Ron Hunt, first Met to start an All-Star Game, dies at 85
Ron Hunt with the New York Mets in March 1966. Credit: AP
PHILADELPHIA — Ron Hunt knew how to get knocked down and get back up again.
That’s true in the literal sense — Hunt was hit by a pitch 243 times in his career, sixth in MLB history and fourth in the modern era — and the figurative sense, too.
When the expansion club Mets purchased Hunt’s contract from Milwaukee after he played for Double-A Austin in 1961, Hunt’s baseball destiny became tied to a team that would become historic for its ineptitude. With the big-league club in 1963, Hunt rode the bench before issuing a challenge to manager Casey Stengel, who had used the second baseman as a bullpen catcher.
According to an article by the Society for American Baseball Research, the conversation went like this:
“Coach, Ron Hunt, number 33, second base,” Hunt told Stengel before adding that he could play better than the guy the manager had out there. “I’m not a bullpen catcher, I’m a second baseman. Maybe I need a chance, see if I can play here.”
Stengel, likely surprised that anyone was that keen to play for his band of misfits, accepted the terms. “Son, you wanna play that bad?” he asked. “OK, then. You start tomorrow.”
And that is the story how, in 1963, Hunt became runner-up for National League Rookie of the Year, and how a year later, he became the first Met to start an All-Star Game.
Hunt, 85, died earlier this week in his hometown of St. Louis after battling multiple illnesses, the Mets announced Friday. In addition to other ailments, he suffered from Parkinson’s disease, which doctors surmised was caused by the head trauma suffered during his playing days, according to SABR.
“Ron was a treasure to know for me,” Mets vice president of alumni relations Jay Horwitz wrote in a tribute Friday. “I enjoyed his stories of Casey Stengel and what it was like to play in Shea. He would just call out of the blue sometimes to ask how I was doing.”
Hunt, a two-time All-Star, played with the Mets from 1963 to 1966 and compiled a .273/.368/.347 slash line in 12 major-league seasons. He hit .272 with 10 home runs and 42 RBIs in his first season with the Mets and .303 in that 1964 All-Star year.
And when he was traded to the Dodgers in 1966, it “broke his heart,” according to SABR. It also stunned Mets fans, who looked to Hunt as a rare bright spot for a team that had a .309 winning percentage in 1965.
Fans “deluged Hunt with letters professing their disappointment and admiration for their first true star,” SABR said. “He responded, ‘To my friends in New York: I want to thank you for all the happiness you’ve given my family and me. Everything I have or hope to have, I owe to the most wonderful people in the world — the New York fans.’”
Hunt, a contact hitter who would crowd the plate, did all he could to get on base — particularly when he joined the Giants in 1968 as a table-setter for the likes of Willie Mays and Willie McCovey. He led baseball in hit by pitches in six straight seasons from 1968-73 and was plunked 50 times with the Expos in 1971 — second most in MLB history. He also led the National League in hit by pitches in 1974.
Hunt suffered two concussions a month apart in 1969 and had to be taken off the field on a stretcher when Tom Seaver’s fastball smashed the back of his head. He had at least two more concussions, courtesy of Bob Gibson and Don Wilson, according to SABR.
Hunt didn’t let that change his philosophy — so much so that it became his catchphrase.
“Some folks give their bodies to science,” he said. “I gave mine to baseball.”
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
