The only pitcher to post a winning record in the New York Mets inaugural season
A Gore Bay born icon has passed away. Ken MacKenzie, who was born and raised in Gore Bay and played Major League Baseball, passed away at the age of 89 years old at his home in Guildford, Connecticut on December 14. Mr. MacKenzie ,who played for the New York Mets in their inaugural season in 1962, was the only pitcher on that team to post a winning record.
“He has to be the best ballplayer to ever come from Manitoulin Island,” stated Jim Thibault, originally from Gore Bay, who now lives in the Ottawa area.
“Yeah, I knew Ken well. He was a really nice guy,” said Mr. Thibault.
“I used to build boats and Ken played ball,” said Doug Smith, who noted, “I used to catch for Ken when he practiced pitching when I was around 16-17 at Grandfather Smith’s in town where I lived.”
“I used to catch for him when he practiced, but that ended when someone was swinging a bat in front of me,” quipped Mr. Smith. “I was glad I built boats and someone else was pitching or swinging baseball bats.”
“Ken ended up being the best pitcher on the worst team in the big leagues.”
The Society for Baseball Research (SABR) reported that Kenneth Purvis MacKenzie was born on March 10, 1934.
Mr. MacKenzie was a left-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball from 1960-1965. He played with the Milwaukee Braves (1960-1961), New York Mets (1962-1963), St. Louis Cardinals (1963), San Francisco Giants (1964) and Houston Astros (1965).
A member of Yale University Class of 1956, Mr. MacKenzie lettered in hockey and baseball at the university. As a graduating senior in 1956, he won second-team All-Ivy honours for hockey and served as captain of the baseball team. He won 19 games and lost six in his three collegiate seasons. In each of those years, his teams won the Big Three Championship, the competitive series involving Yale, Princeton and Harvard, according to Wikipedia.
Noted baseball writer Jay Horowitz was quoted by Sport World News as writing in a touching tribute that Mr. MacKenzie’s unwavering pride in his Mets heritage was so profound he once checked himself out of a hospital bed to attend the Met’s Old Timers Day game. “As a left-handed relief pitcher from Canada, he left an indelible mark on the team and its fans. His passing is not just a loss to those who knew him but to the entire baseball community,” wrote Mr. Horowitz.
Mr. MacKenzie signed with the Milwaukee Braves in 1956 and began working his way through the club’s farm system, becoming a relief specialist in 1959, his third professional baseball season. After working in 14 games for Milwaukee in brief trials in 1960 and 1961, his contract was sold to the expansion New York Mets on October 11, 1961, one day after that year’s expansion draft.
An original New York Met, Mr. MacKenzie posted a five-win-four loss record and was the one only among 17 pitchers on the 1962 Mets to win more games than he lost on the team which suffered 120 defeats. Manager Casey Stengel said of him, “He’s a splendid young fella with a great education from Yale University. His signing with us makes him the lowest paid member of the class of Yale ’56.”
In 1963, Mr. MacKenzie again was the Mets lone over .500 pitcher, winning three of four decisions for a team which would lose 111 games. He was traded to the pennant-contending St. Louis Cardinals on August 5, 1963.
Mr. MacKenzie bounced from the Cardinals to the Giants to the Astros through his 1965 campaign, spending time in Triple A in the process.
All told, Mr. MacKenzie won eight of 18 decisions in 129 games pitched (all but one as a reliever) with five career saves. In 208 innings pitched, he allowed 231 hits and 63 walks with 142 strikeouts.
baseball, passed away at the age of 89 years at his home in Guildford, Connecticut on December 14
Mr. MacKenzie coached baseball and ice hockey at Yale between 1969 and 1979. He moved to the Yale alumni office following his coaching tenure, retiring in 1984.
Harold Dewar played against Mr. MacKenzie as a member of the Providence Bay baseball team when they were both growing up. “Ken was a really good hockey player as well as a good ballplayer. Ken was one of the best athletes to come out of Northern Ontario.”
