Hobie Landrith dies at 93; Mets catcher was team's first draft pick in 1961
Hobie Landrith, a catcher for the 1962 New York Mets and six other MLB teams, died on Thursday at age 93. Above, he's pictured on a bubblegum card from the Bowman Gum Company, circa 1955. Credit: Getty Images/Transcendental Graphics
Hobie Landrith, a catcher who was the New York Mets' first selection in the 1961 expansion draft, died on Thursday, according to the team’s vice president of alumni public relations, Jay Horwitz.
He was 93.
Horwitz said the fact that Landrith was the team's first pick of the draft spoke to his baseball talent.
“We must have thought very highly of his ability if we selected him as the first player in the expansion draft,” Horwitz said by phone Sunday. “He was the first, quote, official Met. And I think it's a nice honor to have. It's nice to be remembered that you are the first for anything.”
The Mets selected 22 players in the expansion draft on Oct. 10, 1961, which was held to fill the rosters of the new New York franchise and the Houston Colt .45s, who later became the Astros.
When asked why the Mets took Landrith as the first pick, manager Casey Stengel said at the time, according to the team: “You gotta have a catcher or you’re gonna have a lot of passed balls."
Landrith was a lefthanded-hitting catcher, who batted .289 with one home run and seven RBIs in 23 games for the 1962 Mets. The club went 40-120 that year.
In an interview with Newsday last year, Landrith spoke about his time with the team.
"Even to this day, I still get autograph requests," he told Newsday from his home in Sunnyvale, California.
Landrith was traded to Baltimore on June 7, 1962, in a deal for "Marvelous" Marv Thornberry.
During his major-league career, Landrith spent parts of 14 seasons with the Reds, Giants, Orioles, Cardinals, Senators, Cubs and Mets from 1950-63.
Among Landrith's highlights with the Mets was a two-run walk-off homer off Hall of Famer Warren Spahn in the bottom of the ninth on May 12, 1962, to beat Milwaukee, 3-2.
Hobart Neal Landrith was born on March 16, 1930, in Decatur, Illinois, to Charles X. and Edna Irene Spalding Landrith. He was one of nine children (eight boys and a girl), according to The Society for American Baseball Research, an organization dedicated to the research and preservation of baseball.
Hobie Landrith is survived by his wife, Peggy, and six children; a brother; and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, according to The New York Times.
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