Al Jackson, Ace of Queens
Reese Kaplan recently did an article on memorable Mets starters throughout their history.
A lefty who deserves a shout out was Al Jackson.
Jackson was 43-80, 4.26 ERA, so what’s the big deal, right?
Wrong. Al Jackson WAS a big deal back then.
Al pitched in the early 1960s for miserable Mets teams offensively, defensively, and bullpen-wise.
Teams he pitched for, from 1962 to 1965, lost 452 games, or a ghastly 113 per season.
Roger Craig could relate. He was a painful 15-46 as a Met in 1962 and 1963, but 59-54 the rest of his career.
Had Jackson started for the far superior Dodgers or Giants instead, or perhaps the mid-1980s Mets, maybe he would have been 80-43 over his career with that team instead.
Those Dodgers and Giants were far better teams than the extremely lowly early 1962 Mets, and certainly if he were pitching for SFG or LAD, he would have started (and won) many games vs. the horrible Mets, too!
He was 8-20 for the Mets in both 1962 and 1965, with 7 of those 16 wins by shutout!!!
Jerry Koosman could relate...he was 8-20 for an awful Mets offensive team (64-98, 3.62 runs per game) in 1977.
For the 1963 and 1964 squads that went 51-111 and 53-109, Jackson was a relatively far better 13-17 and 11-16.
In other words, in 1962-65, he was the Mets’ ace.
No other way to say it.
He returned to the Mets’ worst ever hitting team in 1968 and was 3-7 despite a 3.69 ERA.
He was, in case you were wondering, 24-19 for non-Mets teams. And certainly that would have been better if projected over his whole career, since 1962-65 were his prime age years.
And he was 11-8 against the almost-as-anemic neophyte Houston Astros.
He had a - yes - amazin' 41 complete games and 10 shutouts for the Mets.
And 54 and 14 for his entire career.
And he even hit .250 (16 for 64) in the last few years of his career.
And how about this observation about Jackson from our very own Mack Ade:
“(I) met Jackson when he was a roving coach for the Mets. Loved to sit in dugout when the players were eating their pre-game meal and tell war stories.“ NICE!!
And how about this observation about Jackson from our very own Mack Ade:
“(I) met Jackson when he was a roving coach for the Mets. Loved to sit in dugout when the players were eating their pre-game meal and tell war stories.“ NICE!!
BIG shout out for Al Jackson.
THE EARLY ACE OF THE METS.
Ron Darling talks about how Al Jackson made a big difference in helping Ron gain stamina and strength as the Tidewater Pitching coach in 1983. We could all use an Al Jackson again.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if the Mets still have roving coaches. It would be a great places for ex-players like Edgardo Alfonzo to work now.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately that would require BVW admitting he was wrong in firing Fonzie. Ain't happenin!
ReplyDeleteAl Jackson was my first Met hero whom I had not seen previously in Brooklyn. Yeah, I was excited about a Gil Hodges, Charlie Neal, Don Zimmer IF for about 2 minutes, and Thomas & Ashburn were OF'res for whom I had unrealistic expectations (actually, they weren't cause of a 40-129, it could have been 10-150 without them.)
ReplyDeleteBut Al Jackson was the Met-of-the-future category of my teenage fandom. 13-17 and an under 4.00 ERA (1/3 of the team's wins!) in that inaugural debacle. Saw him throw a 1-hit CG vs the Colt 45's one Friday night. Gave up a single in the 1st. Mets managed to win too!
BTW, another CG a few years later was the only game Yogi Berra caught for the NYM.
Sometimes very good players get stuck on very bad teams. Al Jackson was a light in darkness.
ReplyDeleteHobie, I think I was at that Yogi game. First two times up, the Yog lined bullets up the middle.
No rovin’ with COVID. Maybe they can do Telecoach.
ReplyDeletetwo recollections of Al Jackson: the Mets 1st 'pennant race' in 1964; that was the year of the Phillies collapse, when they lost something like 10 games in a row going into the last week end, to end up in a 3 way close finish with the Cards and the Reds, with the Mets playing the Cards and the Phillies playing the Reds. as I recall, the Phillies came out of their coma and beat Reds 3 straight, but the Cards won the pennant on the last day by beating the Mets. the Mets, however, had beaten the Cards both Friday and Saturday, with Al Jackson beating the great Bob Gibson on Friday 1-0, making for a 'cliff dweller' on Sunday, which Bob Gibson came back and won, clinching the pennant.
ReplyDeletethe other recollection was Bob Murphy always referring to Al as "wily little Al Jackson." Jackson was 5'10" and 160 lbs. so was I. don't know if I thought of myself as wily, but definitely not as little.
Jon, great memories.
ReplyDelete