A member of the 1969 Miracle Mets has died.
Jerry Koosman was 83 years old.
Team spokesman Jay Horwitz said Koosman died of heart failure on Nov. 1 after having a year of health issues, The New York Times reported.
He passed at his Osceola, Wisconsin, home.
The Mets paid tribute to Koosman on social media.
The Times said Koosman was part of the lefty-righty pitching combo teamed with Tom Seaver to secure the World Series championship in 1969.
But he was often overshadowed; he went 17-9 that year and threw a complete game in Game 5 of the World Series over the Baltimore Orioles, the first time the Mets were World Series champions, the Times reported.
The partnership ended when the Mets traded Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds in 1977.
“Although both were terrific, their pitching styles were so different,” Mets’ outfielder Art Shamsky wrote in “After the Miracle.”
“Tom was an artist, like Leonardo da Vinci out there on the mound, whereas Kooz was more like Gen. George Patton, willing to throw at an opposing batter if their pitcher threw at one of us. Seaver was the great pitcher, while Kooz was the great battler,” Shamsky said.
Seaver died of complications of Lewy body dementia and COVID-19 in 2020 at the age of 75, the Times said.
Koosman was born on Dec. 23, 1942, in Appleton, Minnesota, to a farmer father and homemaker mother.
He was one of four children and was pitching by age 13 in semi-pro baseball and American Legion leagues.
Koosman attended the University of Minnesota, Morris, but the school didn’t have a baseball team, so he transferred to North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton, but couldn’t pitch because he was a transfer student. He was eventually drafted by the Army in 1962 and pitched for the Fort Bliss baseball team. That’s when the Mets scouted him and signed him to a minor-league contract in 1964.
He pitched for the Mets in 1967 and was the No. 2 starter behind Seaver the next year. He was also selected for the All-Star Game in 1968 and had a 19-12 record with 178 strikeouts.
He came in second behind Cincinnati Reds catcher Johnny Bench for rookie of the year in 1968.
In 1973, the Mets went back to the World Series and he went 2-0, winning games 2 and five, but the Oakland A’s ended up the champions that year, USA Today reported.
Koosman had losing seasons in 1977 and 1978 and asked to be traded; the Mets sent him to the Minnesota Twins, where he won 20 games in 1979.
He also played for the Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Phillies. He retired after the 1985 season.
The Mets retired his jersey in 2021 and he is a member of the team’s Hall of Fame as the winningest left-hander in Mets franchise history, according to USA Today.
At the jersey ceremony, Koosman said: “I’m thankful that they thought so much of me to retire my number. I know I’m joining a great crew that they had their numbers retired. I don’t know if I deserve it. I guess we are going to get on with it,” MLB.com said.
After retiring, he was a minor league pitching instructor with the Mets and eventually ran a machinery design company.
He did have some legal troubles. He pleaded guilty in 2009 to failing to pay income taxes for three years and defrauding the government of as much as $90,000. He said he was naive and mistakenly believed that tax laws did not apply to him, the Times said.
He spent nine months in prison.
Koosman leaves behind his daughter, two sons and several grandchildren.
Koosman’s stats:
- 222 games won (140 games with the Mets)
- 209 games lost (137 games with the Mets)
- 19 major league seasons (12 with the Mets)
- 3.36 ERA
- 2,556 strikeouts
- 3,839 1/3 innings
- Two-time All-Star