Jerry Koosman's Pivotal Inning Against Willie Mays and His San Francisco Giants

Jerry Koosman was disappointed when Wes Westrum was relieved of his managerial duties by the New York Mets.

Koosman said that Westrum had been very kind to him "...so I was pretty disheartened when he got released."

When it was announced that Gil Hodges would manage the Mets, Koosman anticipated a strong disciplinarian. He was correct, but he discovered, much to his and his teammates' delight, that Hodges enjoyed having fun as long as it didn't interfere with winning.

Koosman won 19 games in his rookie season of 1968. I realized that the Mets were becoming a different team after Koosman's first start that year.

The Mets opened on the West Coast against the San Francisco Giants. Tom Seaver faced Juan Marichal as the Mets went to the ninth inning with a 4-2 lead. The Giants rallied, scored three runs in the ninth and left the field winners.

The Mets traveled to Los Angeles the day, where Koosman squared off against fire-ball Bill Singer. Vince Scully told me and millions of others the Dodgers right-hander was referred to in Los Angeles as the "Singer Throwing Machine."

I usually watched or listened to most Mets games, but because it was only the second game of the season and there was a three-hour time difference between Los Angeles and Flushing, where I lived, I went beddy-bye.

When I turned on WINS in the morning, which had become the first all-news station in the country only three years before, Spencer Ross said that the Mets, behind Jerry Koosman, had shut out the Dodgers, 4-0.

That was a portent of things to come, but the real sign occurred a few days later on Wednesday, April 17, which was the Mets home opener against the San Francisco Giants.

I had been up late the day before because I listened to all 24 innings of the Mets' 1-0 loss to the Houston Astros. The old Mets would have given up, but these Mets battled for 24 innings before losing. It was a loss, but it wasn't a typical Mets loss.

Figuring I would take a nap on the sand, I spent the afternoon at Rockaway Beach, right near 35th St.

The tip off occurred in the first inning.

Ron Hunt led off the first inning with a single to center. Jim Davenport hit a ground ball to shortstop that Al Weis misplayed. An upset Koosman pitched carefully, maybe a little too carefully to Willie McCovey and walked him to load the bases with Giants.

I thought to myself, here we go...only we didn't.

Sitting on my blanket and looking out at the Atlantic Ocean, I turned up the volume on the radio.

Koosman peered in to get the signal from Jerry Grote. He nodded assent, fired and Willie Mays took a called third strike. One out.

Jim Ray Hart hit the ball high into the air. Grote settled under it in foul territory. Two outs.

With two strikes on him, Jack Hiatt took a mighty swing. Three outs.

Listen to Ron Swoboda:

"

"What a display. ... I was thinking, ‘Oh (expletive), we're in trouble.’ Four, five, six were up ... and Koosman retired all three of them, and in a hurry it became, ‘Oh, (expletive), they’re in trouble.’”

"

Koosman pitched his second consecutive shut out. It was the first time the Mets won a home opener.

1969 was only one year away.