Today In Mets History: 1975- Jerry Koosman Steals Two Bases

July 22, 1975: A Tuesday night crowd of 32,000 came to watch Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine roll into Shea Stadium. Their star catcher Johnny Bench wasn’t the plate tonight, he was in left field. Backup catcher Bill Plummer was behind the plate catching pitcher Jack Billingham. For the Mets Yogi Berra sent out Jerry Koosman who hadn’t been consistent yet all year, he was struggling with an 8-7 record, although his ERA was around 3.40. The Mets weren’t consistent either, before the All Star break they had taken 3 of 4 from Chicago, then got swept by the Phillies, then swept Atlanta, then lost four straight to these Reds. Since the break they had won 3 of 5.

In the bottom of the first, Wayne Garrett & Eddie Kranepool singled, and Rusty Staub’s sac fly brought home the Mets first run. In the 3rd inning Jerry Koosman singled. Then he surprised everyone in Shea Stadium, inclyding his manager by taking off for second base. With no one covering, catcher Bill Plummer’s throw went into centerfield and Koos headed safely to third base. Koosman said “their shortstop & third baseman were laying back, so I figured it would be easy for me to do”. He then scored on Wayne Garrett’s sac fly for the second run. Koosman was fantastic on the mound tonight too. He went into the 9th inning throwing a three hit shutout, leading 3-0. He gave up three hits in the inning but only allowed a run and finished the complete game.
Although Yogi Berra wasn’t to happy about his pitcher stealing a base Tom Seaver had fun with it. The next night he presented Koosman with a base with a number 2 painted on it, in honor of his base running heroics. Seaver called it the “Lou Brock Award”. That night Jon Matlack threw a five hitter as Ed Krane pool had three hits & drove in three runs in the 5-2 Met win.