Ron Hunt, the first Mets player to begin an All-Star Game, is in hospice in St. Louis while struggling from a number of diseases.
Longtime Mets vp of media relations Jay Horwitz shared the news Saturday, asking followers to hold the 85-year-old Hunt in their ideas.
“No one played the game harder than Ron Hunt, our first All-Star,” Horwitz wrote on Medium. “He would do anything to help win a game.”
Hunt performed 4 seasons for the Mets from 1963-66 and turned the first player in team historical past to begin an All-Star Game when he took the discipline at second base for the National League in the 1964 Midsummer Classic at Shea Stadium.
That season, Hunt hit .303 while receiving some down-ballot NL MVP votes.
A yr earlier, Hunt completed second in the NL Rookie of the Year race behind Pete Rose.
In 1966, his last season in a Mets uniform, Hunt made his second All-Star team.
New York Mets infielder Ron Hunt at Shea Stadium. Steve Moore
He went on to play eight more large league seasons with the Mets, Dodgers, Giants, Expos and Cardinals, ending his profession with 1,429 hits and a popularity as one of the hardest gamers of his period.
Hunt was hit by a pitch 243 instances, which is still the sixth-most in MLB historical past.
Horwitz, who presently runs the group’s alumni relations, said he had the “honor and privilege” of assembly Hunt and his household during a go to to Citi Field a few years in the past. He treasured their later telephone calls.
Former Mets player Ron Hunt addresses followers after the recreation between the New York Mets and the Florida Marlins at Shea Stadium on September 28, 2008 in Flushing, New York. MLB via Getty Images
“Loved hearing his stories about Casey Stengel,” Horwitz wrote. “So please think of Ron today. He needs our support.”
In 2018, it was revealed that Hunt was dealing with Parkinson’s illness.
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