Gerald Wayne “Jerry” Grote was born in San Antonio, Texas on October 6, 1942 and died April 7, 2024 in a hospital in Austin, Texas. He played during sixteen season in Major League Baseball, mostly as a catcher, with four different teams that reached the World Series. His World Series appearances were two each with the New York Mets (1969 and 1973) and though he made one plate appearance, the Los Angeles Dodgers (1977 and 1978).
His parents were Clarence and Leila Annie Rittlmann Grote. In the 1950 federal census, The family consisted of the parents, Jerry and a baby sister. Clarence’s profession was listed as a laboratory technician at a cement factory. Jerry was a third generation Texan. His great grandfather Grote was born in Germany..
Jerry graduated from high school at San Antonio’s McArthur where he participated in three sports: cross-country, track and field, and baseball, After graduating in 1961, he attended one year at Trinity University and played baseball there as both a pitcher and a catcher. One account mentions Del Baker, a former big league catcher, coach and manager who was an advisor to the Trinity team. Baker had a winning record as a big league manager and spent many years in minor league baseball as well amassing a varied career of fifty years in the sport. Baker is said to have taken an interest in Grote and tutored him while at Trinity.
Jerry had been offered a position with the expansion club, the Houston Colt .45s, before going to Trinity, but he declined in order to attend school and play baseball there. After his one season at Trinity, he again came to the attention of a Houston scouts and in 1963 signed a minor league contract with their San Antonio Texas League affiliate which had recently changed its name to the Bullets. He played well for the Bullets and was called up to the Colt .45s at the end of the season, making his debut with the club on September 21, 1963. Jerry appeared in three games that season.
Jerry played one full year for the Colt .45s in 1964, He appeared in 100 games, all as catcher. His fielding statistics were very good but in 325 plate appearances, his batting average was .181. The next year, the Colt .45s changed their name to the Astros and moved into the Astrodome. Before the season opener, Grote was sent to the Oklahoma City 89ers in the Pacific Coast League, the Triple A affiliate of the Astros that year. Grote mostly played as catcher until John Bateman was also sent to Oklahoma City to improve his catching skills after which Grote was moved to third base. In 118 games and 433 plate appearances his batting average was .265. His fielding percentages were still high at both positions and near perfect at catcher. Oklahoma City won the Pacific Coast League pennant, so Jerry got a taste of winning. The club finished at 91-54 while the Astros finished 65-97. Late in the big league season, he was traded to the Mets and Jerry finished out the year in the Florida Instructional League as a Mets property. At the time, the trade likely seemed to be a disappointment for Grote but it turned out to be the opening for him to have his best years as a player in the Mets organization. It also turned out that Red Murff, the scout who had recommended Grote to the Colt .45s, had moved to the Mets organization and promoted him again for that organization.
Jerry spent the next three seasons with the Mets as they compiled records of 66-95, 61-191 and 73-89-1 from 1966 through 1968. under managers Wes Westrum and Gil Hodges the last year. Fans and the club got to know Grote as he appeared in 120, 120 and 124 games, almost all at catcher. His batting average ranged from a low of .195 in 1967 to a high of .282 in 1968 while his fielding percentages were good. Grote earned a reputation as being difficult to steal bases or even take long leads on while he was behind the plate.
Gill Hodges had come to the Mets as manager after an eighteen year career with the Dodgers organization, in Brooklyn and later in Los Angeles mostly as a first baseman and also as an outfielder and two years with the Mets. His career was interrupted by World War II . He served about 29 months in the United States Marine Corps seeing action in the Pacific. When he returned he was a key member of the Dodgers teams where he was considered one of the best first basemen in the game. His lifetime batting average was .273 and he accumulated 1,274 runs batted in and 370 home runs. He served for four seasons as manager of the Washington Senators, also an expansion team as was the Houston club. His first year with the Mets as manager, he was favorably viewed as having helped the Mets to earn their best record in many years, though it was still a losing one.
The 1969 Mets club has been called “the Miracle Mets” for good reasons. It rewarded its fans with the club’s first winning season. They opened the season losing six of their first ten games. As the season wore on, they finished out July getting swept in three games by the Astros, scoring 8 runs against the Astros’ 29 runs in that series. At that point in the season, their record was good (55-44) but from then on, they were stellar, winning 44 games while losing only 16. They went on several winning streaks of their own in August, September and October, finishing the regular season at 100-62, eight games ahead of the second place team, the Chicago Cubs. They swept the Atlanta Braves in three games to take the National League championship. Grote caught every inning of those three games. Then, they beat the favored Baltimore Orioles in five games in the World Series. Jerry played well that year also, batting .252 in 406 plate appearances and with his usual fine performances calling games and fielding.
His career statistics were also favorable. He was named an All Star in two seasons. One can easily get lost in the depth of statistics but some are telling for catchers. Grote led the league two seasons (1970 and 1971) in “putouts as catcher.” Though this never gets discussed in the play by play of broadcasts, this is a statistic that credits catchers for catching balls that result in strikeouts, catching pop flies, tagging out a runner trying to score, or retiring an opponent while playing somewhere other than behind home plate. According to baseball-reference.com, he finished in the top ten in this category six times. In fielding, he led the league as a catcher in 1974 and finished in the top ten in this category seven seasons.
Jerry retired after the 1981 season. He was inducted into the the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991, the Mets Hall of Fame in 1992, the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Trinity University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2011. He is interred in the family cemetery in Bexar County, Texas.
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