Wes Westrum, a superb defensive catcher for the New York Giants' pennant-winning teams of 1951 and '54 and later the manager of the Mets and the San Francisco Giants, died Tuesday in Clearbrook, Minn. He was 79.

The cause was cancer, the Cease Funeral Home in Bagley, Minn., reported.

Catching for the Giants from 1947 until 1957, their last year at the Polo Grounds, Westrum was a light hitter, but he was an adept handler of pitchers and had a strong arm.

Westrum's work with the Giants' 1951 pitching staff, led by Sal Maglie, Larry Jansen and Jim Hearn, helped propel a stirring pennant drive climaxed by Bobby Thomson's playoff-winning homer against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

When he joined the Giants in June 1949, Westrum had just broken a finger in the minors. He had planned to wait awhile before revealing the injury, but Manager Leo Durocher told him that he would be catching right away. My right forefinger is broken," Westrum said. "What do you want me to do?" "Tape it and run dirt over the tape," Durocher said. "Then get in there and catch Jansen." Westrum did just that, and, he recalled, Jansen pitched a three-hit shutout. Westrum committed only one error while catching 139 games in 1950 for a fielding average of .999, and he was an All-Star in 1952 and '53.

He had a career batting average of only .217 but hit 96 home runs. Westrum went to San Francisco with the Giants when his playing career ended, serving as a coach from 1958 to 1963 then joined the Mets as a coach. When Manager Casey Stengel broke his hip in July 1965, Westrum became the Mets' manager, having been chosen over Yogi Berra, who was also on the coaching staff. While in the Army during World War II, Westrum managed the baseball team at the disciplinary barracks in Greenhaven, N.Y., which he called "a place for difficult cases." He said long afterward that "it was good training for the Mets."

The Mets were 10th in the National League under Stengel and Westrum in 1965, their fourth consecutive last-place finish. Westrum managed them to a ninth-place finish in 1966 and to 10th place again in 1967. He resigned 12 days before the '67 season ended, citing the "physical and mental strain" of all that losing and having to await a decision on his future by the Mets' management.

Westrum became a San Francisco Giants coach again, then their chief major league scout, and he was named their manager in June 1974, taking over from Charlie Fox. He managed them to fifth place in the National League West that year and to a third-place finish in 1975. He was later a scout for the Atlanta Braves.

Westrum is survived by a daughter, Joann Bowser of Scottsdale, Ariz., three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

After falling behind the Dodgers by 13 1/2 games, the Giants began their dramatic 1951 pennant run by taking a doubleheader from the Phillies on Aug. 12. That happened to be Wes Westrum Day, when the stocky catcher received a new car from his neighbors in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Westrum was Maglie's catcher when the Giants faced the Dodgers in Game 3 of their playoff series at the Polo Grounds. Having been removed for a pinch-hitter, he was on the bench when Thomson came to the plate in the ninth with two on, one out and the Giants trailing by 4-2. Westrum watched Thomson take a called strike from Ralph Branca. But he had a feeling that Thomson or the on-deck hitter, Willie Mays, would do something spectacular. "I wasn't worried," Westrum said in an interview for "The Miracle at Coogan's Bluff" by Thomas Kiernan (Thomas Y. Crowell, 1975). "Branca was grooving it. That's when I started thinking home run." Then Thomson connected in perhaps the most dramatic moment in baseball history. As Westrum put it a quarter-century later, "It was just meant to be."

RICHARD GOLDSTEIN – 30 May 2002