Tom Seaver, New York Mets Hall of Fame Pitcher, Dies at 75

(Bloomberg) -- Tom Seaver, a Hall of Fame pitcher who was the driving force behind turning the New York Mets baseball team from lovable losers to World Series champions in 1969, has died. He was 75.

He died Monday, according to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The cause was complications of Lewy body dementia and Covid-19.

Seaver, a right-hander who played most of his career with the Mets after joining them in 1967, was elected to Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1992 after recording 311 victories, 3,640 strikeouts and an earned run average of 2.86. As of his retirement in 1986, he was the only pitcher other than Hall of Fame hurler Walter Johnson to record more than 300 wins, 3,000 strikeouts and an ERA of less than 3.00.

After being named Rookie of the Year in 1967, he racked up 25 wins in 1969 when the Miracle Mets, who had been a hapless team from their founding in 1962, won their first Major League title. His wins were a quarter of all the team’s victories in that historic year.

“Tom was a gentleman who represented the best of our national pastime,” MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred said Wednesday in a statement. “He was synonymous with the New York Mets and their unforgettable 1969 season. After their improbable World Series championship, Tom became a household name to baseball fans--a responsibility he carried out with distinction throughout his life.”

A 12-time All Star, he won the Cy Young award three times as the best pitcher in the National League, including in 1969 and 1973, when the team again competed in the World Series, losing to Oakland Athletics.

“Tom Seaver was the driving force behind the players, always pushing them to be better than they were, never letting them settle,” Hall of Fame slugger and Mets broadcaster Ralph Kiner is quoted as saying on Seaver’s Hall of Fame plaque.

In an ESPN poll, Hall of Fame pitchers such as s Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, Jim Palmer, Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton all rated Seaver as the best pitcher of their generation.

Hall of Famer Hank Aaron, who broke Babe Ruth’s home run record, said Seaver was “the toughest pitcher I ever faced.”

Seaver was the first Mets player inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.

Though adored by Mets fans, in 1977 Seaver, then a free agent, was traded to the Cincinnati Reds after a salary dispute with Mets management. He played for the Reds five seasons, recording his 3,000th strikeout with them — and his only no-hitter. He returned to the Mets for a season but was claimed by the Chicago White Sox as a free-agent in 1984 to the embarrassment of Mets brass, who had left the aging pitcher on an unprotected player list.

To add to the embarrassment, Seaver won his landmark 300th game as a White Sox.

Despite the tensions such trades and transactions created, the Mets retired Seaver’s uniform number — 41 — in 1988. In 2019, to honor the 50th anniversary of the Mets 1969 championship, the team changed the address of Citi Field, where the Mets play, to 41 Seaver Way and announced a plan to erect a statue of him outside the stadium.

“Tom was a once-in-a-lifetime player and will always be remembered as one of the greatest players in Mets history,” Mets chief operating officer Jeffrey Wilpon said at a ceremony announcing the honors. “Tom truly lived up to his nicknames of ‘Tom Terrific’ and ‘The Franchise.’”

George Thomas Seaver was born on Nov. 17, 1944, to Charles and Betty Seaver. He attended Fresno High School where he pitched on the baseball team. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve before enrolling at Fresno City College. He was recruited by the University of Southern California and was playing there when he was drafted in 1965 by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In 1966, he signed with the Atlanta Braves, but the contract was voided by Major League Baseball because it had been negotiated while he was in the midst of pitching for USC — an MLB rule violation. The right to sign Seaver was decided in a three-team lottery that the Mets won.

Seaver and his wife Nancy McIntyre had two daughters, Sarah and Anne.

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