Archive for Meet the Dicks

‘Master All the Way’

Forty-four years ago today (June 10, 1966), Dick Rusteck made his major league debut as a starting pitcher at Shea Stadium, throwing a complete game, four-hit shutout over the Cincinnati Reds. Though not quite Strasburgian, the performance is probably the best by a pitcher making his major league debut in Mets history*. Less than 25 miles away on the very same day, I was making my own debut.

The future looked pretty bright for both of us that day. Rusteck, a 24-year-old lefty out of Chicago and Notre Dame, was signed as a free agent in 1963. He’d impressed Met brass in Instructional League and Spring Training play and after a 6-1 start at AAA Jacksonville in 1966, earned a call to the big leagues. Manager Wes Westrum, who caught the likes of Sal Maglie andJohn Antonelli, and coached Juan Marichal, observed “he could throw the ball just as good as anybody I’d ever seen.”

Against Cincinnati in his debut, Rusteck scattered four singles, walked one and struck out four. No Reds runners reached as far as second base safely. “The magnificent thing about it is that he threw strikes,” Westrum gushed afterward. “He was the master all the way. He was calm, cool and collected out there.” Two home runs by shortstop Ed Bressoud – hitting 8th that day, it was his best day as a Met too – accounted for four runs and the Mets had an easy 5-0 victory in a game that lasted just over two hours.

But for Rusteck, the good times evaporated just as suddenly. Four days later in St. Louis, he’d be yanked before recording an out in the second inning, surrendering five runs on five hits and a walk. Complaining of a sore arm, perhaps as a delayed result of taking a line drive off his arm in Jacksonville, Rusteck didn’t appear again until a 1-inning relief appearance two weeks later, then made a third start July 3 vs. the Pirates, in which he was hit hard in the fifth inning, took another loss, and got a ticket back to Jacksonville for his trouble.

Rusteck returned to make a few relief appearances that September but his arm troubles would continue. His uniform number 43 was reassigned to teammate Darrell Sutherland, and he’d wear No. 40 then. A writer identifying herself as Rusteck’s wife Tracy, writing on the Ultimate Mets Database, said her husband had elbow surgery in 1967 and continued pitching in the minor leagues through 1971 though “never fully recovering the dynamic speed of his famed left-arm pitch.” He’d retire with a 1-2 major league record and an ERA of 3.

After a post-baseball career in state government in Wasilla, Alaska (youbetcha!), Rusteck is “happy and healthy” in Arizona, Tracy wrote in a message posted two years ago.

Me, I’m about to surrender No. 43 too. Hello, Bob Myrick!

* A quick and not exhaustive review of memory and some data at the Ultimate Mets Database leads me to believe Rusteck’s game was the best by a Mets pitcher making a major-league debut, although he has company when the discussion comes to “best first career starts” as Mets fromGrover Powell (also a 4-hit shutout, 1963). Other impressive debuts were authored by Gary Gentry (April 10, 1969) and Jason Isringhausen (July 17, 1995).

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Jesus, There Goes Dick Stuart

A prodigious slugger who nonetheless was known best for his defense — precisely, the lack of it — Dick Stuart was the first Met player ever to be acquired as the “1” in a 3-for-1 trade.

Desperate for a power hitter to punch up the league’s worst offense, Stuart was acquired from the Phillies on the eve of 1966 spring training for catcher Jimmie Schaefer,  infielder Bobby Klaus, and outfielder Wayne Graham — all residents of the Mets’ AAA roster at the time, and none with particularly promising futures. A first baseman known as “Dr. Strangeglove” for on-field butchery, Stuart nevertheless was coming off a 28-homer season with the Phillies and connected for 220 home runs over eight seasons with three teams. He’d also led his league in errors at first base base seven times (sharing the NL lead in 1962 with Marv Throneberry). “Most baseball people feel the 33-year-old stopped trying to improve a long time ago,” Joe Donnelly wrote in Newsday.

Stuart might also have been looked to to provide the Mets with some color now that Casey Stengel was gone. Stuart famously hit 66 home runs and drove in 158 for the Lincoln Chiefs of the Western League in 1956. Stuart wasn’t shy about promoting that figure, often including the number “66” — then a professional record for home runs in a season — as part of his signature. Stuart talked about as loudly as he hit, in fact. According to the Baseball Biographical Encylopedia, he was once quoted as follows

“I like to walk down the street and hear them say, ‘Jesus, there goes Dick Stuart.’ I like to see my name in the paper, especially in the headlines. I crave it. I deserve them headlines.”

For the Mets, Stuart had his eyes on Ed Kranepool’s job and his uni number, but wound up with neither. Like Kranepool, Stuart was a first baseman and wore No. 7 — he even drove a Lincoln Continental with license plates DS-7 — but was issued No. 10 with the Mets in Spring Training. He’d trade that for 17 when the games began. The first-base job was arranged by platoon: Stuart started vs. lefthanders and Kranepool vs. righties, with Kranepool also getting the occasional start in left field on Stuart’s day to play. But Stuart battled a rib cage injury and was hitting just .218 with four home runs, five GIDPs and 26 whiffs in just 96 plate appearances when the Mets released him in June. He’d resurface later that year with the Dodgers, spend two years with the Taiypo Whales of Japan, and make a brief comeback with the Angels in 1969.

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Meet the Dicks (part 1)

Sounds like there will be several moves to catch up on soon, when the Mets may or may not disable Luis Castillo; recall and assign numbers to outfielder Jesus Feliciano or infielder Justin Turner, decide on keeping Chris Carter around, and recall pitcher Jon Niese form the disabled list, perhaps while also succeeding in convincing Oliver Perez to take his act to Buffalo. Then there’s the issue of whether Bobby Parnell ought to be replacing the suddenly ineffective Raul Valdes orRyota Igarashi, who looks to me like the worst pitcher in the league about now. We will update as necessary.

Until then, let’s get excited for knuckler R.A. Dickey’s next start, and the beginning of a new homestand and the end of a road trip, with the first in a multi-part exclusive series at MBTN we’re calling Meet the Dicks. We are starting naturally with the Mets’ first ever Dick, Dick Smith.

* * *

Dick Smith was purchased by the Mets along with Norm Sherry from the Los Angeles Dodgers organization shortly after the end of the 1962 season. A fleet, righthanded hitting outfielder, Smith had been signed by the Dodgers as an amateur free agent out of Medford, Ore. in 1957 but had yet to reach the majors. He was a freeswinger with good power-speed potential: He’d hit 19 home runs, 18 doubles, 11 triples and stole 30 bases with Omaha of the American Association in 1962.

The Mets were in the midst of what would become a 22-game road losing streak when they recalled Smith from Class AAA Buffalo the following July. The team had lost patience waiting for the bat of shortstop Al Moran to come around and banished Moran to Buffalo and installed Larry Burright as the new regular shortstop. Smith was recalled to take Moran’s roster slot.

Smith was issued No. 16, a jersey that had until days before belonged to another new Met arrival,Jesse Gonder, who’d received it from the man he’d been traded for, Sammy Taylor. Gonder however switched to No. 12 concurrent with the recall of Smith.

Smith made his major league debut, and became the Mets’  first Dick, on July 18, 1963 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Smith pinch hit for Al Jackson and fouled out behind first base: the opposing pitcher was none other than future Met (and future Met manager) Dallas Green. Smith appeared in another three games on that trip but after 10 days was returned to Buffalo when Moran was recalled. He wouldn’t collect his first hit until a return engagement in September, a single off Curt Simmons of St. Louis. He’d finish the year with a .238 batting average in 42 at-bats.

Smith caught the eye of Casey Stengel during the following spring training where he was “easily the fastest man ever to wear a Mets uniform” according to the Sporting News. Although primarily an outfielder, Stengel cleverly platooned Smith and Tim Harkness as leadoff-hitting first basemen. Smith in fact led off the first Mets game of 1964 vs. the Phillies’ Dennis Bennett, and played regularly at first base vs. lefties for most of the first two months of the year.

The highlight of this stretch came May 26 at Wrigley Field when Smith became the first Met in team history to record five hits in a game — three singles, a triple and a double — as the Mets whalloped the Cubs 19-1. However, Smith’s days were numbered once his platoonmate Harkness injured an elbow. His replacement was a prospect named Ed Kranepool, then viewed as a potential star and everyday player. Smith’s playing time grew sporadic and by July he was reassigned to AAA, never to return to the Mets. He hit .233 and his 6 stolen bases would tie for the club lead that year. He’d be traded back to the Dodgers following the season for a minor league lefty, Larry Miller, who’d play briefly for the Mets in 1965 and ’66. Smith got only 10 turns at bat with the Dodgers in ’65 before his big-league career was over.

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