Marion Mets – In living color
Whitey and Birdie represent Marion on TV. Plus a picnic with the Marion A's
It’s difficult enough finding photos of the Marion Mets. Try locating video of the team that played in rural Southwest Virginia for just 12 seasons in the 1960s and 70s, when, you know, there was no such thing as phones with high-tech cameras that slid snugly into our pocket.
Photos? There are a few.
Videos? Forget it.
They are darn near impossible to find.
But, it’s not unfathomable to think that a fan back in those days took a bulky video camera to a ballpark, and somewhere, perhaps buried deep in a box in your grandma’s attic, rests grainy footage of the Marion rookie leaguers. We’d all be tickled blue and orange to find footage of Nolan Ryan unleashing one of his earliest fastballs as a pro. Or, of Mike Jorgenson smashing a ball to the Brunswick plant.
Heck, I’d be ecstatic just to see 15 seconds of Juan Monasterio running out a ground ball to third.
I am aware, however, of footage of a couple of partial pre-game interviews conducted by Roanoke, Virginia TV station WSLS on July 5, 1967. The footage is hosted in a WSLS video collection on the University of Virginia Library website.
Before a game at Salem, Virginia, in which the Mets won 9-8, the TV reporter took aside Marion manager Birdie Tebbetts and New York Mets director of player development Whitey Herzog. Many baseball fans know Herzog from his days managing the St. Louis Cardinals to three World Series appearances in the 80s – they won in ’82.
Whitey was in Salem with the Marion Mets, watching players the parent club had drafted and evaluating each of them to see who, if any, had a chance to make it to the major leagues, or at least advance a rung up the minor league ladder.
The WSLS reporter didn’t ask Whitey about the Marion club, at least not in the portion we see. The archived footage cuts out after about four questions. The reporter instead asked the Mets’ scout and former big-league player if he missed baseball.
“Not really; I enjoy my job,” Whitey replied, sporting a road-gray New York Mets uniform and Marion Mets cap.
A few weeks earlier, Whitey had been in Jacksonville, Florida – that’s where the New York Mets International League affiliate played – looking over the young ballplayers there. He got a good look at prospect Tug McGraw – if you’re not familiar with baseball history, you might know Tug best as country singer Tim McGraw’s dad.
Nolan Ryan, who played in Marion two years earlier, had a sore arm when Whitey visited Jacksonville and likely Whitey did not get a chance to see him pitch, but “I still think he’s the best young pitching prospect in the country,” he told newspaper reporter Red Foley between trips to Florida and Marion.
By the way, two years later, Tug, Nolan and the 1969 Miracle Mets won the World Series.
We get a little more insight into the ’67 Marion Mets club when the TV reporter – Whitey called him Bill, but I haven’t been able to verify his full name – spoke with manager, Birdie Tebbetts.
Here’s a little history on Birdie. After a stellar 13-year career as a catcher in the major leagues, Birdie got into managing. He skippered the Cincinnati Reds – he was National League Manager of the Year there in 1956 – and the Milwaukee Braves briefly. He managed the Cleveland Indians in ‘62. In April of ’64, Birdie suffered a heart attack in spring training and was expected to miss the season.
Smoking three packs of cigarettes a day and rapidly gaining weight can do that to a fella.
But, Birdie was tough, and he returned to his team in July and managed Cleveland until he resigned from his position – or was he fired? – in August of 1966. Months later, the New York Mets hired Birdie as an advanced scout and later sent the 54-year-old to skipper the young players in Marion.
Before the game in Salem, Bill, the TV reporter, asked Birdie to talk to viewers at home about his Marion ballclub as it prepared to play just its 12th game of the season.
“Well, we’ve got, as you know, every ballclub in the league has a bunch of 17- and 18-year-old boys,” Birdie said. “And, I’ve got some pretty good ones. I don’t like to single out ballplayers at this level because it’s not fair to the rest of the boys. But, I do have a pitcher, Jesse Hudson, who I think is going to be an outstanding pitcher.”
Hudson pitched well for Marion that season. He was 7-1 with 2.07 ERA. And, he led Marion pitchers with 84 strikeouts.
But the question I’m sure many viewers were waiting for Bill to ask was how Birdie felt about managing in rookie leagues after spending years as a winning major league manager.
“I’m delighted to do it,’ Birdie said standing in front of the Salem dugout. “It gives my family an opportunity to be in vacation country for the summer. And, it gives me the chance to have something to do with the development of some of these young 17- and 18-year-old boys.”
The reporter didn’t let Birdie off the hook there. He followed by asking if the Marion manager had any “ill-feelings” about not managing in the majors.
“Ahhh, no,” Birdie replied with an ah-shucks chuckle. “No, not at all.”
The reporter, perhaps as unconvinced as his audience, persisted with his questioning, saying “you must miss it [major leagues] in a way.”
“No, baseball is baseball no matter where it’s played,” Birdie said. “I think that in many instances I’d rather be around a small city at this time, than a big city. The weather is cooler; your dress is less formal. Everything has its advantages.”
As Birdie spoke about the advantages of living in Marion, or “vacation country,” as he called it, and his love for teaching young players, you can see a gaggle of Salem players gathered in the background, perhaps straining to hear wise words from the former major league player, manager and philosophy major.
It must have sent a jolt of energy through them when Birdie spoke about his impression of the Appalachian League.
“I’m delighted with the outlook here in the league,” he said. “I think the fans are great, and I think that the young ballplayers and the young talent they have here are going to make it to the major leagues.”
NOTES: After the TV interviews, Marion beat Salem, 9-8, powered by home runs from James Plant and Charlie Merlow. Marion had a seemingly comfortable 9-4 lead going into the bottom of the ninth inning, but Salem scored four runs to make things less comfortable for the Mets, and Birdie’s heart. Richie Zisk, who played several years in the majors, smacked two home runs for Salem. Marion improved to 8-4 with the win and remained in second place, a game behind Bluefield… Jesse Hudson had a Moonlight Graham-like existence in the major leagues in terms of how long he played. The lefty from Mansfield, Louisiana, pitched in only one game when he got to the big leagues near the end of the 1969 season. He entered the second game of a late-September double header and pitched two innings in a loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates at Shea Stadium. Hudson, who was high school baseball teammates with Vida Blue, allowed a run and two hits. He walked two batters and struck out three, including hall-of-famer-to-be Willie Stargell. Hudson last pitched professionally for the Triple A Tidewater in 1970.
Is this the only existing video of the Marion Mets?
I have no idea, but if you know of existing video and/or photos, I’d love to see ‘em. I’d like to share those in this newsletter, giving the owner full credit, of course. And, if there is a good story as to how you obtained those videos/photos, we should talk. I’m a friendly guy! If those films are out there, I’ll keep searching and asking random strangers around town… at gas stations, at Walmart, on Main Street, wherever.
Marion Athletics?
Did you know the Mets were not the first professional baseball team to play in Marion? Ten years before the Mets arrived in our town, another team moved to Marion… in the middle of the season. In 1955, the Welch (W.Va.) Miners were struggling with attendance and finances. One night after a game in their home ballpark, the Miners’ board of directors met, debated past midnight and voted to end operations. Just like that, no more Miners baseball.
Folks in Marion had tried for years to get a minor league team, and quickly agreed to welcome the Welch club. In addition to changing geographic locations, they got a name change, too. For the rest of the season they were the Marion Athletics, reflecting the team’s affiliation with the major league Kansas City A’s. So, for a few months in the summer of ’55, Marion had minor league baseball. Check out this photo from the Bristol Herald Courier.
Before the first game in their new town, the A’s were treated to a welcome party near the lake at Hungry Mother State Park. In short notice of the team’s official arrival, a group of women gathered Wednesday morning, July 20, at the Marion Chamber of Commerce offices to plan the gathering. They spent that afternoon and Thursday morning spreading the word, hoping to get as many people as possible to attend the welcoming.
“We want them to know they are now members of our community,” an unidentified party organizer told the Smyth County News. “We did not have time to plan a big welcome party, as Thursday night is their only night off in the immediate future. So, we decided that a quick notice picnic would be our best way of welcoming them to town.”
About 100 people showed up for the picnic, and the players were delighted. “I’ve played a lot of baseball, but I’ve never seen a more wonderful town than this,” one of the players told a reporter. “Just look at all that food.”
The Marion Athletics played their first game in Marion on Sunday, July 24, 1955, beating Pulaski 10-9, in front of 1,062 fans. Leo Pilibosian hit a grand slam in the fifth inning for the A’s.
I’ll have a more in-depth story about the short-lived Marion Athletics in an upcoming edition of this newsletter.
That’s it for now. Back in a week with a story of how Ike Small came up big to help the Mets survive a curfew and 23 scoreless innings one summer night, and the following day, in Johnson City, Tennessee.