Tom Seaver, a Hall of Fame Pitcher and New York Mets legend, died on Monday at the age of 75 from complications of Lewy body dementia and Covid-19.
What We Know:
- Seaver is known as one of baseball’s greatest right-handed power pitchers, a Hall of Famer who won 311 games for four major league teams, and a Mets legend who led the team from last place to first place with a surprise World Series in his first three seasons. Seaver was a truly powerful pitcher, striking out more than 200 hitters in 10 different seasons, a National League record. On April 22, 1970, while facing the San Diego Padres, Seaver ended the game by striking out 10 hitters in a row. Seaver ranked 6th on the career pitcher list with a total of 3,640 strikeouts in his 20 big-league seasons.
- Seaver was also known for his strategic thinking when it came to pitching. He studied opposing hitters and pored over the details of each pitch, thinking over its break, its speed, and its location. Seaver’s career lasted 20 seasons. So, as he aged and his arm strength slowly diminished, it was his calculated pitches and experience that led him to continued greatness and allowed him to continue playing.
- While Seaver played for the Cincinnati Reds, the Chicago White Sox, and the Boston Red Sox, his time with the Mets is the focus of his career as he has the greatest impact on them. Seaver became the Mets’ bonafide star, known to fans as Tom Terrific and, more tellingly, The Franchise. The Mets were established five years before Seaver joined the team and had not placed higher than ninth in the 10-team National League. For Seaver’s first two years, the trend continued with the Mets placing 10th the first year and ninth the next, but Seaver started breaking records. Before his arrival, no Mets pitcher had ever won more than 13 games in a season, but Seaver won 16 his first year and 16 more the next.
- Seaver played 10 full seasons with the Mets. In 1967, he won the league’s rookie of the year award. Seaver’s career with the Mets was attention-grabbing: he was an All-Star nine times, had five seasons of more than 20 wins, led the league in strikeouts five times and earned run average three times, and won three Cy Young Awards. But 1969, the year of the “Miracle Mets” was the biggest addition to the Tom Terrific narrative. Tom led the team from a losing record in June to sweeping the Atlanta Braves in the National League Championship Series and then finally defeating the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles in four games to one in the World Series.
- Beyond his incredible record, Seaver is given the credit of turning the Mets around and leading them to victory. “He was a heck of a lot responsible for tightening things up around here,” Mets catcher Jerry Grote told Sport magazine in 1970. “From the first year, he was going out to win, not pitch his turn. When Seaver’s pitching, those guys plain work a little harder.”
- Seaver, to this day, is regarded as one of the best Mets players of all time, transforming a franchise and captivating a city. “He was simply the greatest Mets player of all-time and among the best to ever play the game,” Mets owner Fred Wilpon and son Jeff, the team’s chief operating officer, said in a statement.
- In late 2019, the Mets announced plans for a statue of Seaver outside Citi Field as part of a celebration of the 1969 Miracle Mets team. The ballpark’s address was also officially changed to 41 Seaver Way in a nod to his uniform number. Seaver did not attend the events himself, but his daughter Sarah Seaver attended and shared that her parents were honored for the recognition.
- In March 2019, Seaver’s family announced that he had been diagnosed with dementia and had retired from public life. He continued working at Seaver Vineyards, founded by the three-time NL Cy Young Award winner and his wife, Nancy, in 2002 in the Calistoga region of Northern California.
- The news of Seaver’s death received an outpouring of love on social media from everyone: fans, sportscasters, athletes, comedians, and politicians like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Senator Chuck Schumer. Everyone, Mets fans or not, shared the sentiment that Seaver was a true legend and one of the best pitchers to ever play the game of baseball.
- Seaver’s family announced his death via a statement, acknowledging the profound inspiration Seaver was to so many. “We send our love out to his fans, as we mourn his loss with you.”
Seaver is survived by his wife Nancy, daughters Sarah and Anne, and grandsons Thomas, William, Henry, and Tobin. We send our condolences to his family and all who loved the baseball icon.
