The left-hander who got the final out of the Mets’ first World Series title, then leapt onto his catcher at Shea Stadium, has died.
Jerry Koosman, the two-time All-Star who pitched behind future Hall of Famer Tom Seaver on the 1969 “Miracle Mets,” died Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, at his home in Osceola, Wis. He was 83. Mets spokesman Jay Horwitz said Koosman had been sick for about a year and died of multiple illnesses, surrounded by his children. The club announced his death in a post on social media.
His five-hitter in Game 5 of that World Series ended with Davey Johnson, the future Mets manager, flying out to left fielder Cleon Jones as thousands of fans poured onto the field at Shea Stadium. Koosman jumped onto catcher Jerry Grote, and the two hugged on the mound. “We were so choked up with emotion we couldn’t talk,” Koosman was quoted as saying in Peter Golenbock’s book “Amazin’: The Miraculous History of New York’s Most Beloved Baseball Team,” published in 2002.
Owners Steve and Alex Cohen counted him among the greatest pitchers in Mets history and said he was beloved across the organization.
The Shoe Polish That Turned Game 5
New York trailed 3-0 in the sixth inning when manager Gil Hodges brought a ball to plate umpire Lou DiMuro and showed him a smear of shoe polish left by a pitch from Baltimore’s Dave McNally. Jones was awarded first base. Donn Clendenon came up next and hit a two-run homer, and the Mets won 5-3 for the championship.
Koosman had already beaten the Orioles once, allowing one run over 8 2/3 innings in a 2-1 win in Game 2, after Baltimore handled Seaver and the Mets 4-1 in the opener.
An expansion franchise launched in 1962, the Mets lost 100 games in five of their first seven seasons — 101 of them in 1967 — and had never finished a year with a winning record. Then they surged into first place on Sept. 10, 1969, during a 10-game winning streak, won 38 of their last 49 and finished atop the new National League East at 100-62. Koosman went 17-9 with a 2.28 earned run average in 32 starts. He was knocked out in the fifth inning of Game 2 of the first National League Championship Series before the Mets rallied and swept Atlanta in the best-of-five series.
Signed Out of the Army for $1,600
Koosman was born Dec. 23, 1942, in Appleton, Minn., one of four children of a farmer and a homemaker, and was pitching in semi-pro and American Legion leagues by 13. He enrolled at the University of Minnesota, Morris, which had no baseball team, then transferred to North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton, where his transfer status kept him off the mound. The Army drafted him in 1962.
His catcher at Fort Bragg, N.C., John Luchese, was the son of a Shea Stadium usher. Luchese told his father about the left-hander, the usher passed word to Joe McDonald in the Mets’ front office, and Koosman signed on Aug. 27, 1964, for $1,600.
He debuted April 14, 1967, at Philadelphia’s Connie Mack Stadium with 2 2/3 hitless innings of relief, then was sent to Triple-A Jacksonville, where he led the International League with 183 strikeouts. His first start of 1968 was a four-hit shutout at Dodger Stadium. Picked for the All-Star Game that summer, he faced one batter and struck out Carl Yastrzemski for the final out of the National League’s 1-0 win at Houston’s Astrodome. He finished the season 19-12 with a 2.08 ERA and came in second to Cincinnati catcher Johnny Bench in Rookie of the Year voting. A parade greeted him in Morris, Minn., when he came home after the title.
The Trade That Brought Jesse Orosco
Koosman finished second to Randy Jones in the 1976 National League Cy Young voting. The lefty-righty pairing at the top of the rotation ended when the Mets traded Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds in 1977; Seaver died in 2020 at 75 of complications of Lewy body dementia and COVID-19.
After the 1978 season, Koosman told the Mets he would retire unless they traded him. In December 1978 they sent him to the Minnesota Twins in a deal that brought young reliever Jesse Orosco to New York. Koosman won 20 games for the Twins in 1979, was traded to the Chicago White Sox in August 1981, pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1984 and 1985, and retired after that season at 42.
Over 19 seasons he went 222-209 with a 3.36 ERA, making 612 appearances with 527 starts, 140 complete games and 33 shutouts. His 2,556 strikeouts rank 35th all time, and his wins are tied for 79th on Major League Baseball’s all-time list. Among pitchers with at least 3,500 innings — he threw 3,839 1/3 — his ERA ranks 39th in big league history.
With the Mets from 1967-78 he was 140-137 with a 3.09 ERA, still the most wins by a left-hander in franchise history. He went 2-0 in the 1973 World Series, winning Games 2 and 5 again, though Oakland took the title. The Mets inducted him into their Hall of Fame in 1989 and retired his No. 36 in 2021.
After he stopped pitching, Koosman worked as a minor league pitching instructor for the Mets and later ran a machinery design company. He pleaded guilty in 2009 to failing to pay income taxes for three years, defrauding the government of as much as $90,000, and served nine months in prison.
He is survived by sons Michael and Shawn, daughter Danielle and several grandchildren.
In his book “After the Miracle,” Art Shamsky, an outfielder on the 1969 team, set the Mets’ two aces side by side. “Seaver was the great pitcher, while Kooz was the great battler,” Shamsky wrote.