N.Y. Mets: The Great Jerry Koosman To Receive Long Overdue Tribute

From the desk of: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

JERRY KOOSMAN

#36

With Tuesday's announcement begins the long overdue recognition and commemoration of one of the greatest and most beloved pitchers to ever don Flushing's orange and blue.  The New York Mets will be retiring Jerry Koosman's #36 in a ceremony planned for next season.

Where it concerns my preteen years and baseball heroes, Jerry Koosman, Rusty Staub, and Tug McGraw are my Mets Rushmore of Three.  It's rather impossible for me to differentiate one from the other, and I refuse to include a fourth.

But, Mike, what about Tom Seaver?

What about him ... he was a god to me ... I worshiped him.  He and Koosman formed one of the game's most formidable one-two punches of their era.  But The Franchise inspired in me a somewhat different emotion than did the aforementioned three.  With Seaver it was more a matter of respect, watching with great amazement and admiration as he went about his craft, and understanding that I was witnessing greatness.  He was elite, and therefore I made an unconscious differentiation.  Like most, if not all fans, I was greatly angered when the Mets traded him.  But I didn't love him the way a kid loves his dog.  When the Mets traded Staub and McGraw I felt nothing but sadness and pain.  They traded away two of my three best friends.  By the time it came for setting Koosman free the Mets were a badly deteriorated club.  Therefore I was relieved and happy for Koosman, but at the same time saddened again to see him go.

That being said I just can't bring myself to place a fourth Met on my Rushmore for fear of leaving someone out.  And so Seaver leads my best of the rest list.  He along with John Milner, John Stearns, and Keith Hernandez, David Wright, and, you get the picture ...

With great certainty I say the methodical deconstruction of the 1969/1973 Mets initiated in the mid-1970's effectively cost Jerry Koosman a golden opportunity for bettering his Hall of Fame credentials as he was one of the last of the Amazin's to be let go.  In 1976  Koosman posts a 21-10 record with 2.69 ERA.  Seaver gets traded the following summer and Koosman is left behind to lose 35 games over the next two seasons pitching for a last place club.  In 1979, his first season with the Minnesota  Twins, 36-year old Jerry Koosman posts a 20-13 record with an American League grade 3.38 ERA.

He wins 147 games in a Mets uniform, but none bigger than game five of the 1969 World Series against the Orioles at Shea Stadium.  However, his 1976 campaign is one of my grandest memories as a young Mets fan.  He never won the Rookie of the Year or a Cy Young award, but forever earned a place in my heart.

Today, I'm very, very happy for Jerry Koosman, a great, great New York Met.