With today being the anniversary of Gil Hodges’ death I thought I’d deep dive on the archives, and I stumbled across this one in the New York Times archives. Interesting to see that the beat was just as wrong then as they are now.
It sounds like the Mets won’t be hiring Yogi Berra.
… baseball people noted that Berra, who had managed the Yankees to the American League pennant in 1964, did not get the job when Casey Stengel broke his left hip in July, 1965, and questioned whether he would be designated now.
The leading candidate, accordingly, was understood to be Walker, a 45‐year‐old form er catcher with the Dodgers who managed for five and a half seasons in the minor leagues and who then became Hodges’s right‐hand man in the dugout. He presided over the Mets’ young pitching staff the last four years and ran the club for the final week of the 1968 season after Hodges had suffered his first heart attack that September. (via NY Times)
So congrats to Rube Walker, seems like the right choice, and hopefully his 1972 Mets have a great season.
Here’s a clip from the 1972 Home Opener. That must have been an emotional day.
