Jerry Koosman

Jerry Koosman, born Jerome Martin Koosman, was an American left handed pitcher who spent nineteen seasons in Major League Baseball and became one of the central figures of the New York Mets' improbable rise from perennial losers to world champions. He died on November 1, 2026, at the age of 83.

Koosman was discovered while pitching for a U.S. Army team at Fort Bliss, Texas, and signed with the Mets after his military discharge. He broke into the Mets rotation in 1968 and immediately set franchise records, going 19 and 12 with a 2.08 ERA and finishing runner up to Johnny Bench for National League Rookie of the Year. The following year he was a key part of the Miracle Mets, the team that came from well behind the Chicago Cubs to win the National League East and then beat the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles in the 1969 World Series. Koosman started and won both Game Two and the decisive Game Five, pitching a complete game each time, and it was Koosman who was on the mound to record the final out of that championship.

He remained one of the best left handers in the National League through the 1970s, pairing with Tom Seaver to anchor the Mets rotation and helping the team win another pennant in 1973, when his Game Five win over Oakland put New York one win from a second title. His best individual season came in 1976, when he won 21 games and finished second in Cy Young voting. After the team fell apart in the late 1970s, Koosman asked to be traded and finished his career with the Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Phillies, retiring in 1985 with 222 wins, 2,556 strikeouts and a 3.36 ERA over 612 games. He remains third on the Mets all time wins list, and the team retired his number 36 in 2021.

Koosman's life after baseball was not without trouble. In 2009 he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor federal tax evasion for failing to pay income taxes in the early 2000s, and he served several months in federal prison before his release in 2010. He later returned to public life as a beloved figure at Mets alumni events, including the 40th anniversary reunion of the 1969 team in 2009.

The Mets announced Koosman's death on November 1, 2026. Longtime team spokesman Jay Horwitz said Koosman had been battling multiple illnesses in his final period, though the club did not disclose a specific cause of death. Tributes from the Mets organization and former teammates recalled him as a fierce competitor and a cornerstone of the franchise's first championship, remembered alongside Seaver as one half of a pitching partnership that helped define an era of New York baseball.