June 15, 1977. To Mets fans of a certain age, that date is as historic and  infamous as April 15, 1865, December 7, 1941, or November 22, 1963. Say “The  Trade” to a Mets fan of that vintage, and without saying anything more, it  conjures up the notions of only one trade in the history of the franchise. The  trade of “The Franchise”. In the entire world of sports, there is but one  player who is identified by that appellation. George Thomas Seaver. “Tom  Terrific”. New York Met number 41. The ace of the New York Mets staff from his  rookie year in 1967 to the worst day in New York Mets history, June 15, 1977, a  day that came to be known as “Black Wednesday”. A man who without question is  the greatest pitcher in the history of the New York Mets. Take a look at the  Mets pitching record book and you will find that Seaver is first in the  following categories:

1) Games Started 395
2) Complete Games 171
3) Innings Pitched 3045 1/3
4) Wins 198
5) Strikeouts 2541
6) Base on Balls 847
7) Shutouts 44
8) Earned Run Average 2.57

He also set major league marks, including fanning 200 or more batters for 9  consecutive years (still the mark) and 10 total years (since surpassed) and  striking out 10 consecutive batters to finish a game against the San Diego  Padres on April 22, 1970, which is still the major league mark. Seaver also at  one point shared the record for most strikeouts in a game at 19 with Nolan Ryan  and Steve Carlton. Seaver also has had the distinction of starting more opening  day games, 16, than any other pitcher in history.  He also earned enshrinement  in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, after being named on 425  of the 430 completed ballots. Being named on 98.84% of the ballots is the  highest percentage in history for anyone winning entry into the Hall of Fame  from the baseball writers.

The most amazing part of the Seaver story, is that it is an accident of fate  that brought him to the Mets. In the 1966 January free-agent draft, Seaver was  drafted by the Braves, and signed by the Richmond farm team a month later,  after Seaver had begun his college baseball season for the University of  Southern California. Richmond was fined $500.00 and Atlanta was forbidden from  signing Seaver for three years by major league baseball because they drafted a  collegiate player. Seaver was also declared intelligible to play by the NCAA  because he had signed as a professional and had therefore lost his amateur  status. This turn of events resulted in Seaver being declared ineligible to  play for either a professional team, or his collegiate team. With his father  Charles Seaver managing his early career affairs and threatening a lawsuit  against all of the parties involved in the affair, a compromise was worked out  in which a special lottery for Seaver’s services was held by Major League  Baseball. Commissioner Eckert ruled that any major league team but the Braves  who matched the initial offer made by them, would be included in a lottery to  decide which team would get the rights to Seaver’s services. The Mets, The  Indians and the Phillies were the three teams to take advantage of the offer.  On Sunday April 3, 1966, at the Commissioner’s office, the name of the New York  Mets was literally picked out of a hat and Seaver’s fate as a player, and ours  as fans, were sealed. Imagine how things might have gone if the Phillies or the  Indians had been picked rather than the Mets? Along those lines, here’s another  possibility to ponder. Tom Seaver was a Fresno, California native. As a native  of southern California, The Los Angeles Dodgers might have been a logical  choice to sign him. In fact, they were in the process of scouting him around  the time that he was signed by the Braves. The Dodger front office became  distracted in the spring of 1966 with the joint holdouts of hall of fame  pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. This distraction contributed to the  Dodgers being unable to sign Tom Seaver. Imagine a Dodger pitching staff with  Koufax, Drysdale, Sutton, Seaver and O’Steen?

As Casey Stengel used to say, “You could look it up”.  Seaver is a player whose  records on the field speak for themselves. But he was much more than a great  pitcher. He was a great human being as well. When he was asked to explain the  ascension of the Miracle Mets in 1969, with uncharacteristic humility he  replied “G-d took an apartment in Shea Stadium”. At the height of his fame in  New York, he spoke out against the War in Vietnam. He did this, not worrying  about what it might cost him in endorsement contracts, but because it was a  sincerely held belief. Seaver was an individual who was not beyond blasting  Mets management publicly when his private statements about what was needed to  improve the team were ignored. It was this glibness ultimately that would lead  to the circumstances that would result in his demanding a trade from the  Amazin’s. Seaver, after 10 quality years with the Mets, signed a multi year  contract with the club in 1976 for base pay of $225,000.00 per year, which at  the time the contract was signed was top dollar. Seaver’s timing was bad.  Shortly after he had signed that contract, the reserve clause was ruled an  illegal restraint of trade and free agency arrived, which afforded each player  the opportunity to sell his services on the open market, rather than take what  the management of his present team offered him. Within a year, Reggie Jackson  had signed a contract with the cross town Yankees for $2,700,000.00 over four  years.

Seaver now felt that he was trapped in an under valued contract, (which he was)  and demanded to renegotiate his deal with the Mets. The Mets, under the  direction of M. Donald Grant, the man who is responsible for causing more  damage to the franchise than anyone else in its history, held a hard line. The  Mets also enlisted the assistance of legendary Daily News sports columnist Dick  Young, who was masquerading as an objective viewer of these events. Young  filled his column daily with harangues about how Seaver was an ingrate, and  that “a contract is a contract is a contract”, while neglecting to mention that  his son-in-law held a job with the New York Mets, so he could not be viewed as  an impartial source for the story. Young continued to blast Seaver for his lack  of loyalty, and chastise him for demanding more money. It is important to point  out for the sake of history, that several years following these attacks, Young,  who had spent his entire career with the Daily News, and apparently was not  motivated by any matters pecuniary, bolted the News for the New York Post for  more money, where he ended his career at his death a short time later.

The matters all came to a head on the morning of June 15, 1977. Because of  Seaver’s importance to the fortunes of the club, Jack Lang, another legendary  sports writer in New York, had interceded on Seaver’s behalf, and a deal had  been worked out to keep Seaver under contract, and improve his salary every  year of the contract. This détente was ruined when Seaver read Dick Young’s  column that morning. Young had written a column in which he alleged that the  reason Seaver had been demanding a renegotiation of his contract for more money  was because his wife Nancy was jealous of Ruth Ryan (Nolan’s wife) and the  contract that Ryan had recently signed with the Astros. Ryan and Seaver had  been teammates on the 1969 Mets, and their families had always remained close  even after Ryan was traded from the Mets on December 10, 1971. More importantly  than being a great pitcher, Seaver had been the consummate family man. After  seeing his wife and family dragged through the mud in Young’s column, he  cancelled the deal that had been worked out, and demanded that the Mets trade  him. On June 15, 1977, “The Franchise” George Thomas Seaver was traded to the  Cincinnati Reds for pitcher Pat Zachary, second baseman Doug Flynn and minor  leaguers Steve Henderson and Dan Norman. With the exception of Steve Henderson,  all of the players traded for Seaver were no longer playing the game by the  time he pitched his last game in 1986.

Along the way with the Reds, Seaver collected his sole no hitter against the  Cardinals on June 16, 1978 in front of the hometown fans in Cincinnati. Seaver  had three times in his career pitched complete game 1 hitters with the Mets.  The first came on July 9, 1969 before a packed house at Shea against the Chicago Cubs. This one came  to be known as the “imperfect game”. After 8 1/3 innings of perfect baseball,  25 straight Chicago batsmen retired, Jimmy Qualls cracked a clean single to  left center field between Cleaon Jones and Tommie Agee to break the spell. Seaver’s second career one hitter came  against Woody Fryman and the Philadelphia Phillies on the evening of May 15,  1970 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. The only hit in that game was a  3rd inning single to right by Phillie catcher Mike Compton. The one hitter  against the Phillies was not nearly as aesthetically pleasing as the Cub gem.  Seaver walked three batters in that game, and the Mets made two miscues behind  him. That one hitter however was satisfying in some other respects, as it tied  a major league record with the Met pitchers posting consecutive one hitters. In  the previous Mets game, May 13, 1970, Gary Gentry had also pitched a complete  game 1 hitter at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs. Seaver’s 3rd one  hitter was also a no hitter that he took into the 9th inning. On July 4, 1972  at Shea, in the 1st game of a double header (everyone remember those, we used  to have 5 or 6 of them a season) after 8 1/3 innings of no hit ball, the San Diego Padres' Leron Lee  bounced a clean, seeing eye single to center to break the spell. The game was  then concluded on a double play. Seaver walked 4 in that game, and the Mets  played errorless ball in the field behind him.

Apart from the no hitter, and continuing to excel individually, Seaver was  disappointed in his years with the Reds. He arrived after the hey day of  the “Big Red Machine” and the consecutive championships in 1975 and 1976.  Although he continued to pitch well, compiling a record of 59-40, pitching 12  shutouts, and posting an earned run average of 3.18, he never won a  championship with the Cincinnati Reds. Along the way, he just missed winning a  4th Cy Young Award (in addition to those he collected in 1969, 1973 and 1975)  during the strike-shortened season of 1981. That year, Seaver posted a record  of 14-2, with a 2.56 ERA, but the award that year went to the Dodger rookie  phenom Fernando Valenzuela who was 13-7 with a 2.48 ERA and also collected  Rookie of the Year honors for his work. Valenzuela collected 8 shutouts that  season, and Seaver only 1. In 1982 however, it appeared that “Tom Terrific”  might be at the end of the line. That season, he posted the worst won loss  record and ERA of his career, 5-13 with a 5.50 ERA. On December 16, 1982, The  Cincinnati Reds traded “The Franchise” back to the New York Mets for Charlie  Puleo, Lloyd McClendon and Jason Felice. Seaver would surprise the Reds by  winning 47 more games in his career before hanging it up in 1986.

Opening day of 1983 was a special event in Flushing. Among the dignitaries in  attendance were Governor Mario M. Cuomo and Mayor Edward I. Koch. The Mets were  still as bad as ever, but now we had our “Moses” back. That provided hope of  our dreams coming true after the decade of wandering in the wilderness. Seaver  that year at 38 years of age was a respectable starter, and arguably the best  on the staff. Seaver posted another losing record, 9-14, with two more shutouts  and a 3.55 ERA. That year, he led the Mets staff in the following categories at  the age of 38: games started, innings pitched, ERA, shutouts, and strikeouts.  He was a link to the club’s historic achievements and nostalgia and suggested  that better days were ahead. The anniversary of “Black Wednesday” passed  eventfully that season as well. The 6th anniversary of the worst day in  franchise history produced arguably the best trade in franchise history when  the Mets acquired MVP gold glove first baseman Keith Hernandez from the Saint  Louis Cardinals for Neal Allen and Rick Owenby. If the Mets could convince  Hernandez that better days were ahead, he would not just be a half season  rental and another disastrous trade for them.  Hernandez was traded during the option year of his contract, and could've have signed elsewhere the following season if he so chose.  Ironically, it was the  promise of better days ahead that allowed the Mets to let the unthinkable  happen a second time.

The Mets were a pitching rich organization at that time. Gooden was on the farm  putting up unbelievable numbers. In 1983 at Lynchburg, he struck out 300 batters in 191  innings. It was clear that he had a future with the big club. Gooden would wind  up making the jump from "A" ball to the Mets in 1984. The Mets also had Ron Darling, Walt  Terrell, and Sid Fernandez in the system. Mets management took a calculated  risk and lost. The Mets could only protect a specific number of players from  the free agent compensation draft. They looked at all of the young talent in  their system, and left George Thomas Seaver unprotected, figuring that no other  team would take him at his salary and age. They calculated wrong. On January  20, 1984, the Chicago White Sox, who had lost Dennis Lamp to the Toronto Blue  Jays via free agency, selected Tom Seaver from the New York Mets as  compensation. It represented another gaffe and another example of the powers  that be of the organization treating the greatest player in the history of the  franchise like dirt. The fans were told that the light at the end of the tunnel  was not an oncoming freight train. We were told that in spite of the loss of  this legend, future hall of fame member and fan favorite, there were better  days ahead. Although we were skeptical, the arrival of Dwight Gooden in 1984  and the first season ending winning record in 8 years helped us forget the pain  of losing Seaver a second time.

For his part, Seaver continued to dazzle and impress and pile up milestones. In  many respects, for this writer, Seaver became a more entertaining pitcher to  watch at this stage of his career. He still had a good fastball, but not in the  same league as the one that he possessed earlier in his career. Seaver now had  to rely upon guile and cunning and an occasional bit of gas to get by. His  pitching had become a more cerebral enterprise. He moved the ball around and  changed speeds to foul the batter’s timing. He even had developed a long slow  curveball that was like the eephus pitch thrown by Rip Sewell.  In his years  with the Chicago White Sox, Seaver posted the following numbers: 33-28, 5  shutouts and an ERA of 3.67. In 1984, at the age of 39, Seaver led the White  Sox staff in the following statistics: Wins, and Shutouts. In 1985, in the last  great year of his career, at the age of 40, Seaver led the White Sox staff in  the following categories: innings pitched, and earned run average. That season,  he also became the 17th major league pitcher to post 300 wins. Although he was  on the road, he came “home” to win this milestone game, at Yankee Stadium in  the Bronx, against the hated Yankees. This writer was fortunate enough to be a  personal eyewitness that day, along with a packed house that also included  President Richard M. Nixon, a well-known baseball fan.

The New York Yankees had scheduled August 4, 1985 as Phil Rizzuto Day at the  start of the year. This was a day to retire The Scooter’s number 10, shower him  with gifts, and continue the campaign to have him enshrined in Cooperstown,  which would occur 9 years later. As this had been a significant day on the  Yankee schedule since spring training, the Yankee and Phil Rizzuto fans had  purchased their tickets early, and were sitting downstairs. The Met and Seaver  fans all bought their tickets when it was clear that Seaver’s first crack at  history would be at the fabled Bronx ball yard, so we all were sitting  upstairs. There was a marvelous tension in the old building between those  seated downstairs and those seated upstairs. Several times during the game,  chants of “Let’s Go Mets” erupted to try to encourage the White Sox to score  some runs for Seaver. The Yankee fans downstairs loudly shouted down these  chants. The Yankees jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, and it looked like the  Seaver nation was to be disappointed on this day. The White Sox in their first  inning had one runner picked off at first base following a hit, and another  thrown out at 3rd by Dave Winfield from right following a single. It looked  like it would be another great effort by Seaver wasted due to his own team’s  ineptitude. There should never however have been any doubt that Seaver was  going to do anything other than win this game.

On July 30, 1985, Seaver earned his 299th career win against the Red Sox in  Boston. The circumstances of that win made it clear to this writer that there  were larger forces at work here. The baseball gods were throwing the  beleaguered Mets fans a bone to allow them to see their best pitcher win this  special game. To earn his 299th win, Seaver pitched 9 innings to a 4-4 tie, and  then received a win when the White Sox improbably scored three runs in the top  of the 10th inning to win at Fenway Park 7-5. Those of us who followed his  career, and had been following his approach to win number 300, immediately  looked at the schedule and understood that this meant that Seaver’s first  attempt to win number 300 would be at Yankee Stadium in New York. We  immediately bought our tickets. The game was of course a sell out. Knowing in  my heart that there were fates larger than life contributing to these events, I  knew that there was no way Seaver was not going to win this game. Accordingly,  this writer made a large banner that he brought with him to the game. The  banner was succinct and profound in its message. It consisted of two simple  words: “THANKS TOM!” It was a sentiment that applied to the totality of his  career, as well as the specifics of the circumstances that day.  It is a banner  that was actually twice shown on television during the WPIX coverage of the  game.

Sunday, August 4th was clear yet the start of the game was delayed due to the  pre-game ceremonies honoring Phil Rizzuto which included The Scooter getting  knocked over at home plate by a “holy cow” wearing a halo over his head. The  stadium was filled well before the advertised start of the game. Seaver had  stayed at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut the night before the game, and  would tell the late Don Drysdale in a post game interview that he was aware of  the size of the crowd before the game, when he was driving in on the Major  Deegan Expressway and the traffic was backed up all the way to the George  Washington Bridge at 11:15 in the morning. Seaver would also tell Drysdale in  that interview “some of them here have seen me pitch before so I figured that  some of them were on my side”. The live, post game interview was broadcast on  WPIX and also over the public address system and diamond vision at the stadium,  and provoked cheers from the crowd when Seaver indicated that he was “90% sure  that I’ll pitch next year”.

His 300th win was a classic Seaver line:

9 innings pitched, 6 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk and 7 strikeouts. Along the  way, Seaver would strike out Dave Winfield as the tying run to end a threat in  the 8th inning, and get Don Baylor to fly out to left as the tying run to end a  threat and the game in the 9th. In a rare display of Yankee class during the Steinbrenner era, Lindsey  Nelson, who had broadast the prime years of Seaver's career with the Mets and was now in retirement, was allowed to call the final out of Seaver’s 300th win on the WPIX  telecast. Although there was a playful tension between the Met/Seaver fans and  the Yankee/Rizzuto fans for the early part of the game, the truth of the matter  is that from the strikeout of Winfield to end the 8th to the end of the game,  the vast majority of the folks at the game that day were on Seaver’s side.  Coincidentally, that same very day in Chicago, at Wrigley Field, the other two  New York and Chicago teams did battle. In that game, the new New York Mets  phenom, Dwight Gooden, participating in what would be the greatest year of his  career, defeated the Chicago Cubs by the identical score 4-1 to earn his 34th  career victory. On the west coast that same day, Rod Carew playing for the  California Angles against his former team the Minnesota Twins became the 16th  player to collected his 3000th hit.

The 300th win was the last great moment on the field of Seaver’s career. He  collected 11 more victories before finishing his career. Seaver’s record after  the 300th win was however that of a mere mortal: 11-16, 3.98. He finished his  career with the Boston Red Sox, for whom he recorded 12 decisions during the  1986 season. An injury prevented Seaver from having one last shining moment in  the sun, and an opportunity to repay the Mets on the field for the shabby way  they had repeatedly treated him. Seaver’s injured knee made him unavailable for  the 1986 World Series, although he was in uniform on the bench. As much of a  Mets fan as this writer is, he would’ve been completely rooting for Seaver to  beat the Mets whenever he was on the mound during that World Series had he been  active. Seaver’s ultimate triumph against the Mets occurred when they plunged  deep into second division purgatory for years following his trade. As a result  of this, there were no important games down the stretch in which Seaver pitched  the Mets out of a pennant race, as they already were out of the pennant race.  Following the 1986 World Series, Seaver announced his retirement from Baseball.  There was one chapter left to show us all that Seaver was old school, and  possessed class rarely seen in our day.

During spring training 1987, Dwight Gooden tested positive for cocaine use and  was declared ineligible to play for the Mets. Gooden immediately went into  rehabilitation to try to “cure” his addiction. In addition, injuries also  decimated the Met pitching corps early that season as by May, both David Cone  and Robert Ojeda were unavailable to pitch for the Mets for the balance of the  season. A desperate Frank Cashen threw a “Hail Mary” pass to “The Franchise”.  An offer was made to Seaver to have a comeback with his old team. Seaver cut  short a family trip to Europe to answer the call. Given the way Seaver had been  treated by the Mets, and the dire straights in which the Mets found themselves,  Seaver could have insisted upon a large signing bonus prior to answering the  call. That would’ve been his to keep, whether or not he was able to make the  team. This would’ve been one opportunity for him to take one step to settle an  old score. The truth is, for Seaver, there were no old scores to settle. In  1978, his old nemesis M. Donald Grant had been voted out as Chairman of the  Board of the Mets following the trade. The recognition that the trade had been  a disastrous mistake that put the team on a bad trajectory for over a half a  decade was also redemptive for Seaver. Seaver had made his peace with the  bad things that had happened to him in baseball, and he was happy just to have the  opportunity to see if he could still get the job done, to absolutely answer  that question to himself, and to us, once and for all. Seaver agreed with the  Mets management to the specified financial terms for his employment, but  refused to sign the contract or take any salary until he felt that he was ready  to retire major league batters. What followed was a failed comeback attempt in  which Seaver pitched in the minor leagues, and even pitched in simulated games  at Shea and proved to himself, and Mets management that he was no longer able  to get major league batters out. After announcing he was ending his comeback  attempt and resuming his retirement, Seaver was asked by a reporter what batter  in his career had been the toughest for him to retire. With a laugh, and some  uncharacteristic self-deprecation, he replied by saying Barry Lyons, the only  modestly talented back up catcher who had lit up Seaver consistently in his  comeback attempt, in one simulated game actually going 6 for 6, against him,  and convincing the old warrior that his time between the lines was done.

In the time since then, Seaver has completed a tour of duty as a broadcaster for the Yankees, and presently is in the employ of the Mets in the same capacity. Seaver has also had some other responsibilities in the Mets organization. He often kids on the air about being a grandfather, and  talks your ear off about his reunions with fellow members of the Hall of Fame  in Cooperstown. Those of you who are not old enough to have seen Seaver pitch  both in his prime and at the end of his career, can not possibly completely  appreciate that in Mets history, there is Seaver, and there is everyone else.  Seaver and Gil Hodges were responsible for the metamorphosis of the team from  the Casey Stengel buffoons to the Gil Hodges “Charles Atlas” graduates. Seaver  has been and always will be, the most significant Met in history, and one  worthy of an article of this length. It has been a distinct privilege both to  watch his great career, and to be able to write this article about it.

© 2003 Matt Sissman