Former Met of the Day; Jon Matlack (1971-1977)

Jonathan Trumpbour Matlack was born on January 19, 1950 in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He was another good pitching prospect developed by the Mets in the late 1960s, early 1970s period. He was their number-one selection in the June 1967 draft, the fourth pick overall. The Mets didn’t rush him right away; he was brought up slowly because the Mets were loaded with good pitching in those days. This certainly helped his development along the way. He was brought up at the end of the 1971 season and went 0-3 as he settled in to the big leagues.

In 1972 he started out going 6-0 not losing a game until June. On the last day of May he threw a three hit shutout against the Phillies at Shea. In July he pitched a four hitter at Shea against the Giants, two starts later he got no decision pitching a one hit eight inning, shutout performance. In the month he went into the 8th inning or beyond five straight times only earning two victories.

He closed out the month with a 10 inning four hit shutout against the World Champion Pirates in Pittsburgh. On the last day of the season in Pittsburgh, Matlack went into the history books & became the trivia answer to - What pitcher gave up Roberto Clemente’s 3000th & last hit? He finished the year winning the Rookie of the Year Award going 15-10 with a team leading 2.32 ERA, which was 4th best in the league. Matlack also led the staff with four shut outs, eight complete games and had 169 strikeouts.

In the 1973 Mets pennant season, Matlack didn’t have a lot of run support, although he pitched fantastic. He began the year at 2-9, and settled down a bit through the summer. On May 5th at Shea Stadium in a game against the Braves, Marty Perez lined a shot that hit Matlack in the fore head, fracturing his skull. He was carried off the field in a stretcher and it was feared his season was over, or maybe worse. The work horse returned 11 days later in Pittsburgh to throw six shutout innings. From August until the end of the year he went 7-2, pitching four complete games, and struck out nine batters or more six times.

He finished the year at 14-16 in a lot of hard luck games, struck out 205 batters (3rd in the league), posted a 3.20 ERA, pitched 242 innings, with 14 complete games (4th in the league) and 3 shutouts. In the final week of the season Matlack pitched a 2-0 shutout against the Cardinals who were still in the pennant race, until the Mets completed the series sweep at Shea. He was a favorite of his manager Yogi Berra, who said he would never trade Matlack away, “what a career he has ahead of him.”

Post Season: In the second Game of the 1973 NLCS, Jon pitched one of the best Mets post season games ever. Against “the Big Red Machine” he threw a two-hit shutout, striking out nine Reds at Cincinnati. The win evened the Series to a game apiece. The veteran and former Brooklyn Dodger, Andy Kosco got both hits. It was after this performance that Bud Harrelson remarked the Reds “looked like him hitting” in that game. Those words angering the Reds and lead to the Harrelson/ Rose brawl in Game three.

Matlack would get three starts in the 1973 World Series, and pitch well in all of them. Jon was the starting pitcher in the opener of the 1973 World Series in Oakland. Matlack was superb going six innings, allowing 2 unearned runs, 3 hits, striking out 3 and walking only two. As fate would have it a rare Felix Millan error & a botched pickoff attempt would lead to the winning run, as the Mets lost 2-1.

Jon pitched Game #4 at Shea Stadium and would get plenty of run support, ala Rusty Staub in the 6-1 Mets win. Matlack was fantastic again, allowing only 1 run on 3 hits while striking out 5 & walking only two. It would be the only World Series win in his career.

A tired Matlack was called upon to pitch Game #7 over a rested George Stone. Jon would get the loss in the final Series game. It was his worst post season outing. He got hit for 4 runs on 4 hits in 2 2/3 innings. He gave up the big blows to Reggie Jackson & Bert Campaneris. Overall Matlack went 1-2 in the World Series, allowing only 4 earned runs in 16 2/3 innings pitched. He struck out 11, walked 5 & had an ERA of 2.16. It would be his last postseason appearance.

In 1974 Matlack had one of his best years, leading the team with a 2.41 ERA, 14 complete games, and 265 innings pitched. He also struck out 195 batters and led the league in shutouts with seven. Jon had a lot of hard luck losses during the year which is why he posted a 13-15 record even though he pitched so well. Jon even had five games where he struck out 10 or more batters. Manager Yogi Berra was the NL skipper in the All Star Game at Pittsburgh and chose Matlack as one of his pitchers. It was his first of three consecutive career All Star game appearances. He would end up sharing the All-Star MVP Award in 1975 (with Bill Madlock) when the National League beat the American League, 6-3. He pitched 2 scoreless innings while striking out 4 American leaguers.

That season he won the most games he ever had up to that point going 16-12, with 154 Ks, 8 complete games, three shutouts and a 3.36 ERA. Again he pitched in the shadows of another Tom Seaver Cy Young season.

The bicentennial year began to bring changes to the Mets but it was the last year before the bottom fell out. Matlack had his best year ever. He was 7th in the league in wins with a career high 17 (17- 10). His 2.95 ERA & 153 strikeouts were among the top ten in the league. He completed 16 games and once again led the league in shutouts with six. From 6/25-7/06 1976, he threw three complete games allowing only four runs in 27 innings. On a July 6th game at Shea, he pitched shutout baseball for 10 innings but lost 1-0 to J.R. Richard & the Astros. He went to another All Star game with Tom Seaver & Dave Kingman representing the Mets in Philadelphia.

It all went downhill in 1977, as Mets sunk to last place and Matlack went 7-15 with a 4.21 ERA. He gave up a career high 19 home runs, and allowed 176 hits in 169 innings. The Mets were cleaning house quickly and were dumping all the players from their glory days. Matlack was no exception He was traded, in a strange 4-team deal involving a number of players. On December 8, 1977 Matlack went to Texas with John Milner (who then went to Pittsburgh) in exchange for Willie Montanez, Ken Henderson and Tom Grieve.

Quotes: Matlack on pitching with the Mets: "That was a staff that knew how to compete and was willing to do whatever it took to be successful and put zeros on the board. We all fed off each other and it snowballed into not wanting to be the one who was the weak link. It’s easy to focus when you have to follow greatness and it became a very professional approach. I would do what ever I had to, to work on an aspect of my delivery or the details of the grip on a specific pitch. No matter how long it took, or how much work I needed to do I was willing to do it and so was the rest of the staff."

In his first year in the Arlington/Dallas area he went 15-13 but was among the league leaders with his 2.23 ERA and his career high of 270 innings pitched. In 1979 injuries limited him to only 13 games, going 5-4. It was his last year with a winning record; he’d be around .500 until he retired in 1983. In 1980, he broke up up George Brett's 30-game hitting streak in August, and also matched nine shutout innings against Ron Guidry, getting no decision.

He was released by the Rangers in October 1983 and retired at age 34. In a 13-year career, he was 125-126 with 1516 strikeouts, a 3.18 era, 97 complete games, & 30 shutouts, in 361 games pitched.

Honors: Matlack still ranks high on the Mets All Time pitching list; Third in ERA (3.03) tied with Jerry Koosman for 2nd with 26 shutouts, 2nd in complete games (65), 7th in wins (82), 8th in strikeouts (1023), 6th in innings (1445) and third in losses.

Retirement: Matlack resurfaced in the short lived Senior Professional Baseball Association going 10-2. Recently, he became the Pitching coordinator for the Detroit Tigers, and was instrumental in helping to develop the staff in 2006 & 2007. Jon has a roving visiting the farm teams & all the prospects in the organization.