Amazin’ Look Back: 1973 Amateur Draft – Mets Select OF-Lee Mazzilli With Fourteenth Overall Pick

With their first pick in this year’s June Amateur Draft, Mets director of scouting Joe McDonald, and GM Bob Scheffing decided on a high school outfielder named Lee Mazzilli, out of Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, New York.  He is a unique local talent who batted .386 over three seasons, features aggressive speed on the bases, and plays a confident center field.  Mazzilli is equally adept at catching and throwing with either hand, as well as being an accomplished switch-hitter.

Oct. 2, 2011; Bronx, NY, USA; New York Yankees former player Lee Mazzilli before game one of the 2011 ALDS against the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports

Born the youngest of three children to first-generation Italian/American parents  on  March 15, 1955, Mazzilli gave up his teenage passion for speed skating to pursue baseball, which as he puts it, was always his first love.  He was rewarded, as his home town Mets selected Lee with the fourteenth overall pick.

Bob Scheffing hopes to have Lee Mazzilli signed by summer’s end to a rumored $50,000 bonus, and assign him to the Anderson Mets of the (A)-Western Carolinas League next spring.

In the second round, the Mets brain trust selected right-handed pitcher, Jackson Todd with the thirty-eighth overall pick.  Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on November 20, 1951, he  stands 6’2″, 180 pounds, and played his college ball locally at the University of Oklahoma.  Jackson Todd was originally selected as a high school player in the 1970 draft by the Chicago Cubs, but did not sign.  He pitched thirteen complete games as a junior in this recently completed 1973 college season – a Sooners team record.

Unlike Lee Mazzilli coming out of high school, the Mets want to immediately get Jackson Todd signed and pitching for one of their affiliates for what remains of this season.

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