Tommie Agee

Tommie Lee Agee (August 9, 1942 – January 22, 2001) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a center fielder from 1962 through 1973, most notably as a member of the New York Mets team that became known as the Miracle Mets when they rose from being perennial losers to defeat the favored Baltimore Orioles in the 1969 World Series for one of the most improbable upsets in World Series history. Agee performed two impressive defensive plays in center field to help preserve a Mets victory in the third game of the series.

A two-time Major League All-Star player, Agee was also a two-time Gold Glove Award winner and was named the AL Rookie of the Year in 1966 as a member of the Chicago White Sox. He also played for the Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros and the St. Louis Cardinals. In 2002, Agee was posthumously inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame.

Agee was born in Magnolia, Alabama, and played baseball and football at Mobile County Training School with future New York Mets teammate Cleon Jones. After one season at Grambling State University (1961), Agee signed with the Cleveland Indians for a $60,000 bonus.

After two seasons in the Indians' farm system with the AAA Portland Beavers, Agee received a September call-up to Cleveland in 1962. With the Indians already behind 11-1 to the Minnesota Twins, Agee made his major league debut on September 14 at Metropolitan Stadium, pinch-hitting for pitcher Bill Dailey in the ninth inning. He received September call-ups to the majors the following two seasons as well, playing a total of 31 games with the Indians in which he batted .170 with one home run and five runs batted in. Following the 1964 season, he was dealt to the Chicago White Sox with Tommy John as part of a three team blockbuster trade between the Indians, White Sox and Kansas City Athletics that returned All-Star Rocky Colavito to the Indians.

Agee batted just .226 with the Pacific Coast League's Indianapolis Indians, and .158 in ten games with the White Sox in 1965. After earning the starting center fielder job in spring training 1966, he hit a two-run home run in the season opener, and was batting .264 with nine home runs and 38 RBIs to be named the White Sox's sole representative at the 1966 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. He ended the season with a .273 batting average, 22 home runs, 86 RBIs and 44 stolen bases, becoming the first player in Major League Baseball history with more than 20 home runs and 40 stolen bases in their rookie season. He was followed by Mitchell Page (1977), Mike Trout (2012) and Corbin Carroll (2023) as the only four rookies to accomplish the feat. His performance earned him the American League Rookie of the Year award, while his defense in center field earned him a Gold Glove. Although he was technically in his 5th major league season, MLB's classification of a rookie is determined by plate appearances and time on a major league roster. Agee's September call-ups had been so brief and his playing time so scarce that he was still eligible for the award.

Agee was batting .247 with ten home runs and 35 RBIs to earn his second consecutive All-Star selection in 1967. His production fell off considerably in the second half of the season (he hit only four home runs after the All-Star break), and he ended the season batting .234 with 52 RBIs. Though they finished the season in fourth place, Chicago finished only three games back of the first place Boston Red Sox, and battled Boston, the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins until the final week of the season. On a team loaded with pitching and short on offense (no regular batted over .241), the team's lack of offense possibly cost the White Sox the American League pennant.

To alleviate this problem, the White Sox imported perennial .300 hitter Tommy Davis, along with pitcher Jack Fisher and two minor leaguers, from the New York Mets for Agee and Al Weis.

Agee was hit in the head by Bob Gibson on the very first pitch thrown to a Mets batter in spring training 1968. At the beginning of the regular season, he went 0-for-10 in a 24-inning affair with the Houston Astros that saw his batting average go from .313 to .192. It led to an 0-for-34 slump that brought his average down to .102. For the season, he batted .217 with five home runs and 17 RBIs.