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By the way, since Foss came up again, I meant to mention that he was with the Mets in 1963 as well as 1962--yes, during the regular season.
Foss had opened the spring with a great outing....in an intrasquad game (proving, as he had the previous spring, that he could beat the Mets). But he was fairly awful the rest of the spring. Leaving out the intrasquad game, I think his '63 spring ERA was around 9.00. Nonetheless, he broke camp with the team (it should be mentioned, here, that, at the time, the rules allowed teams to carry 28 players for the first month of the season).
The season opened on April 9 with Foss in the pen. And the Mets showed they were much improved over the previous season by "only" losing the first 8 games (they'd lost the first 9 in '62). Every game, Casey had Foss warming up in the pen. Every game. But Foss never got the call (which was odd, since Casey did call down to the pen for players who weren't even on the team on a fairly regular basis).
Finally, the Mets scheduled Foss to pitch in the May 6 exhibition against West Point. Foss begged off, saying something to the effect of, "With all the pitching you've had me doing in the pen, I feel like my arm's going to fall off." Foss, though, was really begging off because he saw it as a no-win situation; if you beat West Point, well, you're supposed to and, if you don't, then you're the joke of the league.
The Mets beat West Point 3-0 (Tracy Stallard--whom Casey called Larsen, as in Don Larsen--pitched like Koufax). Larry Foss--who Casey called "Foos"--did not pitch. Two days later, he was traded to the Braves for Chico Fernandez. Foss spent the rest of the year in Denver, retiring at season's end. It was cut down day, anyway, but you have to think begging off a pitching assignment had something to do with his being moved.
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