Pat Zachry, Pitcher Known for a Lopsided Trade, Dies at 71
Pat Zachry, who was a co-winner of the National League Rookie of the Year award in 1976, however who might be greatest recognized for being one of many gamers traded to the New York Mets a 12 months later for Tom Seaver, died on Thursday on the dwelling of his son, Josh, in Austin, Texas. He was 71.
Jay Horwitz, a spokesman for the Mets, introduced the loss of life. He didn’t specify the trigger, saying solely that Zachry died after a protracted sickness.
Zachry, a 6-foot-5 right-hander, started his profession with the Reds in 1976 and received off to a promising begin. He went 14-7 with a 2.74 earned run common in his first season and tied the San Diego Padres pitcher Butch Metzger for Rookie of the Year. He beat the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series and the Yankees in Game 3 of the World Series, which the Reds received in 4 video games for his or her second straight championship.
The Mets determined to commerce Seaver, a future Hall of Famer and the staff’s star participant, in June 1977 after a chronic contract dispute between Seaver and the staff’s chairman, M. Donald Grant. They despatched him to Cincinnati for the infielder Doug Flynn, the outfielders Steve Henderson and Dan Norman, and Zachry.
The New York Times, in a Page 1 article, referred to as it “one of the blockbuster trades in baseball history.”
“The premier pitcher in baseball for the last decade,” The Times famous, had been traded for “four players of far less magnitude.”
Met followers weren’t happy; based on The Times, the staff’s switchboard was “besieged” with indignant telephone calls even earlier than the deal was formally introduced.
“We weren’t going to replace Tom. No one could,” Flynn stated in a press release issued by the Mets after Zachry’s loss of life. “We just stuck together and played as hard as we could.”
Zachry’s first full season as a Met started nicely. He received seven of his first eight selections, was chosen for the National League All-Star staff and was 10-3 on the midway level of the season.
But he misplaced his subsequent three selections, and when he allowed a go-ahead single to George Foster of the Reds on July 24 and was taken out of the sport by the Mets’ supervisor, Joe Torre, he kicked a helmet within the dugout, caught a spike on the steps and broke his left foot, ending his season.
The remainder of his profession was undistinguished. In 10 main league seasons with the Reds, Mets, Dodgers and Phillies, he was 69-67 with a 3.52 E.R.A.
Patrick Paul Zachry was born on April 24, 1952, in Richmond, Texas, southwest of Houston, and was chosen by Cincinnati with the 454th choose within the nineteenth spherical of the 1970 newbie draft. He made his main league debut in opposition to Houston on April 11, 1976.
In addition to his son, a former faculty soccer participant, Zachry is survived by a daughter, Meredith Knight, an equestrian.
The New York Times contributed reporting.
