In the winter of 1982-83, I was a junior in college and an occasional sports reporter for the Columbia Daily Spectator. A week before Christmas, Tom Seaver was traded back to the Mets for Charlie Puleo, Lloyd McClendon and Jason Felice. The team staged a big welcome home press conference in the Diamond Club, and a couple of us wangled press passes and jumped on the No. 7 train to Shea. All the old royalty of New York sports reporting graced the room: Seaver’s crankpot nemesis Dick Young, Phil Pepe, Maury Allen, Bill Gallo and the young smart-alecky Mike Lupica. Even well-known news-side columnists Jimmy Breslin and Newsday’s Murray Kempton made the scene. Bob Murphy served as master of ceremonies, and Frank Cashen presided, with Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon in reserve. As I recall, the catering seemed pretty good to a college junior.
It was a huge happening, because Seaver was The Franchise, returning at age 38 to the team where he’d made his fortune – and the team for which he still serves in the title role as greatest (homegrown) player ever to wear a Mets uniform. Indeed, he’s probably the greatest starting pitcher in New York baseball history. He was the face of the ‘69 world champs and ‘73 National League champs, and his departure at the June trading deadline in 1977 broke the back of the franchise for years.
Seaver in his prime was a perfectly-constructed pitching machine – the fluid motion, the massive stride, the arm angle on fastball and curve, the wily thinking man’s hurler. The Mets’ 1969 championship is rightly called a miracle, but even in the great pantheon of New York champions, few have had a number one starter with the kind dominant stuff Seaver had on display in ‘69. He was no accidental champ, lucking into the post-season and riding a series of flukes to the title. He was a dominant and scary force.
Consider his line – and then consider that 1969 was the year they lowered the pitching mound by five inches after the pitching-dominant mid-60s.
W – 25
L – 7
ERA – 2.21
K – 208
BB – 82
CG – 18
IP – 273
WHIP – 1.03
Seaver won the Cy Young Award, the first of three and finished second to Willie McCovey for MVP. It remains of the monster years any New York starter has ever had – yet arguably, Seaver matched it three more times. Take 1971, for example:
W – 20
L – 10
ERA – 1.76
K – 289
BB – 61
CG – 21
IP – 286
WHIP – 0.94
Outside of the win total and carrying the team on his back to a dramatic and improbably World Series title, it’s a better year! Indeed, it’s as good as the two years in New York baseball history to be hurled by starters since then: Ron Guidy in 1978 and Dwight Gooden in 1985. It’s a year, frankly, to rival the best years of Christy Matthewson in the dead ball era. And Seaver finished second for the Cy Young to Fergie Jenkins.
But back to 1983. Seaver was on the downside and had had a terrible year for the Reds in ‘82. Yet, he stilled pitched to a 3.55 ERA, 1.21 WHIP in 231 bulldog innings (he was a hard luck 9-14) – in other words, he’s the Mets No. 2 start on this year’s squad by far. I was there for Opening Day, when Tom Terrific walked in from the bullpen for a standing ovation and promptly fanned Pete Rose and beat the Phillies to start the year. Indeed, Seaver had a fairly distinguished baseball dotage (even after Cashen mistakenly left him exposed to the free agent draft and he went to the White Sox), racking up his 311 wins and 3,640 strikeouts. In 1985, at age 41, Seaver went 16-11 for Tony LaRussa’s Chisox with a 3.17 ERA in 238 innings – beating the Yankees by pitching a complete game on Phil Pizzuto Day for win no. 300 (in a classy gesture, the Yanks brought in Lindsay Nelson to call the final inning on WPIX-11).
So Seaver’s number three in my favorite Mets pantheon – and he’s the best player in the list, as a Met. It’s why I have that Seaver figurine up top on a shelf in my home office, and it’s why I rock the vintage ‘69 flannel Seaver home jersey out in Flushing. He was the Franchise – oh, a pretty decent baseball announcer and vintner besides.
The series so far:
1. Cleon Jones
3. Tom Seaver
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- SI article about Seaver’s 1983 Mets return (metspolice.com)
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