Former Met of the Day: Gene Clines (1975)

Eugene Antony Clines was born October 6, 1946 in San Pablo California. The speedy Clines was drafted by the Pirates in the 6th round of the 1966 draft. Clines was a good defensive outfielder with speed but never was able to make it as an everyday outfielder with the talented Pirates. He made his debut with the Pirates in 1970 and was a reserve outfielder on some good Pirate teams of the early seventies.

In his six seasons at Pittsburgh he won 1 World Series and five divisional titles. In his rookie 1970 season he went 15 for 37 good for a .405 average. In the 1971 Pirates championship season, Clines was very valuable. He appeared in 97 games and hit .308 while stealing 15 bases, 4 triples, and drove in 24 runs. In Game #2 of the NLCS he hit a rare HR off the Giants Jim Barr at Candlestick Park, going 1-3 in his only start. In Game #4 he got a 7th inning pinch hit bloop single scoring Manny Sanguillen with the tying run, he then scored on Ritchie Zisk's base hit for the winning run.

In the World Series he went 1-11 appearing in three games. In Game #5 he tripled to lead off the 5th and then scored one of two runs he scored in the Series. In 1972 he hit .334 in 107 games. He hit 6 triples, stole 12 bases & hit 15 doubles. His average dropped to .263 in 1973 then .225 in 1974, in those six years he had only 2 HRs. On October 22, 1974 he was traded o the Mets for long time catcher Duffy Dyer.

There was some hype when Clines arrived, the Mets believing the speedy outfielder along with newly acquired Del Unser, would fill the centerfield void the Mets had, after Dave Schneck & Don Hahn didn’t work out. Clines played in 82 games that season hitting a measly .225, no HRs and only 10 RBIs. He hit 4 doubles, 3 triples & stole 3 bases. It was a short lived Mets career as they sent him to Texas that December for Joe Lovitto.

Clines went to Texas and hit .276 then to the Cubs and hit .293 having career highs in HRs (3) and RBIs (41). After two more seasons he retired a .277 lifetime hitter. Clines became a coach with the Cubs for two seasons, then was hitting coach in Houston (1988) Seattle (1989-1992) Milwaukee (1993-1994) San Francisco (1995-2002) then back to the Cubs (2003-2006) After 20 years of being a hitting coach he became an instructor with the Dodgers.