Former Mets Coach: Chuck Cottier (1979-1981)

Charles Keith Cottier was born on January 8, 1936 in Delta, Colorado. The four letter college boy was signed as an amateur free agent by the Baltimore Orioles in 1964.

By 1956 the second baseman was traded to the Milwaukee Braves, where he made his MLB debut in 1959. There he made some good connections with two future managers whom he would later coach for. The two friends he made were Rookie Joe Torre & All Star catcher Del Crandall.

In 1960 he played in 95 games with Milwaukee batting just .227 getting traded to Detroit the the Washington Senators in 1961. That season he posted the league’s third best fielding percentage & would rank first in range factor the next two seasons. He spent three seasons as the Senators main second baseman before finishing his career with the California Angels in 1969. He was known more for his glove than his bat, hitting .220 lifetime with 19 HRs 63 doubles & 127 RBIs in 580 games over eight seasons.

Retirement: He was named to Mets Manager Joe Torre’s coaching staff in 1979 and served there for three seasons. Cottier was an aggressive third base coach who loved to send runners home, even though they weren’t the quickest group on the base paths.

He became known as “the man with the golden arm” and the vision of him waving runners around third base is forever engraved in our Mets memory banks.

After getting fired by the Mets in 1981, he went to Seattle and coached there for three seasons under Del Crandall. At the end of the 1984 season he was named the Mariners manager replacing his old Team mate Crandall.

He managed Seattle in 1985, and was fired in May of 1986, getting replaced by Dick Williams. He went back to coaching, with the Chicago Cubs (1988-1994) Baltimore Orioles (1995) & Philadelphia Phillies (1997-2000). He then served as an MLB scout through 2007 when he retired.