Ken MacKenzie, a Rare Winner on the 1962 Mets, Dies at 89
Ken MacKenzie, a left-handed reliever who was the one pitcher with a successful document on the famously hapless 1962 New York Mets, died on Thursday at his house in Guilford, Conn. He was 89.
His dying was introduced by the Mets spokesman Jay Horwitz.
The Mets had been one in every of two enlargement franchises making ready to affix the National League (the opposite was the Houston Colt 45s, now the Astros) once they acquired McKenzie from the Milwaukee Braves in October 1961. He had a 5-4 document and a 4.95 earned run common in 41 reduction appearances and one begin in 1962 — the one successful document amongst 17 pitchers on the Mets, who went 40-120 and set a contemporary document for defeats. The solely workforce in baseball historical past with a poorer document was the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who had been 20-134.
MacKenzie was 3-1 with a 4.84 E.R.A. in 31 appearances for the Mets in 1963 earlier than being traded to the St. Louis Cardinals. He went on to pitch for the San Francisco Giants and Houston earlier than retiring in 1965.
After his enjoying profession, MacKenzie, a Yale graduate, coached Yale’s baseball workforce from 1969 to 1978.
Kenneth Purvis MacKenzie was born on March 10, 1934, in Gore Bay, Ontario. He was the captain of the Yale baseball workforce and second-team All-Ivy League in hockey.
“His signing with us,” Mets Manager Casey Stengel joked, “makes him the lowest-paid member of the class of Yale ’56.”
MacKenzie signed with the Braves in September 1956, shortly after graduating from Yale. He made his big-league debut at San Francisco in 1960.
He returned to Yale in 1967 as freshman baseball coach and freshman hockey coach and, two years later, succeeded Ethan Allen as varsity baseball coach.
He was amongst those that helped recruit the long run Mets pitching star Ron Darling to Yale, though he stepped down as coach earlier than Darling’s first faculty season, in 1979. He labored in Yale’s alumni workplace till retiring in 1984.
MacKenzie is survived by two sons, Ken and Geoffrey.
The Mets stated 9 gamers from the 1962 workforce are nonetheless alive.
