After trading Steve Carlton and Jerry Reuss, the Cardinals went two seasons without a prominent left-hander in their starting rotation. General manager Bing Devine sought to help fill the void by trying to acquire Jerry Koosman.
Fifty years ago, after the 1973 season, Devine offered first baseman Joe Torre to the Mets for Koosman. A Brooklyn native who won a National League Most Valuable Player Award with the Cardinals, Torre appealed to the Mets, who in 1973 ranked last in the league in total bases and next-to-last in runs scored. Koosman, a left-hander who pitched in two World Series for the Mets, appealed to the Cardinals in their quest for more depth and better balance in the starting rotation.
Published reports indicated the proposed swap was a done deal, but when the Mets tried to substitute others for Koosman, the Cardinals lost interest.
Talent drain
In a period from December 1971 to April 1972, the Mets and Cardinals made three ill-fated trades. The Mets sent pitcher Nolan Ryan (and three others) to the Angels for infielder Jim Fregosi in December 1971. Soon after, the Cardinals’ petulant owner, Gussie Busch, got miffed with pitchers Steve Carlton (because of his salary request) and Jerry Reuss (because he grew a moustache) and ordered Bing Devine to trade both. Devine sent Carlton to the Phillies in February 1972 and Reuss to the Astros two months later.
Carlton (329 wins) and Ryan (324 wins) became Hall of Famers. Reuss won 220.
The Mets reached the World Series in 1973 because of a rotation that had Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and Jon Matlack and because of a misconceived playoff format that rewarded mediocrity. The 79 losses of the 1973 Mets are the most ever for a pennant winner, just one more than the 78 of the 2006 Cardinals and 2023 Diamondbacks.
After trading Carlton and Reuss, the 1972 Cardinals (75-81) had all right-handers in their starting rotation _ Bob Gibson, Rick Wise, Reggie Cleveland, Al Santorini and Scipio Spinks. The only left-handers to make starts for the 1972 Cardinals were Lance Clemons and John Cumberland. Each made one.
It was a similar story the next year. The top five starters for the 1973 Cardinals (81-81) were right-handers Gibson, Wise, Cleveland, Alan Foster and Tom Murphy. The only left-hander to make a start was Rich Folkers, primarily a reliever.
Bing Devine, who once helped the Mets keep Jerry Koosman, now wanted to take him away from them.
Show me the money
In 1964, Koosman was in the Army at Fort Bliss, Texas, when Mets scout Red Murff (who also discovered Nolan Ryan) saw him pitch and recommended him. “I wanted a $20,000 signing bonus,” Koosman told the Philadelphia Daily News.
The Mets’ offer was for a fraction of that. Each time Koosman said no, the Mets offered less. According to Newsday, he finally said OK to $1,200. “The way things were going, I thought I’d better sign before I owed them money,” Koosman said to the Philadelphia newspaper.
Koosman signed in August 1964, about the time a panicky Gussie Busch fired the Cardinals’ general manager, Bing Devine. Two months later, Devine was hired by the Mets to be special assistant to team president George Weiss.
In 1965, his first season in the Mets’ farm system, Koosman was 5-13. At spring training in 1966, George Weiss wanted to release Koosman, Devine recalled in his book “The Memoirs of Bing Devine.”
According to Devine, he and minor-league executive Joe McDonald “thought it was a mistake to give up on Koosman.”
Devine said Koosman had borrowed about $500 from the Mets, and the parsimonious Weiss “really hated to get rid of players who owed the club money.” (Whitey Herzog, then a Mets coach, told the Philadelphia Daily News it was $50.)
According to Devine, Joe McDonald proposed suggesting to Weiss that the Mets keep Koosman at least until the club could begin deducting the money owed them from his first couple of regular-season paychecks.
Koosman began the 1966 season with a farm club in Auburn (N.Y.) and pitched so well (1.38 ERA in 170 innings) that the Mets kept him.
The next year, with Devine having replaced Weiss, Koosman earned a spot on the 1967 Mets Opening Day roster. He made five relief appearances for them, got sent to the minors and returned to the Mets in September, making three starts.
With the Mets’ Florida Instructional League team, managed by Whitey Herzog in the fall of 1967, Koosman had a 1.64 ERA in 55 innings. Devine then left to replace Stan Musial as Cardinals general manager in 1968, but Koosman was on his way to establishing himself as a Mets starter.
No deal
With the foundation built by Bing Devine, the Mets became World Series champions in 1969. Koosman contributed 17 wins and a 2.28 ERA. He also won Games 2 and 5 of the World Series. Boxscore and Boxscore
In 1973, Koosman had 14 wins and a 2.84 ERA. He won Game 5 of the World Series, beating Vida Blue and the Athletics. Boxscore
During that World Series, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that a trade of Joe Torre for Jerry Koosman “already has been agreed to.”
According to Newsday, “There have been reports for the last several weeks that Torre would be traded to the Mets for Jerry Koosman.”
The trade seemed such a lock that when Torre attended the 1973 World Series in New York he said “he was being congratulated by many persons for being traded to the Mets,” The Sporting News reported.
The sure bet then hit a snag.
According to Tulsa World sports editor Bill Connors, “The Mets thought they were close to getting Torre at World Series time, but backed out when the Cardinals would not settle for less than Jerry Koosman.”
Dick Young of the New York Daily News reported it was Mets manager Yogi Berra who would not agree to let Koosman go. Berra told The Sporting News, “I could have made a deal for Joe Torre if I was willing to give the Cardinals Koosman or a center fielder. We won’t give up Koosman for Torre and we don’t have a center fielder to give them.”
Newsday noted that the Mets, stung by having dealt Nolan Ryan, were “reluctant to part with another front-line pitcher.”
Mets general manager Bob Scheffing told the New York Daily News, “We might be interested in trading Koosman if somebody comes along and knocks us over with a deal.” He said he wasn’t “knocked over” by the proposal of Torre for Koosman.
Timing is everything
The Mets made a counter-proposal, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported. According to The Sporting News, the Mets offered to swap pitchers George Stone (a left-hander) and Jim McAndrew, plus infielder Ted Martinez, for Torre.
Devine, however, would not lower his demand for Koosman.
Torre suggested to Jersey Journal correspondent Jack Lang that if the Mets would offer a proposal that included another left-hander, former Cardinal Ray Sadecki, Devine might reconsider.
“I know they (the Cardinals) want a starting pitcher,” Torre told Lang. “They’d also like Ray Sadecki, that I know. They think of Sadecki the same way the Mets do _ someone who can start, relieve and pitch middle innings. He can be used in so many ways and they like him. If they (the Mets) can put together a package, they might be able to get both (outfielder Luis) Melendez and myself.”
(Instead, the Cardinals acquired John Curtis from the Red Sox to be a left-handed starter in 1974.)
Like the Mets did with Koosman, the Cardinals kept Torre in 1974. He batted .282 and produced a .371 on-base percentage. Koosman won 15 for the 1974 Mets, but Torre hit .526 (10-for-19) against him.
After the season, Joe McDonald replaced Bob Scheffing as Mets general manager. McDonald’s first trade was to send Ray Sadecki and pitcher Tommy Moore to the Cardinals for Torre. “The Torre deal could not have been made without Sadecki’s inclusion,” McDonald told The Sporting News.
Three years later, on May 31, 1977, Torre became the Mets’ manager. In his first start with Torre as manager, Koosman beat the Expos, but his season unraveled after that. Boxscore
Pitching for last-place teams, Koosman was 8-20 in 1977 and 3-15 in 1978. Born and raised on a farm in Minnesota, he asked to be traded to the Twins. Joe McDonald granted his request, dealing Koosman to Minnesota in December 1978 for a pair of pitching prospects, Jesse Orosco and Greg Field.
“I still think he has a great arm,” McDonald told The Sporting News, “and, in spite of his (1978) record, he can still pitch.”
McDonald eventually joined the Cardinals and was their general manager when they became World Series champions in 1982.
Torre eventually became Cardinals manager, got fired, went to the Yankees, won four World Series titles and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
In 19 years in the majors with the Mets (1967-78), Twins (1979-81), White Sox (1981-83) and Phillies (1984-85), Koosman was 222-209. In 74 plate appearances versus Koosman, Torre had a .446 on-base percentage and a .388 batting average.