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Speaker 1: Welcome back to the exter Earning postgame show with Bill Lasky.

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Speaker 1: I'm really excited to bring my guest on, a two

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Speaker 1: time National League All Star World Series champion. He's into

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Speaker 1: New York Met Hall of Fame and his number thirty

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Speaker 1: six is retired. Let's bring in Jerry Kusman. Jerry, pleasure

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Speaker 1: to have you on today.

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Speaker 2: Well, thank you, pleasure to be with you.

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Speaker 1: Jerry, you pitched nineteen years in Major League Baseball. Back

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Speaker 1: in the day, they didn't have an amateur draft. How

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Speaker 1: did they sign you to be a professional player.

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Speaker 3: Well, I was in the Army and I was playing

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Speaker 3: baseball in the Army, and that's where I got noticed,

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Speaker 3: and scout started to watch you and talk to you,

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Speaker 3: and after visited with different ones, I ended up signing

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Speaker 3: with the Mets.

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Speaker 1: Now, were you always a pitcher, Jerry? Did you play

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Speaker 1: a little first base outfield? Could you hit?

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Speaker 2: Well?

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Speaker 3: I thought I could hit. We all pitchers think they

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Speaker 3: could hit. But my lifetime average, I think is one twenty.

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Speaker 3: So it's not up there on the charts with Willie Mays,

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Speaker 3: that's for sure.

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Speaker 1: Well, you played in the early sixties. The Mets were

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Speaker 1: a struggling team until nineteen sixty nine. What was one

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Speaker 1: of the issues. Why couldn't they get a winning season?

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Speaker 3: Well, gosh, it's kind of a long story. Then, when

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Speaker 3: the Dodgers left and the Giants left New York, they

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Speaker 3: created a big vacuum there and the city wanted a

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Speaker 3: Nation League team. The Mets came as the expansion team.

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Speaker 3: And of course those days, you know, you had to

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Speaker 3: build a team from the bottom of the barrel, so

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Speaker 3: to speak. And so that's what they were doing since

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Speaker 3: when they came in inception in sixty two, and then

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Speaker 3: through drafts and improving their minor league system, they brought

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Speaker 3: a bunch of US younger guys up mixed with a

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Speaker 3: few older veterans. And then they got Gil Hodges from

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Speaker 3: a trade. We traded Bill Dennery right had pitcher to

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Speaker 3: Washington for the manager, Gilladgis, and he was just, oh gosh,

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Speaker 3: a miracle man. He came in, he did his own

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Speaker 3: thing on how he wanted the club run and what

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Speaker 3: he expected of his players, and he turned this around

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Speaker 3: and sixty eight it was kind of a he was

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Speaker 3: seeing what we could do with sixty nine. He put

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Speaker 3: his foot to the grindstone and we all did and

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Speaker 3: end up winning well.

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Speaker 1: The Miracle Mets nineteen sixty nine. Of course they won

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Speaker 1: the World Series. You had a fantastic year that Ye're

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Speaker 1: seventeen and nine with a two point two eight earned

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Speaker 1: run average. But what I saw here you won your

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Speaker 1: last eight out of nine decisions. Boy, you got hot.

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Speaker 1: What were some of the things that kept you going

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Speaker 1: so far fast and some of the things you were

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Speaker 1: so consistent about?

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Speaker 2: Well, I missed the months that year.

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Speaker 3: In June, which was usually my best month for win

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Speaker 3: and loss record, but I I kind of developed a

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Speaker 3: bed ten of nights in my elbow were whatever, So

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Speaker 3: I was out a month, and normally I went four

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Speaker 3: or five six games that month, So that's setting a

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Speaker 3: little behind. But anyway, the once the hot weather dog

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Speaker 3: DASA summer disappeared out of New York, you know, this

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Speaker 3: pitcher's got our second wind.

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Speaker 2: And we just come on strong.

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Speaker 3: We had a good pitch and staff, a real strong

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Speaker 3: pitch that we struck out over a thousand guys that

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Speaker 3: year and and did well. We just didn't have the

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Speaker 3: run production. We had to win our game one and

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Speaker 3: nothing two to one or three to two.

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Speaker 1: That for you hear on the extra ending postgame show

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Speaker 1: Jerry Kouzman two and twenty two wins. But I want

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Speaker 1: to bring up another stat, seventeen saves. When did you

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Speaker 1: become a bullpen pitcher?

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Speaker 3: Well, I had an arm that could get loose most anytime,

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Speaker 3: and Yogi Baron thought that. He said, geez, he said,

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Speaker 3: you'd make a good relief pitcher. So whenever it came

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Speaker 3: close to All Star break where you had your last

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Speaker 3: start and then he had probably two or three days

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Speaker 3: before All Star break, it put me in the bolt

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Speaker 3: in and used that way. So I saved game for

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Speaker 3: receiver and Matt Lack and whatever is the relief pitcher.

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Speaker 1: Well, you talk about your staff, but let's talk about

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Speaker 1: the infield. You had Bud Harrelson, of course, the stellar shortstop.

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Speaker 2: You had JH.

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Speaker 1: Ken Bosner at second base, Wayne Garrett. You know there

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Speaker 1: was some good infielders you had. Was that one of

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Speaker 1: the things that made that team so good? The defense?

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Speaker 3: Yep, excuse me, Yeah, Gil Hodges was, oh gosh, a

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Speaker 3: genius at platooning, and so we had Ed Charles and

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Speaker 3: Wayne Garrett a third base, both right and left handed hitters.

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Speaker 3: Buddy Harrelson that show al wise could have play short

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Speaker 3: a little bit too, to give Buddy Harrelson the rest,

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Speaker 3: Nol Wise who played second base once in a while,

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Speaker 3: to give Kenn boswell rest at first base. We had

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Speaker 3: Don pladen on our strong power hitter, and also he

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Speaker 3: platooned with Ed crane Pool right and left handed hitters.

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Speaker 1: Well, downfield was pretty damn good too, Jerry, you had

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Speaker 1: Amos owedis a young Amos owner's Tommy Ag. I mean,

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Speaker 1: two real good corner outfielders, and Tommy was playing some

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Speaker 1: center field. What did you think of the outfield play

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Speaker 1: because they were all over that outfield.

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Speaker 3: Well, we were strong in the outfield, except left field

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Speaker 3: was probably our weakest. Ar Chaansky and Cleon Jones were

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Speaker 3: left fielders, but in center field Tommy Ag he could

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Speaker 3: cover a lot of grounds, so he was great out there.

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Speaker 3: And then right field we had Ron Saboda that could

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Speaker 3: platoon later on like a rusty stob.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, they did well for us.

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Speaker 1: Well, let's go into that pitching staff. Of course, Tom

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Speaker 1: sever and you were the number one in twos for

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Speaker 1: so many years. That year Tom was twenty five and seven,

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Speaker 1: the late great Tom sever two point twoy one earn

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Speaker 1: run average. I talked about your numbers earlier, a young

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Speaker 1: Nolan Ryan twenty five years old, six and three with

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Speaker 1: a three point five but the late great Tug McGraw

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Speaker 1: forty two games he was in with twelve says and

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Speaker 1: a two point two earned run average. A good starting

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Speaker 1: staff and your closer, a young Tug McGraw did the job.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we did.

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Speaker 3: We had a strong pitching staff and there's a lot

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Speaker 3: of those staff where we competed against each other and

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Speaker 3: everybody wanted into the game and everybody wanted to win

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Speaker 3: the game or saved the game, and so it was, uh,

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Speaker 3: there's always somebody there that was trying to take over

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Speaker 3: a starter spot, and we pitched our butts off the

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Speaker 3: lead that couldn't take our spots away from us.

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Speaker 1: And then you know, back in the day, you always

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Speaker 1: looking over your shoulder. It didn't matter what year it was.

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Speaker 1: There was always a minor league or another guy in

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Speaker 1: a bullpen that wanted to be a starter. But you

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Speaker 1: ended up, like I said, two hundred and twenty two wins,

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Speaker 1: two five hundred and fifty six strikeouts, Just an amazing career, Jerry.

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Speaker 1: You look back nineteen years, the Mets, of course was

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Speaker 1: a major, major start of your career. Tell me a

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Speaker 1: little bit more about the Mets tradition. How did that

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Speaker 1: just take off for you?

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Speaker 3: Well, what was great was giving Gil Hodges over there.

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Speaker 3: He's a Dodger and a good Dodger, and so when

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Speaker 3: he came over, he brought the Dodger style of playing

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Speaker 3: to the Mets. And I remember days where you say, okay,

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Speaker 3: we're gonna you pitchers, we're gonna bunt. He says, here's

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Speaker 3: how we're gonna bunt. You all learned I've bunt from

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Speaker 3: other coaches to other teams. He said, well, we're going

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Speaker 3: to do it my way. Everybody's good about the same way.

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Speaker 3: So he taught us bunny, and we did really well. Gosh,

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Speaker 3: I saved some gays myself and and made many many

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Speaker 3: sacrifice I led the league one year in sacrifice bunce.

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Speaker 3: But he taught us well, and it was a lot

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Speaker 3: of fun playing for him. He told us what he

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Speaker 3: expected from us, and and he did expect it.

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Speaker 2: We did. We tried our best to do whatever he wanted.

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Speaker 1: Cherry, you had two great voices announcing your games, Lindsay

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Speaker 1: Nelson Ralph Kiner, two fabulous announcers, two great voices. How

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Speaker 1: did you get to know them throughout the years and

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Speaker 1: how did they become so great in New York Met announcers?

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Speaker 3: Well, we really had three. We had Bob Murphy in there.

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Speaker 3: Two was the threesome Lindsey Nelson. He was kind of nasty.

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Speaker 3: No one got he had done many things. Oh man,

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Speaker 3: I don't know, the Olympics and oh gosh, based all

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Speaker 3: Game of the Weeks and stuff like that. So he

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Speaker 3: was a well known, respected announcer. Ralph Kiner was the

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Speaker 3: color man who had played baseball and for the Pirates,

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Speaker 3: and so he had the baseball terminology and end of it.

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Speaker 3: And Bob Murphy was the third color guy, and so

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Speaker 3: we got along great together. A lot of interviews with

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Speaker 3: each of them, and we were like just one big

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Speaker 3: happy family. They were like a ballplayer and we accept

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Speaker 3: them as ball players on our club.

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Speaker 1: Well, Jerry, you were elected into the New York Met

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Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. You're number thirty six. It was retired.

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Speaker 1: That ceremony was very very special to you and your family.

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Speaker 1: Can you recall how you felt that day?

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Speaker 2: Well, I was certainly elated and honored.

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Speaker 3: When they called me told me they were going to

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Speaker 3: do that, I was thinking of ways to get out

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Speaker 3: of it, because I really didn't think I deserved it,

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Speaker 3: but anyway, accept it and they flew my whole family

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Speaker 3: out there and treated us first class, and.

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Speaker 2: We had a wonderful time doing it.

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Speaker 3: It was a really great experience for my kids and

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Speaker 3: grandkids also.

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Speaker 1: Well last for us, Jerry, the miracle Mets. What a

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Speaker 1: great phrase and it just brought so many great memories

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Speaker 1: to the Mets, as that was your first National League pennant,

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Speaker 1: the first World Series championship. When you recall that year

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Speaker 1: when it was all over after you beat the Orioles,

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Speaker 1: you know, it was so great for your teammates as

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Speaker 1: well as you a little memory of how that all

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Speaker 1: came about at the end of the year and how

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Speaker 1: was that clubhouse when you finally won that World Series?

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Speaker 3: Well, the clubhouse was great all year and the Mets.

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Speaker 3: There was a lot of all actors, actresses, politicians that

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Speaker 3: would come to the clubhouse, Chuck Conners and Pearl Bailey

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Speaker 3: and the Governor of New York and just mean name

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Speaker 3: all the big politics issues. They were in the club

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Speaker 3: us one time or another saying hello. And of course

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Speaker 3: New York was a press capital of the world and

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Speaker 3: photographer's cap the world. So anybody had hung out with

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Speaker 3: the mess that you got their pictures in the paper

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Speaker 3: or write up. And so the Mets were great at

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Speaker 3: inviting popular guests. And after Casey Stangel, of course he

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Speaker 3: was an advisor for the team, so he you know,

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Speaker 3: everybody liked listening to Casey.

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Speaker 2: And so we had a lot of those big, big.

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Speaker 3: Names around us most all the time. Then after the

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Speaker 3: World Series, it just continued and seven of us were

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Speaker 3: asked to come to Vegas and they designed a show

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Speaker 3: force twice a night and at Caesar's Palace for two weeks.

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Speaker 3: So that was another great experience use guys being on

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Speaker 3: safe which was something new for us special times.

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Speaker 1: Jerry, no doubt about it. And I want to thank

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Speaker 1: you for your time. Nineteen year career, a fabulous career,

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Speaker 1: and of course being in the Mets Hall of Fame

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Speaker 1: and your number thirty six retired. I do want to

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Speaker 1: thank you for your time, Jerry, and once again what

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Speaker 1: a great, great career you had.

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Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much, So it's fun talking to you.

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Speaker 1: That was Jerry Kuzman on the ex runing postgame show.

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Speaker 1: More coming up right here on K and br D

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Speaker 1: sports Leader,