The Mets ace who steered a miracle

Tom Seaver was the most valuable player on the 1969 Miracle Mets—and one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history. When the 22-yearold Seaver joined the New York Mets in 1967, the franchise was a laughingstock and had never finished higher than ninth in the 10-team National League. But with his blazing fastball, wicked slider, and famously cerebral approach to pitching, Seaver turned the Mets around. The ace threw an incredible eight straight complete-game victories as the Mets charged back from a 10-game deficit in August 1969 to make the playoffs, then bested the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. Over 20 seasons, “Tom Terrific” savored each of his 311 wins. “People ask me after a shutout, ‘Was that fun?’” he said in 1981. “No, it was not fun. Because fun is such a minuscule word for the satisfaction of what I’m doing.” The pitcher “grew up in farm country in Fresno, Calif., where his father was in the raisin business,” said the Los Angeles Times. Seaver played baseball in high school but got no college scholarship offers because he was too small. So he enrolled in the Marine Corps reserve—where in six months he went from 5-foot-9, 160 pounds to 6-foot-1, 210 pounds and started throwing 90 mph fastballs. After two seasons at the University of Southern California, Seaver signed with the Mets, earning the nickname “The Franchise” on a club that went 61-101 in his rookie year. Seaver was both overpowering and crafty, said The Washington Post, with a “drop-and-drive” delivery that left dirt stains on his right knee. Sportswriters referred to him as an “artist on the mound.”

“Seaver was the catalyst” in 1969, said the New York Daily News, winning 25 games and earning his first of three Cy Young Awards. In Game 4 of the World Series, he pitched all 10 innings of a 2-1 victory. Fans went ballistic in 1974 when the Mets traded Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds after a heated contract dispute. He returned briefly to New York in 1983, then finished his career with the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox. After retiring as a player in 1986, having clocked 3,640 career strikeouts, he became a longtime broadcaster for the Mets and New York Yankees. “God is a Met,” he said during the remarkable ’69 run. “I heard that somewhere. Now I believe it.”