“Blind Men Come to the Park Just to Hear Him Pitch”

Tom Seaver. 

The true Tom Terrific.

The Franchise.  

Arguably, the reason the Mets can still call themselves “The Amazin’s.”

I was rushing around during a bartending shift when I came inside and saw the breaking news on the bottom line: “Tom Seaver has passed away at 75.”

75 isn’t young. Tom Seaver was a brilliant pitcher and a beautiful mind, and we know his mind suffered. His diagnosis of dementia went public in 2019, but it’s likely that his suffering was privately present long before.

So the shock that stopped me in my steps, maybe, should not have happened.

But… I loved Tom Seaver. He was the ultimate version of what I grew up knowing a Major League Baseball player could be, at each of their very best. He had tremendous talent and executed it throughout his career, but he was also a remarkably respectful man who loved his country, served in the Marine Corps, and was a good family man. He played 20 years in Major League Baseball, and not one of them was a disappointment. There were no lull years. He did not fade. 

Tom Seaver pitched from 1967 (Rookie of the Year) to 1986 for four different teams, the bulk of which was with the Mets. He won the Cy Young award in 1969, 1973, and 1975. He had a career 2.86 ERA, a 311-206 win-loss record, 61 shutouts, and 3,640 career strikeouts.  

And this statistic might one-up them all:  he had 231 complete games.  231 starts in any one pitching career is unheard of these days; he had 231 complete games. He is a supreme reminder of how magnificent that era of our sport was.

Seaver is the non-caricature Mr. Met. He is the Franchise. He is the best player the New York Mets ever had. He was the first dynamic player for the “other” New York team. The Yankees had DiMaggio, Mantle, Gehrig, Ruth, and a smorgasbord of personalities to love. Seaver was the Mets’ first, and still one of their best… No… He IS still their best. 

“I don’t wanna be a .500 ballplayer, I wanna be a winning ballplayer.”  In 1969, Seaver led the Mets to their first division title and eventual World Series victory. From July 8 to Aug. 10, he went 10-0. He transformed them from the lovable losers to the Miracle Mets. 

I’m always amazed by how much fun to watch he was, win or lose. The statistics stand, but some of his most incredible performances are not for the history books. My favorite example is among my most prized personal possessions; I have Seaver’s autograph on a black-and-white photograph with the caption “Seaver’s Near No-Hitter.”  There were several. He had five one-hitters with the Mets. “Mets being the Mets” has rarely resounded so mightily than by his tough-luck amazin’ performances.

On September 24, 1975, Joe Wallis of the Chicago Cubs broke up Seaver’s no-hit bid with two outs in the 9th, and the Mets went on to lose the game in 11 innings. And yet, that was one of the most exhilarating pitching performances we’ve ever seen. Seaver’s team lost. He did not get a no-hitter. And yet, he was truly and tremendously terrific to watch. 

And that; that mystifying might of mound presence, that somehow charismatic capture of every strikeout victim; that is what prompted Reggie Williams to say: “Blind men come to the park just to hear him pitch.”