Cal Koonce was purchased from the Cubs on August 2nd, 1967. Cal finished the '76 season strong after arriving in New York, posting a 2.80 ERA over 45 innings. In '68 he was even better with a 2.42 ERA over 96.2 innings. Koonce admitted to throwing a "Sweatball" during his playing days. He occasionally used moisture from his wrist to get a better grip on the baseball, effectively tossing an illegal spitball. Koonce, scuffled a bit in '69 and '70. His contract was sold to the Red Sox on June 8th, 1970. After a long battle with lymphoma, Cal passed away on October 28th, 1993.
This Koonce baseball was purchased from a collector. his signed baseball is one of the more valuable Mets balls in existence. I had to save up for a while to get this one.
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