Andy Kosco
Encyclopedia
Andy Kosco is a former Major League Baseball
player who was affiliated at various times with the Minnesota Twins
, New York Yankees
, Los Angeles Dodgers
, Milwaukee Brewers
, California
Angels
, Boston Red Sox
, and Cincinnati Reds
.
, Ohio
, an industrial center located near the Pennsylvania
border. At six-foot-three and 215 pounds, Kosco was drawn to sports, but also seriously considered pursuing a degree in law.
In high school, Kosco was dominant at many sports. He averaged 25 points a game in basketball
, and as a senior he had a .715 batting average
. Michigan State University
offered to have him play baseball and basketball, while Ohio State University
offered for him to play baseball and football
.
Tigers
as an amateur free agent. He was released by Detroit in January 1964, and promptly signed on as a free agent with the Minnesota
Twins
.
In August 1965, Minnesota picked him from its AAA Denver
club to replace injured player Harmon Killebrew
. Kosco, who had largely reconsidered his plans to pursue law
, accepted the opportunity.
As sports author Jim Thielman notes, it was common at the time for baseball's commissioner to have input on World Series
rosters, and Commissioner Ford Frick
suggested the Twins bring their roster to 25 men by dropping a player who had not participated for the entire season. As a late-season replacement who played in the outfield
, where the Twins were well-stocked with veterans, Kosco was kept off the World Series roster.
. A month later, however, he was drafted by the New York
Yankees
.
As a Yankee, Kosco's primary role was to fill in for Mickey Mantle
at First base
during the back end of a doubleheader
and also occasionally play right field
. He is also the only player to ever pinch hit for Mickey Mantle.
In December 1968, he was traded by the Yankees to the Los Angeles
Dodgers
for Mike Kekich
. Kosco admitted that he was not happy when he had been told that the Yankees traded him away. He felt a great amount of pride playing for the Yankees, and loved being around Mantle. Upon leaving the Yankees, Kosco said, "I consider Mickey the most courageous person I've ever known. I loved being a Yankee."
In February 1971, the Dodgers traded Kosco to the Milwaukee Brewers
for Al Downing. He was traded again to the California Angels (for Tommie Reynolds
) and to the Boston Red Sox
(for Chris Coletta
) before completing his professional baseball career with the Cincinnati Reds
, with whom he batted .280 in 118 at-bats in 1973 on a team that won the National League West
title but lost to the New York Mets
in the NLCS
. Kosco went 3-for-10 in that Series, including collecting the only two Reds hits in Jon Matlack
′s Game Two shutout.
Kosco played for the Toledo Mud Hens
in 1975 when the team was the AAA-affiliate of the Phillies
.
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
player who was affiliated at various times with the Minnesota Twins
Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins are a professional baseball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They play in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They played in Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 to 1981 and the...
, New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
, Los Angeles Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...
, Milwaukee Brewers
Milwaukee Brewers
The Milwaukee Brewers are a professional baseball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, currently playing in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League...
, California
Anaheim, California
Anaheim is a city in Orange County, California. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was about 365,463, making it the most populated city in Orange County, the 10th most-populated city in California, and ranked 54th in the United States...
Angels
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are a professional baseball team based in Anaheim, California, United States. The Angels are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The "Angels" name originates from the city in which the team started, Los Angeles...
, Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...
, and Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the National League Central Division. The club was established in 1882 as a charter member of the American Association and joined the National League in 1890....
.
Formative years
Kosco was born in YoungstownYoungstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, an industrial center located near the Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
border. At six-foot-three and 215 pounds, Kosco was drawn to sports, but also seriously considered pursuing a degree in law.
In high school, Kosco was dominant at many sports. He averaged 25 points a game in basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, and as a senior he had a .715 batting average
Batting average
Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...
. Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
offered to have him play baseball and basketball, while Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
offered for him to play baseball and football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
.
Early career
Shortly before the 1959 season, Kosco was signed by the DetroitDetroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
Tigers
Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are a Major League Baseball team located in Detroit, Michigan. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Detroit in as part of the Western League. The Tigers have won four World Series championships and have won the American League pennant...
as an amateur free agent. He was released by Detroit in January 1964, and promptly signed on as a free agent with the Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
Twins
Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins are a professional baseball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They play in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They played in Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 to 1981 and the...
.
In August 1965, Minnesota picked him from its AAA Denver
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
club to replace injured player Harmon Killebrew
Harmon Killebrew
Harmon Clayton Killebrew , nicknamed "Killer" and "Hammerin' Harmon", was an American professional baseball first baseman, third baseman, and left fielder. During his 22-year career in Major League Baseball , he played for the Washington Senators, a team which later became the Minnesota Twins, and...
. Kosco, who had largely reconsidered his plans to pursue law
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, accepted the opportunity.
As sports author Jim Thielman notes, it was common at the time for baseball's commissioner to have input on World Series
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
rosters, and Commissioner Ford Frick
Ford Frick
Ford Christopher Frick was an American sportswriter and executive who served as president of the National League from to and as the third Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1951 to . He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1970...
suggested the Twins bring their roster to 25 men by dropping a player who had not participated for the entire season. As a late-season replacement who played in the outfield
Outfield
The outfield is a sporting term used in cricket and baseball to refer to the area of the field of play further from the batsman or batter than the infield...
, where the Twins were well-stocked with veterans, Kosco was kept off the World Series roster.
Later career
In October 1967, Kosco was purchased by the Oakland AthleticsOakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....
. A month later, however, he was drafted by the New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
.
As a Yankee, Kosco's primary role was to fill in for Mickey Mantle
Mickey Mantle
Mickey Charles Mantle was an American professional baseball player. Mantle is regarded by many to be the greatest switch hitter of all time, and one of the greatest players in baseball history. Mantle was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.Mantle was noted for his hitting...
at First base
First baseman
First base, or 1B, is the first of four stations on a baseball diamond which must be touched in succession by a baserunner in order to score a run for that player's team...
during the back end of a doubleheader
Doubleheader (baseball)
A doubleheader is a set of two baseball games played between the same two teams on the same day in front of the same crowd. In addition, the term is often used unofficially to refer to a pair of games played by a team in a single day, but in front of different crowds and not in immediate...
and also occasionally play right field
Right fielder
A right fielder, abbreviated RF, is the outfielder in baseball or softball who plays defense in right field. Right field is the area of the outfield to the right of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound...
. He is also the only player to ever pinch hit for Mickey Mantle.
In December 1968, he was traded by the Yankees to the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...
for Mike Kekich
Mike Kekich
Michael Dennis Kekich was a Major League Baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers, and Seattle Mariners between 1965 and 1977...
. Kosco admitted that he was not happy when he had been told that the Yankees traded him away. He felt a great amount of pride playing for the Yankees, and loved being around Mantle. Upon leaving the Yankees, Kosco said, "I consider Mickey the most courageous person I've ever known. I loved being a Yankee."
In February 1971, the Dodgers traded Kosco to the Milwaukee Brewers
Milwaukee Brewers
The Milwaukee Brewers are a professional baseball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, currently playing in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League...
for Al Downing. He was traded again to the California Angels (for Tommie Reynolds
Tommie Reynolds
Tommie D. Reynolds is a former Major League Baseball outfielder. He was signed by the Kansas City Athletics as an amateur free agent in 1963, and played for them from 1963 to 1965...
) and to the Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...
(for Chris Coletta
Chris Coletta
Christopher Michael Coletta is a retired professional baseball player who played one season for the California Angels of Major League Baseball. Coletta was also with the Boston Red Sox organization and had an impressive career in the International League...
) before completing his professional baseball career with the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the National League Central Division. The club was established in 1882 as a charter member of the American Association and joined the National League in 1890....
, with whom he batted .280 in 118 at-bats in 1973 on a team that won the National League West
National League West
The National League Western Division, or NL West, is one of the three divisions of Major League Baseball's National League. It was created in 1969 when the previously undivided National League expanded its membership to twelve teams, positioning half of them in an Eastern division and the other...
title but lost to the New York Mets
New York Mets
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
in the NLCS
1973 National League Championship Series
-Game 1:Saturday, October 6, 1973 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, OhioThe starting pitchers, New York's Tom Seaver and Cincinnati's Jack Billingham, produced a classic pitcher's duel in Game 1. The Mets threatened in the first, loading the bases with one out, but Cleon Jones grounded into a...
. Kosco went 3-for-10 in that Series, including collecting the only two Reds hits in Jon Matlack
Jon Matlack
Jonathan Trumpbour Matlack is an American former Major League Baseball left-handed pitcher...
′s Game Two shutout.
Kosco played for the Toledo Mud Hens
Toledo Mud Hens
The Toledo Mud Hens are a minor league baseball team located in Toledo, Ohio. The Mud Hens play in the International League, and are affiliated with the major league baseball team the Detroit Tigers, based approximately 50 miles to the north of Toledo. The current team is one of several...
in 1975 when the team was the AAA-affiliate of the Phillies
1975 Philadelphia Phillies season
The Philadelphia Phillies season was the 93rd in the history of the franchise. The Phillies finished in second place in the National League East with a record of 86-76, 6½ games behind the NL East champion Pittsburgh Pirates.- Offseason :...
.