In the fourth installment of our draft history series, we are going to examine the top picks from the 1968 Amateur Baseball June Draft, the fourth held in the league’s history. There were four players drafted out of college in the first round of this draft compared to just one from college in the 1967 draft. For the second straight year, the state of California dominated the first round, with six of its residents being drafted by Major League teams.
The number one overall pick in the 1968 draft was shortstop Tim Foli, who was selected by the New York Mets out of Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California. The number two overall pick was pitcher Pete Broberg, who was selected by the Oakland Athletics out of Palm Beach High School in West Palm Beach, Florida. Broberg did not sign with Athletics, which means we have to move down the list.
The number three overall pick was catcher Martin Cott, who was selected by the Houston Astros out of Hutchinson Technical High School in Buffalo, New York. Cott never played in a Major League game, so we will move onto the fourth overall pick, catcher Thurman Munson. Munson was chosen by the New York Yankees at number four out of Kent State University.
Broberg was drafted again in 1971 with the first overall pick of the June Secondary draft by the Washington Senators. He made his Major League debut that same season with the Senators, going 5-9 with a 3.47 ERA in 18 starts.
As a result of Broberg not signing with the original team that drafted him and Cott never making it to the Majors, we will compare the careers of Foli and Munson in this article, which is a better comparison because of their lengthy careers in the big leagues.
We will begin with Foli, the number one overall pick, who made his Major League debut in 1970 for the Mets and played his final game in 1985 for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Foli amassed 1,696 games played over parts of 16 seasons, finishing with a career batting average of .251. Foli had a second tour of duty with the Mets in 1978 and 1979.
Foli was a career .276 hitter in the playoffs, appearing with the Pirates in 1979 and the California Angels in 1982. He was on the 1979 World Series champion Pirates team after being traded to Pittsburgh by the Mets in April of ’79. Foli became the Pirates starting catcher, playing in 133 games.
Munson, the fourth pick in the 1968 draft’s first round, was a Yankee for his entire 11-year career, which was cut short after a plane accident on August 2, 1979. Munson had been taking flying lessons and was practicing takeoffs and landings when his plane crashed. He was the only person on-board the plane who died. He had considered retiring from baseball following the 1979 season.
Munson had a career average of .292 with 113 homeruns and 701 RBIs in 1,423 games played over the span of 11 seasons in the Majors. He debuted for the Yankees in 1969 and his final game was on August 1, 1979. Munson was on two Yankees World Series teams, winning in 1977 and 1978 over the Los Angeles Dodgers both years by a count of four games to two.
His career post-season batting average stands at .357 with three homeruns and 22 RBIs in 30 playoff games. He played in three straight World Series, losing in 1976 to the Cincinnati Reds. He did not hit lower than .320 in any of his three World Series appearances. He hit .529 in 1976, .320 in 1977 and .320 in 1978.
Other notable first round picks from the 1968 draft include:
- Bobby Valentine: drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers with the fifth pick in the first round.
- Greg Luzinski: drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies with the 11th pick in the first round.
- Gary Matthews: drafted by the San Francisco Giants with the 17th pick in the first round.
The next installment in our draft history series will feature the 1969 draft. The first pick went to the Washington Senators in the person of Jeff Burroughs. The second overall pick went to the Houston Astros in the person of J.R. Richard. This draft marks the first time in the history of the amateur draft that both the number one and number two overall picks each made at least one All-Star team during their Major League careers.
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Jim is the creator and editor of At the Dish, Cinn City Sports, Life with Tony and Enzo and owner of JAVFreelancing. He coached baseball for five years, three at his former high school (Holy Cross in Delran, NJ) and two at prominent Division III program Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. He has worked for the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, NJ; Metro Networks in Bala Cynwyd, PA; and was the play-by-play announcer for the Camden Riversharks of the Independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball for two seasons (2007-2008) on Rowan Radio 89.7 WGLS-FM, the student-run radio station at Rowan University. Jim earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and minor in Journalism from Rowan University in 2008. While in school he was the Assistant Sports Director at WGLS for two years and the Sports Director for one year. He also covered the football, baseball, softball and both basketball teams for the school newspaper 'The Whit.' Jim lives in New Jersey with his wife Nicole, sons Tony and Enzo and dog Phoebe. He can be reached at jimvassallo@mlbdrafts.com.
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