Tom Seaver, one of the greatest pitchers ever, has passed at the age of 75. He hasn’t been in public much these past few years as he developed progressive dementia. It seems he also contracted the coronavirus.
He was my absolute favorite pitcher when I was a kid. Eventually I will reflect on all the wonderful parts of his life and the joy his pitching brought me. Eventually I’ll be able to think about many things and smile—the K’s, the W’s, the way the lower right leg would get dirty brushing against the down slope of the mound when he was really on, the excitement of being a 14-year-old Reds fan when his favorite pitcher joined his favorite team, of the pleasure of getting to meet and talk a little with him once. Right now I can’t. Right now I’m devastated.
My father died from the effects of Alzheimer’s 16 years ago. Now one of my boyhood sports idols has died with another type of progressive dementia (Lewy body dementia). I hate dementia. It robs a person of what made them that person.
Dammit.
Fan Interference 
My apologies for not having a featured image. I had one selected/set. I don’t know why it disappeared when I published this. Right now I’m not up to trying again.
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No apologies needed, friend. I’m not ashamed to say I cried when I saw the news.
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That’s quite alright. Actually in a way it’s a good thing because we learned that not having a featured image doesn’t break the site. The old theme if there was no image it would post the full post on the front page and not the excerpt version. Now, it does the excerpt version no matter what, which is a huge relief to me. I’ll find a image for you if you don’t mind.
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Thank you.
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Awful but not unexpected. I don’t know how many times I watched him pitch from my family box at Shea but it was a lot. I’ll remember 1969 even more than 1968 although I regard myself as very much a product of the latter because of that astonishing year of baseball Seaver spearheaded. Watching him was always a lesson in precision, grace and power. I think it was Joe Morgan who once said trying to hit his fastball after his curve was like trying to drink coffee with a fork. RIP Tom Terrific.
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I said this on the wrong thread. RIP to one of the greats of my teenage years. He almost singlehandedly made the circle change a pitch every pitcher had to have. A great baseball mind and a great talent.
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Tough news. Nice job, Raysfan, and thanks to Prof and Scout for the video tribute in the Thursday He/She. Seaver defines “New York Met” to me. While I remember his leaving the club, I did not remember him departing the Mets for such an extensive portion of his career. The trade netted the Mets a couple of decent players – Pat Zachry was up and down, but ultimately an innings-eater for 6 years with the Mets. Zachry made his only All-Star appearance in an NYM uni in ’78. He also led the league in losses and homers allowed for the Mets in ’81. Steve Henderson was better. He was second in the RoY race (after Andre Dawson) in the trade year, 1977. Four seasons with New York saw Henderson gain 516 hits, 79 doubles, an astounding 31 triples, and 120 OPS+. The two others acquired by the Mets have negative WAR for their NYM careers.
Tom Siever, in the trade year of ’77, was 21-7 for the Mets and Reds. He led MLB with 7 (SEVEN) shutouts, and WHIP at 1.014. He led the NL in hits/9 at 6.9 and SO/W at 2.97. Tom’s terrific season saw him an All-Star. He finished 3rd in the CY race and 25th in MVP. And yet he was traded by the Mets for one good player, one replacement-level player, and two worse-than-your-grandmother players.
My view, expressed previously when Harper left Washington, is unchanged. A generational player only comes along once per generation. They define a team, and thereby a community, rather than the other way around. The Mets never should have traded Seaver to see the no-hitter, the 300th win, occur in opposing uniforms.
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