In 1964, Jesse was part of a trio that actually made up one of the better backstop combinations in baseball. He platooned with Chris Canizzaro who was a good defensive catcher and in a bit over 180 at bats actually hit .300. Hawk Taylor was the third who provided some power.

Of course, that all fell apart the following year. In the 1965 Mets Yearbook they said Chris became a .300 hitter (based on those all of 180 somewhat at bats) when he stopped swinging for the fences – albeit that he had yet to hit one over in his three years with the Mets. Chris couldn’t even hit .200 that season and he was so pathetic with the bat that in July a Met headline included “CANIZZARO DRIVES IN RUN!” – since he had failed to even do that the first half of the year.

Didn’t know he was one of the more outspoken minority players at the time and respect him for having the courage to do so when minorities had to be careful with what they said in order to stay in the majors – a non-white had to be good enough to be a regular to make the roster of most clubs due to the prejudices of the time when discrimination meant the white player almost always got the bench job over an equally skilled minority player.

But keeping that in mind, the one thing that upset me was how ungracious he was when the Mets sent him to Milwaukee toward the end of July for Gary Kolb. Yes, I can understand how excited Jesse must have felt going from the worst club in baseball to one that was in the heat of a exciting five team pennant race, but he didn’t have to say how he couldn’t wait to get out of here and felt sorry for his ex-teammates who still had to stay. Granted, that would have been the feeling of most any Met player but it doesn’t mean one has to bad mouth the team publicly. Wishing the Mets luck and thanking them for the opportunity to play for two and a half seasons would have been more appropriate.