Former Met of the Day: Tim Harkness (1963-1964)

Thomas William Harkness was born December 23, 1937 in Quebec, Canada. Growing up in Canada, Harkness was a good hockey player and thought about perusing an NHL career. Instead he chose baseball signing with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1956.

In April of 1957 the first baseman was traded along with Elmer Valo to the Brooklyn Dodgers for Chico Fernandez. He hit 118 HRs in his minor league career, including 28 in 1960, making him a power hitting prospect.

He was a minor league team mate of Tommy Lasorda in Montreal and the two played in Cuba just as Fidel Castro took power. During one game, teamate Clay Bryant accidentally hit one of the armed Cuban soldiers. The soldier was infuriated then pointed a gun at Harkness. Tommy Lasorda was the only person who spoke Spanish, he explained the situation and helped ease the tension. Harkness says “He saved my life, he belongs in the Hall of Fame”.

With Gil Hodges at first base, then Norm Larker & Ron Fairly after him, there was no room for Harkness as a starter in Los Angeles. He hit .258 appearing in 98 games for the 1962 Dodgers. He hit his first two big league HRs that season, one of them against the Mets.

That November he was traded with Larry Burright to the Mets in exchange for the first of two Bob Millers.

Harkness won the job as the Mets main first baseman in 1963, playing in 123 games, hitting 10 HRs with 12 doubles and 41 HRs. He hit a lowly .211. but even with that average he was hitting better than Ed Kranepool & Choo Choo Coleman. He was a streak hitter on a bad ball club, his hottest month was May when he hit 4 HRs with 15 RBIs. He also was 8th in the league in getting hit by seven pitches. On September 1st, he hit two HRs at the Polo Grounds leading the Mets to a 6-4 win over the Milwaukee Braves.

He started out the first two weeks of 1964 looking real good, batting .400 and driving in 8 runs. He made history On April 17th 1964, when he was the first Mets batter to come to bat in the new Shea Stadium. In his next at bat he was the first Met to get at hit at the new Shea, putting him in the Mets record books.

Eventually his hot streak wore off and he lost his job to the young Ed Kranepool. He missed two months of action and returned in July and was hitting well again, on another hot streak. He would only be on the team for two more weeks, because back in those days a team could get rid of you quite easily, if you said the wrong thing.

According to legend, during a pre game interview with Howard Cosell, Harkness agreed that Casey Stengel would fall asleep in the dugout. He was gone, despite hitting safely in 8 out of his last 10 games, with 13 hits, including a four hit day against the Braves.

He went to the Reds in 1965 but didn’t make the team, finishing his MLB career at age 27, a lifetime .235 hitter with 14 HRs, 61 RBIs, 132 hits in 259 games played. He went on to play in Canada and later became a highly successful MLB scout. In the early to mid 200’s he managed the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team.