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From the Fayetteville Observer:
Published: 06:38 AM, Wed Oct 28, 2009
Hope Mills' Koonce was miracle man for 1969 New York Mets
By Earl Vaughan Jr.
Scholastic sports editor
Peggy Koonce says the irony was that her late husband, Calvin, didn't even want to play for the New York Mets.
Koonce was relatively happy with the Chicago Cubs, Peggy said, even managing to adjust to big-city life after growing up in the small town of Hope Mills.
But New York? "That team is struggling,'' Peggy remembers her husband telling her.
But when Koonce became a Met in 1967, it set the stage for him to become part of one of the great sports stories not just of one year but of all time. The Miracle Mets. 1969. And it gave the chance for a journeyman baseball player still young in calendar years but drawing close to the end of his career to be part of a story that is told over and again by devoted baseball fans.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the triumph of the New York Mets over the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. The Mets, among the biggest underdogs in the history of the fall classic, lost the first game in Baltimore, then roared to four straight victories behind a brilliant young pitching staff that featured Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and Nolan Ryan.
In the background, waiting to be called when needed, performing the role of teammate like it's supposed to be, was Koonce, a veteran relief pitcher.
Koonce never got the call to take the field either in the National League championship series with the Braves or in the five games with the Orioles. But that did not diminish his role with the Mets or the way the rest of his New York coaches and teammates felt about him.
Peggy Koonce must have seen the same kind of love and devotion in her future husband at a much earlier age. The two met in first grade at Hope Mills Elementary School. They had a special relationship from that first day. They were married in 1961.
At the time, Peggy was a senior at East Carolina University. Calvin was a basketball and baseball star at what was then Campbell College.
"We decided to get married over Christmas,'' Peggy said. "He had just played one summer of minor league ball, then the next year got invited to spring training with the Chicago Cubs.''
Koonce was with the Cubs from 1962 to 1967, until his worst fears were realized and he was purchased by the Mets.
Peggy was in Chicago the day her husband was dealt to New York, watching WGN-TV and hearing something about Koonce going to New York. Just then, the phone rang. It was Calvin calling from Wrigley Field.
"I've got some bad news,'' he said. "I've been traded.''
Calvin told her to start packing for New York and he'd join her as soon as he could.
Koonce endured his first few months with the Mets, but things changed for the better when Gil Hodges became the team's manager.
"Calvin really respected him,'' Peggy said. "He brought super people, wonderful coaches, new ball players. Calvin had a wonderful spring that year, and things turned around for him then.''
"They trusted Gil Hodges,'' said Don Koonce, Calvin's younger brother, a standout athlete in his own right. "He more or less was a steadying hand there.''
Then came the 1969 season. Peggy lived in New York the whole season with Calvin and their first three children, Chris, Kim and Kelly.
Koonce had an 0-3 start out of the bullpen for the Mets, but he wound up winning six games in relief and recorded seven saves.
The Mets rallied late in the season to surge past both St. Louis and Chicago and win the National League Eastern Division title by eight games, finishing with a 100-62 record. It was an incredible turnaround for a team that averaged more than 100 losses in previous years.
All the experts figured the party was over when the World Series arrived. The Mets were to face a Baltimore Orioles team loaded with talent and managed by the great Earl Weaver.
In some ways, the series proved a frustrating experience for Koonce. He was called on to warmup in the bullpen a few times but never got into a game.
Peggy said he wasn't the type of player to let that bother him. "He was not a man who would bring home a game if it was not a good game,'' she said. "He just went out and said, 'There's always tomorrow. We'll do better tomorrow. You can't change the past. You have the present out there, and that's what you aim for.' ''
"Cal was a great teammate,'' said Calvin's brother, Don. "He was and remained a dear friend to them all. Not an elder statesman, but a man with real good morals, a clean image. What is portrayed in the public eye of a good, clean fellow persists to this day in the Mets family.''
Charles Koonce felt his brother's character showed in other ways.
"Calvin was one of the older players on the team,'' Charles said. "He had been in the majors since 1962. They looked up to him from that perspective.
"He wore his ring proudly, but he never showed it off.''
After the Mets won the Series and the years passed, it became more evident how special Koonce was to his teammates as a friend to all and a mentor to younger players.
He returned to Hope Mills and served the community in numerous ways - as a high school and college baseball coach, a member of the board of commissioners, and the first general manager of the Fayetteville Generals minor league baseball team.
But Koonce met with something that his positive outlook and years of success on the field couldn't overcome. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He fought bravely for a few years but died in 1993 at the age of 52.
Hope Mills Mayor Eddie Dees, who used to keep the scorebook for Koonce's South View baseball team, was organizing a fundraiser for Koonce's family to defray the cost of his medical bills.
After Koonce died, the family decided to use the money to establish a scholarship at Campbell in Koonce's memory.
Dees wrote to every member of the 1969 Mets asking for their help.
"Every single one of them replied,'' Dees said. "Some of them said they couldn't come but sent something for the auction. Some of them sent one thing, some sent several.''
Dees said Nolan Ryan was among the biggest contributors. "He sent five or six things,'' Dees said. "Tom Seaver sent two or three.''
Dees' main contact was Art Shamsky, who has been the unofficial spokesman for the 1969 team. Shamsky came to the fundraiser along with Ed Charles and a fellow North Carolinian and close friend of Koonce's, Don Cardwell.
Peggy Koonce, her family, and Calvin's brothers Don and Charles returned to New York in August as the Mets celebrated the 40th anniversary of the 1969 championship.
It had been 15 years since her last visit, and Peggy wasn't sure what kind of reception the family would get. She quickly found that Calvin is as loved today as he was in 1969.
"The first person who came up and hugged my neck was Nolan Ryan,'' Peggy said. "He was such a nice young man when we were there. He and his wife baby-sat for us.''
Peggy took her granddaughter Lynnsey Taylor to the celebration. Lynnsey wore a shirt with the name Koonce, the number 34, and "Grandpa" on it.
Lynnsey was sitting in the VIP section when an elderly man walked over and asked, "Cal Koonce was your granddaddy? I want to tell you you have the prettiest blue eyes I've ever seen.''
It was Yogi Berra.
All five of her grandchildren made the trip to New York.
"I wanted them to be part of their granddaddy's past, to connect,'' Peggy Koonce said. "It was worth it for the grandchildren to see their granddaddy doing his job.''
A job well done. And a legend born. |
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