Another TTM Success: An Original Met
December 10th, 2009 by slangon
2009 SlangKo Heroes of the Diamond Don Zimmer
Being a Mets fan in such close proximity to New York is not an easy thing to deal with. Especially when the Yankees are winning. For the longest time, I always associated Don Zimmer with that unpleasantness, and always had a bad taste in my mouth for the guy. Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure he’s a nice man, but he just always struck me as having a bit too much of that Yankee’s Holier-Than-Thou attitude. Recently though, I have been reading his autobiography, Zim: A Life in Baseball, and I’ve sort of changed my attitude towards him after hearing him talk about his days with the Dodgers and Mets.
Zimmer’s playing career with the Mets was decidedly short lived, however. He played a total of 14 games for them before being traded to Cincinnati for Cliff Cook and Bob Miller. While in Flushing, he racked up a whopping .077 batting average and driving in 1 run. Luckily, he managed to avoid being hit by any pitches.
Aside from him barely being one of the original Mets, Old Popeye’s seen and done a lot in his 60 years of professional ball.
He started playing pro ball in 1949 in the Maryland Eastern Shore League and then bounced around the minors, making stops in Hornell, N.Y., Elmira, N.Y., Mobile, AL, and finally St. Paul, MN. While playing in St. Paul, he was nearly killed by a ball to the temple. Finally in 1954 he made it to the Dodgers, but being a shortstop, didn’t see much action with Pee Wee Reese around. He filled in as a utility infielder and saw action in the Dodgers 1955 World Series triumph. He was beaned again in 1956, suffering a broken cheekbone. Zimmer followed the Dodgers in their move out west, but soon after headed to the Cubs, where he was elected to the All-Star team in 1961.
It was after his All-Star season that he was sent to the Mets in the expansion draft. He finished out the ’62 season with the Reds, after which he was traded back to the Dodgers, who sold him mid-season to the lowly Senators of Washington. He finished his major league career in D.C. but played one more year in Japan, with the Toei Flyers, calling it quits after the 1966 season.
After hanging up his spikes, Don started on his managerial and coaching career. Much like the way his playing career started, he spent several years bouncing around the minors in various capacities before landing a third base coach job with the Expos in 1971. He spent almost the next 40 years as either a coach or manager for a whole gaggle of teams in both leagues, with varying degrees of success. He managed the Padres, Red Sox, Rangers and Cubs. He also was a coach for the Expos, Padres, Red Sox, Giants, Rockies, and of course the Yankees.
Oh, and this also happened somewhere along the way:
The Gerbil’s lifetime stats are nothing to write home about. He ended up with 773 hits, 91 home runs, 352 RBI, 45 stolen bases and a .235 batting average. Certainly not the makings of a Hall of Famer, but after reading about everything he’s done and seen in his baseball career, I might think differently. Maybe he’s not a Hall of Fame player, but he’s certainly a Hall of Fame character.
Nice auto!
I’ve always liked Zimmer strictly based on how much he just IS baseball. He is straight out of a baseball script.
He looks like a guy who could be a coach in any decade going back 120 years.
Interesting coincidence. I’m scanning cards for my Project Baseball 1976 blog. Right when I read the headline “An Original Met” I happened to be scanning #314 — Mr. Ed Kranepool.
I’m not sure that Zimmer actually signed your card. He is rumored to use a ghost signer.
Check some certified autographs that Topps has included in their sets, or ones that Steiner has for sale, and you’ll see that they have an open loop at the top of the letter “D.”
Most of the through-the-mail autographs I’ve seen have the closed-loop “D” like yours.