Rant #2,485: Simply the Best

Tom Seaver was simply the best pitcher I have ever seen on the ball field.

He died on Monday at 75, of dementia and Covid-19, and honestly, he had struggled in recent years ever since he contracted Lyme Disease in the 1980s.

But when he was young, he could do it all, including throwing the ball past batters at a consistent 90-plus miles per hour, and do it consistently for years and years, from the mid-1960s through the 1980s.

But I also hated Tom Seaver.

I hated his talent, his athletic ability, and his verve on the mound.

Let me tell you why I hated him so.

I am a New York Yankees fan, born and bred, and the Yankees are my team, no matter where I am in life, where I live, or where my mind is at.

I was born in Brooklyn in 1957, and the Dodgers were still playing in the borough when I was a baby. When they and the Giants moved to the West Coast, that left a void in baseball, as the National League had no New York representative team.

And people with deep pockets knew it, and they threatened to start a new league with a New York team, and Major League Baseball was scared, so scared that they decided to expand in 1962, and the Metropolitans and the Houston Colt 45s were the new National League teams, quashing any attempt to create a new league.

In those days, the Mets were absolutely terrible, fielding a collection of New York-related has beens and never weres, while the Yankees continued their dominance, going to the World Series in the Mets' first three years of existence.

1965 happened, the Yankees also became a collection of has beens and never weres, but somehow, they weren't as warm and fuzzy as the Mets were.

The Mets had Casey Stengel as manager, and other players who were once really good, but at that time, were basically hanging on by a thread. Even Yogi Berra played a few games for the Mets during this period, but honestly, while the fans loved the team, the team was awful.

But through a twist of fate, the Mets were able to pick up somebody by the name of Tom Seaver over two other teams, and the fate of the franchise turned once Seaver became a Met.

In 1967, and with another horrid team, he won the Rookie of the Year award, and suddenly, all eyes were turning to the Mets, at least when he was on the mound. The Yankees were totally broken during this period, and while players like Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford were still around, their best years were behind them, and the Mets were starting to pick up fans.

I lived in Rochdale Village, South Jamaica, Queens, during this era, and we lived just a few miles away from Shea Stadium. As a kid, those horrid Yankees teams were MY teams, and as a kid, we constantly compared our own young age, Mel Stottlemyre, with Seaver.

Stottlemyre was an excellent pitcher, but he was no Seaver, no way, no how.

And then 1969 happened, and the world was set on its ear by several events, including the Mets' improbable run to the World Series.

Seaver was nearly unhittable that year, winning 25 games and eventually, the Cy Young Award as the National League's best pitcher. People forget that he actually lost the first game of the World Series, but he and his team went on to beat the Baltimore Orioles four games to one for the title.

And the Yankees continued to be also rans.

The early 1970s brought greater fame to Seaver and the Mets, and Seaver solidified himself as the game's best pitcher.

Mel Stottlemyre was good, but he was not Tom Seaver.

Fortunes turned in the mid 1970s, and the great Yankees teams of that era brought the franchise back to greatness. The Mets foundered, but they still had Tom Seave go to the mound every fourth day, and that continued to be a reason to watch them, even when their fortunes had dipped so.

And in 1977, the Mets had the audacity to trade Seaver, get rid of him during the dawn of free agency. No, he was not the Seaver of the mid 1960s or early 1970s, but he still had plenty in the tank.

As a member of the Cincinnati Reds and later the Chicago White Sox, Seaver continued to be a pitcher to be dealt with, a marvel on the mound who could still get batters out and threw 90 miles per hour on a consistent basis.

During this period, he threw his only no-hitter, and in an instance which riled people like me to no end, he won his 300th game at Yankee Stadium as a member of the Whtie Sox on Phil Rizzuto Day, a day designated by the team to honor their former shortstop and who was then a popular announcer who had as many retirement ceremonies as Cher has had.

It just added to my hate of Seaver.

And yes, the Mets did bring him back for a cup of coffee when he couldn't do it anymore, and yes, he did eventually play for the Yankees' heated rival the Boston Red Sox, but this just added to my hate for this guy.

Seaver would retire in the mid 1980s, and somehow, he wound up as a Yankees announcer for a couple of years, forever getting Rizzuto's goat--yes, he still was there after about 20 reitrements--about winning his 300th game on Phil Rizzuto Day.

During this period, you could see that Seaver--who was as sharp a talker as he was a pticher--was not up to his old standards. We later found out that he had contracted Lyme Disease, perhaps getting it while working on his vineyard in California, and he soon left the broadcast booth full time, although he did some broadcasting for the Mets while he still could.

And then Seaver literally vanished off the scene.

We later found out that he had never really recovered from Lyme Disease, and that while he kept himself busy on his vineyard, he was not right, and was never right again.

He did throw out the ceremonial first pitches during the last game at Shea Stadium and the first game at CitiField, but during both events, he went quietly.

When the Mets celebrated the 50th anniversary of their first championship in 2019, Seaver politely declined an invitation to appear, and it was apparent that he was not well.

And then early today, we found out that he had left us on Monday, another victim of the coronavirus.

Yes, I hated Tom Seaver, I really did.

But I respected him as much as I hated him.

He, and Bob Gibson, were the best pitchers that I ever saw, the best at their craft, the best at ruling the strike zone while on the mound, just the best and most talented pitchers I have ever seen.

And since most of Seaver's playing time was in New York, I will give him a very slight edge over Gibson.

To this day, even non-sports fans know Seaver, they know the nicknames "Tom Terrific" and "The Franchise," and while they may not know his clubhouse nickname "Boy Scout," all one has to do is put them all together, and you will know that this guy was something special.

R.I.P. ... even from this guy who hated you.