Phenom from the Farm

Question: What big-league baseball team would hire a pitcher on the recommendation of an usher in its ballpark? Answer: the New York Mets. O.K. But when that same pitcher then goes out and wins three games in a row, striking out 24 batters, allowing only 15 hits, seven walks and one run in 27 innings -- well, that's talent.

Meet Jerry Koosman, 24. "I haven't had this much fun since my third-grade picnic," says Koosman, a slightly flaky 6-ft. 3-in., 205-lb. farmboy from Appleton, Minn. (pop. 3,000), who had seen only two major-league games before he first took the mound for the Mets, and whose performance so far this spring is startling even to his manager. "I wish I could take credit for him," said a dazed Gil Hodges, after Koosman posted a 3-1 victory over the Houston Astros last week. "But I can't."

A rapid worker ("I don't like the infielders to get cold or bored behind me"), Koosman throws from a short windup, relies on just two pitches: a steaming fastball and a tantalizing slow curve. He never played high-school baseball, but pitched for Army and semi-pro teams while he was at Fort Bliss, Texas in 1964. "My catcher was a fellow named John Lucchese," recalls Jerry, "whose father was an usher at Shea Stadium. He told his dad he had a pretty good pitcher, and his dad told the Mets. They sent a guy out to scout me, and he offered me $1,600 to sign. I turned him down, so the next time he offered me $1,500. Every time he talked to me, he offered me $100 less, and I finally signed for $1,200. I figured that if I didn't sign pretty soon, I'd end up owing them money."

After three years in the minors, during which he lost more games (30) than he won (28) but struck out 496 bat ters in 467 innings, Koosman won a spot in the Mets' rotation this spring. In his first game, he shut out the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-0; in his second, he whiffed Willie Mays with the bases loaded ("It was no great thrill") and blanked the San Francisco Giants, 3-0. "I'll challenge any hitter around," says Jerry, "as long as my fastball holds up and I have a curve that can keep them off stride. That's all you need in this league." As a matter of fact, that's not bad in any league.

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