Tony Plate - Former NY Mets Great Tom Seaver Has Dementia

PC - David Rubin

Former New York Met and Hall of Famer Tom Seaver nicknamed Tom Terrific and who was also known as the Franchise when he first pitched for the Mets sadly has dementia. Seaver pitched in the Major Leagues from 1967 to 1986. Besides the Mets he pitched for the Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox, and the Boston Red Sox. Seaver is one of the greatest pitchers of all time. His career record was 311- 205 with an earned run average of 2.86, he struck out 3,640 batters and was selected to 12 All-Star games. He won three Cy Young Awards in 1969, 1973 and 1975. He still holds most Met pitching records.

Seaver and the Miracle Mets won the 1969 World Series over the Baltimore Orioles 4-1. Seaver lost game one of the series 4-1, but he came back and won game four 2-1 in ten innings. It was a World Series that consisted of just about everything. Excellent pitching by Met pitchers, several amazing, acrobatic catches by Met outfielders Ron Swoboda and Tommie Agee, the longball hitting of Donn Clendenon, an obstruction call on Oriole first baseman Boog Powell and last, but not least the controversial shoe polish incident when manager Gil Hodges walked out to the mound and pointed to the shoe polish on the ball and convinced the umpire in business like fashion that his player was hit by the pitch. All of this led to one of the biggest upsets in World Series history.

 In 1977 the Mets were not winning and Seaver was not happy with his contract and also was not happy with how former Met owner M Donald Grant was running the team. Grant did not want to spend any money on free agents to improve the team. Seaver was upset that Grant did not make an effort to try to sign any free agents especially Gary Matthews. This caused friction between Seaver and Grant. So, then Seaver asked for a trade. He was then, traded to the Reds for Steve Henderson, Doug Flynn, Dan Norman and Pat Zachry. Seaver was emotional when he spoke in front of the NY media about the trade for the final time and needless to say the Met fans were disappointed that their icon was leaving town. They called it the Midnight Massacre. Seaver returned to the Mets in 1982 in a trade with the Reds and on April 5, 1983 he tied the record of Walter Johnson’s 14 Opening Day starts, and he shutout the Philadelphia Phillies for six innings in a 2-0 Mets win.

 Seaver’s family said in a statement released by the Hall of Fame that he will continue to work in his vineyard in California, but will no longer make public appearances. He will not be part of the Mets 50^th anniversary celebration of the 1969 team that won the World Series. The Mets will install a statue of their all-time icon at Citi Field. He deserves that, because he is the ultimate Met and he was the most important player in Met history.