When the expansion New York Mets needed a statistician for their inaugural season in 1962, they tabbed a 32-year-old Staten Island native with experience working with the Brooklyn Dodgers, including helping his father take tickets at Ebbets Field as a boy. "I saw Jackie Robinson play 200 games,’’ Joe McDonald said in a 2017 interview. McDonald began his association with the Mets as a statistician (1962), then served as a minor league administrative secretary (1965-66) and director of scouting (1967).
From 1968-71, McDonald worked as the team's director of minor league operations. As a young baseball executive, McDonald was involved in the Mets’ first three amateur drafts, which produced Nolan Ryan, Ken Singleton and Jon Matlack. He was part of the organizational structure that developed the players who would help make the 1969 Mets world champions.
More news: Phillies World Series Champion Dies Unexpectedly at 72 McDonald became the Mets’ general manager in 1974. His tenure coincided with the franchise’s dramatic decline after its championship years, and he was in the front office during the 1977 dismantling of the club that included the trades of Tom Seaver and Dave Kingman. He left the Mets after the 1979 season and joined the St.
Louis Cardinals, first as an assistant general manager to Whitey Herzog and became general manager in 1982. We enjoyed developing players," McDonald said in a 2015 intervew. "I like to think we had success because we developed half of the players who constituted the Amazin' Mets in 1969.
Then when my time was done with the Mets, (Herzog) asked me to join him with the Cardinals and we won another World Series." More news: Hall of Fame ‘Voice of the Expos’ Dies The 1982 World Series championship gave McDonald his second championship ring, following the Mets' 1969 title. He later became a key executive with the Detroit Tigers, overseeing player procurement and development before serving as their general manager in 1991 and 1992. McDonald subsequently returned to what had become his defining role: scout.
He worked for the Los Angeles Angels and Colorado Rockies before joining the Red Sox in 2004. For more MLB news, visit Newsweek Sports.
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