Yes, my all time favorite was Jerry Koosman. He was always shortchanged and under-appreciated. In '68, he won 19 games for the 9th place Mets (2.08 ERA) and lost to Rookie of the Year to Bench who hit .275 with 15 hrs. It would have been a tie, but one writer split his vote. Seaver had won it the year before, so there weren't many complaints. In '69, Kooz won several key games in the big drive of late August, early September. as well as Games 2 and 5 of the WS, finishing second to Don Clendenon for WS MVP. In '73, he won 7 in a row down the stretch and game 5 of the WS, putting the Mets up 3-2 (Yogi then blew it). Tug McGraw got most of the credit. In '76, he won 21 games for a light hitting Met team and finished second in the Cy Young to Randy Jones, mostly because Seaver had won it a couple of times already, so the edge went to the non-Met. Seaver's number has been retired, and they give Koosman's #36 to a different scrub every year.
Prior to him, I also liked Al Jackson. It broke my heart when they traded him for Ken Boyer. He had about the same ERA as his teammate, Bob Gibson, the next year.
Congrats on Maddux. I had forgotten that he started out as a Cub. There's a lot of anti-Brave sentiment among the Met fans, particularly with respect to ex-Met, Tom Glavine, but I don't feel that way and liked both of them. |
