Jerry Grote, who started at catcher for the 1969 Mets team that won their first World Series, passed away on Sunday afternoon due to respiratory failure after a cardiac procedure. His wife Cheryl shared the news on Facebook.
He was eighty-one.
“It’s with great sorrow that I make this post to all of Jerry’s fans. Today, April 7, 2024 at 4:29 p.m., I lost our beloved catcher,” she wrote, in part. “He gave a hard fight to the very end as we all expected he would. He is now home with Jesus. Thank you for all the memories and support.”
The Mets announced in a statement of their own that Grote passed away in Austin, Texas, at the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute.
Grote played for the Mets for the most of his 16-year major league career, from 1966 until his trade to the Dodgers during the 1977 season. He was a member of both the team that won the 1969 championship and the 1973 squad that won the National League pennant.
In his day, Grote was regarded as one of baseball’s top defensive catchers.
In 1968 and 1974, he was selected to two All-Star teams during his Mets career. He holds the record for most games played at catcher in the franchise’s history.
“We are incredibly saddened to hear about the passing of Jerry Grote. The Mets Hall of Famer was the backbone of a young Mets team who captured the heart of New York City in 1969,” Mets owners Steve and Alex Cohen said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Cheryl, family and friends.”
Throughout his career, Grote received praise for his ability to develop young pitchers and was known for having caught some of the greatest pitchers in Mets history.
Tug McGraw, Nolan Ryan, Jerry Koosman, and Tom Seaver were among those on that list.
He was simply an excellent defensive catcher. In 2019, Koosman told The Post’s Steve Serby, “It was great working with him.”
One could characterize Grote’s demeanor as the epitome of the Miracle Mets of 1969, who won the World Series and shocked everyone by surprising the Orioles and winning the team’s first championship.
That season saw the team win 100 games, one more than its previous franchise-high 73 games.
Back in spring training that season, Grote told The Post in 2009 that he thought the ballclub could pull off the unimaginable.
“I felt we had the pitching and the defense,” he said at the time. “All we needed was that one more person.”
Hall of Famer Johnny Bench once remarked that if he were on the same team as Grote, he would have to play third base and Grote would be behind the plate because of Grote’s legendary status as one of the game’s best catchers.
Grote made his major league debut with the Houston Astros in 1963 at the age of twenty-nine. He went on to play in 1,421 games, collecting 1,092 hits and a .252 batting average before ending his career with stints on the Dodgers and Royals in 1981.
Grote, a native of San Antonio, was admitted to the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.
In 1992, the Mets elected him to their Hall of Fame.