Great job by the Hardball Times remembering this date!!!
A small excerpt from good reading
But on draft day Oct. 10, 1961, all that lay in the future. The Astros and Mets took a different approach to the early rounds, with the Astros focusing largely on position players and the Mets on pitchers. In their first six picks, the Mets took Roger Craig, Jay Hook, and Bob Miller, who combine to start 88 of the team’s 161 contests. Later in the draft, they tapped Al Jackson, who started 33 more.