Former Met of the Day: Jesse Gonder (1963-1965)

Jesse Lamar Gonder was born January 20, 1936 at Monticello, Arkansas. Gonder moved to Oakland as a teen and played high school ball in the Bay area with Frank Robinson, Curt Flood & Vada Pinson. The outspoken Gonder, was signed by the Reds as a free agent in 1955 and eventually was sent to the A.L. New York club in 1960. He briefly played in 22 games as a September call up, behind Yogi Berra & Elston Howard in 1960 & 1961, batting around .300. That December he was traded back to the Reds for Marshall Bridges. In 1962 he led the Pacific Coast League in hitting (.342) and in RBIs (116). He was a good left handed hitter, but lacked power and solid defense. On July 1st, 1963 he was traded to the Mets for Sammy Taylor.

He had a pair of hits in three of his first four Mets games, hitting two HRs against the Dodgers on July 11th at the Polo Grounds. Later that week he had a four hit day against Houston. Gonder also had a 14 game hitting streak in August, before cooling off in September. He hit .302 (3 HRs 12 RBIs) in 42 games for the ’63 Mets as a back up to Choo Choo Coleman & Norm Sherry. Gonder was the primary catcher for 1964, batting .270 with 7 HRs 11 doubles 35 RBIs. In mid July he had back to back HR days,then drove in a pair of runs in three straight games. He closed out the season with a six game hitting streak, hitting safely in the last 10 of 14.

Behind the plate, Gonder threw out 43% of would be base stealers, making only 10 errors with a .979 fielding %. In July 1965 the Mets traded him to Milwaukee for Gary Kolb. He then spent the last two years of his career in Pittsburgh as third string catcher, finishing up in 1967. Gonder hit .251 lifetime with 26 HRs 28 doubles & 94 RBIs in 395 games.

After baseball Gonder drove a bus in the San Francisco Bay area for 20 years. He passed away in Oakland on November 14, 2004 at the age of 68.