44: Jerry Grote

(This is the latest installment in an ongoing series at Y2K focusing on topics raised in Matthew Silverman's "100 Things Mets Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die". Today's installment? Number 44: Jerry Grote.)

Why 44? In honor of the newest Met, Jason Bay.

On a scale of 1-to-10, necessity of knowing or doing before you die? 5.

Jerry Grote... not a Met I knew a ton about.

I'd heard of him before, and I guess I kind of figured he was a member of the '69 team or maybe '73. In truth, most of what I knew about him began and ended with the assonance of his name.

That all changed last night as I leafed through Matt Silverman's book for the fist time in about a year.

What do I know about Grote now? Well, from the sound of it he was a typical light-hitting catcher, but behind the plate he was as good as they got, nurturing the talent of young standout pitchers like Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman. He had one passed ball all season in 1968, when he made the All-Star team. And he was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame in 1992.

These things I now know about Jerry Grote, but what I'll remember most is that he is, from the sounds of it, everything the Mets have been sorely lacking the past several seasons.

"With his cap turned around (never a helmet) and bill flipped up under the mask strap, Grote pounced on bunts and pitchers like a drill sergeant," Silverman writes (115). "When he didn't like a pitch or the way a pitcher was working, he fired the ball back as hard as he could."

Silverman goes on to write that "base runners feared him and no one looked forward to a home plate run-on with the grisly Grote," who was "tough as a dollar steak".

(Think about it, is there one player on the Mets today who you might describe as "tough as a dollar steak"? Maybe Jeff Francouer; I'm not sure anyone else comes close.)

The Mets have had their share of great catchers, Mike Piazza and Gary Carter most notably. But the guy Grote reminds me of more than anyone else is none other than old Paulie Thumbs, Paul Lo Duca. 

Lo Duca became a bit of a sideshow by the end of his tenure with the Mets, but for those two seasons as the Mets' primary catcher, he brought fire and energy to the team (fat load of good it did them in 2007).

Since he left, the press hasn't mentioned Lo Duca much by name, but every time they invoke the need for a scrappy player to light a fire under the Mets, they're talking about guys like Lo Duca.

And by extension, they're talking about guys like Grote. Hell, for all I know that's where the love affair began for Mets fans and their hardnosed ne'er-do-wells.

Silverman doesn't go so far as to make that connection, but it seems a logical one enough. From the sound of it, Grote was the kind-of-shitty player who nevertheless made good players around him great.

That won't get you in the Hall of Fame, but as Mets fans saw in '69, you need those kinds of players to win a Championship; winning takes more than just the Seavers and the Koosmans.

With Grote as testament, it seems the Mets knew that once. All we can do now is hope they figure it out again some time soon.

- A.F.O.M.G.