TTM Stats
- Sent: 12/24/2021 | Received: 1/5/2022 | 11 Days
- ’75 Topps, ’77 Topps, ’81 Fleer, ’86 Topps
- Address: Home (address from Sports Card Forum)
The Story of the Autograph
Jerry Koosman is a former left-handed starting pitcher in the major leagues. He played from 1967 to 1985 primarily with the New York Mets, but later in his career spent time with the Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Phillies.
Koosman is a native of Minnesota. He went to the University of Minnisota Morris and wasn’t drafted by a major league team. The Mets signed him as an amateur free agent in 1964 while he pitched for the U.S. Army at Fort Bliss, Texas. He made his major league debut with them three years later on April 14, 1967.
While maybe not one of the major names to non-Mets fans, he went on to be a Mets legend. He was runner up in Rookie of the Year voting in 1968 to Johnny Bench and he made two All-Star games as a Met in his second and third seasons in the majors and was part of the 1969 Miracle Mets winning World Series team. He played during some good years for the Mets and also some bad years. That sort of explains why he won 21 games in 1976 and then lost 20 games in 1977. In that 1976 season he was the Cy Young runner up to Randy Jones.
In the late 70’s the Mets traded away a lot of best players including Koosman, who was sent to his home state team, the Twins. The Mets got Jesse Orosco back in that deal as a “player to be named later.” He had another 20-win season in Minnesota in 1979, then in August of 1981 he was traded to the White Sox. He would help Chicago make the post season in 1983 for the first time since 1959 but they would lose to the Orioles in four games. He would play for a couple of seasons in Philadelphia after going there in a trade to close out his career.
He is currently third in Mets history in wins behind Tom Sever and Dwight Gooden and was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame in 1989. His number 36 was retired on August, 28, 2021 making him the third number that was retired by the Mets.
The Score on Jerry Koosman – 6.5
As a Mets fan this one is special for me. Jerry was someone my Dad always liked, I think because he was a lefty too. I Met him while my Dad was at the Mets Fantasy Camp in the early 90’s and he seemed like a good guy back then. It appears as though his signature is a little rough, probably because of his age. Unfortunately the 1977 Mets card was a little smudged.
Thanks Mr. Koosman! I’m giving this return a 6.5.
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Information gathered using Wikipedia and Baseball Reference.