#478 - '73 World Series - Game #7

For the third year in a row the World Series was going to seven games. And for the last two years both deciding games were won by the away teams so recent history was oddly in the Mets’ favor. For the third time in this Series Ken Holtzman was going up against Jon Matlack and Matlack hadn’t had a bad post-season game yet. But as this card so ably points out in both the score and the photo all that was for naught. Here we have Bert Campaneris, of all people, breaking the Oakland homer drought with his shot in the third inning and like on the last card Jerry Grote just gets to watch as the Cinderella season finally slips away from him and his teammates.

Game Seven started late for a Sunday game – about 4:45 PM – I guess so people on the east coast could tune in after dinner and football. In the first two-and-a-half innings the two starters only allowed a base runner between them but things changed dramatically in the bottom of the third. After a strikeout by Dick Green, Holtzman hit his second double of the Series, again down the leftfield line. Campaneris followed with his homer, Oakland’s first of the Series. After a Joe Rudi single and a Sal Bando pop-up, up came Reggie Jackson, in no mood to be outshone in the power department by a shortstop. So Reggie lofted his own two-run shot and all of a sudden Oakland was up 4-0. Harry Parker came in to replace Matlack and gave up a walk before a pop-up by a pinch-hitting Vic Davalillo ended the inning.

In the fourth the Mets made some noise on a Rusty Staub single and a Cleon Jones walk, both on two outs, but a John Milner groundout ended that. After Parker breezed through the fourth, Grote led off the fifth with a single but he got stranded also. In the bottom, Ray Sadecki came in and gave up a Campy single to left that Jones bobbled, allowing him to get to second. He then scored on a Rudi single to center and it was 5-0. Ray calmed down the rest of the inning and then it was NY’s turn. Felix Millan stroked a one-out double and Staub followed with a double of his own, shades of Oakland’s scoring in Game Six. Millan scored, chasing Holtzman in favor of Rollie Fingers. Fingers got Jones on a deep fly to right that moved Rusty to third but Milner hit another groundout to leave him there. After Sadecki got three quick ones in the bottom the Mets made some more noise in the seventh. Don Hahn singled and after Bud Harrelson flied out to center for out two Ken Boswell pinch hit for Sadecki and got his third successive pinch hit of the Series. But Wayne Garrett left them both on with a strikeout. In came George Stone, curiously absent in the Series. He gave up a single to Fingers and a bunt single to Campy before striking out the side. Both pitchers breezed through the next half-innings and up came NY for their final licks. Milner walked and Grote flied out to left. Hahn then singled and Harrelson then moved the two runners up with a bunt on which Fingers nipped him at first. Ed Kranepool then pinch-hit for Stone and hit one to first, seemingly ending things. But Gene Tenace bobbled the ball, Milner scored, and Hahn went to third. Thirteen years later an error at first would resuscitate a Series for NY but not this time. Darold Knowles replaced Fingers and with runners on the corners Garrett lofted a fly to shallow left and Campy caught it. A’s 5-2 and the mini-dynasty was on.

This was Knowles’ seventh game which set a Series record for a pitcher. He got the save, Holtzman the win, and Matlack took the loss. Here is the pitching line:

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Matlack	2.2	4	4	4	1	3	13.50
Parker	1.1	0	0	0	1	1	-
Sadecki	2.0	2	1	1	-	1	4.50
Stone	2.0	3	0	0	-	3	-
	8.0	9	5	5	2	8	5.63
	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Holtzman	5.1	5	1	1	1	4	1.69
Fingers	3.1	3	1	0	1	2	-
Knowles	0.1	0	0	0	-	0	-
	9.0	8	2	1	2	6	1.13

#477 - '73 World Series - Game #6

Well, this was bound to happen. Up until now Reggie Jackson had a pretty quiet Series. He had a great game in Game 2 with his four hits and two RBI’s. But Oakland lost that one so all the big numbers were wasted. And Reggie, soon to acquire the name Mr. October, was only hitting .190 in the current post-season. So when the AL MVP finally had a big game that meaningfully contributed to his team’s post-season run he was bound to get a card. In this photo it appears he just lined one to left-center which would make it his early-inning double in the sun in Oakland. It’s nice to see a shot of Reggie at the plate where he hasn’t either corkscrewed himself into the ground on a missed strike or is admiring one of his homers. Watching Reggie hustling from the plate would probably have even put a smile on Billy Martin’s face.

For the third time in this Series two starters faced each other for the second time and for this game it was the two staff aces, Tom Seaver and Catfish Hunter. The action started early as Wayne Garrett led off with a walk and Rusty Staub sent him to second with a single. But Catfish got three fly outs to shut NY down. In the bottom of the inning Joe Rudi singled and after Seaver got Bando on a K for out number two Reggie doubled to left-center – my choice for the photo - to get Rudi in and Oakland a 1-0 lead. Catfish then had two 1-2-3 innings with a few deep fly outs while Seaver burned through the order until the third when Reggie pulled an instant replay, this time doubling Sal Bando in with a shot to right-center. From then until the eighth inning each starter put about a guy on an inning with nobody else scoring and Oakland maintained its 2-0 lead.

In the top of the eighth Ken Boswell pinch hit for Seaver and singled. That brought in Darold Knowles who gave up two consecutive singles – to Garrett and Felix Millan – to score Boswell. With runners on the corners Knowles got Staub to strikeout but then got pulled for Rollie Fingers. Fingers got Cleon Jones to fly out, killing the rally. In the bottom Tug McGraw was in and he gave up a single to center to Reggie that Don Hahn misplayed into a two-base error. After a walk to Gene Tenace, Jesus Alou pinch hit for Vic Davalillo and hit a sacrifice fly to deep left that scored Jackson. After Tug got a double play off a Deron Johnson strikeout and a Jerry Grote gun-down of Tenace attempting to steal, the Mets had one more shot. But Fingers went through the order fast to preserve the win. The A’s evened up the Series as Catfish got the win, Fingers the save, and Seaver took another loss.

Reggie’s three hits stick out here like a sore thumb. Here are the pitching lines:

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Seaver	7.0	6	2	2	2	6	2.57
McGraw	1.0	1	1	0	1	1	-
	8.0	7	3	2	3	7	2.25
	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Hunter	7.1	4	1	1	1	1	1.23
Knowles	0.1	2	0	0	-	0	-
Fingers	1.1	0	0	0	-	0	-
	9.0	6	1	1	1	1	1.50

#476 - '73 World Series - Game #5

Game 5 of the ’73 World Series would be another cold nighttime affair at Shea. The Series was now tied and the game featured another rematch of starters from an earlier Series game, Vida Blue and Jerry Koosman, neither of whom did particularly well in Game 2. The chosen action shot shows Cleon Jones about to score off a John Milner single to right as Ray Fosse follows the path of the throw in and Jerry Grote celebrates. Cleon, who’d been having a pretty good but quiet post-season, was nursing a flu bug and actually had to leave Game 4 because he was so sick. This trip home probably made him feel a little better though. In this game all the NY offense came from the middle of the order and the Oakland offense came from ...well, nowhere really, but we’ll get to that now.

The Mets started the game off with two excellent defensive plays on the left side of the infield that set the tone for the game. Outside of a Sal Bando walk the bases stayed empty on both sides until the bottom of the second when Jones led off with a double over Joe Rudi’s head. After Milner’s single scored him that was the end of the offense for a while. For Oakland, Bert Campaneris singled in the third but Koosman picked him off first to end the inning. Bando singled in the fourth and a double play killed that threat. In the sixth the A’s finally got someone into scoring position on a Campy walk and a Bando smash to third that got bobbled by Wayne Garrett but a Reggie Jackson groundout stuffed the momentum. Meanwhile the Mets were threatening about every inning. In the fourth Vida escaped a bases-loaded two-out situation by getting Bud Harrleson to pop up. In the fifth Garrett made it to third on a walk, wild pitch, and a groundout before Rusty Staub grounded out for out three. In the sixth came more trouble: Grote singled to left after two outs and Don Hahn tripled him home. That brought in Darold Knowles – game five – and he ended things by striking out Koosman.

In the seventh inning a walk to Gene Tenace and double by Fosse gave Koosman his most trouble of the game and Tug McGraw came in with one out. After Tug gave up a walk to Deron Johnson he got two quick outs. Knowles had left for a pinch hitter and in came Rollie Fingers. He matched McGraw in his half and in the top of the eighth Tug got two outs before he started an Oakland rally by walking Reggie and Tenace before getting Jesus Alou on a liner to end the inning. In the bottom Milner got another single before being stranded and in the ninth Tug sent Oakland down in order. The Mets won 2-0 and for the first time had a lead in the Series. Koosman got the win, McGraw the save, and Vida took the loss. The Series was heading back to Oakland.

Oakland had only three hits in the game and at this point hadn’t homered once in the Series. Odom actually appeared as a pinch runner in the game. The pitching stats follow:

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Blue	5.2	6	2	2	1	4	3.18
Knowles	0.1	0	0	0	1	1	-
Fingers	2.0	1	0	0	2	1	-
	8.0	7	2	2	4	6	2.25
	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Koosman	6.1	3	0	0	4	4	-
McGraw	2.2	0	0	0	3	3	-
	9.0	3	0	0	7	7	-

#311 - Jerry Grote

In another great action shot Jerry Grote appears to have just hit one off his bat handle in a game at Shea against the Reds that may or may not have been a playoff game. Jerry was one of the Mets' walking wounded in '73. In May he went down with a fractured wrist that kept him out of the lineup for three months. He then had a tough time coming back - his average was still under .200 by early August - but hit nearly .300 from there on as NY won the division after a nice comeback. To demonstrate how snake-bitten these guys were earlier in the season, when Grote went down the Mets bought Jerry May from KC. In May's first game he sprained his wrist and a week later he was out of the majors for good..

Jerry Grote was born and raised in Texas where he was a high school track star and pitched, caught, and played third in baseball. In '61 he went to Trinity University where he played a season of baseball in which he hit .413 with five homers and 19 RBI's. He was signed that summer of '62 by the Colt .45's and got things kicked off the next spring in Double A San Antonio. He did quite well, hitting .268 with 14 homers and 62 RBI's and caught full-time, picking up a bunch of tips from his back-up Clint Courtney, a former Braves catcher. In '64 he graduated to Houston where he shared time behind the plate with John Bateman. While Jerry was by far the superior defender, Bateman was a bit better offensively and in '65 when Ron Brand came up, Jerry was sent to Triple A Oklahoma City. There he hit much better and when the season was over he was sent to the Mets for Tom Parsons.

Grote went from one crappy team to another and in '66 he was named NY's starting catcher, improving his average 50 points over his '64 one. In '67 he fell back below .200 but he picked off half the guys that tried to steal on him and did a great job helping develop new phenom Tom Seaver. In '68 new manager Gil Hodges worked with Jerry on his hitting and Grote got his first All-Star nod as a result. In '69 he hit lifetime highs in homers and RBI's for the Series winners while significantly cutting down on his K's (for the rest of his career his K totals pretty much matched his walk ones). In '70 and '71 he led the NL catchers in putouts but his percentage of runners picked off dropped substantially, however, and in '72 new manager Yogi Berra named Duffy Dyer the starting catcher. It was revealed later in the season that Jerry had bone chips in his throwing elbow and after the season he had them removed. After his up-and-down '73 he returned to his starting gig in '74 and was hitting .288 mid-season to make his second All-Star team. In '75 he upped his average to a lifetime high of .295 and in '76 he served his last season as the Mets starting guy behind the plate.

In '77 the Mets traded Tom Seaver to Cincinnati. It had already been an unusual season for Grote as John Stearns took over the starting catcher job and Jerry had almost as many starts at third base as he did behind the plate. Shortly after Seaver left, Jerry was sent to the Dodgers for a couple minor leaguers. With LA he was the third guy behind Steve Yeager and Johnny Oates. In that role his at bats would be extremely limited but he did return to the post-season the next two seasons. After the '78 season he basically retired to be with his family in Texas. But late in '80 he got divorced and at 38 he signed with the Royals for the '81 season. While Jerry would again be pretty far down on the depth chart, he did put up one last memorable feat when that July he had seven RBI's in a game. Despite that and hitting over .300 in his limited role he was released in late summer and re-signed with LA. After a couple games with them he was done. Jerry hit .252 with 39 homers and 404 RBI's for his career. In the post-season he hit .222 in 26 games. Defensively he is in the top 30 all-time for putouts at catcher (all those NY strikeouts) and in the top 70 for fielding percentage.

After playing Grote briefly returned to baseball in '85 when he managed a couple teams in the Detroit system, even playing a game behind the plate. Most of the time he hung out in Texas.


Unsurprisingly Jerry's star bullets focus on his defense. The cartoon adds a lot of color to what he did after playing. The ranch he bought was a working one outside San Antonio and that is just what he did - worked the ranch. He also got involved in a bunch of local San Antonio businesses, including managing a real estate firm and a couple restaurants. San Antonio is still his home base.

These guys played together on LA but barely so I am going through their battery-mate:

1. Grote and Duffy Dyer '69 to '74 Mets;
2. Dyer and Terry Forster '77 Pirates.