RIP Jerry Grote 1942-2024

[Edgy MD]

He would have made a really interesting manager.

The Mets should have three black stripes on their sleeves when they get home.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

That's a patchworthy event

[Edgy MD]

Casey / Grote / Mookie / Mikey

[Cowtipper]

Harrelson, Zachry, McAndrew, Hodges, Craig and now Grote.

That's a lot of meaningful Mets to pass in the past few months.

[ashie62]

Jerry had an active life til the end

He had been maintaining his memorabilia shop

When you were facing Seaver and Koosman you were also facing Grote behind the plate

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

"He was the reason for my success," former Mets RHP Jerry Koosman said in a statement.

[MFS62]

RIP
Later

[cal sharpie]

When I was a boy the Mets used to have "meet-the-players" events. You would get to the game early and were brought into a small room where the player would come in and speak to the kids, take questions and sign pictures. I did it twice in 1966: Ken Boyer (who was my favorite player) and Jerry Grote. My Yankee fan brother brought me and was grumpy about the whole thing but I loved it. I don't have the picture, but I do have the memory -- Jerry was less comfortable than Ken was (Jerry was much younger) but he became a real favorite of mine. RIP.

[G-Fafif]

You most noticed Grote's presence by his absence, though you always noticed his presence.

I also remember the Grote family's commercials for Gulden's Spicy Brown Mustard.

[Edgy MD]

After two seasons away from the game, he came out of retirement and remarkably had his best season at the plate, backing up John Wathan for the Royals in 1981.

Check out this insane mid-summer extended week he threw together in early June.

Date	Opp	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
31-May	@ MIN	2	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	.219	.257	.250	.507
2-Jun	vs. SEA	4	4	1	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.278	.308	.333	.641
3-Jun	vs. SEA	4	4	1	3	1	0	1	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.325	.349	.475	.824
5-Jun	vs. MIL	3	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.333	.370	.476	.846
9-Jun	vs. NYY	4	4	1	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.348	.380	.522	.902

That seven-RBI career day included a grand slam off Ken Clay! But look! He also had a triple and a stole base during that streak! And a sacrifice bunt! The guy was suddenly an all-purpose offensive player!

The surge briefly had him moved up to #1 in the Royals depth chart, and the crazy buzz around the team was that their unretired 38-year-old backstop was the "catcher of the future." But after two more games as the starter, Grote's "future" was undermined, like so many, by the player walkout. He got hurt during the brief training session before the return from the strike, and after he got back on the field for a single game, the team's first personnel move under brand new manager Dick Howser was to place him on waivers.

Perhaps Howser saw Grote as a rival for authority. I'm going with that.

He caught on with the Dodgers — with whom he had reached the postseason in 1977 and 1978 — for two brief appearances. While he wasn't eligible for their postseason roster this time, the team finally got past the Yankees for the World Series championship, and Jerry got to go out on top.

[Edgy MD]

On September 27, 1963, the Houston Colt '45's faced the New York Mets and started a rare all-rookie lineup. It likely wasn't the first and it wasn't the last time this happened, but it still, to this day, is the youngest known starting lineup to take the field, with an average age of 19 and change.

Two of the players would go on to the high honor of becoming Mets Hall of Famers. One would enjoy the somewhat lesser distinction of enshrinement in the MLB Hall of Fame. Rusty Staub would be part of 23 MLB seasons, Joe Morgan 22, Jerry Grote 16, and Jimmy Wynn 15.

Starting pitcher Jay Dahl was only 17, taking the loss to Al Jackson and the Mets in his only Major League appearance, before dying in a car accident at only 19.

Right Fielder Aaron Pointer appeared in only 40 games total in his career, but found greater success in football, becoming the Pac-10's first African-American field official before spending 14 years in the NFL as a head linesman.

Pointer's 21 hits was bested by the 30+ hits his sisters piled up, including "Fire," "Jump (For My Love)," and "I'm So Excited." Aaron once officiated a game in Los Angeles featuring his sisters performing the national anthem.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Four of those guys went on to have really good careers. Morgan in the Hall of Fame, Rusty just on the outside. Jim Wynn (The Toy Cannon, for some reason) played 15 years in the big leagues. He stayed in Houston the longest; he was there through 1973. He'd go on to the Dodgers, Braves, Yankees, and Brewers, although I don't remember any of that.



He died in March 2020 (COVID?) at the age of 78.

[Benjamin Grimm]

[Edgy MD]

Look at the gun on Rusty's jersey, smoking like it just fired into poor Jerry Grote's head.

[kcmets]

That's a great pic of those two heroes.

RIP, Groat!

[Cowtipper]

Here's my "Fan Memory" of Grote:

"Grote earned multiple All-Star selections, won a ring and appeared on a Hall of Fame ballot. He was excellent.

I recall he earned significant mention in the book "Amazin'" by Peter Golenbock, which I read in high school. I also recall he was the answer to a trivia question one of my cousins—also a big Mets fan—asked me when I was a teenager. "Who was the Mets catcher in 1969?" Being young and to that point having never actually heard his surname pronounced, I responded Jerry GROAT (like Dick Groat), instead of Jerry Gro-tee. But he went along with it.

One of the stories I most recall about Grote is, at the end of an inning, he would roll the ball to the far-side of the mound in the hopes that it would make the opposing pitcher have to take a few extra steps to get it, thereby tiring him out sooner.

In the Mets Hall of Fame project I run on another website, very few players have been elected with 100% of the vote on their first try—but Grote was one of them.

Rest in peace to a Mets legend."

[Frayed Knot]

Jim Wynn (The Toy Cannon, for some reason)

Because he was small (5' 10" / 160) but powerful (291 HRs / 600+ XBHs) despite a prime that almost perfectly straddled the
modern dead ball nadir (1968) and was largely done ('65-'73) in a really tough place to hit HRs once the Dome was built.

[batmagadanleadoff]

You most noticed Grote's presence by his absence, though you always noticed his presence.

I also remember the Grote family's commercials for Gulden's Spicy Brown Mustard.

Grote's defense was Cooperstown Hall of Fame caliber. They're dropping like flies. Cleon Jones is now the only surviving every-day position player from the Mets championship '69 squad.

I have a new favorite Jerry Grote stat.... The legend of the 1973 Mets centers on their pedestrian regular-season record, inevitably processed as the best of a so-so assortment of contenders, implying they were some kind of fluke. Yes, they went 82-79....


When Jerry Grote was in the starting lineup for the 1973 New York Mets, the record of the 1973 New York Mets was 47-29, the kind of pace that captures pennants. Jerry Grote made his pitchers better and made his team better.

Yes indeed! I worked out that discovery and the supporting numbers years ago on this forum in a post and some threads that began over another "disagreement" with kcmets that started when he tried to stick it to me over some negative stuff I had to say about Rey Fraudonez. The thing morphed into posts about Grote and Carter.

I'd find the post(s) if I could but I can't because after almost 20 years here, I still have no fucking idea as to how to find old posts. That's probably a little bit on me and a lot to do with the historically useless forum search engines.

It's a shame that the Mets didn't do anything last year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that Ya Gotta Believe pennant-winning '73 squad.

[kcmets]

This? Was Rey Ordoñez the Greatest Mets' Shortstop Ever?

Finding stuff isn't exactly rocket science.

Welcome back!!!

[batmagadanleadoff]

This? Was Rey Ordoñez the Greatest Mets' Shortstop Ever?

Finding stuff isn't exactly rocket science.

Welcome back!!!

I had to reverse engineer your post to figure out how you found that thread. You went into the UMDB to find it, it seems.

Anyways, that wasn't the thread. It was a companion thread. I found the thread. It's here:

archives/20300/f1_t20397.shtml

And here's the post:

Oct. 11, 2013, 10:01AM:

Excerpt:

BTW, in 1973, Grote was on the disabled list for about two months. The 1973 82-79 Mets (.509 W-L pct.) were 21-33 during Grote's inactive stint, and 61-46 otherwise (.570). That .570 W-L pct. prorates to 92 wins over 162 games.

[kcmets]

I had to reverse engineer your post to figure out how you found that thread. You went into the UMDB to find it, it seems.

No, I clicked:
> Forum Archives
> Master Index of Archived Threads
> The Baseball Forum
And typed:
> Ctrl F (Windows 'Find' Shortcut)
> "Ordoñez"

Thanks for finding the Grote Thread. Fun mammaries.