Joe Pignatano obit

Ex-Brooklyn Dodgers catcher, New York Mets coach Joe Pignatano dies at 92

 

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As a big leaguer, Joe Pignatano had a career that was more noteworthy than notable: He played in the last game at Ebbets Field, he homered off three future Hall of Famers and he hit into a triple play with his final swing in the majors.

It was out in the bullpen at Shea Stadium, where he tended relief pitchers and tomatoes for the 1969 Miracle Mets, where Pignatano's legacy really grew.

"He was fairly committed to taking care of his tomatoes," former Mets pitcher Jim McAndrew told The Associated Press.

"It was Joe's thing," he said. "A lot of love and effort and TLC."

Pignatano, who reached the majors as a catcher with his hometown Brooklyn Dodgers and became a longtime coach, died Monday at 92.

The New York Mets said Pignatano died in Naples, Florida, at a nursing home. He had been suffering from dementia.

Pignatano had been the last living coach from the 1969 Mets, who made a remarkable run under manager Gil Hodges to reach the World Series and then startled Baltimore and the baseball world for their first championship.

He remained as their bullpen coach through 1981.

"To me, he was Uncle Joe. He loved the city and loved talking about his days with the Dodgers and with Gil. He was a baseball lifer," former Mets star Lee Mazzilli said.

Pignatano made his major league debut with Brooklyn in 1957. On Sept. 24, he took over for future Hall of Famer Roy Campanella and caught the final five innings in a 2-0 win over Pittsburgh. It was the Dodgers' last home game before bolting Brooklyn for the West Coast. He played on the same team as great players such as Duke Snider, Don Zimmer, Jim Gilliam, Gino Cimoli, Randy Jackson, Carl Furillo, Don Newcombe, Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Roger Craig, Pee Wee Reese, Charlie Neal, and Johnny Podres.

In 1959, Pignatano got his biggest hit. In the second game in a best-of-three playoff against Milwaukee for the NL pennant, his two-out single in the bottom of the 12th at the Coliseum set up the winning run scored by Hodges as Los Angeles earned a World Series spot.

The Dodgers went on to win the championship, and Pignatano had a brief appearance behind the plate in the six-game win over the Chicago White Sox.

After stints with the Kansas City Athletics and San Francisco Giants, he joined the 1962 expansion Mets in midseason. The Mets were awful, setting a modern major league record for losses in going 40-120, and they wrapped up their season in inglorious fashion.

In their final game of the season, at Wrigley Field against the Cubs, they trailed 5-1 when Sammy Drake led off the eighth inning with a single and took second on a single by Richie Ashburn.

Pignatano was up next and sent a liner toward right field -- "that ball was labeled base hit from the moment it left the bat" is how it was described on Mets radio.

Instead, Chicago second baseman Ken Hubbs went back and caught the ball and threw to first baseman Ernie Banks, who relayed to shortstop Andre Rodgers for a triple play.

It was Pignatano's last at-bat in the majors.

A career .234 hitter, he played 307 games and hit 16 home runs. Among the pitchers he tagged for homers were Robin Roberts, Warren Spahn and Jim Kaat, all of them Hall of Famers.

In 1965, Hodges was managing the Washington Senators when he asked Pignatano to join his coaching staff. In 1968, Pignatano went with Hodges to the Mets.

During the 1969 season, Pignatano discovered a stray tomato plant growing in the right-field bullpen at Shea and kept it healthy. As the Mets continued to win, the plant became something of a good-luck charm and Pignatano's garden took root.

"It was his home away from home," McAndrew recalled Monday. "He had five or six hours a day down there with his tomatoes. He really took care of them. When we were on the road, the grounds crew helped out. They had the water."

Over the years, the ripe, red tomatoes grew and so did the stories about Pignatano's green thumb. He was always glad to talk about his garden.

But letting others enjoy his harvest? Nope, McAndrew said he never got to taste a single juicy tomato.

"He didn't share them. They were just for him," McAndrew said with a laugh. "He was going to reap the fruits of his bounty."

He was also related to two other former Met players, pitchers Pete Falcone and John Franco, a cousin.

On Tuesday, September 24, 1957, Pignatano was behind the plate during the final five innings of the Brooklyn Dodgers' last home game, played at Ebbets Field against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He relieved starting catcher (and future Baseball Hall of Famer) Roy Campanella in the top of the fifth inning with the Dodgers leading 2–0 and helped guide pitcher Danny McDevitt to a complete game shutout victory. The Dodgers played their final three games in 1957 on the road against the Philadelphia Phillies, then moved to Los Angeles during the off-season.

In January 1958, Campanella was paralyzed in a car accident, and John Roseboro succeeded him as the Dodgers' starting catcher. Pignatano was Roseboro's backup in 1958 and 1959, and the third-string Dodger receiver in 1960. He hit a career-high nine home runs in 1958 and played a key role in the Dodgers' late-season 1959 pennant drive, which ended in a flat-footed tie between the Dodgers and Milwaukee Braves. In the flag-clinching Game 2 of the National League playoff series, Pignatano entered the contest as a pinch runner for Norm Larker in the ninth inning, then took over as catcher in the tenth, replacing Roseboro. In the 12th, with two out and Gil Hodges on base, Pignatano singled off Bob Rush to keep the inning alive and send Hodges to second. The next hitter, Carl Furillo, delivered the game- and pennant-winning run on an infield hit and an error by Braves' shortstop Félix Mantilla. Pignatano then appeared in one inning as a defensive replacement (in Game 5) of the 1959 World Series and earned a world championship ring when the Dodgers prevailed over the Chicago White Sox in six games.

Pignatano was a semi-regular for the 1961 Athletics, splitting the catching duties with Haywood Sullivan, but offensive struggles limited his MLB playing time. He hit above .240 only once (with the 1961 A's) and batted .234 lifetime with 161 hits, 25 doubles, four triples, 16 home runs, and 62 runs batted in. His career OPS was .683. He is the only major league player to have ended his career by hitting into a triple play, which he did while playing for the Mets in the eighth inning on September 30, 1962