METS STATEMENTS
JERRY KOOSMAN
“A great leader of our team. When he wasn’t pitching he was always there to help the other guys on the staff. He was a true professional.”
ED KRANEPOOL
“When he joined us as a rookie, he pitched like a 35-year-old. He had a great head on his shoulders. We became a different a team when he walked into the locker room in 1967.”
RON SWOBODA
“As soon as I saw him pitch the first time, I said to myself, ‘He has Hall of Fame stuff.’ He just had to accumulate numbers to get to the Hall.”
JERRY GROTE
“Tom Seaver hated to lose. In May of 1969, we had a celebration in the locker room when we reached .500 for the first time. Tom said ‘We want more than .500, we want a championship.’”
MIKE PIAZZA
“I’ll always treasure our friendship. Tom was always rooting for me to get into the Hall. Two of my fondest memories are walking out of Shea Stadium together after the last game and then when he threw the ceremonial first pitch to me at Citi Field the next year. He was one of a kind.”
DWIGHT GOODEN
“It’s a sad day for me. One of the first calls I got after I won my Cy Young in 1985 was from Tom. That meant the world to me.”
DAVID WRIGHT
“Tom and I had a great relationship. I think he saw a little of himself in me, I was homegrown, just like he was. He called me from time to time, but we would never talk about baseball. We would talk about life.”
JACOB deGROM
“Saddened to hear of the passing of Tom Seaver. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to meet him. Seeing the person he was on and off the field, he is definitely someone I look up to."
GIL HODGES, JR.
“The only thing my dad always told me about Tom was nobody prepared for a game like he did. He never left anything to chance.”
1 comment:
Tom Seaver (41) was perfect for this NY Mets team.
He was well loved by all the Mets fans not only for the pitcher that he obviously was, his driving desire to win a championship, his leadership skills set by example, his above average intelligence, his unusual kindness towards everyone, his outstanding sense of humor and joy in laughter, but also his huge heart. It never stopeed beating orange and blue.
What to me is so even more amazing than all that, is that every single player (and managerial staff member, broadcast member, organist, GM and owner) on the now "believable 1969 Championship NY Mets team" was loved and revered in this same exact way. Everyone was someone special and Shea Stadium was really one big lovefest game after game in this amazing 1969 season. Look at the videos. It's right there for you to see.
If you go to youtube, they do have a few short WOR Kiner's Korner clips on there with Tom Seaver. If you were not around back in 1969 (and shame on you) it was the very best NY Mets year of any Mets' fan's life.
There were so many "heroes" on this 1969 NY Mets team. The layers all stepped up tremendously to be what they were meant to be. They saw the brass ring and they went for it, but as a team.
To me, there were two 1969 NY Mets players I so strongly had wanted to see manage the NY Mets parent club. Tom Seaver and Ron Swoboda. For each had the eye and the knowledge to excel at this, and the two together coaching would have been totally awesome.
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