"Tom Terrific" Passes Away Due to Complications with Dementia

 He will forever be known as "Tom Terrific." Tom Seaver, the man known for bringing the New York Mets baseball franchise into prominence in the mid to late 1960s, and was a key cog in their 1969 World Series title run, passed away Wednesday after a lengthy battle with dementia as well as COVID-19. He was 75.  

In a 20-year Hall of Fame career that took him from Flushing, Queens, New York to the Queen City (Cincinnati) and later to the South Side of Chicago, and finally the harbor of Boston, Massachusetts, Seaver amassed 311 victory, still good enough for 18th all time in Major League baseball. His 2.86 ERA (126th), and strikeouts (3,640) is sixth all time. 

 

He was easily one of the All Time greats. He led the NL in strikeouts from 1970-76, and his 16 opening day starts are still a Major League Baseball record. 

 

In 1969, in only his third season in the Major's Seaver won 25 games, pitching to a 2.21 ERA with 18 complete games. Seaver along with Jerry Koosman, Gary Gentry, and a young Nolan Ryan formed one of the games toughest pitching staffs. 

 

While Seaver and the Mets lost Game 1 of the '69 World Series to the Baltimore Orioles by a count of 4-1, Seaver came back to blank the Orioles through eight innings, while holding onto a thin 1-0 margin. He did run into trouble in the ninth, giving up the lead, but, in a day when pitchers were allowed to pitch deep into the ballgame, Seaver quieted the O's in the 10th, giving New York a chance to win in the bottom half of the inning, which they did on an errant throw down the first base line, by a score of 2-1. 

 

The next day, the Mets topped Baltimore 5-3 to capture the franchises' first World Series championship. 

 

Not only did man land on the moon in 1969, but the Miracle Mets, once lovable losers some seven years earlier when they lost 120 games were World Series Champs. 

 

Seaver and the Mets would return to the Fall Classic some four years later against the Oakland A's, but Seaver would lose Game 6 to Oakland 3-1, a series the Mets would drop in seven games - even though New York outplayed and outscored Oakland for the series.  

 

In 1977, two years removed from winning 21 games for New York, Seaver was dealt to the Cincinnati Reds for Pat Zachry, Doug Flynn, Steve Henderson, and Dan Norman. It was by far and away considered the worst trade in the history of the New York Mets, and in some respects still haunts fans to this very day. 

 

Seaver made the Mets pay for the move, posting a 14-3 record with a 2.34 ERA in Cincinnati beginning what would be a fairly successful five year stay with the Reds. While Cincinnati didn't get to or win a World Series when Seaver was there - this was the end of the Big Red Machine days -- Seaver posted a higher winning percentage as a Red (.620) then he did as a Met (.615). 

 

One of the biggest moments a pitcher could have is to throw a no-hitter. Seaver came very close with the Mets, but it never transpired. He tossed five one-hitters for the Metropolitans. Instead the first no-hitter of Seaver's career came in a Reds uniform in 1978 against the St. Louis Cardinals - some nine years after he fell short of the bid with the Mets in 1969.

 

 Seaver would return to the Mets, albiet briefly in 1983, but would round out his career with two years pitching for the Chicago White Sox in 1984 and 1985, before finishing his career in 1986 with the Red Sox. Ironically he was in the opposing dugout when the Mets beat the Boston Red Sox in that year's World Series. 

After retiring from pitching, Seaver went into broadcasting, working Yankees games with Phil Rizzuto, before rejoining the Mets as a broadcaster in the late 1990s to do games with Gary Thorne, Howie Rose and later Dave O'Brien on WPIX channel 11. 

 

Seaver's 41 was retired by the Mets on June 24, 1988; he was inducted into the team's Hall of Fame the same year. In 1992 Seaver was formally enshrined into Cooperstown, receiving 98 percent of the vote, which was the highest vote total for any player until Ken Griffey Jr. received 99 percent in 2017. 

 

Seaver made countless appearances at Shea Stadium and Citi Field during his retirement from the Mets broadcast booth; including the final game at Shea Stadium in 2008, opening Citi Field in 2009 with the first pitch to Mets Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza, and throwing out the first pitch before the 2013 Major League Baseball All Star Game. 

 

The Mets were and are still planning to erect a statue in his honor.