Lehigh baseball legend and former New York Mets pitcher Craig Anderson ’60 was back in town in late June working the Lehigh Baseball Camp. Before he returned to Florida, he made a stop in Illinois where the Benton Evening News caught up with him.
By: Phil Knapper, Benton Evening News
Benton, Ill. - Craig Anderson rubbed elbows with some of the greats in his major league career. Being taken by the New York Mets in the expansion draft of 1962, though, was when he became a permanent fixture in baseball history.
One of the “Original Mets,” Anderson was in Benton for a few days and he talked about his professional career with the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Monday afternoon.
Anderson’s ties to Benton are through his wife, Judy. Anderson met Judy McCarty, a 1959 Benton High School graduate, over Labor Day weekend in 1961, while he was a relief pitcher for the Cardinals.
“I met her at the ballpark over Labor Day weekend when her family came up for the series,” he said. “One thing led to another and we started dating.”
Six weeks later — just two days after the expansion draft — they were married and it was off to New York.