San Antonio native receives praise for role on Miracle Mets
Jerry Grote, a San Antonio native 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 Sunday in Austin. He was 81.
Jay Horwitz, the Mets' vice president of media relations, said early Monday that Grote had died of respiratory failure Sunday afternoon after a heart procedure at the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute.
He pitched, caught and played third base in high school at Macarthur then enrolled at Trinity University. He played one season for the Tigers, hitting .413, before embarking on a professional career.
Grote was inducted into the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame in 1998.
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 future Hall of Famer Tom Seaver and 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, and finished among the National League's top five catchers in fielding percentage seven times, including a No. 1 ranking in 1975.
"He's the best catcher a pitcher would want to throw to," Seaver would say,
He also was remembered for a competitive drive that spawned a gruff demeanor.
Mets' left-hander Jon Matlack once remarked how, when he made his debut in 1971, “I was scared to death that I'd bounce a curveball into the dirt and get him mad. You worried about him more than the hitter.”
Grote was “a hard-bitten catcher who would goad his teammates to pitch harder, who could snap at reporters and official scorers,” The New York Times sports columnist George Vecsey wrote in 1981. He quoted Grote as saying “I had the red neck. I was red all over.”
The Houston Colt .45s (the future Astros), a team that entered the National League along with the Mets, signed Grote in their first season. He shuttled between Houston and the minors until he was traded to the Mets in 1965 for pitcher Tom Parsons. When he was batting over .300 at midseason in 1968, he became only the second Mets player, after second baseman Ron Hunt, to make an All-star Game starting lineup and ended the season with a .282 batting average. Then came the Mets' storied 1969 season, in which they overtook the Chicago Cubs to win the National League East title and swept the Atlanta Braves in three games to capture the NL pennant. The Mets were defeated by the Orioles in Game 1 of the World Series but swept the next four games. Grote's single in the ninth inning of Game 2 was followed by Al Weis' tiebreaking hit. He doubled in the bottom of the 10th inning in Game 4, won by the Mets when pinch-runner Rod Gaspar scored on a throwing error.
Grote remained a Mets mainstay in 1970 and 1971. Gil Hodges, who managed the Mets' 1969 World Series winners and whom Grote had credited for providing tips that improved his hitting, died of a heart attack during spring training in 1972.
Injuries took a toll on Grote afterward under manager Yogi Berra. But the Mets won another pennant that season and faced the Oakland A's in the World Series. losing in seven games.
Grote posted a careerhigh .295 batting average in 1975. The Mets traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers in August 1977. He was a backup to Steve Yeager, retired after the 1978 season, then came back to catch briefly for the Kansas City Royals and the Dodgers in 1981.
In 16 seasons, Grote had a .252 career batting average with 1,092 hits, 39 home runs and 404 runs batted in.
After he left the majors, he managed in the minor leagues, was involved in business ventures in San Antonio and raised steers on his ranch.