Mid Sixties Mets Reserve Outfielder: Tommie Reynolds (1967)

Tommie D. Reynolds was born on August 15th, 1941in Arizona, Louisiana. The six foot two right hand hitting outfielder was signed by the Kansas City A's in 1963.

Reynolds played parts of three seasons with the Kansas City A's, seeing the most action in 1965 (90 games) batting just .237. In 1966 he played in the Pacific Coast League at Vancouver batting .248. That November he was drafted Rule V by the New York Mets.

Reynolds would be the fourth outfielder for the 1967 Mets team, that finished up in tenth place at 61-101 under Wes Westrum (151 games) & Salty Parker (11 games).

He debuted for the Mets on Opening Day 1967 entering the game in the 8th inning & playing left field. In the third game of the year he homered for the only Mets run against the Phillies at Connie Mack stadium. Reynolds struggled to bat near .200 most of the year.

On June 18th, in a game at Shea Stadium against the Chicago Cubs, Reynolds hit a walk off tenth inning HR off future Met Cal Koonce. Three days later his 1st inning sac fly was one of two Mets runs, that helped Jack Fisher beat the Phillies Jim Bunning 2-0 in a tight game in Philadelphia. On a August 17th double header he collected five hits against the Pittsburgh Pirates, with a pair of RBIs overall, helping the Mets to a 6-5 win in the first game.
Reynolds fin
ished the year batting .206 with 2 HRs one double a .278 on base % & nine RBIs. He played in 72 outfield games with New York. That off season he was taken away, Rule V by the Oakland A's.

In a full season there playing in 107 games he hit .257 playing outfield alongside Reggie Jackson & Rick Monday. From there he went to the California Angels for two seasons & then ended his career with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1972. Reynolds played eight years batting .226 with 265 hits 12 HRs 35 doubles a .306 on base % & 87 RBIs.

Retirement: After his playing days he coach with the Oakland A's (1989-1995) winning a World Series there in the 1989 Earthquake Series in the Bay Area. He then coached in St. Louis in 1996 under Tony Larussa just as in Oakland.

Family: Reynolds is the cousin of former MLB player Floyd Robinson who played nine years in the major leagues as an outfielder. Floyd played seven seasons with Chicago White Sox, hitting over .300 there three times in the sixties. 

Robinson was third in the Rookie of the Year voting in 1961 & made the Topps All Star Rookie Team. He would receive votes for the MVP Award four times in his career. In 1962 he led the AL in RBIs batting .312 (third in the NL) with 109 RBIs (4th in the NL) & 11 HRs. That year he led the Midwest League in batting .332 with a .384 on base % & tied for the lead in RBIs (88). He hit .301 again in 1964 for the last time.

In 1967 he played with the Cincinnati Reds then in 1968 he played for both the Oakland A's & The Boston Red Sox. Robinson was a lifetime .283 hitter with 67 HRs 426 RBIs & a .36 on base %.