Hobie Landrith, the First New York Met, Dies at 93

[underpants]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/09/sports/baseball/hobie-landrith-dead.html

A major league catcher for 14 seasons, he was the first player picked by the newly formed Mets in the expansion draft in 1961.

Hobie Landrith caught for seven teams in his 14 major league seasons. He was mostly a backup, good enough at handling pitchers but a light hitter. He was never an All-Star. But he did possess a modest claim to fame.

The Mets and the Houston Colt .45s (now the Astros), founded as 1962 National League expansion teams, began stocking their rosters in an October 1961 draft. They alternated in selecting players whom the eight N.L. teams viewed as too young, too old or too ordinary to keep.

Houston chose Eddie Bressoud, a shortstop with the San Francisco Giants, as the first pick of the draft. The Mets chose Landrith, also a Giant, as their first selection.

[rsdsharp]

1. When asked why they selected a catcher, Casey Stengel, the first Mets manager,

said “You have to have a catcher, otherwise you get a lot of passed balls.”

[El Supremo]

2. He later famously asked:

"Can't anybody here play this game?"