Mets History: Jerry Koosman led the league in two very different stats in 1977

The 1977 season was a dark one for the New York Mets. For star pitcher Jerry Koosman, the season finished with two very different league-leading totals.

The 1977 New York Mets finished 64-98. Joe Torre took over as manager midseason and many more changes came for the franchise, too. This was the summer with the infamous Tom Seaver trade to the Cincinnati Reds.

The team was heading toward a rebuild before the term was even commonplace in sports. Many of our favorite stars had either left the team this year or would soon find a new team in the coming seasons.

One man who managed to survive through the 1977 campaign was left-handed starter Jerry Koosman. The number two behind Seaver, Koosman was fresh off a second-place Cy Young finish. His 1976 season included a personal-best 21 wins and an impressive 2.69 ERA. Things weren’t quite as smooth in 1977.

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Koosman made 32 starts for the Mets that year, going just 8-20. The 20 losses were the most of any player in the league—forever standing out boldly on his Baseball-Reference Page.

However, Koosman’s year wasn’t the kind of campaign normally associated with more modern-day 20-loss seasons. He had a respectable 3.49 ERA. From the world of league-leading numbers, he even managed to average more strikeouts per nine than any other pitcher.

Over the course of his 226.2 innings, Koosman struck out 192 opponents. This was good enough to award him with an average of 7.6 strikeouts per nine innings. No other pitcher in the league posted a better average.

By today’s standards, this is an incredibly low number. Back in 1977 when batters still choked up and a 100 strikeout season could put a guy on the unemployment line, it was quite fantastic.

Koosman’s career included plenty of accomplishments. Something he rarely did was actually lead the league in any category. With one of the greatest pitchers of all-time sharing a dugout with him, it was tough to find the number one spot in most of the important statistics. In 1977, Koosman somehow ended up finishing the season with one league-leading total nobody wanted and another everyone could envy.

Mets fans got to see Koosman one more season after 1977 when he struggled through the 1978 schedule. It looked like the end for the 35-year-old southpaw.

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Amazingly, Koosman would win 20 games for the Minnesota Twins in 1979. It wasn’t good enough to lead the league, but in the strike-shortened 1981 season, his 13 losses unfortunately were.