Tom Seaver: 1944-2020

 

Tom Seaver, 1944-2020

Baseball, like life, is not perfect. But it can offer us moments of grace and sublime wonder. Tom Seaver was a baseball player who offered us more of those moments than most. I never saw Tom Seaver pitch, I was 5 years old when he threw his last pitch in a major league game, so for all of my baseball fandom he has been one of baseball’s immortals, on that short list of all-time greats. There’s an elegance to Tom Seaver, for me he’s in the category of athletes like Sandy Koufax who exemplify the highest ideals of sportsmanship. To say it concisely, there was always something special about Tom Seaver.

Perhaps the first bit of luck the New York Mets had as a baseball team was in 1966 when commissioner William Eckert picked the Mets’ name from a hat and the team was awarded the right to sign Seaver. (The teams that missed out on Seaver were the Braves, Phillies, and Indians.) After just one year in the minor leagues, Seaver made the Mets’ roster in 1967. He went 16-13, threw 18 complete games, and finished with an ERA of 2.76, winning the NL Rookie of the Year Award.

Seaver had a terrific season in 1969, as he went 25-7 for the “Amazin’ Mets,” who captured the NL East crown with a blistering finish to the season. From August 9^th until the end of the season, Seaver made 11 starts. His record in those 11 starts was 10-0, with one no-decision. Seaver’s last eight starts were all complete games, and three of those were shutouts. Seaver won one game in the NLCS, and won Game 4 of the World Series, defeating the Orioles 2-1 in 10 innings. Seaver won his first Cy Young Award and finished 2^nd in the MVP voting.

Tom Seaver was overpowering during his first decade in baseball. After the 1977 season, he had thrown 2,979 innings and had an ERA of 2.48. He really was Tom Terrific. However, the Mets traded him to the Reds on June 15, 1977, a move that demoralized their fan base.

In Cincinnati, Seaver continued his dominance of National League hitters, as he threw his only no-hitter against the Cardinals in 1978 and led the Reds to the NL West title in 1979. In 1980, Seaver landed on this disabled list for the first time in his career with tendinitis in his right shoulder, missing more than a month of the season. He finished with a 10-8 record and an ERA of 3.64, the highest his ERA had ever been for a season. However, Seaver came roaring back in 1981, as he finished the strike-torn season with a record of 14-2 and an ERA of 2.54. And on April 18, 1981, Seaver became just the 5^th pitcher in history to strike out 3,000 batters, as he whiffed Keith Hernandez. (Just 11 days later, Steve Carlton joined Seaver in the 3,000 strikeout club.)

1982 was a disaster for Seaver. A series of injuries took their toll during spring training and the beginning of the season: a pulled thigh muscle, a bad case of the flu, a back strain, a toe injury. On June 1^st, Seaver’s record was 1-6, with an ERA of 6.04. Seaver pitched his last game of the 1982 season on August 15^th: he faced three batters and didn’t record an out. Seaver didn’t go on the disabled list, but he went back to the drawing board and tried to get comfortable with his mechanics and delivery again. His totals for 1982 were un-Seaver-like, to say the least: he pitched only 111 1/3 innings, the smallest total of his major league career by more than 50 innings, and his record stood at 5-13, the first losing season he’d ever had in the majors. His ERA was a bloated 5.50. In December of 1982, the Reds traded Seaver back to the Mets. But the question was: did he have any gas left in the tank?

Tom Seaver, back with the Mets in 1983.

Seaver’s first game back for the Mets was Opening Day, April 5, 1983. He would face off against Steve Carlton, the ace of the Philadelphia Phillies, who had won 23 games and his record 4^th Cy Young Award the previous season. Seaver threw six innings of shutout ball, giving up just three hits and one walk. He got a no-decision, but the Mets got two runs off Carlton to win, 2-0. 1983 wasn’t an easy season for Seaver, as he finished the year with a 9-14 record with a Mets team that lost 94 games, but his ERA was 3.55, almost two runs lower than 1982. Seaver also threw five complete games and two shutouts. Going into the 1984 season, there was certainly no guarantee than Seaver would make it to 300 wins. He was at 273 victories, but his record over the previous two seasons was a lackluster 14-27.

In a perfect world, Seaver would have finished out his career with the Mets. But it wasn’t to be. At that time, teams could pick players from other teams as compensation if they lost a player to free agency. (This was one of the results of the 1981 players’ strike, which was basically about the owners trying to kill free agency.) Teams could protect their star players, but the Mets left Seaver unprotected, as they didn’t think that other teams would pick a 39-year-old pitcher with a hefty salary. Of course, they were wrong, and the Chicago White Sox picked Seaver in January 1984. And so, the Mets lost Seaver for a second time. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, for the Mets to lose Seaver once was a misfortune, but to lose him twice looked like carelessness.

Tom Seaver, wearing a very ugly uniform and pitching for the White Sox.

In 1984, Seaver threw 10 complete games and four shutouts for the White Sox, finishing with a record of 15-11. Now he was at 288 wins, and 300 was within reach. On August 4, 1985, Tom Seaver won his 300^th game, in New York City, at Yankee Stadium. It must have been bittersweet for all those Mets fans to see Seaver wearing those awful White Sox double-knit uniforms that looked like rejects from a beer league softball team. But Seaver won his 300^th game in style, throwing a complete game, winning 4-1.

Tom Seaver's final baseball cards all look very similar: 1987 Topps, Donruss, and Fleer. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

Both Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton pitched for the 1986 Chicago White Sox, but unfortunately, not at the same time, thus depriving us of seeing two of the greatest pitchers of their era as teammates in the twilight of their careers. Seaver was still good in 1986—he finished the season with an ERA+ of 106, meaning he was 6% better than the league average pitcher. At the end of June, the White Sox traded him to the Red Sox. Seaver won his last major league game, his 311^th, on August 18, 1986, against the Twins at the Metrodome. As fate would have it, the Red Sox faced the Mets in the World Series. Seaver was left off the post-season roster, due to a knee injury. In a perfect world, Seaver would have been pitching for the Mets, helping them to their second world championship, 17 years after the first.

Seaver became a free agent after the 1986 season. He kept himself in shape, partially by playing squash every day, but he didn’t receive any contract offers. As the 1987 season began, the Mets’ starting rotation suffered several injuries, and the club reached out to Seaver about a possible comeback. Seaver pitched in exhibition games against the Triple-A Tidewater Tides team. When he was hit hard in several outings, he made the decision to hang it up. Again, in a perfect world, Seaver would have had one final hurrah with the Mets, but it was not to be.

But it’s petty to dwell on these little points, the almost-weres, and might-have-beens, when there are so many fantastic things that Tom Seaver accomplished on the pitching mound. Seaver’s accomplishments speak for themselves: 3 Cy Young Awards, 5 20-win season, 5 times leading the league in strikeouts, 3 times leading the league in ERA, a 12-time All-Star. A first-ballot Hall of Famer, with 98.84% of the vote, a record that stood for more than 20 years. Only five voters failed to write down Seaver’s name on their ballots. Three of those writers submitted blank ballots, as they were protesting Pete Rose’s ineligibility, one writer was recovering from open-heart surgery and overlooked Seaver’s name, and the other writer claimed to never vote for a player in their first year on the ballot. Seaver’s almost-perfect HOF ballot is a measure of how he was viewed by those inside baseball. There was never a blemish on the Seaver record.

In retirement, Seaver threw himself into starting a vineyard in California. It was a success, of course, as was everything Seaver applied himself to. For those of us who read the articles about Tom Seaver over the last few years, knowing about his health struggles added a poignancy to the sunset of his life. Seaver had suffered from memory loss, partially due to Lyme disease, and then in 2019 the announcement was made that Seaver was suffering from dementia and would make no more public appearances. The 50^th anniversary of the “Amazin’ Mets” went on without its star pitcher and clubhouse leader. Seaver passed away on August 31, 2020.

Why, as I type this last paragraph, do I suddenly have tears in my eyes for a man I never knew, a great pitcher that I never even saw play? Because Tom Seaver embodied excellence in everything he did, whether it was throwing a baseball, providing play-by-play commentary, growing grapes, or raising a family. There were no scandals or dark secrets with Tom Seaver, and for that reason he was an idol of millions.