The spotlight always seemed to shine near Jerry Koosman, but never on him.
Editor's note: This is the second in a series of the 10 most underappreciated players of all time. Guess who No. 10 was.
When you're second to Tom Seaver, you're doing something right.
And Jerome MarinKoosman was. He did win 222 games in the Major Leagues. He had an ERA 3.36 that was comparable to stars of his era. He pitched, and won, big games.
But he strangely never got credit for the career he had.
Then again he wasn't Tom Seaver.
Tom Terrific, after all, was approved by the most voters for enshrinement into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.
That's right - more than Babe Ruth. More than Ty Cobb. More than Mr. Cy Young himself.
So Tom Seaver, his 311 wins, 2.86 ERA and 3,640 shutouts cast a long, dark shadow.
And that shadow fell one Koosman, a very reliable left-hander from Appleton Minnesota.
But Koosman didn't have just one shadow that blocked out the spotlight. He also had to deal with the flame-throwing Nolan Ryan, who scared hitters so much they would have rather faced John Wayne Gacy or John Wayne.
So they were somewhat relieved when the face Koosman.
Which was the wrong feeling.
They escaped the lion's den and the gorilla cage.
But they were still within range of a black bear.
The Koos was the oft-forgotten third man in the triumvirate of young hurlers who came up in the 1960s.
For his part, Tom Seaver was the ace with the sandy-haired, golden boy good looks, the affable smile and an unparalleled grace. He was Han Solo, without the attitude.
Nolan Ryan was Darth Vader. His blazing fastball and brooding glare menaced hitters in a way that made Bob Gibson and Don Newcombe proud. Ryan went on shatter so many records on his way to enshrinement in Cooperstown he became one of baseball's brightest stars.
Jerry Koosman was Luke Skywalker, playing the role of the young country bumpkin whisked from his uncle's farm and thrust into action well above his head. He wasn't ready to equal Ryan's heat or put hitters away with Seaver's calculating effort and tenacity.
But Koosman, like Skywalker, was perfect for the part.
One could say he was destined for it.
The kid from Appleton
However, Appleton's largest employer is the Prairie Correctional Facility, so there's not much to be famous for.
In fact, it appears Koosman is the most famous resident of Appleton. Of course, he's not mentioned on the town's Web site. At all. So the spotlight barely reaches Koosman on his own turf. He might not be standing in someone's shadow. It's just the spotlight doesn't reach the town of 2,871.
Of course, there's a reason his rookie card is so expensive: It also happens to be Nolan Ryan's rookie card.Imagine that.
You're not even the most famous player on your own rookie card. It's like walking down the red carpet behind Julia Roberts. You're just not going to get noticed. But it could be argued that from 1968 to 1979 Ryan should have been in Koosman's shadow on that rookie card.
| Wins-Losses | ERA | Innings | K | BB | WHIP | ERA+ | |
| Ryan | 167-158 | 3.15 | 2,688 | 2,903 | 1,643 | 1.312 | 112 |
| Koosman | 160-148 | 3.10 | 2,786 | 1,945 | 884 | 1.224 | 116 |
Let's get one thing straight before we move forward, no one is arguing Koosman should be in the Hall of Fame while Ryan shouldn't.
It's just that during a 10-year span, which is a very significant portion of time, Koosman was a slightly better pitcher, with a lower ERA and nearly half as many walks while pitching 98 more innings.
It's amazing that Koosman was able to have a lower WHIP - walks plus hits divided by innings pitched - than Ryan because the Hall of Famer was so hard to hit.
In fact, Koosman's WHIP is very comparable to two of today's stars who are very likely to reach the Hall of Fame.
During Tom Glavine's terrific run from 1991 to 2000, he had a 1.260 WHIP.
From 1996 to 2006, Andy Pettite ran up a career 1.352 WHIP.
Now, you could correctly argue that Glavine and Pettitte played during a more hitter-friendly era. And you would be 100 percent correct.
But all three pitchers - Koosman, Glavine and Pettitte - have several things in common.
All three were left-handed control pitchers. All three won twenty games at least twice - with Glavine being the only one to reach the mark three times. All three won a World Series.
What's interesting about Koosman is his postseason numbers.
Glavine pitched one of the greatest postseason games of all time, his 1995 masterpiece in Game 6 of the World Series. Pettitte pitched spectacularly throughout his career in the playoffs.
But Koosman's postseason numbers are also magnificent.
He went 4-0 with a 3.79 ERA. But if you take away one disastrous 1983 outing from when he was well past his prime, Koosman would hold a 3.37 postseason ERA. He also had a 1.215 WHIP in the playoffs.
One has to wonder how Koosman is not as remembered.
It cannot be because he struggled from 1980-1983.
There are many memorable pitchers - who ended up inside and outside of Cooperstown - who started out strong and had great careers but didn't finish with the big numbers: 300 wins, 3,000 strikeouts.
People still talk about Bert Blyleven, Jim Kaat, Dennis Martinez and Mike Cuellar and Vida Blue.
Meanwhile those guys put up similar numbers to Koosman, but his career is never brought up when discussing great pitchers of the 1970s.
Could it be that he never had a breakout season? After all, he won 19 games and had a 2.08 ERA in 1968.
It can't be that he didn't pitch in the spotlight - he won Game 5 of the 1973 World Series and the clincher in the 1969 Fall Classic.
Could it be that he went 11-35 from 1977-78? It's doubtful since he'd already won 129 games up to that point and then won 20 games in 1979.
For whatever reason, Jerry Koosman's career has never been given the respect it deserves.
After all, we've been trying to point that out for this whole post and still haven't mentioned that he was the first member of that Mets trio to win 19 games or that he won more World Series games than Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan combined.
His win-loss record, which is the only way sportswriters and TV people measured pitchers 30 years ago, also overshadowed Koosman's stat line.
At the end of the 70s, his peripherals remained largely unchanged, but his win-loss record was atrocious. 8-20 in 77 and 3-15 in 78. By that time, both Seaver and Ryan were pitching elsewhere and Koosman was still stuck on a lousy Mets team. As Jason Stark says, you have to be pretty good to lose 20 games. Were he pitching today -- when lots of people understand wins and losses are a silly way to judge pitchers -- I'm sure he'd be held in much higher esteem.
Even younger in his career, his 72-75 record, was barely above .500, but his peripherals weren't much different from his 21-10 1976 season. The biggest change: an extremely lucky .268 BABIP in '76.