Jim Bethke (1946–2025)

[Edgy MD]

Jim Bethke, who pitched for the Mets at just 18 years old in 1965, reportedly passed back on June 19, but word appears to be just seeping out now. Jim would go on to work as an engineer with Union Pacific Railroad, as well as serving in the United States Marine Corps Reserve.

Jim rode the horse known as #41 from April to July of that year, before dismounting in favor of Gordie Richardson. Richardson would finish out the year with 41 before Tom Seaver climbed aboard and rode it into eternity.

He managed, in his short time, to foreshadow Jerry Koosman as well.

[Cowtipper]

Heaven's to Bethke, another one!

[G-Fafif]

The youngest ever among Met pitchers (and first Baby Boomer Met) preceded by one on the all-time roster the first-born among all Mets, 44-year-old Warren Spahn, the only Met to see light in 1921. In hindsight, our now 1,286-player annals had quite a run of debuts in the first weeks of ’65.

89. Ron Swoboda

90. Jim Bethke

91. Warren Spahn

92. Danny Napoleon

93. Tug McGraw

94. Yogi Berra

[Benjamin Grimm]

Bethke's major league career ended before his 19th birthday, but he continued to bounce around the Mets farm system for another five years, ending in Memphis (AA) in 1970. His final professional season was 1971, at the age of 24, in the Royals' farm system. Four games at AA Elmira and 17 at Single-A San Jose, where he had a 2.85 ERA in 98 innings.

[MFS62]

Many of those early Mets served in the Marine Corps Reserve. It was a way to keep them out of the Viet Nam era Army draft.

RIP, Jim

Semper Fi.

Later

[roger_that]

The first, I think, of several key Mets. Many of them appeared on the 1996 squad: Butch Huskey, Bernard Gilkey, Dave Mlicki, Jason Hardtke, but I'm sure there have been some others in other years as well.

[G-Fafif]

Yet we never made a play for Jimmy Key.

[Edgy MD]

I would hate to trigger un-necessary mourning, but I'm still not seeing any official announcement of this.

[roger_that]

No death date on bbrief.com

[Benjamin Grimm]

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/james-bethke-obituary?id=58690679

[stevejrogers]

No death date on bbrief.com

 

They tend to be stringent on their changes over there. It’s not a crowd sourced place like Wiki or IMDB. So it lags on the obscure persons’ notices.

[stevejrogers]

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