Mets over a 162-game season to finish at least 10 games over .500 on a team with a losing record.  (Bret Saberhagen was 14-4 for the 1994 Mets, who finished three games under .500, but that was in a strike-shortened 113-game season.)  Dickey could also set a team record by winning the highest percentage of his team's games.  In 1975, Tom Seaver went 22-9 for a Mets team that finished 82-80.  Seaver was credited with a franchise-best 26.8% of his team's wins that year.  As of today, Dickey has 16 of the Mets' 58 victories, or 27.6% of the team's wins.

But now I'm looking at the bigger picture.  Barring a "ya gotta believe" 1973-style miracle, the Mets will finish the 2012 campaign with a losing record.  However, with approximately seven starts remaining on the season, Dickey still has a fair chance to win 20 games.  How rare has it been for a player to win 20 games on a team with a losing record?  It looks like it's time to put on my research shoes and tap out some stats for you.

Recently, there have been several pitchers who won 20 games for teams that were mediocre.  For example, last year Clayton Kershaw won 21 games for the 82-79 Dodgers.  In 2008, each league's leading winner played for so-so teams.  National League leader Brandon Webb won 22 games for the 82-80 Diamondbacks and American League leader Cliff Lee won 22 games for the 81-81 Indians.  But as mediocre as those teams were, none of them finished with a sub-.500 record.

You have to go back to 1997 to find the last pitcher who won 20 games or more for a team that finished with a losing record.  Two pitchers accomplished that rare feat a decade and a half ago.

Fifteen years ago, Roger Clemens went 21-7 for the Toronto Blue Jays.  Although the 1997 Blue Jays also had 15-game winner Pat Hentgen, who, like Clemens, was a former Cy Young Award winner (Hentgen won in 1996, Clemens won his fourth in 1997), Toronto didn't have other good horses to trot out to the mound on days when Clemens and Hentgen weren't pitching.  Despite Clemens' best efforts, the Blue Jays finished the 1997 season in last place in the AL East with a 76-86 record.

Even more outstanding than Clemens' mark was what Brad Radke did for the Minnesota Twins that same year.

In only his third season in the major leagues, Radke went 20-10 for the Twins in 1997.  But no other pitcher on the team won more than eight games that year.  As a result, the Twins finished the season with an abysmal 68-94 record, or 48-84 when Radke didn't get a decision.  Although it would mark the only time Radke won more than 15 games in a season, the lifelong Twin finished his career with 148 wins in 12 seasons with Minnesota, good for fourth place on the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins' all-time list (the Senators moved to the Twin Cities in 1961), behind Hall of Famers Walter Johnson and Bert Blyleven, as well as 283-game winner Jim Kaat.  Radke is in great company on the Twins' all-time wins list, but when it came to his company on the 1997 Twins staff, there was none to be found.

Both Clemens and Radke won 20 or more games for American League teams with losing records in 1997, but to find the last National League pitcher to do it, you have to go back a little further, before each league split up into three divisions.

In 1992, Greg Maddux finished his final season in Chicago with a 20-11 record.  Like fellow 350-game winner Roger Clemens did five years later, Maddux also had a fine sidekick on the staff in Mike Morgan, who went 16-8 for the Cubs.  The rest of the team didn't fare so well, going 42-65 in games that the M & M boys didn't earn a decision.  The 1992 Cubs finished the season with a 78-84 record, then let Maddux walk away to sign a lucrative free agent contract with the Atlanta Braves, allowing Greg Hibbard to become the team's ace in 1993.  Of course, the Cubs somehow improved in 1993, finishing six games over .500, led by Hibbard's 15 wins (Hibbard only won one game in the major leagues after 1993, which is probably why you don't remember him).  Maddux also improved, winning the Cy Young Award in each of his first three seasons in Atlanta, en route to what will likely be a one-way ticket to Cooperstown when he becomes eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2014.

Out of curiosity, since two pitchers won 20 games for losing teams in the American League in 1997, I decided to go back and see who was the last National League pitcher before Greg Maddux to win 20 games for a sub-.500 team.  That honor went to a pitcher who was far more popular than Maddux ever was (the "Chicks Dig The Longball" ad notwithstanding"), although his lengthy career failed to produce half of Maddux's career win total.

In 1986, Fernando Valenzuela had arguably his most complete season in the major leagues.  Although he was thrust into the national spotlight in 1981, winning both the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards (not to mention the Silver Slugger Award) for a team that won the World Series, he only won 20 games once in his nearly two-decade major league career.  Valenzuela went 21-11 for the Dodgers in 1986, leading the league in complete games (20).  He also flashed the leather at his position, winning the Gold Glove Award for the only time in his career.  Despite a Mets pitching staff that featured four pitchers with a .700 winning percentage (Bob Ojeda, Dwight Gooden, Sid Fernandez and Ron Darling finished 1-2-3-4, respectively, in winning percentage in 1986), it was Fernando Valenzuela who led the National League in victories, doing so for a Dodgers team that finished with a 73-89 record.

Valenzuela's 1986 season was also special in one other regard.  It was the last time a pitcher in either league completed 20 of his starts.  Since Valenzuela's 20-win, 20-complete-game season in 1986, no National League pitcher has finished a season with more than 15 complete games (Orel Hershiser and Danny Jackson each had 15 complete games in 1988, as did Curt Schilling in 1998).  The most complete games by an American League pitcher since 1986 is 18, which was accomplished by Roger Clemens one year after Valenzuela's 20-complete-game season.  Only one pitcher (Jack McDowell in 1991) has reached the 15-complete-game plateau in the American League since Clemens did it in 1987.  By comparison, R.A. Dickey is currently the National League leader in complete games with four.

I am Dickey, hear me roar!

(AP Photo/Paul J. Bereswill)

With that mention of R.A Dickey, we have now come full circle.  Dickey already has a good chance of becoming the first Mets pitcher over a full 162-game season to finish at least 10 games over .500 while his team finishes with a losing record, as well as recording the highest percentage of his team's victories over a single season.  But it's not just Mets history he might make this year.

Dickey is also in line to become the first 20-game winner to pitch for a sub-.500 team since Roger Clemens and Brad Radke did so for their teams in 1997, and the first National League pitcher to accomplish the feat in two decades.  Dickey would join Greg Maddux as the only pitchers in the last quarter century to win 20 games for a losing team in the National League.

R.A. Dickey has already become one of the best pitchers in the National League.  Now he has a chance to do something that hasn't been accomplished in the major leagues since the 20th century by pitchers who are among baseball's all-time greats (Maddux, Clemens) as well as pitchers who were all-time greats on their respective teams (Valenzuela, Radke).

The Mets team might not be winning as much as its players and their fans would like, but R.A. Dickey has shown that it's possible for a losing team to have a winner on it.

One Season Wonders: Willie Montañez

In 1977, the Mets were in the middle of dismantling the team that brought them much success in the first half of the 1970s.  They weren't just massacring the team at midnight, they were chopping the players up and spitting them out for other teams to enjoy.  The Mets traded away "The Franchise", their best power hitter (Dave Kingman) and their rock behind the plate (Jerry Grote) during the 1977 season.  But they weren't done yet.

After the season was over, the Mets were involved in a complicated four-team trade with the Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers and Pittsburgh Pirates.  On December 8, 1977, former Rookie of the Year Jon Matlack was shipped off to Texas and slugging first baseman/leftfielder John Milner packed his bags for Pittsburgh.  In return, the Mets received outfielders Tom Grieve and Ken Henderson from the Rangers.  Neither player performed very well for the Mets.  In fact, both of them were rarely seen on the field in a Mets uniform, with Grieve's career in New York lasting 54 games (.208, 2 HR, 8 RBI) and Henderson (.227, 1 HR, 4 RBI) playing in only seven games.

The Mets received one other player in the deal that sent Matlack and Milner away.  Unfortunately, it was not future Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven, who was also involved in the trade; he went from Texas to Pittsburgh.  No, the third player sent to the Mets came via the Atlanta Braves.  It was a player who was no stranger to trades, as he had already been a part of five organizations (St. Louis Cardinals, California Angels, Philadelphia Phillies, San Francisco Giants, Atlanta Braves) before becoming a Met.  He was also no stranger to trades involving All-Stars and future Hall of Famers.

In 1970, he was the player sent to the Philadelphia Phillies from the St. Louis Cardinals when Curt Flood refused to report to his new team, paving the way for the birth of free agency.  In 1975, he was traded to San Francisco for the Secretary of Defense, Garry Maddox.  This is the same Garry Maddox who went on to win eight Gold Glove Awards and was immortalized by Ralph Kiner when the Mets' legendary broadcaster proclaimed that "two-thirds of the Earth is covered by water, the other third is covered by Garry Maddox".  In 1976, he was traded to Atlanta for Darrell Evans, who went on to hit 414 HR in his major league career.  Then came the trade in 1977 that sent him to the Mets.  Willie Montañez didn't play for very long in New York, but he did have one phenomenal season as a Met.

The Mets were entering the dark ages in 1978, but they did have a bright star in Willie Montañez.

Guillermo Montañez Naranjo was a well-traveled player before coming to the Mets.  Although he was only 29 at the time of the trade to New York, he had already completed a number of great seasons with multiple teams.  His 1971 campaign for the last-place Phillies (.255, 30 HR, 99 RBI) almost won him the National League Rookie of the Year Award, as he placed second in the voting to Atlanta's Earl Williams.  In 1975, he recorded his first 100-RBI campaign, although he split the season between the Phillies and the San Francisco Giants.  In 1976, he recorded career-highs in batting average (.317), hits (206) and games played (163).  But once again, he split the season between two teams, beginning the year in San Francisco and ending it as a member of the Atlanta Braves.

When he joined the Mets in 1978, it was Montañez's sixth professional organization.  (He was in the St. Louis Cardinals organization twice although he never played for them at the major league level, and he recorded two at-bats as a California Angel in 1966, five years before his "rookie" season for the Phillies in 1971.)  As a Brave in 1977, Montañez was a first-time All-Star, finishing the year with a .287 batting average, 31 doubles, 20 HR and 68 RBI.  The 1977 Mets, on the other hand, had no player with more than 25 doubles, 12 HR or 65 RBI.  It goes without saying that Willie Montañez was expected to carry the bulk of the offensive load for the Mets in 1978.  The team may not have produced on the field, but Willie Montañez gave the Mets solid production with his bat.

The season did not start off so well for Montañez and the Mets.  The Mets and the Braves were playing a game of musical chairs in the National League basement.  At the same time, Willie Montañez was struggling with his new team, batting .206 with two home runs and 12 RBI through the team's first 36 games.  He also had more strikeouts (29) than hits (28), which was disconcerting for a player who was only two years removed from a season in which he recorded 206 hits while striking out only 47 times.  But with one visit from his former Braves teammates at Shea Stadium, Montañez turned his season around in a big way.

On May 18, 1978, in the final game of a three-game series against Atlanta, Montañez went 3-for-3 and drove in four runs.  In the first inning, Montañez gave the Mets a short-lived 1-0 lead with a sacrifice fly, but the Braves scored four runs in the top of the second to take a three-run advantage.  In each of his next two at-bats, Montañez cut the Braves' lead to a single run.  His RBI single in the third cut the lead to 4-3, while his run-scoring double in the fifth made it a 6-5 game.  The Mets finally tied the Braves in the bottom of the seventh, with Montañez providing the game-tying RBI double, and went on to win the game in the tenth inning, when Steve Henderson drove in Lee Mazzilli from second base with a single.  The first person to greet Mazzilli at home plate was Willie Montañez, who was on deck at the time.  As great as his 3-for-3, 4 RBI effort was against the Braves, he came up even bigger the following night against the Phillies.

Following the comeback victory against the Braves, the Mets once again fell behind by three runs.  In the bottom of the eighth, the Phillies led the Mets, 3-0, when Willie Montañez came up to bat.  Although he grounded into a fielder's choice, he did drive in the Mets' first run of the game.  Three batters later, Montañez scored on Lee Mazzilli's two-run single off former Met hero Tug McGraw.  The game was tied at 3, and the Mets now had the opportunity for their second consecutive walk-off victory.  In the bottom of the ninth, the Mets loaded the bases with one out for (you guessed it) Willie Montañez, who delivered the game-winning single off McGraw.  It was Montañez's second consecutive three-hit game and gave him a total of six RBI over the two games.  It also served as the impetus for a tremendous hot streak.

Beginning with the series finale against the Braves in mid-May, Montañez went on a tear, hitting .396 through the end of the month.  In 14 games, the Mets' first baseman lashed four doubles, five home runs and drove in a whopping 21 runs.  By the All-Star Break, Montañez's numbers (.267, 12 HR, 54 RBI) made Mets fans forget his slow start.  But the team went into a free fall following the All-Star Break, losing 21 of 28 games from July 27 to August 29 to fall into last place in the NL East.  As the team slumped, so did Montañez, as he hit .238 with three home runs and 26 RBI from the break to late August.  The Mets weren't able to recover from their slump, but Montañez had one final good month in September.

Over a two-week stretch in the season's final month, Montañez returned to his pre-Midsummer Classic form.  In 12 games from September 7 to September 20, Montañez batted .298 with five extra-base hits (four doubles, one homer) and 10 RBI.  One game in particular stood out for Montañez on a personal level, as he drove in all three runs in a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on September 8.  Montañez produced run-scoring singles in the first and third innings, then delivered the game-winner with an RBI double in the eighth.  All three run-scoring hits were hit off the same pitcher, Bert Blyleven, who was one of the players involved in the trade that brought Montañez to New York.  Although the Mets were just playing out the schedule by that point, they did win eight of the 12 games during Montañez's final hot streak.

For the year, Willie Montañez batted .256.  However, he did lead the team with 32 doubles, 17 HR and 96 RBI.  At the time, the only two Mets who had registered more doubles in a season than Montañez were Rusty Staub (36 doubles in 1973) and Felix Millan (37 doubles in 1975).  Montañez's RBI total was also only surpassed by two Mets - Donn Clendenon (97 RBI in 1970) and Rusty Staub (105 RBI in 1975).  The Mets finished 1978 with a 66-96 record, but they entered the 1979 campaign knowing they had a bona fide slugger in their lineup.  Unfortunately, the key word in that last sentence was "had".

The 1979 Mets had a horrendous start to their season and by the end of May, they were already 13 games out of first place.  Unlike the previous campaign, when Willie Montañez did all he could to keep the Mets fairly relevant over the first few months of the season, in 1979, he was one of the main reasons why they got off to a 16-28 start.  Through May 9, Montañez's numbers (.150, 1 HR, 4 RBI) looked more like a pitcher's offensive figures than a slugging first baseman's stats.  Although he did raise his average to a more respectable .234 by mid-August, he did it mostly with singles.  (In June and July, Montañez managed just seven extra-base hits in 213 plate appearances.)  As a result, by August 11, Montañez had only produced five home runs and 47 RBI for the season.

By then, the Mets had been all but mathematically eliminated in the NL East race, and decided to trade away their veteran first baseman to the Texas Rangers for Ed Lynch and Mike Jorgensen.  After his trade from the Mets, Montañez returned to his peripatetic ways, playing for the Rangers, Padres, Expos, Pirates and Phillies over his final three-plus seasons in the majors before retiring after the 1982 season.

Willie Montañez was known as a hot dog throughout his days in the major leagues, drawing the ire of opposing players and managers throughout his long major league career.  But despite his antics, he was still a very productive player.  For one season in New York, he was as productive a hitter as the Mets had ever seen.  Then his production fell off the table and his Mets career soon followed.  The Mets might not have had many good players or teams to root for from 1977 to 1983, but in 1978, Willie Montañez was one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dark period of Mets history.  It was only one season, but for the era in which it occurred, it was a welcome sight to have a one-season wonder like Willie Montañez take the field for the Mets.


Note: One Season Wonders is a thirteen-part weekly series spotlighting those Mets who had one and only one memorable season in New York.  For previous installments, please click on the players' names below:
 
January 2, 2012: Bernard Gilkey
January 9, 2012: Terry Leach 
January 16, 2012: George Stone
January 23, 2012: Roger Cedeño
January 30, 2012: Frank Viola
February 6, 2012: Joe Christopher 
February 13, 2012: Dave Magadan 
February 20, 2012: Pedro Martinez
February 27, 2012: Bret Saberhagen 
March 5, 2012: Robin Ventura

M.U.M.'s The Word (Most Underrated Mets): Jon Matlack

In 1966, the Mets had the #1 draft pick in the June Amateur Draft. A certain Reginald Martinez Jackson was there for the taking as the first pick, but instead the Mets chose Steve Chilcott, a left-handed hitting high school catcher from California. Jackson was taken as the second pick by the Kansas City Athletics. 27 years and 563 home runs later, Reggie Jackson was inducted into the Hall of Fame, while the Mets were left wondering what might have been.

One year after drafting Chilcott, who never played a game in the major leagues (Chilcott and Brien Taylor are the only #1 overall picks to retire from baseball without ever making it to the major leagues), the Mets had the #4 pick in the amateur draft. At the time, Chilcott was wallowing in the minor leagues, while Reggie Jackson had already made it to the majors.

Going into the 1967 draft, the Mets' focus was on pitching. Eight of their first 12 picks in the '67 amateur draft were pitchers, including their first round pick. That year, the Mets did not waste their high draft pick on a player who fizzled out in the minor leagues, for 1967 was the year the Mets drafted Jon Matlack.


Jonathan Trumpbour Matlack, despite the high draft pick, took some time to get to the major leagues. The Mets did not feel the need to rush him, being that he was all of 17 years old on draft day.

During the Miracle Mets season of 1969, the 19-year-old Matlack was pitching at AAA-Tidewater, just one step away from the major leagues. But the Mets had a strong pitching staff, with Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Gary Gentry, Don Cardwell, Jim McAndrew and Nolan Ryan all spending time in the starting rotation. Because of the surplus of quality starting pitching at the major league level, Matlack spent the entire 1969 and 1970 seasons at Tidewater as well as the majority of the 1971 season.

Matlack didn't have a spectacular three-year stay in Triple-A, going 37-25, with a 4.09 ERA. However, when Jerry Koosman was placed on the disabled list on July 6, 1971, a spot in the rotation opened up. The time had finally come for the Mets' first round draft pick from 1967 to make the jump to the big leagues.

While Koosman was recuperating on the DL, Matlack made five starts. Unfortunately, his first major league victory did not come so easily, as Matlack was charged with three losses and two no-decisions during his first stint in the major leagues. Koosman returned from the disabled list on August 14 and Matlack was sent back to Tidewater. He was brought back up to the Mets in September, making one relief appearance and one start, where he gave up one run in eight innings of work. However, Matlack did not receive any run support in his final effort, settling for the no-decision in a game the Mets eventually won 2-1. Although Matlack finished with an 0-3 record for the Mets in 1971, he retained his rookie status for 1972, a season that would firmly entrench him in the starting rotation.

When Nolan Ryan was traded to the California Angels on December 10, 1971 in the infamous Jim Fregosi deal, it opened up a spot in the starting rotation. Jon Matlack was now in the big leagues for good and he took full advantage of the opportunity, going 6-0 in his first nine games (eight starts), with a 1.95 ERA. Matlack's sixth victory was a complete game three-hit shutout against the Phillies, defeating Steve Carlton, who went on to win 27 games and the Cy Young Award in 1972.

Carlton was not the only pitcher from that game who won a major award for his outstanding performance in 1972. His opponent took home an award as well, as Jon Matlack became the second Mets player to win the National League Rookie of the Year Award (Tom Seaver was the first in 1967). Matlack finished the season with a 15-10 record and a 2.32 ERA, good for fourth in the National League.

The 1972 season also ended with Matlack playing an important part in baseball history, as he gave up Roberto Clemente's 3,000th hit on September 30. It would be the last hit in Clemente's storied career, as he was tragically killed in a plane crash while delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

When 1973 began, Matlack was no longer the rookie in the rotation. He was now the #3 pitcher on the staff after Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman, the leaders of the 1969 World Champion Mets. Unfortunately, the Mets had not returned to the postseason since 1969. All that changed when the Mets started to believe.

The 1973 Mets were going nowhere fast. After three consecutive third place, 83-win seasons, the Mets appeared headed towards familiar territory - last place. That's exactly where the Mets found themselves on August 30, after a 10-inning, 1-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. Although the Mets were struggling to find their identity and their place in the standings, their poor record was not the fault of Jon Matlack, as the sophomore pitcher had a strong stretch of starts from May to August. Over a period of 18 starts, Matlack held hitters to a .217 batting average and a .300 slugging percentage. The end result for the 18-start stretch was a 2.73 ERA. However, the Mets could not capitalize on Matlack's extended streak of excellence, losing 11 of those 18 starts. But after August 30, everything changed for Matlack and the Mets.

Once Tug McGraw uttered his famous "Ya Gotta Believe" rallying cry, the Mets were nothing but a team that believed. They won 21 of their final 29 games, overtaking every team in the NL East before winning the division on the final day of the season. Matlack was brilliant over his last five starts, holding hitters to a .186 batting average and registering a 1.77 ERA. Despite the fact that his won-loss record was 14-16, Matlack finished the year with a 3.20 ERA and his first (and only) season with 200 or more strikeouts. The Mets were on to the playoffs for the second time in franchise history and this time, Jon Matlack was going to be a part of it.

Matlack was only in his second full season in the major leagues, but you would never know it by how he pitched in the postseason. After the Mets had lost the first game of the NLCS against the Cincinnati Reds, Matlack was called upon to even the series, a tough task for any pitcher against the vaunted hitters of the Big Red Machine, let alone a 23-year-old making his first playoff appearance. Matlack responded by pitching one of the greatest games in Mets postseason history, shutting out the Reds on two hits, while striking out nine. Matlack's performance kept the Mets from falling behind 2-0 in the best-of-five series and served as the catalyst for the Mets' eventual series win.

Seriously, didn't anyone have color TVs back in 1973?

The Mets' opponent in the 1973 World Series was the Oakland A's, led by slugger Reggie Jackson. (Hey, didn't we talk about him about a million paragraphs ago?) Matlack, who had already started 35 games (34 regular season, 1 postseason) was called upon to start Game 1. In doing so, he became only the fourth pitcher in major league history to start a World Series opener with a losing record (14-16) during the regular season. The other pitchers to accomplish this rare feat were Alvin Crowder (9-11 with the 1934 Detroit Tigers), Denny Galehouse (9-10 with the 1944 St. Louis Browns) and Don Drysdale (13-16 with the 1966 Los Angeles Dodgers). Matlack pitched well, but took the loss as the Mets' bats remained silent in the 2-1 defeat.

Matlack came back on only three days rest to start Game 4 and pitched beautifully, holding the A's to one unearned run and three hits over eight innings of work. The Mets also won Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead in the World Series. That's when the decision to start Seaver and Matlack on short rest came back to bite manager Yogi Berra and all those who believed in the 1973 Mets.

Although George Stone had an unexpectedly good season (12-3, 2.80 ERA), he was bypassed for Seaver and Matlack in the final two games. When Seaver lost a tightly contested Game 6, Matlack was tabbed as the Game 7 starter. The World Series finale would be his 38th start of the season, and the wear and tear of the long season on his young arm showed, as he gave up four third-inning runs to the A's. The Mets were never able to recover from the early deficit, losing the game and the World Series to Oakland by the final score of 5-2.

If anything, the postseason experience made Matlack a stronger pitcher. In one season, he experienced the highest of highs (his stellar playoff debut against the Reds) and the lowest of lows (losing the seventh game of the World Series). He was now battle tested and ready to move on to the 1974 season, which was one of the most perplexing seasons for any pitcher in franchise history.

If you look at Matlack's numbers from 1974, you'd think he was a top contender for the Cy Young Award. He finished the season with a 2.41 ERA, 14 complete games, 195 strikeouts, allowed only eight home runs in 265.1 innings and led the major leagues with seven shutouts. Why did Matlack not receive any Cy Young love in 1974? Perhaps it was his 13-15 record that season.

How could someone who had such a brilliant season on the mound do so poorly in the won-loss department? Simply stated, the Mets offense in 1974 was offensive. As a team, the Mets batted .235 in 1974, hitting only 96 home runs and scoring 572 runs (an average of 3.1 runs per game). If the 2010 Mets drove you crazy with their 12 walk-off losses, imagine what it was like in 1974, when the Mets set a franchise record with 14 walk-off losses (10 of them in extra innings).

Speaking of extra innings, the Mets were 4-16 in extra inning games in 1974 and 17-36 in one-run games. Is it no wonder that Matlack couldn't win more games? Either the team couldn't score when he was pitching, or the bullpen blew the game for him once he left the mound. Nowhere was this more evident than during the last two months of the season.

From August 3 to October 2, Matlack made 13 starts for the Mets. He pitched complete games in more than half of those starts (seven), had an excellent strikeout to walk ratio (79 K, 31 BB) and registered an ERA of 1.86 (22 earned runs in 13 starts). Of course, the Mets lost nine of those 13 games, scoring three runs or less in ten of them.

It's actually a wonder that Matlack won as many games as he did in 1974. In winning 13 games, he had to be nearly perfect. He pitched 11 complete games in those 13 victories, and had a stunning ERA and WHIP (0.95 ERA, 0.74 WHIP). The only reward for such a stellar season was his first All-Star Game selection, an honor bestowed upon him again in 1975 and 1976.

In those two All-Star seasons (1975 and 1976), Matlack did much better in the win column, combining to go 33-22 over the two campaigns. In 1976, Matlack won a career-high 17 games, led the National League with six complete games and had a 2.95 ERA. The Mets also recovered in the standings, finishing 86-76, which at the time, was the second-most wins in franchise history.

Uh oh. We're about to begin the paragraph about 1977, meaning the smiles in the photo above are about to turn into frowns.

Going into the 1977 season, Jon Matlack had won 75 games and sported a 2.88 career ERA. He was part of a spectacular starting rotation that featured Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman. But everything changed in that fateful season. The Mets started the season poorly. After a Memorial Day doubleheader sweep at the hands of the Montreal Expos, the Mets' record stood at 15-30, which was good enough for last place in the NL East, 14 games behind the first place Chicago Cubs. Following the losses, the Mets fired manager Joe Frazier and replaced him with first baseman Joe Torre. It would not be the only change the Mets underwent in 1977.

Two weeks after the firing of Joe Frazier, the Mets traded away "The Franchise", as Tom Seaver was traded to the Cincinnati Reds. On the same day, slugging first baseman/outfielder Dave Kingman was traded to the San Diego Padres. From that day forward, June 15, 1977 would always be known as "The Midnight Massacre". Seaver was not the only member of the 1969 World Champions to be traded in 1977, as his batterymate Jerry Grote was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers on August 31.

Jon Matlack, already a veteran at age 27, was spared from all the in-season transactions, but his performance on the mound suffered. His 7-15 record and 4.21 ERA was easily the worst of his career. As a result, Matlack was traded to the Texas Rangers on December 8, 1977, in a four-team deal that also involved the Pittsburgh Pirates and Atlanta Braves. There was a future Hall of Famer involved in the deal (Bert Blyleven), but unfortunately, the man known to Studious Metsimus readers for his love of flatulence was sent from the Rangers to the Pirates.

This photo will never stink.

The players that became Mets in the deal were Willie Montañez, Tom Grieve and Ken Henderson. Neither player did particularly well or played much with the Mets, but Matlack rebounded from his awful 1977 season with the Mets to win 15 games for the Rangers in 1978. He also posted career-bests in 1978 with a 2.27 ERA and 18 complete games.

Matlack's 1978 season was his last good year in the major leagues, as injuries cut his once-promising career short. From 1979-1983, Matlack was able to win only 28 games for the Rangers, finishing his career as part of Texas' bullpen. Matlack was only 33 when he retired after being released by the Rangers on October 31, 1983.

Although Matlack only pitched six full seasons for the Mets, his name appears all over the franchise's all-time leaderboard. He's in the top ten all-time in wins (82, 7th), starting pitchers' ERA (3.03, 3rd), WHIP (1.19, 10th), innings pitched (1,448, 6th), strikeouts (1,023, 8th), complete games (65, 4th) and shutouts (26, tied for 2nd).

Surprisingly, despite the fact that he last played for the Mets in 1977 and his name still remains plastered all over the club's all-time pitching leaders, Matlack has not been enshrined into the Mets Hall of Fame. Surprisingly enough, for a team that has always prided itself on pitching, only four of its pitchers have been inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame, three of whom were Matlack's teammates. Tom Seaver was inducted in 1988. He was followed by Jerry Koosman the following year, Tug McGraw in 1993 and Dwight Gooden in 2010.

Thanks to Corbis Images for this sweet photo of the Mets' Big Three (Jon Matlack, Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman).

Perhaps someday Matlack will join Seaver, Koosman, McGraw and Gooden with a plaque of his own in the Mets Hall of Fame. For the short period of time that he was a Met, he established himself as one of the best pitchers in franchise history. It's been 34 years since Matlack pitched his last game in a Mets uniform. If the Mets can't agree that he belongs in their Hall of Fame, perhaps at least their fans can agree with me that Matlack is one of the most underrated Mets of all-time.

Whenever one thinks of the competitive Mets teams from the early-to-mid '70s, it should not just be the combination of Seaver and Koosman that comes to mind. Matlack was just as instrumental as "The Franchise" and "The Kooz" to the success of those teams. Who knows just how high he would have ranked on the Mets' all-time pitching leaderboards had they not given up on him (and everybody else) after his first subpar season in 1977?

If Studious Metsimus Had A Hall of Fame Vote...

On Wednesday, the National Baseball Hall of Fame will announce their Class of 2011. The first time nominees include former Mets John Olerud, John Franco, Al Leiter and Carlos Baerga. Notable first-timers include Jeff Bagwell, Juan Gonzalez, Rafael Palmeiro and Larry Walker.

A number of returnees are also on this year's ballot, including Roberto Alomar (another former Met) and Bert Blyleven, who both narrowly missed enshrinement last year. Alomar was selected on 73.7% of the ballots and Blyleven's name was chosen on 74.2%. Of the 21 previous players who received at least 70% of the votes, but failed to register the minimum 75% needed for election, all of them eventually got the call to the Hall.

Studious Metsimus was not allowed to vote in this year's Hall of Fame election. (Note to self: Remember to add another $20 bill the next time I send the Baseball Writers Association of America a letter asking them to join their ranks.) But we still have an opinion as to who should reserve a hotel room in Cooperstown the last weekend in July.


Roberto Alomar

Can you name a more complete second baseman in the expansion era? Maybe Joe Morgan (who's already in the Hall of Fame). Certainly not Jeff Kent, unless if you include his '70s porn 'stache as one of his five tools.

If you take the 10-year time period from 1992-2001, you'd have a hard time finding another player, regardless of position, whose numbers could match up with Alomar. During those ten years, Alomar hit .315, with 327 doubles, 49 triples, 159 HR and 792 RBI. He also stole 303 bases and scored 1,007 runs. He was an All-Star in all of those seasons and won the Gold Glove Award in all but one of them.

For his career, Alomar hit .300, with 504 doubles, 210 HR, 1,134 RBI, 1,508 runs scored and 474 SB. He also made 12 All-Star teams, won ten Gold Gloves and earned four Silver Slugger Awards. Although he never won a regular season MVP Award, he did finish in the top six in MVP voting five times. He also won the 1992 ALCS MVP Award for leading the Blue Jays to their first World Series appearance and took home the 1998 All-Star Game MVP trophy.

Bert Blyleven

It is a travesty that Blyleven has been retired for nearly 20 years and has still not been elected to the Hall of Fame. His numbers speak for themselves.

In 22 major league seasons, Blyleven won 287 games, mostly for poor teams (Blyleven's teams finished below .500 in ten of his 22 seasons). Despite playing most of his career in the American League during the DH era, Blyleven registered ten seasons with an ERA of 3.00 or lower. His low ERA was helped out by his astonishing 60 career shutouts. That's approximately two full seasons of starts without allowing an earned run in any of them!

He also possessed one of the most devastating curveballs in major league history, fooling hitters to the tune of 3,701 career strikouts, which is good for fifth on the all-time list. Unlike Nolan Ryan, he didn't need to rely on gas to send hitters back to the bench, unless if he was wearing the shirt below.


Blyleven was also an excellent pitcher in the postseason, despite having only played for three teams that made the playoffs (1970 Twins, 1979 Pirates, 1987 Twins). In six career postseason starts, Blyleven was 5-1 with a 2.47 ERA. He was also the winning pitcher in two pennant-clinching games (1979 NLCS Game 3, 1987 ALCS Game 5).

Simply put, Blyleven was one of the best pitchers in the game during the 22 years that he played it. He just didn't get the attention he deserved because he spent many of those seasons toiling in places like Texas, Cleveland and California, which were not exactly hotbeds for baseball.


Jeff Bagwell

One stat should say it all regarding Jeff Bagwell's candidacy for the Hall of Fame. Prior to this year, every player who scored at least 1,500 runs and drove in at least 1,500 runs (and is eligible for the Hall of Fame) is already in the Hall of Fame. Jeff Bagwell scored 1,517 runs and picked up 1,529 RBI over his 15-year career. Let me repeat that in a separate paragraph.

Jeff Bagwell scored and drove in over 1,500 runs. He only played 15 years in the major leagues. Therefore, he averaged over 100 runs scored and 100 RBI every year he played in the major leagues. If that isn't worthy of the Hall of Fame, I don't know what is.

Just in case that's not enough for you, I'll give you some more bits o' Bagwell. Before injuries sapped him of the last few years of his playing career, forcing him to retire at age 37, Bagwell was ultra-durable. He played in all 162 games four times. He hit 488 doubles, including 26 or more in each of his first 14 seasons. He stole 202 bases, a number almost unheard of for a first baseman. He became (and still is) the only first baseman in history to register a 30-30 season when he hit 42 HR and stole 30 bases in 1999. He hit over .300 six times, including a career-high .368 in his MVP season of 1994. In addition to that MVP Award, Bagwell was also the 1991 NL Rookie of the Year.

Larry Walker

Perhaps a questionable call, due to the many years he played in the pre-humidor Coors Field, but Larry Walker still put up incredible numbers and was a phenomenal defensive player.

Over a career that spanned from 1989-2005, Walker hit for average (.313), could draw a walk (.400 career on-base percentage), hit for power (383 HR), stole bases (230 SB), could find the gaps (471 career doubles) and made opposing runners fear his cannon in right field (six Gold Glove Awards).

Walker played the first six seasons of his career in Montreal and the last season and a half of his career in St. Louis (for which he made his only World Series appearance in 2004), but it was his time in Colorado that made him a superstar. In fact, he had one of the best six-year stretches in recent history from 1997-2002.

During those six seasons, Walker hit a whopping .353. He won three batting titles (1998, 1999, 2001) and hit .366 in 1997, a season in which he didn't win the batting title. However, that 1997 season was one for the ages. That year, Walker hit 49 HR. He also scored 143 runs, tallied 130 RBI, laced 46 doubles and stole 33 bases, in addition to the .366 batting average. He also led the league in on-base percentage (.452) and slugging percentage (.720), en route to winning every accolade possible (All-Star team, NL MVP Award, Gold Glove Award, Silver Slugger Award).


There are other players who are certainly worthy of Hall of Fame induction, such as Rafael Palmeiro, who, like Jeff Bagwell, is another member of the exclusive 1,500 runs scored, 1,500 RBI club.

You can also include Edgar Martinez (.312 career batting average, 514 doubles, 309 HR, seven-time All-Star) and Barry Larkin (.295 career batting average, nine-time .300 hitter, 198 HR, 379 SB, 441 doubles, 12-time All-Star, nine Silver Slugger Awards, three Gold Glove Awards, 1995 NL MVP) to the list.

All three of those players might make it to the Hall of Fame someday, perhaps even this year. However, I believe only four players should be inducted into the Hall of Fame's Class of 2011. Roberto Alomar, Bert Blyleven, Jeff Bagwell and Larry Walker should all be Hall of Famers.

In Blyleven's case, he is long overdue for enshrinement. In the other three players' cases, they represented the complete baseball player. They possessed all five tools and excelled in all of them. When the Hall of Fame makes their calls on Wednesday, those four players should make sure their phone lines are clear. They just might be getting the calls of their lives.

When The SUMMER Is Gone, MY FAMILY Will Remain

See the glowing Mets fan to the left? That's no David Wright fangirl. That's the Coop, writer extraordinaire. For the past three years, she has shared her thoughts on the Mets and everything associated with the team on My Summer Family, one of the most unique and respected Mets sites around.

However, it has come to our attention that the Coop has retired My Summer Family, as announced in her most recent work, "Roll Call 2010: A Very Special Post".

The Studious Metsimus staff could only think of one word that could describe our feelings accurately regarding this surprise retirement, and that word is...

Sigh...

My Summer Family was always one of the first places we would turn to for thought-provoking, insightful and entertaining pieces on the Mets. Where else could we be told to "just forfeit" to avoid suffering from "Post-Traumatic Mets Disorder"?

The Coop was never afraid to tell it like it is, even if it involved using language that only soon-to-be Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven would love.

There has been an overwhelming display of love and support for the Coop from the blogging community. From Joe D at Mets Merized Online to Greg Prince at Faith and Fear in Flushing, there has been no shortage of respectful goodbyes for the writer known to the Studious Metsimus staff as "The Better Half".

Wait. The Better Half? What, you didn't know? That's right. The Coop and I have taken the plunge and tied the knot in an Amazin' Met-rimony.

For those of you who don't understand my not-so-cryptic previous paragraph, I'll come right out and say it. WE'RE MARRIED, Y'ALL!!

Although our wedding day was on Cinco De Mayo (which celebrates the Mexican Army's victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862), there was one particular Mexican-born pitcher who was not invited to the day's festivities. Sorry, Ollie.

So the My Summer Family era has come to an end. But don't worry. Although you won't see the My Summer Family blog anymore, the Coop will find a way to make her presence felt. Whether it be applying for the still-vacant Mets' GM position (COOP FOR GM!!) or trying to arrange the latest Citi Field Sit Out, her unique perspective will always be at the forefront of any discussion on the state of the Mets. If you build it, Coop will come.

Ted Williams retired after hitting a home run in his final turn at bat. So did Todd Zeile. There's now a threesome in that department (Señor Solly and Bert Blyleven would certainly approve of that statement), as My Summer Family is going out on top.

Retirement is never easy. Just ask Mike Schmidt. (see video below)

Congratulations to an excellent writer, a passionate Mets fan and the most incredible and loving wife in the world. I'll try my best to continue what you began at My Summer Family here at Studious Metsimus, but I know I'll never compare to you.

You have been my inspiration, my muse and my reason to continue writing about anything that pops into my head regarding the Mets. The sun has set on My Summer Family, but it will never set on us. I love you and wish you the best wherever that takes you. Just promise to take me along for the ride.