Tom Seaver, one of the great pitchers of all time died yesterday at the age of 75 from complications of Lewy Body Dementia and COVID 19. I'm not going to bore you by delving into his vast statistical greatness, but instead share a few memories, mostly from the magical Amazin' Mets season of 1969. Seaver was in just his third MLB season and was already one of the top pitchers in the game. In 1969, he went 25-7 with a 2.21 ERA.
My first memory is of him taking a perfect game into the 9'th inning against the division leading Cubs in the heat of the pennant race. He lost the perfecto in the 9'th on a soft single to CF by Jim Qualls who collected a grand total of 31 hits in his career. Seaver went on to pitch 5 1-hitters for the Mets but did not get his first and only no-hitter until after he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds.
My second memory is an article in Sports Illustrated describing how you could tell if Seaver's mechanics were right on any given night. His drop and drive delivery dropped so far down that his right knee would touch the dirt and turn brown.
My third memory is from a book I read about the Amazin's which revealed that he had a dog named Slider.
The 1969 Mets remain one of the great baseball stories of all time and Seaver was as responsible for it as anyone, probably more than anyone. That remains my most vivid memory from a 20 year HOF career. RIP.
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