Obituary: Jim McAndrew (1944-2024)

RIP to pitcher Jim McAndrew, a member of the 1969 World Champion Mets. He died on March 14, in Scottsdale, AZ, at the age of 80. McAndrew, father of former Brewers pitcher Jamie McAndrew, played for the New York Mets (1968-73) and San Diego Padres (1974) during his 7-year career in the majors.

James Clement McAndrew was born in Davenport, IA, on January 11, 1944, but he and his family lived in Lost Nation. Lost Nation is a town of about 450 residents located about 50 miles from the Quad Cities. According to the city’s website, the name comes from a Native American tribe that made the place its home because of its abundant food supply and good defensive position. The tribe became known as the “Boss Nation,” and in retellings after the tribe moved further west, it became the “Lost Nation.” That was just one of several explanations. McAndrew’s parents, Clement and Loretta, were farmers in Lost Nation; Jim was their oldest child. He went to Lost Nation High School, and he was one of the basketball team’s high scorers as well as a baseball player. As a freshman, McAndrew was about 5 feet tall and under 100 pounds. By the time he graduated, he had grown nearly a foot. “I used to pray every night to grow. My father is 5-foot-9 and he was the biggest in the family until I came along,” he said.

Jim McAndrew signing baseballs in the Mets locker room. Source: *Times-Democrat*, September 17, 1969.

McAndrew went to the University of Iowa after graduating from high school in 1961. As he advanced at Iowa, he spent more and more time pitching, though he had the ability to help his own cause with a timely home run. Major-league scouts began to take notice of him when he pitched to a 4-0 record at Iowa in 1963 and a 19-1 record for Dyersville in an amateur summer league. One of McAndrew’s teammates on the Hawkeyes pitching staff was Bob Gebhard, future Twins pitcher and an executive with the Expos, Twins, Rockies, Cardinals and Diamondbacks.

McAndrew missed the 1964 season because of a sore right shoulder, but he pitched well in 1965 and was drafted by the New York Mets in the 11th Round of the 1965 June Amateur Draft. It took some time for the pitcher to adjust to professional baseball. His numbers for Class-A Auburn and Rookie-Level Marion in 1965 are 6 wins, 5 losses and a 4.95 ERA; he allowed 12 home runs in 80 innings. He returned to Auburn in 1966 and pitched a little better, with an 11-7 record and 3.61 ERA, striking out 154 batters in 162 innings. McAndrew had a great winter pitching for the Mets’ Florida Instructional League team, with a sub-2 ERA as a reliever. He carried that dominance over to his 1967 season in Double-A Williamsport and led the Eastern League with a 1.47 ERA. McAndrew allowed just 119 hits and 42 walks in 153 innings pitched for a 1.052 WHIP, and he fanned 120 batters while winning 10 games. McAndrew continued to pitch well in Triple-A Jacksonville in 1968, the Mets brought the 24-year-old to the majors to make one start. Nolan Ryan was away for a weekend for military training, and McAndrew was his replacement. That was the good news. The bad news? His opponent on the mound was Bob Gibson, in the midst of his Cy Young Award, 1.12 ERA season. In that debut on July 21, McAndrew pitched 6 innings against the Cardinals, struck out 5 and allowed just 1 run — an inside-the-park homer to Bobby Tolan. That was one more run than the Mets could get off Gibson, and McAndrew took the 1-0 loss. The pitcher was returned to the minors once Ryan got back from military training, but he rejoined the Mets, for good, less than two weeks later.

Source: The National Museum of American History.

The 1968 Mets were slightly better than past versions of the team in that they didn’t lose more than 100 games, but the team was far from good. As a case in point, McAndrew lost 7 of his first 8 starts while earning a fine 2.53 ERA. In fact, the final scores of his first 4 losses were 1-0, 2-0, 1-0 and 1-0. New York exploded for 3 runs against San Francisco on August 21, but that happened to be the one game where McAndrew was hit hard, so he lost 13-3 while allowing 6 runs. He finally won a game on August 26, and he had to throw a 5-hit shutout against the Cardinals and Steve Carlton to get it. “It was a long time coming,” McAndrew said. The rookie enjoyed a 3-game winning streak toward the end of the season to finish with a hard-luck 4-7 record and a 2.28 ERA in 12 starts — even in the Year of the Pitcher, that was a 133 ERA+. McAndrew walked 17 and fanned 46 in 79 innings.

McAndrew earned a spot in the Mets starting rotation for 1969 but almost pitched himself off the team, even as the Amazin’ Mets became improbable pennant contenders. McAndrew took a Tim McCarver line drive off the middle finger of his right hand in his third start of the year. As he recovered from that injury, he got a blister on the same finger. “It was several weeks before I managed to toughen the hand so that I could start pitching regularly again,” he explained. “But, in the meantime, I picked up a few bad habits favoring the finger and as a result developed a sore shoulder.” McAndrew tried to pitch through the pain, but he struggled on the mound and had an ERA near 6 going into August. Right around the time the Mets were slipping past the Cubs into first place in the NL East, McAndrew rediscovered his form. He threw two straight shutouts against the Giants and Padres and had a 22-inning scoreless streak. He finished with a 6-7 record and a 3.47 ERA. Manager Gil Hodges, who had to have a discussion with the pitcher about his responsibility to the team and not pitching through pain, was pleased with the turnaround. “He’s pitched well the last four or five times,” he said in late August. “It was time, though. It got to the point where he had to earn his keep. We showed a lot of patience with him.”

The Mets made it into the playoffs and won the World Series over the Baltimore Orioles. McAndrew didn’t pitch in the postseason but was welcomed back to his hometown for Jim McAndrew Day in Lost Nation, on November 1, 1969. “Everyone has treated me just like a king,” he told the crowd that welcomed him back to town. “I wish all of you could experience the joy that I’ve felt the past four years in pro ball. I guess I have to thank somebody upstairs for it.”

After winning the World Series, McAndrew was honored in his hometown of Lost Nation, IA, during Jim McAndrew Day. Source: *Times-Democrat*, November 2, 1969.

McAndrew won 10 games in 1970 but repeated his early season struggles. He started the month of July with a 3-5 record and 5.01 ERA and had an ERA of just over 3 over the final three months of the season. In 1971, Hodges barely used McAndrew over the first half of the season, and the pitcher’s first start came in an exhibition against cadets from West Point. The lack of use was frustrating. “What do I know? I just work here,” McAndrew said. To add insult to injury, he collided with fellow pitcher Gary Gentry during pre-game warmups one day and ended up with a concussion and 20 stitches in his head. He never got on track and pitched fewer than 100 innings, making 10 starts and 14 relief appearances while earning a 2-5 record and 4.38 ERA. The Mets, under new manager Yogi Berra, gave McAndrew steady work all year long in 1972, and he responded with the best season of his career — the only one where he had a win-loss record of above .500. In 28 games, 23 of which were starts, McAndrew won 11 games and lost 8 with a 2.80 ERA. He completed 4 games and struck out 81 batters. Hodges, who died of a heart attack just prior to the 1972 season, had suggested that McAndrew learn a forkball, noting that the pitcher had the long fingers and wide spread to throw the pitch. He worked with teammate Danny Frisella to learn how to throw it. “It does keep the hitters guessing. It gives me a fifth pitch,” McAndrew said.

The Mets once again finished first in the NL East in 1973 before losing to Oakland in the World Series. McAndrew wasn’t the contributor that he had been in 1969, though. He won just 3 games in 23 appearances, 12 of which were starts, and had a high 5.38 ERA. He allowed 109 hits in 80-1/3 innings, and the opposition hit .330 against him — about 100 points higher than his career totals. Once again, he did not pitch in the postseason for the Mets. On December 20, New York traded McAndrew to the San Diego Padres for pitcher Steve Simpson. He started 1974 in the Padres starting rotation, and he picked up his only win on April 17 with a complete game 10-hitter that the Padres won 6-1. But McAndrew had injured his knee during spring training, and his effectiveness was greatly decreased. Most of his other starts saw him getting knocked out of the game early, and he spent the month of May pitching out of the bullpen before he was released on June 1. He had a 1-4 record and a 5.62 ERA in 5 starts and 10 relief outings. McAndrew pitched in Triple-A for the Chicago White Sox later that season but didn’t do well enough to merit a promotion back to the majors. It was his final season as a player.

McAndrew pitched in the major leagues for parts of 7 seasons. He had a 37-53 record and a 3.65 ERA in 161 games, including 110 starts. He threw 20 complete games and 6 shutouts, and he also picked up 4 saves. McAndrew struck out 424 batters in 771-1/3 innings, and opposing batters hit .245 against him That batting average is inflated as a result of his final two seasons. In his first 5 seasons with the Mets, opponent batting average was .230.

McAndrew, his wife Lyn and their four children moved to Colorado, and he took a job in marketing for a coal company and later became an executive with a mineral oils company. He did not miss the wear and tear of baseball travel. “I’m a family-oriented person and when you hit the road for two and one-half weeks at a time, you really miss watching your kids grow up,” he said in a 1985 interview. His son Jamie was selected by the Florida Marlins in the team’s expansion draft and reached the majors with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1995 and 1997.

While McAndrew never pitched for Philadelphia, he is a part of Phillies history. On September 12, he beat the Phillies 4-3, scattering 7 hits over 8-1/3 innings while striking out 5. Two of those strikeouts were courtesy of Mike Schmidt, who made his major-league debut in that game. However, Schmidt also got his first major league hit, a single in the bottom of the fifth inning that went right through the hole between shortstop and third base. McAndrew also gave up the first major-league hits of Phillies stalwarts Bob Boone and Bake McBride, too.