Ron Hunt, known for HBP records and unique spirit, dies at 85

Ron Hunt, the combative second baseman who became the first Met to start in an All-Star Game, was runner-up to Pete Rose for the 1963 NL Rookie of the Year Award and who as an Expo set the astonishing Modern Era record of 50 hit-by-pitches in a single season, has died. He was 85.

Hunt spent the first four seasons of his 12-year career with the Mets, beginning in 1963. He played one season with the Dodgers, three with the Giants and parts of five with the old Montreal Expos -- getting elected into the team’s Hall of Fame -- before closing out his career in a brief stint with his hometown Cardinals in 1974.

Hunt led the NL in hit-by-pitches seven consecutive seasons from 1968 to 1974 and retired with 243 HBPs, then an all-time MLB record, though it has since been surpassed. It was in 1971 with the Expos that he was hit 50 times, believed at the time to be the all-time record for a single season, but later determined to be second behind Hughie Jennings’ 51 in 1896.

“His hitting style was that he crowded the plate,” pitcher Bill Stoneman, Hunt’s teammate for three seasons in Montreal, said in 2015.

“I didn’t even know the record existed,” Hunt said years later in a French-language YouTube video showing his 50th HBP on Sept. 29, 1971, with Jarry Park fans cheering the moment. “It was just the way I could bother the pitcher, get on base, do my job, and it added a little offense. If he went inside, he had to be perfect or he’d hit me. If he went outside, I had a chance to hit him.”

On that September day, it was believed that Hunt had passed Jennings’ single-season total of 49 HBPs. But years later, statistical research discovered two more for Jennings, giving him the record back with 51.

Still, no one has come close to Hunt in the Modern Era, with Don Baylor next with 35 in 1986.

Hunt became close friends with Jacques Doucet, a sportswriter for La Presse in Montreal for the Expos’ first three seasons and the French-language TV voice of the team for their final 33 years.

“Ronnie always used to say one thing to me in jest,” Doucet told fivethirtyeight.com. “‘A lot of people give their body to science. I gave mine to baseball.’”

Just a month before Hunt set the perceived record in 1971, one of those 50 HBPs led to a wild brawl. Well, actually, two of them.

On the evening of Aug. 17, before a mere 4,248 fans at San Diego Stadium, the Expos defeated their expansion-brethren Padres, 11-0.

Hunt was hit by right-hander Steve Arlin leading off the third inning. OK, no big deal. Hunt would often pick up the ball and toss it back to the pitcher in an act of defiance. Next time up in the fifth, Arlin hit Hunt again. This time, all hell broke loose, according to an article on the Society for American Baseball Research website.

Per usual, Hunt picked up the ball but he turned to catcher Bob Barton, who was following him down to first base. “If he hits me again, I’m going to punch you in the mouth,” Hunt told Barton, according to the SABR article, while poking his finger into Barton’s chest protector.

The article continued: “Hunt didn’t appreciate Barton’s response, so he yanked off the catcher’s mask and punched him in the back of the head. As the benches emptied, Barton and Hunt exchanged solid punches to the head.”

Wait, there’s more.

At this point, the article introduced Don Zimmer -- yes, that Don Zimmer, known for his involvement in a much more famous baseball brawl years later.

Here’s how the SABR article described what happened next:

“Expos third-base coach Don Zimmer made a beeline for Arlin, ‘raining blows to the back and ribs’ of the pitcher until Padres third baseman Ed Spiezio began wrestling with him. Arlin kneed the 40-year-old Zimmer in the head and then Montreal’s Steve Renko -- an imposing 6-feet-5, 230 pounds -- tossed the San Diego hurler to the ground. ‘I wanted a piece of Arlin,’ growled a feisty Zimmer. ‘He’d started it all, and there was no way he was going to get off without paying for it.'”

Order was eventually restored. Remarkably, Hunt was the only player ejected.

Ronald Kenneth Hunt was born on Feb. 23, 1941, in St. Louis. He signed as an amateur free agent with the Milwaukee Braves in 1959 and spent four years in the Minors before he was sold to the expansion Mets in 1962.

Hunt made his MLB debut with the Mets in 1963. He became a regular in 1964 and was voted the starting second baseman for the NL All-Star team -- with the game played at Shea Stadium. He singled in his first at-bat against AL starter Dean Chance.

Hunt finished second to Rose in 1963 NL Rookie of the Year voting -- even getting two first-place votes to Rose’s 17 -- and was an All-Star for the second and final time in his career in 1966.

Playing for five teams, Hunt hit 39 home runs, drove in 370 runs and totaled 1,429 hits, with a slash line of .273/.368/.347. His career bWAR was 32.7. He received downballot MVP votes three times. He was voted Expos Player of the Year in 1971, almost entirely for his HBP accomplishment, and was later enshrined in the team’s Hall of Fame.

On Aug 17, 1963 (eight years to the day before that big brawl in San Diego), Hunt hit an inside-the-park homer off the Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax at Shea Stadium to break up the future Hall of Famer’s shutout bid.

On Sept. 17, 1968, at Candlestick Park, Hunt homered off of future Cardinals Hall of Famer Bob Gibson in the first inning of a 1-0 win -- which ended up as a no-hitter for the Giants’ Gaylord Perry.

Hunt finished his career in 1974 with 12 games and 28 plate appearances for the Cardinals, yet still was hit by two more pitches -- because why not.

He retired to a farm in his native Missouri and, among other things, formed the non-profit Ron Hunt Eagles Baseball Association.