#CardCorner: 1971 Topps Jerry Grote

Grote did not believe in bat flips, or fist pumps, or jogging to first base on a tapper back to the mound. For a player like Grote, the way that we see him running on this Topps card was the preferred way to run out the ball, whether it was a ground ball single, a pop-up on the infield, or a long fly ball to the warning track. In Grote’s mind, it was not just the right way to play the game; it was the only way to do so.

Grote might not have fit in with today’s game, which is filled with more showmanship than the era that predated free agency. Just as Grote did not like to pose in the batter’s box, he also did not like to fraternize with the opposition. He did not enjoy talking to the media, either before or after the game. He just wanted to play the game that day, play it hard, and win as often as possible. Those were attributes that would help the Mets, never more so than in 1969, and then again in 1973, when they surprised the baseball establishment by winning the National League pennant.

We tend to think of Grote as a lifelong member of the Mets, but it’s not true. It’s easy to forget that he started his career in the organization of the Houston Colt .45s. Grote made his major league debut with Houston in September of 1963, when he entered a game in the late innings as a defensive caddy for starting receiver John Bateman. On Sept. 27, Grote became a part of a most unusual development, as the Colt .45s started the first all-rookie lineup in major league history. That lineup featured three future stars in Rusty Staub, Joe Morgan and Jimmy Wynn.

In contrast to those three youthful talents, Grote would struggle with the Colt .45s. Yet, it wasn’t because he lacked commitment or effort. In fact, Grote built his own batting cage at his parents’ home in San Antonio. He constructed the cage out of chicken wire and old carpeting, and spent hours during the winter taking practice swings against an “Iron Mike” pitching machine.

As much work as Grote put in, he continued to flail against live pitching, hitting .181 with a .240 on-base percentage and little power for Houston (by now renamed the Astros). By the end of the 1965 season, the Astros gave up on the light-hitting Grote and traded him to the Mets for a pitcher named Tom Parsons.

The trade was one of the best that Hall of Famer George Weiss engineered as general manager of the Mets. Wisely, Weiss listened to the advice of one of his top scouts, Red Murff, who had originally signed Grote while working for the Houston franchise.

With Grote in place as the starting catcher for the 1966 season, the Mets avoided the 100-loss mark for the first time in their young franchise history. Grote’s competitiveness impressed his teammates, some of whom began to play the game with more determination. Given his toughness and stellar defense behind the plate, the Mets didn’t care that Grote hit only .237 with a mere three home runs.

Grote sometimes took that competitiveness to extremes. As just one example, he developed an interesting habit behind the plate. When a Mets pitcher recorded the third out of an inning on a strikeout, Grote tossed the ball to the side of the mound that was opposite from the other team’s dugout. He did that to make the enemy pitcher have to walk a little bit longer before bending over to pick up the ball. It might have seemed insignificant, but in Grote’s mind, it was worth doing just to make the opposing pitcher exert more effort.

Not only did Grote have little love for the opposition, he could be ill-tempered with teammates. That attitude carried over to his dealings with the media. He did not have much patience for questions from writers; he viewed them as outsiders who intruded on the sanctity of the clubhouse. And then there was his antagonistic relationship with umpires, which reached a low point during the 1967 season. Mets manager Wes Westrum faced a shortage of players -- only 21 healthy bodies -- for a midseason game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. After entering the game as a pinch-runner in the top of the seventh, Grote took his place behind the plate. Almost immediately, Grote began to complain about the strike zone being called by home plate umpire Bill Jackowski. At the end of the inning, Grote prolonged his diatribe, shouting at Jackowski from the dugout and then throwing a towel onto the field.

Jackowski had no choice but to eject Grote. That created a major problem for Westrum, who was now out of healthy catchers. Out of desperation, Westrum pressed outfielder Tommie Reynolds into service as his emergency catcher.

Not only did Westrum fine Grote for his actions, but general manager Bing Devine sought out Grote after the game and chewed him out for his indiscretion. Grote learned a valuable lesson: He had to curb his temper for the betterment of the team.

By 1968, Grote had revised his attitude toward umpires. “I made up mind that I wasn’t going to argue, no matter what,” he told Dick Young of the New York Daily News. “They’re really not bad guys.”

A wiser player after the lectures from Devine and Westrum, Grote still wanted to improve his profile as a hitter. He hit above .300 over the first half of 1968, earning selection as the starting catcher in the All-Star Game. He became only the second Met in history to earn a starting place on the National League All-Star team, joining second baseman Ron Hunt in a selective group. Grote would finish the season at a solid .282, but instead of taking kudos for the improvement, he credited new manager Hodges with helping him shorten his stride and quicken his swing.

While Grote was complimenting his manager, Hodges was recognizing Grote’s toughness. A classic example took place in September of 1969, as Grote played both games of a doubleheader against the expansion Montreal Expos. He totaled 21 innings in the two games, an unusual amount of work given the extreme demands of catching.

Hodges felt it was important for Grote to catch the young and talented Mets staff as often as possible. Even though Grote’s batting average fell off by 30 points in 1969, he improved his handling of the pitching staff, impressing Hodges greatly. His defensive play also reached a career peak. He committed only four passed balls and threw out 40 of 71 opposing base runners, accounting for a stunning success rate of 56 percent. In a sport where the better base stealers are successful 80 percent of the time, Grote’s numbers defied logic.

It was not until 1977 that Grote fell into a lesser role. Manager Joe Frazier made Stearns his starting catcher and began to use Grote occasionally at third base. That situation ended in late May, when Joe Torre came on as player/manager. Torre decided to move Lenny Randle from second base to third base and reinstate Grote as his backup catcher, behind the promising Stearns.

The 1977 season represented a year of massive turnover for the Mets’ franchise. At the June 15 trading deadline, the Mets began tearing apart the team by trading Seaver and Dave Kingman in a pair of deals. The firesale continued in late August, when the Mets sent the 35-year-old Grote to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Grote became the backup to Steve Yeager for the rest of 1977 and all of ‘78.

After the latter season, Grote became a free agent. He received a surprising inquiry from New York Yankees president Al Rosen, who offered Grote a two-year contract. Rosen explained to Grote that he would likely play no more than 40 games a season as a backup to All-Star catcher Thurman Munson. Grote considered the offer, but he was also struggling with family issues at the time. With family rating above baseball, he decided to retire.

The retirement lasted only two seasons. Grote decided to return to action in 1981, this time with the Kansas City Royals (giving him a connection to the Mets’ opponent in the 2015 World Series). Now mellower than in his high-intensity days with the Mets, Grote settled for a role as a third-string catcher behind John Wathan and Jamie Quirk. He enjoyed one last hurrah on July 3, when he set a Royals record with seven RBIs in a game against the Seattle Mariners. Grote eventually raised his season average to .304, but was surprisingly released on Sept. 1. Seven days later, he signed with the Dodgers, played in two games to finish out the season, and then decided to retire that winter.

With his baseball smarts and toughness off the charts, it was a natural for Grote to turn to managing. In 1985, Grote was serving as the manager of the Birmingham Barons, the Detroit Tigers’ affiliate in the Double-A Southern League, when he suddenly ran out of healthy catchers in the midst of a doubleheader. In between games, Grote phoned his general manager and asked him for permission to be activated for the nightcap. The GM said yes, so the 42-year-old Grote strapped on his chest protector, his shin guards, and his face mask, and gave catching one last whirl. Remarkably, Grote played an errorless and mistake-free game behind the plate. He also drew a walk and skillfully laid down a sacrifice bunt, making quite an impression on his youthful “teammates.”

Even in his 40s, some four years removed from his last days as a major leaguer, Grote had retained the same determination that he showed on his 1971 Topps card. For an old-school gamer like Jerry Grote, when it came to being a professional and playing the game all-out, nothing had changed.

Bruce Markusen is the manager of digital and outreach learning at the National Baseball Hall of Fame