The Pecan Park Eagle

Mota's 150 Career Pinch Hits Are 3rd Most All Time..

As the technically second, but first truly active general manager of the new Houston MLB franchise from 1961 to 1965, Paul Richards did a pretty good job of drafting, acquiring, and signing some of the iconic early talent in the history of the Houston National League baseball club. People like Joe Morgan, Larry Dierker, Jimmy Wynn, Rusty Staub, Mike Cuellar, and Don Wilson all came along on Richards’ watch.

Nobody’s perfect.

One that  got away was a little outfielder fellow named Manny Mota – and he was a guy who ultimately turned out to be the pound-for-pound arguably greatest pinch hitter in the history of the game. He belonged to the Houston club for four months and four days, but he never took a single pitch in the batter’s box as an off-season acquisition who was soon gone with the first winds of spring training. Acquired by the then named Houston Colt .45’s from the San Francisco Giants on November 30, 1962, along with Dick LeMay, in exchange for infielder Joey Amalfitano, Manny Mota got through Christmas 1962 and the early part of 1963 without every setting foot into the mildly cold and wet city that is Houston in winter. Before he could even settle in to anyone’s plan for Houston’s second season 1963 outfield, on April 4, 1963,  Manny Mota was traded by the Houston Colt .45’s to the Pittsburgh Pirates for a long-legged speedy outfielder named Howie Goss and cash.

It wasn’t a big deal at the time.

The 24-year old Mota had batted only .176 in 47 games for the 1962 Giants during his rookie debut in the majors and his 13 total hits had included 12 singles and only a one double. The 27-year old, 6’4″ Goss had batted .343 in 89 games for the 1962 Pirates in his own debut season, but his 27 hits had included 2 doubles and 2 homers and the apparent promise of more punch than anyone could have expected from the little Mota man.

Goss would go on to a one-and-done 1963 season career as a Colt .45, hitting .209 with 9 HRs and 128 strike outs in 570 official trips to the plate as the club’s regular center fielder. He was gone forever from major baseball after 1963.

Manny Mota, on the other hand, was just getting cranked up with the 1963 Pirates. He would go on to a 20-season MLB career (1962-1980, 1982) – one in which he batted .304 overall as a mostly reserve, off-the-bench player and pinch hitter. Mota’s 150 career pinch hits place him third on the all time list.

Manny Mota played for the San Francisco Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates, Montreal Expos, and Los Angeles Dodgers over the trail of his two decades in the National League – and one thing did hold up about his early grades. He had very little power, garnering only 31 home runs in twenty years of play.

His spark was his ability to make good sure contact with the ball when he swung his bat. In 4,227 total plate appearances, Manny Mota struck out only 320 times in twenty years. Howie Goss struck out 164 times in his total 560 plate appearances.

Nobody gets them all right. If GM’s and club owners could tell the future, for example, then neither Babe Ruth nor Jeff Bagwell would have escaped control by the Boston Red Sox. In fact, the list of deals you’d never make might even runs into several volumes, but that’s not the world we live in – and we baseball fans are left to quietly, or not so quietly, lament the stars that got away.

Manny Mota, age 73, was born in the Dominican Republic on February 18, 1938. Two of his sons, Andy and Jose, have also played major league baseball. – Must be something to the gene theory in some cases. It’s just too bad in the case of the father here that the Houston club didn’t have a little more to go on before they made the Mota for Goss deal.

Addendum: Mickey Herskowitz and I have talked since I wrote this column earlier. Mickey covered the club for the old Houston Post back in those days and says he really found Howie Goss a refreshing guy to interview. He reminded me of the fact that the Houston club saw big old Howie Goss as a potential home run hitter. That happens with big guys who also command a sweet swing. People fail to see that they often have an even greater potential for striking out – a trait in Goss that rapidly became apparent in Goss.

One day, Herskowitz says he caught Goss coming into the clubhouse and reminded him that he was on course to strike out 200 times for the season. “Is that right?” Howie shot back. “I never went over 188 K’s out in the PCL!”

On another occasion, the limitations of Howie Goss’s fielding as a center field came quickly to light when he misplayed a bases loaded fly ball over his head into an inside-the-park home run for the other club. “Do you realize that Willie Mays, or even a good outfielder might have caught that ball, Howie?”

“Don’t bring it up,” Goss barked indifferently. “I’m no Willie Mays and, heck, I’m not even a good outfielder.”

The Astros quickly agreed. After the 1963 season, Howie Goss was gone forever from the big leagues. Thank you, Mickey H., for those two great anecdotes on Goss.

Mark Wernick also sent be a photo of the “Colt .45 that never was” (in an official game). Here’s the 1963 card that was done too early of Manny Moto as a Houston Colt .45: