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• Hudson's Jerry Koosman reflects on the World Series and baseball

By Jon Echternacht

When October rolls around, the leaves begin to turn and a nip is in the air, it means one thing; the Major League Baseball playoffs are underway.

Just about every kid who plays sandlot ball in the backyard entertains the fantasy of standing on the mound, throwing smoke past an opposing batter to retire the side and win the World Series.

One Hudson resident has lived that great American dream. Jerry Koosman, the hard-throwing southpaw, made the journey from a farm in Western Minnesota to win the final game of the 1969 World Series as a member of the New York Mets.

He took time from his business last week to reflect on baseball, the feelings of winning the Series and pursuing the dream.

The 1969 season was the first for baseball's four-division alignment. The Mets won the National League East crown with a 100-62 record and faced the Atlanta Braves in the playoffs.

"We had a pretty good pitching staff in 69," Koosman said. "As a team we had 1,000 strikeouts, an era of 2.47 and threw 27 shutouts." Along with Koosman, the staff included Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan.

"Atlanta had a good staff and everybody expected the playoff to be a pitching dual," he added. But the Mets won three straight in a slugfest 9-5, 11-6 and 7-4 to make it to the Series.

Incidentally, the Minnesota Twins lost three straight in he American League playoff to the Baltimore Orioles, who hosted the first two games of the Series.

The Orioles won the opener 4-1 and Seaver took the loss. Koosman was on the mound for the second contest.

"Ever since I was about 16, my dream was to pitch a perfect game in the World Series," Koosman said. "But Don Larsen (Yankees, Oct. 8, 1956) did it before I got there."

"I had a perfect game going into the seventh inning," he said. Baltimore got a run, but Koosman chalked up the victory by a 2-1 margin.

The Mets won Game Three 5-0 behind Gary Gentry and Seaver triumphed 2-1 in Game Four, both at Shea Stadium in Queens.

Koosman took the hill for Game Five. "We wanted to win bad," he said. "We didn't want to go back to Baltimore."

The 26-year-old pitcher was nervous and pacing around before the game. "Pearl Bailey, who was a big Mets fan, was there to sing the national anthem. She saw me pacing around and told me to relax," said Koosman. "She said she had seen the number 8 and we were going to win."

The Mets dropped behind 3-0 in the game when Baltimore pitcher Dave McNally hit a two-run shot and Frank Robinson tagged a solo homer off Koosman. The southpaw gave up only two hits in the remainder of the contest and the Mets captured the title 5-3.

"In the ninth inning I realized we were only three outs away from the World Series championship," he said. "The noise was so loud you couldn't even hear the crack of the bat to get a jump on the ball."

"I got excited and I couldn't throw the ball where I wanted to. I tried to get fast balls down the middle. The last out was a fly ball by Davey Johnson. Cleon Jones caught it and dropped to his knees."

"It was an unbelievable feeling. Then the fans started pouring out of the stands and we were worried for our safety. We wanted to get to the clubhouse," Koosman said.

"After it was all over, and we were done with the media. A few of us sat down and looked at each other and couldn't talk, because we were overcome with emotion," he added.

Koosman's big league career spanned 18 years and 56 days. He said it was a way to make a living for him in the days before the big salaries.

"I got $6,000 my first year," he said. "After the World Series I made $36,000 and the highest salary I got was $600,000 my last year," he said, which doesn't match up favorably with the astronomical salaries of today.

Koosman said he returned to Morris, Minn., worked as a carpet layer in the off season after his first year to make ends meet. "We couldn't afford Christmas lights that year so my wife tied little red bows on the tree," he said.

He mused about making the big money of today. "I'd be like (former Twins first baseman) Kent Hrbek. I'd fish and hunt all the time," he said.

Koosman grew up on a farm 11.5 miles north of Appleton, Minn., with an older brother and sister and a younger brother. He attended the University of Minnesota Morris and North Dakota State School of Science in Wahpeton.

He was drafted and joined the Army on Oct. 12, 1962 which ultimately led to his big league career.

"I was stationed at a base outside of St. Louis up on a hill and there was no place to play baseball," he said. He worked on getting transferred to a base where he could play and ended up with the 5th Army in El Paso, Texas.

"The Mets drafted me in the Army and I signed a major league contract on Aug. 28, 1964," he said. Koosman added that the 5th Army had very good baseball and players were regularly scouted by the big leagues.

He played minor league ball at Homestead, Fla., Centerville, S.C., and Auburn, N.Y. through 1965, 66 and part of 1967. The Mets called him up for the first month and last month of 67.

In 1968, he was named National League Rookie Pitcher of the Year and played in the All-Star game in Washington, D.C. He just missed making the Major League honor. "I missed making Rookie of the Year by one-half vote to Johnny Bench (Cincinnati), Koosman said.

Koosman was Mets MVP in 1976 when he posted a 21-10 record. His lifetime stats included 222 wins, 209 loses, 3.36 ERA, 3,839.1 innings pitched and 2,556 strikeouts.

He said the fast ball was his best pitch. "I wanted to challenge the hitter, go right at him," Koosman said.

"In my day, if you didn't throw a 90 mph fast ball, you got released," he added. Ryan always threw hard. He was clocked with at 105 mph. Sever and I also were clocked with 105 mph pitches."

The lefthander said that the big hitters weren't his toughest outs. "The big home run hitters weren't the toughest. Willie Mays only hit one home run on me. Hank Aaron only hit one and Willie Stargell only got one," he said.

"The three that were the toughest on me were Jesus Alou, Lee Maye and Jose Pagan. When Pagan played for Pittsburgh, he hit seven home runs off me in three years. Maye could get to my changeup and Alou swung at everything, Koosman said.

An 18-plus year career in the majors is probably a thing of the past. The 57-year-old Koosman attributes his longevity to growing up on the farm in different times.

He said that today kids have all sorts of electronic games, television, ATV's and such to provide entertainment and they don't devote as much time to playing ball.

"When I was a kid, our entertainment was playing baseball. We played everyday," he said.

He also credits the hard work on the farm to helping him survive a career in which he was only hurt three times.

"Bucking hay bails, shoveling grain and manure help get you in condition," he said.

October brings back thoughts of the World Series Koosman played in but his memories are kept alive because, "There is always somebody who wants to talk baseball," he said.

Koosman is an imposing figure at 6-foot-3 with a gentle voice. There are no gaps in his memory of 18 years in the majors. A conversation with him gives a visitor the comfortable, relaxed, feeling of sitting around the counter of a diner talking baseball in any of a number of small towns throughout the Midwest.

If baseball isn't still the Great American Pastime, maybe talking about the game is.