THE NEW YORK TIMES – Jerry Grote, who was among the National League’s leading catchers of his time and guided the pitching staff that propelled the New York Mets to their astonishing 1969 World Series championship, died on Sunday in Austin, Texas. He was 81.
Jay Horwitz, the Mets’ vice president of media relations, said early Monday that Grote had died of respiratory failure on Sunday afternoon after a heart procedure at the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute.
Grote, who played for the Mets for more than a decade, was known for targeting would-be base stealers with his powerful arm, and for his savvy in calling pitches.
In 1969, he caught the future Hall of Famer Tom Seaver and the outstanding left-hander Jerry Koosman when the Mets staged a late-season drive and defeated the Baltimore Orioles in a five-game World Series.
That championship was a remarkable turnaround for a team that had finished at or near the bottom of the National League for years after its founding in 1962.
An enduring image of the Mets’ triumphal moment shows Koosman leaping into Grote’s arms on the Shea Stadium mound seconds after left fielder Cleon Jones caught a fly ball for the Series’ final out.
Lou Brock, who stole hundreds of bases in his career, conceded that Grote often got the better of him.
“Grote’s quick out the box, has a powerful arm and always seemed to have a sixth sense about me stealing,” Brock told Sports Illustrated in 1974. “He would have the ball waiting for me at second base long before I got there.”
Grote was an All-Star in 1968 and 1974 …
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I have experienced the thrills and excitement of playing professional baseball and I fulfilled my childhood dreams of reaching the big leagues.
As a member of three National League Champions, two World Series championship teams and being selected to play in two All Star games were great chapters in my career. But there was nothing any more exciting than squatting behind the plate and giving the fastball sign to legendary Nolan Ryan or calling for Tom Seaver to put one low and outside.
For 16 years my knees proved to be my best friends as they allowed me to bend, kneel, squat and run as I became the man in the mask for the New York Mets. Little did I realize when I first put on the chest protector and shin guards as a little leaguer that someday I would be playing in the same city where baseball was as big as King Kong and the Boys of Summer were more popular in Brooklyn than the Beach Boys at a California rock concert.
For almost two decades I lived with excitement, energy and electricity of playing in the Big Apple. It was a script to compare with Robert Redford’s “The Natural” and it didn’t take Hollywood special effects to light up Shea Stadium.
– Jerry Grote, Catcher, 1969 World Champion New York Mets
SIDE NOTE: Many folks ask me how my knees and arms are holding up after all those years of catching. Well, the truth is… GREAT! I fortunately and surprisingly never had ANY problems through all the years I played which I attribute to the “wise” way in which I caught and played. My only knee surgery came from playing in a golf tournament while in Washington, D.C. I slipped and fell while trying to escape a monstrous thunderstorm there!
