Upon return from a family vacation, I learned that Choo Choo Coleman had passed this week of Cancer down in Orangeburg, South Carolina.
Younger Mets fans probably know little of Clarence “Choo Choo” Coleman who was a member of the original 1962 Mets and played for the team for parts of three seasons in the 1960s. While I was not alive to hear the interview, Grandpa and Dad would always gladly recount the time during a pregame interview that Mets announcer Ralph Kiner, unable to engage the Choo Choo in conversation or to give more than one word answers, changed tactics and tried to ease the tension by asking Choo Choo what his wife’s name was and what she liked. Choo Choo replied, “Her name is Mrs. Coleman, and she likes me, Bub”.
Bub was a nicknamed Choo Choo used on everybody, as he had trouble remembering people’s names. After rooming with Charlie Neal the entire 1962 season, Charlie Neal was kidding him the following spring training that Choo Choo didn’t know his name. Choo Choo replied, “I know your name. You number four”.
As a player, Choo Choo was well below the level of Gary Carter and Mike Piazza. Choo Choo started his playing career in the Negro Leagues playing for the Indianapolis Clowns in 1954. Signed by the Washington Senators (now Minnesota Twins) in 1955, Choo Choo went 3- 20 with 1 home run in the Class D Florida State League at the age of 17. Choo Choo was released the following season when he appeared in only 2 games, and he did not play as a professional in 1957.
Resigned by the same minor league team in 1958, Choo Choo hit .234 and showed his speed with 15 stolen bases, 13 doubles and 9 triples, and had a better season in 1959 at the age of 21, hitting .259 with 8 homers and 80 RBIs. Promoted to AAA in 1960, Choo Choo hit .258 with 24 extra base hits and 10 stolen bases playing with the Montreal Royals.
Choo Choo made his major league debut with the Philadelphia Phillies on April 16, 1961 after being drafted by the team from the Dodgers in the 1960 Rule 5 Draft. Struggling in limited playing time, in 1961 Choo Choo hit only .128 in 34 games. Choo Choo became a Met when selected as the 28th pick in the 1961 expansion draft. New Mets manager Casey Stengel faintly praised his new catcher, saying Choo Choo was the fastest catcher he had ever seen chase after passed balls”. Manager Stengel was able to see his fast catcher utilize his speed far too much that season as Choo Choo had five passed balls in only 44 games. However, Choo Choo had only one error in 1962, and even that seems to be more than he deserved.
The error was charged on a pickoff play against the Dodgers with big Frank Howard (Howard was 6 7” and a slow runner) at first and Marvelous Marv Throneberry as the Mets first baseman. As quoted in the New York Times, “Marv missed the signal, and the ball went right past his head. The official scorer must have reasoned that anybody who tried a pickoff with Marvelous Marv deserved an error, just for bad judgment.”
After hitting .250 with six homers and two triples in 1962, in 1963, Choo Choo hit only .178 and had 15 errors in 91 games. Choo Choo did not make the major league squad in 1964 or 1965 and toiled with the Mets AAA team in Buffalo. Making the team again at the start of the 1966 season, Choo Choo hit only 188 in six games, playing his last major league game on April 23, 1966.
As reported by George Vecsey in the New York Times, in 2012 at the 50th reunion of the 1962 Mets, Choo Choo finally explained how he got his nickname. “When I was 8 or 9, I ran around a lot. My friends called me Choo Choo because I was fast.”
Choo Choo will now be running around in heaven.
(Photo: NY Mets)
