Heading into the 1966 June amateur draft, scouts and baseball executives all agreed that prep catcher Steve Chilcott and college outfielder Reggie Jackson were the two best players available. Every team had them ranked one-two on their draft list. Whitey Herzog later said that the 20 clubs were evenly split on which player was number one. Come draft day, however, only one team’s opinion mattered. By virtue of having baseball’s worst record a year earlier, the New York Mets owned the first overall pick. The Kansas City Athletics picked second, poised to pounce on either Chilcott or Jackson, whichever was available.
Steve Chilcott: Can’t-Miss Prep Catcher
As a senior at Antelope Valley High School in Lancaster, California, in the spring of ’66, Chilcott hit .500 with 11 home runs in 25 games. After seeing him register hits in 15 of 16 at-bats, Mets scout Nelson Burbrink called Chilcott the best high school hitter he’d ever seen. Several Mets executives—including Bing Devine, Bob Scheffling, and Casey Stengel—went to see the phenom and came away equally impressed. Stengel, the Mets’ vice president, was sold after watching Chilcott play just one game. “The boy has all the tools to become a major-league hitter,” he told the New York Daily News,
Reggie Jackson: Sun Devil Slugger
Jackson, three years old than the 17-year-old Chilcott, had just completed his sophomore year at Arizona State University, where he lettered in both baseball and football. The native Pennsylvanian hit .327 for the Sun Devils that spring, setting school records with 15 homers and 65 RBIs. “I couldn’t believe my eyes,” A’s farm director Eddie Robinson told Baseball America years later. “For the first time, I saw a prospect who rated plus in every category: arm, legs, glove, bat, and bat power.”
Based on an organizational need at catcher and the strong opinion of Stengel, the Mets chose Chilcott. The A’s were ecstatic. Jackson, the top player on their list, landed in their lap with the second pick. Jackson signed for $80,000, the highest of any player that year. Chilcott received a $75,000 bonus from the Mets.
The Injury Bug Bites
Chilcott struggled mightily during his first year in pro ball, hitting .181 in 78 games between Single A, Rookie ball, and the Arizona fall league. He fared better to begin the ’67 season, hitting .290 with six home runs for the Single-A Winter Haven Mets through 79 games. But then the injuries began. He suffered a subluxation of his throwing shoulder on a head-first dive. The injury caused him to miss remainder of the ’67 season and most of the next two. Chilcott returned to the field in ’70 following shoulder surgery but never regained full strength. A broken hand and busted kneecap further hampered his ability. The Mets traded him to the Yankees after the ’71 season. A year later, he was released, out of baseball at the age of 23.
Reggie Jackson: Hall of Famer
Jackson, meanwhile, blasted 23 home runs in 68 minor-league games in ’66. He made his major-league debut exactly one year after he signed his pro contract. By the time Chilcott’s career had ended following the ’72 season, Jackson had already clubbed 157 round-trippers for the A’s, who were now in Oakland. He’d end his 21-year Hall-of-Fame career with 563 homers, five World Series rings, and 14 All-Star nods.
Through the first quarter century of the amateur draft, Chilcott remained the only top overall pick who never reached the major leagues. (Brien Taylor, the Yankees’ first-round pick in 1991, was the next player to wear the dubious distinction.) Adding insult to injury, Jackson’s Oakland A’s defeated the Mets in the ’73 World Series. It was the Mets’ only postseason appearance in a decade of mediocrity. In hindsight, the Mets’ choice of Chilcott over Jackson remains one of the more regrettable decisions in franchise history.
For more about the 1996 draft, check out my post on the Dodgers’ class of ’66, a group that included Charlie Hough and Bill Russell.
For a look at the Mets’ worst trades in franchise history, check out this Bleacher Report piece from 2018.
