Greatness has to start somewhere. For Tom Seaver, a.k.a. The Franchise, Tom Terrific, that somewhere was on a brisk day at Shea Stadium on April 13, 1967. The Mets were coming off an Opening Day 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates as they prepared to play their second game of the season. They were also coming off five straight losing seasons with little hope, so manager Wes Westrum opted for a change.

Westrum decided to pitch a young Californian named Tom Seaver. The 22-year old Seaver pitched in Triple-A Jacksonville in 1966 where he went 12-12 with a 3.13 ERA. His major league debut was in front of a minor-league sized crowd of only 5005 at Shea. Those 5005 fans had no idea that the young pitcher they paid to see would become a baseball legend.

Seaver gave glimpses of what was to be in his first career start. He held the Pirates to two earned runs, six hits and four walks and struck out eight batters over 5.1 innings that day. The two runs given up were on RBI singles by Roberto Clemente and Maury Wills. Seaver did not get the win, Chuck Estrada did, in the Mets 3-2 victory.

One week later, on April 20, Seaver earned his first win, a 6-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs. As his rookie year progressed, it was apparent that Seaver was a strikeout pitcher with great control. He finished the year with 16 wins, 18 complete games, 170 strikeouts and a 2.76 ERA. all new records for the club. Seaver became the first Met to win Rookie of the Year honors since the franchise’s inception in 1962. He also made the All-Star game, the first of his 12 appearances in the midsummer classic, and got the save in the game. He even received a few MVP votes in his rookie season.

Tom Seaver pitched for the Mets from 1967 to ‘77,  plus a one-year stint in the summer of ‘83. He won 311 games and struck out 3,640 batters across his 20-year career before retiring after the ‘86 season.  In 1992, Seaver was elected into the Hall of Fame with 98.8% of the vote. He his only one of two pitchers in MLB history to earn 300 wins, strikeout over 3000 batters and have a career ERA of below 3.00. He also is a three-time Cy Young Award winner along with many, many other accolades.

Yet, it had to start somewhere. For Seaver, it was on a cool day in front of a sparse crowd in Queens. Who knew that 25 years later, he would visit another New York town some 200 miles to the northwest of Flushing, called Cooperstown, to be enshrined forever among the immortals of the game.