Three Aces

BY KEVIN KERNAN

Joe McDonald is a gem of a baseball man. McDonald, 95, can rattle off details of his baseball life with the Miracle Mets, later the Cardinals, and other teams as if it were yesterday.

A class act too, when McDonald talks about his former teams’ accomplishments, it is never “me’’ it is always “we.’’

Baseball is teamwork on every level.

“Never use the word ‘I’ it is ‘we’’’ McDonald told BallNine this week from his home in Florida.

Interesting that Aaron Judge has the same mantra.

In this era where starting pitching is about to be legislated to get six innings of work out of a starter, here are the behind-the-scenes Amazin’ success stories of three aces the Mets signed during McDonald’s time with the team: Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan and Jerry Koosman.

Together, they combined for 857 wins, 14,008 innings pitched and 11,910 strikeouts.

Seaver and Ryan are Hall of Fame legends and Koosman won 222 games, producing a 3.36 ERA over his 19-year career and he pitched a complete game in the Mets clinching Game 5 victory over the Orioles to win the World Series.

When you look at these three pitchers there were was magic in how they became Mets. And that is what we love to do here at BallNine, speak directly to the people who create baseball history, so sit back and enjoy the story of the Three Aces, including the fact that in 1966, the Mets opted to keep the struggling Koosman simply because Kooz owed the club $50 as a result of a car accident he had on his way to spring training.

Yes, that really happened.

McDonald started working for the Mets in 1962, and worked his way up to head of scouting and player development – and was named GM in 1974.

The Mets acquired Seaver because one of their scouts was able to sneak into a private Arizona workout the Indians held for Tom Terrific as Seaver wound up in a lottery that included the Indians, Mets and Phillies.

The Ryan Express was discovered by a bird-dog scout, a World War II veteran.

Oh, yes, McDonald was the Cardinals GM when they won the 1982 World Series and he made a key trade, acquiring a young Willie McGee from the Yankees for pitcher Bob Sykes. Whitey Herzog was the manager and GM. He had worked for the Mets as field coordinator and in scouting as a cross-checker. McDonald originally joined the Cardinals as the assistant GM and then became the GM when Herzog stepped down to solely manage the club.

“Whitey brought me over from the Mets,’’ McDonald told me. “He had a problem. He didn’t like the telephone, and he didn’t like agents. So, he hired me. One of the reasons he was successful, besides the handling of the players, was his evaluation skills.’’

The Cardinals beat the Brewers in seven games in the World Series as McDonald earned his second World Series championship ring. Later in his career, McDonald was a pro scout with the Red Sox, earning rings in 2004, ’07, ’13 and 2018.

As we all know, the first World Championship with the Mets was the stuff of baseball legends with the Miracle Mets beating the mighty Orioles in five games in 1969. The seeds of that championship were planted years earlier and my BallNine teammate Rocco Constatino loves this kind of behind-the-scenes Mets history.

“I have rings, but the ring I cherish the most is with the 1969 Mets, literally half the team was developed while I was there.’’

With the Mets, McDonald and Herzog were part of a great baseball team, back when front offices were much, much smaller. Beyond the Three Aces there were many other tremendous drafts and signings, like the drafting of Jon Matlack, but this story will focus on Seaver, Ryan and Koosman.

McDonald began working for the Mets in 1962 as a statistician for one year but soon advanced to scouting and player development and “before you know it I was head of both,’’ said McDonald, who was with the Mets for 18 years.

He was hired by George Weiss, who was the Mets GM from 1962-66. McDonald’s first job in baseball was decades earlier, assisting ticket takers for the Brooklyn Dodgers; he retired in 2019 with the Red Sox. What a run.

Joe’s son Jody is a popular sports talk host in New York and Philadelphia.

“I have rings, but the ring I cherish the most is with the 1969 Mets, literally half the team was developed while I was there,’’ McDonald said.

Joe is quick to credit his father for his love and knowledge of the game. “He used to shag balls at Washington Park, which preceded Ebbets Field, the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers.’’

Now that is some baseball history.

All that baseball knowledge was put to World Champion use with the Mets in scouting and development. “I loved every minute of it,’’ McDonald said.

Let’s start with Nolan Ryan.

“A bird dog scout was on top of Nolan Ryan,’’ McDonald said of scout RC “Red’’ Gaskill, who worked with superscout Red Murff. Ryan did not do well when Mets cross-checker Bing Devine saw him but McDonald believed in what Gaskill, a World War II veteran who survived his ship being torpedoed at the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944, saw in the Alvin, Texas star. Ryan was given $10,000 and taken with the last pick of the 12th round of the 1965 draft, the 295th player selected. One of the great draft picks of all time. Gaskill worked as a scout for 35 years for a number of teams, another example of scouts being the backbone of baseball.

McDonald moved Ryan from rookie ball to High A quickly and then AAA Jacksonville and through the system, “and in those days you didn’t see that often,’’ McDonald explained of the teenager’s rapid rise. “A high school player going to High A? Funny thing is I had a club, for one year in the Florida State League in Winter Haven and we were in a pennant race. We put Nolan down there and he pitched for that ballclub, and the rest is history.’’

Gaskill was inducted into the Texas Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame in 1999 and died at the age of 89 in 2010.

The Mets wound up getting Tom Seaver through the diligent work of scouts as well.

There was the Seaver lottery after Commissioner William Eckert had ruled the Braves bonus to the University of Southern California right-hander had broken MLB rules because the USC season had already started when they signed Seaver. Teams could enter the lottery for Seaver if they matched the Braves offer.

Only the Phillies, Indians and Mets got in on the action. The Mets won the drawing, their name picked out of a hat.

“We were fortunate,’’ McDonald said of the lottery, “but I would like to credit my scouts again and the job they did.’’

Here is how the Mets got involved.

“Harry Minor, what a tremendous scout, what a guy,’’ said McDonald. “He got wind that Tom Seaver, after the commissioner declared him a free agent, that Birdie Tebbetts of Cleveland arranged for Seaver to go to Cleveland’s spring training so they could get a look at him. Harry told Nelson Burbrink, who was another terrific scout about it and Nelson was assigned to Arizona and Cleveland anyway, so Harry told him to leave early because they were bringing in Seaver to pitch to some major league hitters. The three hitters were Leon Daddy Wags Wagner, Freddie Whitfield and Max Alvis – and Nellie snuck into the park and was there to see it. He saw Seaver dominate.’’

This was long before Hawk-Eye, this was eyes of a scout on the prize.

“So now we had to convince George Weiss,’’ McDonald said.

Weiss was never an easy sell on spending money and the Mets spent $51,500 to match the Braves’ offer.

“Bing Devine and I composed a letter and in it we put what Seaver did to those three hitters,’’ McDonald said. “George, when he got the letter that we were appealing to him to let us get into the lottery, I think that letter was one of the major selling points to George Weiss.

“Then consequently, you could say we were lucky (winning the lottery) but we were lucky because we had good scouts.’’

Boots on the ground got the job done.

Jerry Koosman cost much less.

Here is how Koosman became a Met as an amateur free agent. McDonald knew all the ushers at the Polo Grounds in 1963 and one day one of the ushers approached him and said, “My son is a catcher at Fort Bliss, and he is catching a pitcher who is pretty good. So I take the pitcher’s name and it’s Koosman.”

Remember, George was tight with money so McDonald had to find a way to get information on an Army team in Fort Bliss, Texas.

This was a much different time in baseball.

“We were not allowed to make unnecessary phone calls,’’ McDonald said.

He dropped the information in the mail to super-scout Red Murff, inventing a system called SAM: which was Scout Assignment Memo.

“It just gives the name of the player, and you put it in the mail, and what you hear about him,’’ McDonald said. “That’s how Red Murff learned of Koosman from a little SAM message that I sent him that I got from an usher at the Polo Grounds. I think we gave him $1,000 so that’s how Jerry came to us.’’

Koosman signed in 1964 as an amateur free agent. That was only part of the money story for Koosman. “I almost released him, I had a list of players to be released in spring training,’’ McDonald said as the lefty struggled in the minors. This was in 1966. “In the interim, he got into a car accident.’’

Players could drive their cars to spring training and be reimbursed the cost of the flight. Koosman and two other Mets decided to game the system and drive down together to Homestead, Florida, so each would get airfare and split the cost of driving. There also was a rule that when the team breaks spring training, they break as a unit so someone else has to drive your car back.

Good plan, one car, three airfares, except there was an accident on the way to spring training.

Koosman, Jerry Johnson and Jerry Wild, the Three Jerrys, got in an accident in Georgia. “They call me at 1 in the morning and Jerry (Koosman) was upfront,’’ recalled McDonald, who was the farm director at the time. “The first thing I said, was anybody hurt, ‘No.’ So then I say, in typical New York fashion, ‘Well, get your ass down here,’’’

Koosman needed a $50 loan to get the three to Homestead and spring training.

“We are not supposed to loan money in spring training to players who have a chance to be released,’’ McDonald said. “I give him the $50. Fast forward a couple weeks and we have a meeting and a list of potential cuts and one is Koosman.

“Nobody in the meeting says ‘Keep Koosman.’

“I say hold it, we can’t release him, he owes Mrs. Payson $50. I said to Clyde McCullough, a great guy, you take him up to Auburn with you, I have to get the $50 back. And that is how Jerry Koosman was retained.’’

Koosman turned it all around at Auburn after he perfected a slider and had success in the NYPL in 1966. In 1968 he wins 19 games for the Mets. In the miracle season of ’69 he wins 17 and two games in the World Series.

Tom Seaver wins Game 4 and Nolan Ryan saves Gary Gentry’s victory in Game 3. That $50 was quite the investment.

“Not too bad,’’ McDonald said.