Word: koosman
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...they were poised and polished pitchers by the time they broke into the majors. Baltimore's Jim Hardin, 25, has already won 17 games in his first full big-league season, and even the lowly New York Mets boast a couple of budding superstars in 25-year-old Jerry Koosman (17-10) and 23-year-old Tom Seaver (14-9). "Pitchers never used to mature until they were 27 or 28," says Manager Walter Alston of the Los Angeles Dodgers. "Sandy Koufax was 27 when he first won 20 games in a season; Whitey Ford...
...average age of 20, after progressing through the Pony League, high school, American Legion baseball, college and/or the minors, he is already a polished pro. Never before have the majors enjoyed such a surfeit of sophisticated young pitchers. Even the New York Mets boast the likes of Jerry Koosman (12-4) and Tom Seaver (7-6), whose contribution to last week's All-Star game was striking out five American League batters in two innings...
...York Mets. Despite a team batting average of .221, lowest in the National League, the Mets last week were only two games out of second place. For an explanation, there was no need to look beyond the pitching of the team's four parsimonious starters: Jerry Koosman, 24, Dick Selma, 24, Tom Seaver, 23, and Nolan Ryan, 21. Among them, the four boast a season's record of 25 wins, only eleven defeats, and a combined earned-run average of 1.74. The excitement they generate is reflected at the gate. In a year when attendance elsewhere has declined...
...rapid worker ("I don't like the infielders to get cold or bored behind me"), Koosman throws from a short windup, relies on just two pitches: a steaming fastball and a tantalizing slow curve. He never played high-school baseball, but pitched for Army and semi-pro teams while he was at Fort Bliss, Texas in 1964. "My catcher was a fellow named John Lucchese," recalls Jerry, "whose father was an usher at Shea Stadium. He told his dad he had a pretty good pitcher, and his dad told the Mets. They sent a guy out to scout...
After three years in the minors, during which he lost more games (30) than he won (28) but struck out 496 bat ters in 467 innings, Koosman won a spot in the Mets' rotation this spring. In his first game, he shut out the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-0; in his second, he whiffed Willie Mays with the bases loaded ("It was no great thrill") and blanked the San Francisco Giants, 3-0. "I'll challenge any hitter around," says Jerry, "as long as my fastball holds up and I have a curve that can keep them...