1962 Mets Honored at BBWAA Awards Dinner

Original 1962 Mets Jay Hook, Al Jackson and Frank Thomas were guest speakers at the BBWAA Awards Dinner on Saturday night.

Jay Hook started and won the first game in Mets franchise history. On April 23, 1962, he pitched a five-hit 9–1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field, giving his team their first regular-season victory after nine defeats. In that season he compiled an 8-19 mark for the Mets, and led the team in complete games (13) and games started (34).

Frank Thomas was traded by Braves with a player to be named later (Rick Herrscher) to the New York Mets for a player to be named later (Gus Bell) and cash. Despite the team’s historically poor inaugural season, Thomas led the expansion Mets with 34 HRs and 94 RBIs. His home run mark would last as a Mets’ team record until 1975, when Dave Kingman hit 36.

Al Jackson’s 43 wins with the New York Mets were the franchise record until Tom Seaver eased past the mark in 1969. Jackson’s franchise record of 10 shutouts was also broken by Seaver. Two of them (July 27, 1962 and October 2, 1964) were 1-0 wins over Hall of Famer Bob Gibson. He threw a one-hitter on June 22, 1962 against the Houston Colt .45s the first in Mets’ history. The lone hit was by Joey Amalfitano in the first inning.