By John Fox
A point of commonality for the two Mets championship seasons of 1969 and 1986 was that both teams possessed an excellent pitching coach, Rube Walker for the ‘69 squad and Mel Stottlemyre in ‘86.
Walker was a baseball lifer, his playing career was mostly as a backup catcher, first for the Cubs, then for the Dodgers. He was not much of a force with the bat, but he was an excellent defensive catcher. He was well above average in throwing out prospective base-stealers, he blocked errant pitches well, and he was a superb handler of pitchers. When he was released during the 1958 season, star Dodger pitchers Johnny Podres and Don Drysdale both lamented losing him. Walker was very popular with his Dodger teammates, and his close friendship with Gil Hodges was to prove very important in his future.
No comments:
Post a Comment