He was an All-state baseball and basketball player, and pitched two years of American Legion ball in La Verne, California.

Hausman spent his first professional baseball season in the class "A" New York–Penn League with the fourth-place Newark Co-Pilots.

An injury placing him on the disabled list from June 13 to August 6, limiting his appearances to only ten games, with 55 innings pitched.

[2] As a starter in 1973, Hausman pitched 162 innings in 25 games at class "AA" Texas League for the Shreveport Captains.

With a record of 12–9, he allowed 193 hits, 49 walks, struck out 56 and had a rather high 4.44 ERA, however, his performance earned him a promotion to AAA for the 1974 season.

[3] On May 27, Hausman entered a game against the Chicago White Sox in relief of Ed Sprague in the second inning with the Brewers already down 3-0.

The Brewers, meanwhile, battered Wilbur Wood for eight runs to earn Hausman his firs major league victory.

[10] Despite being the franchise's first free agent signing, Hausman began the 1978 season in triple A with the Tidewater Tides.

In ten starts, Hausman went 5-2 with a 1.22 ERA to quickly earn a call up to New York, however, a stint on the DL from May 25 to June 17 delayed his Mets debut until July 7.

He earned his first career save on July 8 against the San Diego Padres, pitching 3.1 innings of one hit ball.

[14] His first win of the season was a complete game victory over Vida Blue and the San Francisco Giants six days later.

[15] He was lifted early in his July 31 start against the Pittsburgh Pirates[16] when he hurt his lower back covering first on a ground ball.

[17] After sitting out the entire month of August, he wouldn't earn a second win until September 26 against the Chicago Cubs.

After falling to 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA, he was moved into a "mop up duty" role in the bullpen, but an exceptional month of June changed that.

[20] Perhaps his finest performance came on June 27, when he earned his only save on the season by pitching three innings of no hit ball against the eventual World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies.

He pitched five innings, and allowed one unearned run to pick up his fourth win of the season against the Montreal Expos on July 3.