Wilbur Allan Huckle is a former baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 prospect

Prospect (sports)

In sports, a prospect is any player whose rights are owned by a professional team, but who has yet to play a game for the team, or isn't established with the team yet. Prospects can sometimes be assigned to farm teams...

 for the New York Mets

New York Mets

The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...

, who achieved "fan favorite" status, despite never actually making the team. Wilbur's reputation — presumably developed from spring training

Spring training

In Major League Baseball, spring training is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, and gives existing team players practice time prior to competitive play...

 dispatches and broadcasts, and augmented by the assonance

Assonance

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences, and together with alliteration and consonance serves as one of the building blocks of verse. For example, in the phrase "Do you like blue?", the is repeated within the sentence and is...

 of his name — was such that fans began appearing at Shea Stadium

Shea Stadium

William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, usually shortened to Shea Stadium or just Shea , was a stadium in the New York City borough of Queens, in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. It was the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Mets from 1964 to 2008...

, during the building's inaugural season of 1964, wearing "Wilbur Huckle for President

President

A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...

" pins. Huckle threw and batted right-handed, stood 5 inch tall, and weighed 175 lb (79.4 kg).

As far as appearance and position, one blog

Blog

A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

ger remembers him this way:

"Wilbur was a Mets farmhand in the '60's, a shortstop

Shortstop

Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball fielding position between second and third base. Shortstop is often regarded as the most dynamic defensive position in baseball, because there are more right-handed hitters in baseball than left-handed hitters, and most hitters have a tendency to pull the...

 who also played some third base

Third Base

is a 1978 Japanese film directed by Yōichi Higashi.-External links:...

. There was really nothing special about him except for his name and the fact that he looked exactly the way you might expect someone named Wilbur Huckle to look, with red hair

Red hair

Red hair occurs on approximately 1–2% of the human population. It occurs more frequently in people of northern or western European ancestry, and less frequently in other populations...

 and a million freckles."

According to journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 Keith Olbermann

Keith Olbermann

Keith Theodore Olbermann is an American political commentator and writer. He has been the chief news officer of the Current TV network and the host of Current TV's weeknight political commentary program, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, since June 20, 2011...

, photographer Steve Moore recalls that Huckle actually received a callup to the Mets in 1963, on the same day as Cleon Jones

Cleon Jones

Cleon Joseph Jones is a former Major League Baseball left fielder who is best remembered as the man who caught the final out of the "Miracle Mets" improbable World Series Championship over the Baltimore Orioles....

, but was optioned out without ever appearing in a game. Mr. Moore's contention has not been verified to date and has, in fact, been challenged by the researchers contributing to Mets by the Numbers http://www.mbtn.net. The author there contends that Huckle indeed was invited to work out with the Mets in September 1963, but was never added to the major league roster. The Website offers a transaction record and newspaper clipping as evidence.

Wilbur Huckle's Career Minor League Statistics

G

PA

AB

R

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

SB

CS

BB

SO

BA

OBP

SLG

OPS

TB

746

2768*

2554

233*

662

85

19

14

174*

36*

18*

205*

173*

.259

.314*

.324

.638*

827

A * indicates data is incomplete.

Huckle and Tom Seaver

By 1967, Wilbur was still in the team's system, becoming the first professional roommate of Tom Seaver

Tom Seaver

George Thomas "Tom" Seaver , nicknamed "Tom Terrific" and "The Franchise", is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. He pitched from 1967-1986 for four different teams in his career, but is noted primarily for his time with the New York Mets...

, generally thought of as the greatest player in Mets history, during Seaver's first pro season in Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...

. Seaver's memories suggest that Huckle was somewhat flakey:

"My first year in professional baseball, I roomed with a fellow named Wilbur Huckle, who played the infield for Jacksonville

Jacksonville Suns

The Jacksonville Suns are a minor league baseball team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The team is currently a member of the Southern League and is the class Double-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins Major League Baseball team...

. We had a rather unusual relationship. I never saw Wilbur Huckle in our room — at least not awake.

I never talked with him. I never heard him. I never ate a meal with him. When I came in at night, early or late, he was either out or asleep. And when I got up in the morning, he was always gone. He got up early and went on long walks by himself."

Huckle's prowess as a roommate

Roommate

A roommate is a person who shares a living facility such as an apartment or dormitory. Similar terms include suitemate, housemate, flatmate , or sharemate...

 is matched only by his reputation as a teammate:

"Lots of guys tried, but nobody ever beat Wilbur Huckle getting into street clothes after a game... . Once, I heard, when Wilbur was playing in a lower minor league, his team was on a losing streak, and when they lost their sixth or seventh in a row, the manager started screaming at his players as they entered the clubhouse. "Sit down on the benches," he hollered. "This has gone too damn far. Just sit down and think about your mistakes. Think about your errors. Nobody's taking a shower until I say so." The manager was facing the whole team, scowling and storming, and right behind him stood Wilbur Huckle, fresh out of the shower, toweling himself dry."

Post-playing career

Wilbur Huckle's Managerial Career
Year	Team	League	W	L	Pct.	Finish
1972	Batavia Trojans	NY-Penn	29	40	.420	6th
1973	Batavia Trojans	NY-Penn	33	36	.478	5th
1974	Batavia Trojans	NY-Penn	20	49	.290	6th
Totals	3 Years		82	125	.396

He played in the Mets' minor league system from 1963–1971. After his active career ended, Huckle went on to manage the Batavia Trojans of the New York-Penn League for three seasons during their period as a Mets affiliate, but his teams evidenced little success (see table at right).