Second Baseman,
New York Mets
Age: 23
2nd season
with Mets
Bats – Right,
Throws – Right
Height: 6’0” Weight: 186
Prior to 1964:
A Missouri
native, Hunt played football and baseball in high school and was signed by the
Milwaukee Braves following his graduation in 1959. Initially assigned to McCook
of the Class D Nebraska State League, in 62 games he batted .284 with 11
doubles, 6 triples, 2 home runs, 52 RBIs, and a .431 on-base percentage. He was
hit by 13 pitches, setting the stage for a significant element of his major
league career. Advancing to Cedar Rapids of the Class B Illinois-Indiana-Iowa
(or Three I) League in 1960 he hit .191 with 9 doubles, 3 home runs, 33 RBIs,
and a .335 OBP thanks to drawing 88 walks. Returning to Cedar Rapids in 1961,
Hunt’s batting production improved to .295 with 25 doubles, 7 triples, 16 home
runs, 72 RBIs, a .389 OBP, and a .484 slugging percentage. He spent 1962 with
Austin of the Class AA Texas League and hit .310 with 25 doubles, 5 triples, 2
home runs, 56 RBIs, and a .381 OBP. In the offseason Hunt was sold to the Mets
and became the starting second baseman as a rookie in 1963, after initially
being utilized as a bullpen catcher and telling manager Casey Stengel he would
accept being sent back to the minors if he could play regularly at second. The
impressed Stengel put him in the line-up and, while his fielding was a bit raw,
he went on to lead the club in batting with his .272 average and further
compiled 28 doubles, 4 triples, 10 home runs, 42 RBIs, a .334 OBP, and a .396
slugging percentage despite battling allergy problems. He placed a distant
second in league Rookie of the Year voting and became a fan favorite with his
scrappy style of play. Tough, aggressive, aware of his limitations, and willing
to do what was necessary to help the team, he was hit by 13 pitches, which
ranked second in the NL.
1964 Season Summary
Appeared in 127
games
2B – 109, 3B – 12,
PH – 6
[Bracketed
numbers indicate NL rank in Top 20]
Batting
Plate
Appearances – 521
At Bats – 475
Runs – 59
Hits – 144
Doubles – 19
Triples – 6
[16, tied with eight others]
Home Runs – 6
RBI – 42
Bases on Balls
– 29
Int. BB – 4
Strikeouts – 30
Stolen Bases – 6
Caught Stealing
– 2
Average - .303
[13, tied with Bill White]
OBP - .357 [15]
Slugging Pct. -
.406
Total Bases – 193
GDP – 16 [7,
tied with four others]
Hit by Pitches
– 11 [2]
Sac Hits – 5
Sac Flies – 1
Midseason snapshot: 2B – 14, 3B – 4, HR - 3, RBI - 22, AVG - .311, OBP - .361
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Most hits, game
– 4 (in 5 AB) at Chi. Cubs 5/26, (in 5 AB) at Mil. Braves 6/28
Longest hitting
streak – 11 games
HR at home – 3
HR on road – 3
Most home runs,
game – 1 on six occasions
Multi-HR games
– 0
Most RBIs, game
– 3 vs. Mil. Braves 5/14, vs. Cincinnati 7/12, at Chi. Cubs 8/28
Pinch-hitting –
2 for 6 (.333) with 1 2B & 2 RBI
Fielding (2B)
Chances – 573
Put Outs – 244
Assists – 317
Errors – 12
DP – 73
Pct. - .979
Awards & Honors:
All-Star
(Started for NL at 2B)
25th
in NL MVP voting, tied with Barney Schultz, StL. (1 point – 0% share)
---
The Mets went
53-109 to finish tenth (last) in the NL, 40 games behind
the pennant-winning St. Louis Cardinals while leading the league in fewest
triples (31), and fewest walks drawn (353). Moving from the decrepit Polo
Grounds to the new Shea Stadium, the Mets remained a cellar-dwelling club
despite the addition of some helpful veterans and the improvement of players
such as Hunt, who became the first Met to start an All-Star Game. A 2-10 April
planted the Mets in the cellar to stay. They still managed to almost play a
spoiler role on the season’s final weekend, winning the first two of three
games at St. Louis to nearly deprive the Cardinals, locked in a tight pennant
race, of the prize outright. The team was 33-48 for the year at Shea Stadium,
where they drew 1,732,597 fans.
Aftermath of 1964:
Having developed into an adept fielder, Hunt was limited to 57 games in 1965 due to a shoulder separation and batted .240 with a .309 OBP. He rebounded in 1966 to hit .288 with 19 doubles, 3 home runs, 33 RBIs, and a .356 OBP. He was an All-Star for the second time but was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the offseason along with outfielder Jim Hickman in the deal that brought outfielder Tommy Davis to New York. The primary second baseman for the Dodgers during the first half of the season, he was hitting .286 with a .381 OBP at the All-Star break. Injuries wore him down during the season’s second half and he was shuttled between second and third base late in the year. He finished by batting .263 with 17 doubles, 3 triples, 3 home runs, 33 RBIs, and a .344 OBP. In the offseason, Hunt found himself on the move again, this time up the California coast to the San Francisco Giants as part of a four-player trade. He hit .250 with 19 doubles, 2 home runs, 28 RBIs, and a .371 OBP bolstered by drawing 78 walks and being hit by 25 pitches, which marked his first time leading the league in that category. Prone to crowding the plate, choking up on the bat and leaning toward the pitcher, not avoiding inside pitches, although he would use a spin move that made it appear that he was trying to avoid any direct hits. Umpires rarely called him on it and it allowed a fair hitter who lacked power to reach base more regularly. His defense was less stellar and, for the second time in his career, he led NL second basemen in errors. In the first season of divisional play in major league baseball in 1969, the perenially second-place-finishing Giants were runners-up once again in the new NL West. Hunt’s strong play in the season’s second half helped to achieve that result and, in addition to again topping the circuit in being hit by 25 pitches Hunt batted .262 with 23 doubles, 3 home runs, 41 RBIs, and a .361 OBP. He tied for fifteenth in league MVP balloting. In 1970, the oft-injured Hunt was limited to 117 games and hit .281 with 17 doubles, 6 home runs, 41 RBIs, and a .394 OBP. He still led the league by being hit by 26 pitches despite the reduced playing time. Dealt to the Montreal Expos in the offseason, in 1971 Hunt took his penchant for being hit by pitches to the ultimate, setting a 20th century record by being struck 50 times. In addition he batted .279 with 20 doubles, 5 home runs, and a .402 OBP while drawing 58 walks in addition to his being struck by pitches. He was named club MVP by the Montreal baseball writers. Considered by many writers to be a throwback to an earlier baseball era in his style of play, he lacked grace as a fielder but made up for it with his aggressiveness. Never fast to begin with, Hunt appeared to lose a step in 1972 but still topped the NL by being hit by 26 pitches while batting .253 with 20 doubles, 56 runs scored, 18 RBIs, and a .363 OBP. Hitting well to start the 1973 season, Hunt was batting .299 at the All-Star break, but then injuries limited him to only 21 games during the season’s second half and he finished at .309 with a .418 OBP while topping the league in being hit by 24 pitches. With the Expos bent on a youth movement in 1974, Hunt was waived in September and picked up by the St. Louis Cardinals for the remainder of the season. He ended up hitting a combined .263 with a .372 OBP and a league-leading 16 times hit by pitches. Failing to make the Cardinals during 1975 spring training, his playing career came to an end. For his major league career, Hunt batted .273 with 1429 hits that included 223 doubles, 23 triples, and 39 home runs. He scored 745 runs and compiled 370 RBIs, 65 stolen bases, and a .368 OBP. He was hit by 243 pitchers which was the modern career record until first broken by Don Baylor and later Craig Biggio. Nicknamed “Scrap Iron”, as testament to his usefulness with limited skills, and “Pigpen”, for his typically dirty uniform, he retired to his Missouri farm and ran liquor and sporting goods stores in addition to the non-profit Ron Hunt Eagles Baseball Association, a baseball training program for boys aged 14 to 18. Suffering health problems due to his rugged style of play, he summed up by saying “a lot of people give their body to science. I gave mine to baseball.”
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Highlighted Years feature players who led a major league
in one of the following categories: batting average, home runs (with a minimum
of 10), runs batted in, or stolen bases (with a minimum of 20); or pitchers who
led a major league in wins, strikeouts, earned run average, or saves (with a
minimum of 10). Also included are participants in annual All-Star Games between
the National and American Leagues since 1933. This category also includes Misc.
players who received award votes, were contributors to teams that reached the
postseason, or had notable seasons in non-award years.
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