In an interview with Bill Madden of the New York Daily News, Tom Seaver said that he will throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the 2013 All-Star Game to be held at Citi Field on Tuesday, July 16. Awesome!
The Mets’ “Franchise” wants you to know he’ll be up to the task of delivering that first pitch Tuesday night — the full 60 feet, six inches. But more than that, Seaver wants you to know he’s going to love just being here — being on the field again, taking it all in and, as he might say, being back on the baseball planet.
No need for me to tell longtime readers of MMO that Seaver is my all-time favorite Met. The one player who grabbed my attention as a kid and set me on my path to Mets fandom. You hear about “Harvey Day” a lot these days, but let me tell you first hand that nothing will ever beat “Seaver Day.”
There are not enough superlatives for describing the best pitcher I’ve ever seen. And the fact that he was a Met made it all the more special. Nothing was better than going to school and putting up with those ridiculous Yankees fans – always boasting about their damned rings – and silencing them all by saying these four words, “But we got Seaver.”
No Yankee pitcher could ever be put in the same class as Seaver. He was the best pitcher New York ever had.
And nothing ever hurt more than seeing that arrive in my family’s mailbox one day. The Midnight Massacre didn’t really hit home for me until I saw Seaver dressed like that. I had to flip it and lay it down on the table front-side down. 🙁
Rob Silverman wrote a fitting tribute to Tom Terrific when he became the first Met in our MMO Hall of Fame. I enjoyed reading this little snippet:
At the end of the twentieth century The Sporting News listed Seaver as the 11th best pitcher in Baseball history. ESPN took a poll of some of Tom’s contemporaries: Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton, Bert Blyleven and Don Sutton all agreed that it was Seaver who was the best of their generation. Reggie Jackson once said of Seaver, “Blind men come to the park just to listen to him pitch.” In his first year of eligibility, 1992, Tom Seaver was elected to the Hall of Fame with 99.84%, the highest ever recorded.
Before his arrival the Mets were a joke, a doormat for the National League. With the coming of #41, the Mets had taken the first step to respectability. But as much of a positive impact as his arrival had, his departure brought with it the darkest time in team history.
Read the rest of this vintage MMO article here.
If I was the MLB commissioner, I would ban all pitchers from wearing No. 41.
— Metsmerized – Joe D (@MetsmerizedJoeD) July 9, 2013
It’ll be great to see No. 41 on a mound in Flushing again, next Tuesday. Seaver will still be the biggest and brightest All Star in Citi Field on that day. Some things, never change…
