Antiquing with Tom Seaver

With MLB ground to a halt, and no trips to go to Spring Training, I spent some of my weekend going to some local antique stores. It’s a great place to find old magazines, usually LOOK, TIME, SPORT and the like. I happened to stumble across a bin of old Baseball Digests.

I have been reading Baseball Digest for 45 years or so, and while they have always been behind in analytics, they always provide insight into the game, including fact answers to reader letters, and tremendous interviews from players, as well as polling the players, which we rarely see anymore.

Flipping through the stack, I uncovered a June 1973 edition with Tom Terrific on the cover, with an article titled “The Many Faces of Tom Seaver”, so I picked that up, and a November 1974, where Seaver is interviewed about “The Game I’ll Never Forget”.  The article just after that was “Whatever Happened to The Miracle Mets?”.

The “Many Faces” article, by Howard Schneider of Long Island Newsday, really focused on Seaver as a person, and how he had changed over the years with the Mets.  Seaver was 28 and had taken quite a bit of flak for commenting on politics. He famously had said, on the eve of his Game 1 World Series start in 1969, “If the Mets can win the World Series, then we (the US) can get out of Vietnam.” Seaver, 50 years ago, was given the “Stick to sports” attitude, as though he couldn’t be informed or have opinions. Seaver was a smart ball player and had seen how his career was affected from his first foray into pro ball, with his original contract kerfuffle, then the Vietnam ado, and more. Seaver had spoken of working to improve the plight of Black families in ghettos, and a “Tom and Nancy Seaver Show”.

By 1973, Seaver had retreated to keeping his private life private. The piece mentions how Seaver viewed pitching as his job and work, and that he wouldn’t play for peanuts anymore, and how unemotional Seaver had become, so that teammates (and writers) would consider him aloof.  Seaver wraps the article saying, “Bill Russell once said the only obligation he had to the public was to make the best effort he could on the basketball court. I’ve decided he’s right.”

The reporter felt like his interview went nowhere, but I see it as a fantastic view into character development and what baseball players go through – even today. Especially today with the MLB lockout.

The November 1974 article about the game Seaver would never forget was interesting because the interview falls right in line with the 1973 piece.  In 1974, there were just a few games to guess which would be his favorite. Was it a Game 1 World Series start? What about the 10-inning complete game in Game 4 of the 1969 Series, putting the Mets on the brink of the Championship? At the end of his career, it may have been his no-hitter with Cincinnati. The game Seaver talks about is, of course, Jimmy Qualls breaking up his perfect game.

Seaver said some interesting things about the game. He noted he knew he was in a pennant chase finally, and they were trailing the Cubs, as the Cubs came to town. He describes how Ron Santo had made some comments in the paper about how the Mets had a bunch of nobodies in their lineup. Seaver thought that was actually a normal assessment, but Santo was ignoring how good the Mets pitching was. He also mentioned that the Mets had rallied for three runs in the 9^th the previous game, beating Fergie Jenkins, and both Santo and Cub manager Leo Durocher pointing fingers at Cub centerfielder Don Young.

Don Young was a 23-year old playing substantially for the first time in his career. He was not particularly good. At the start of July, Durocher had begun platooning Qualls and Young. Qualls was just 22, and had no playing time either, so Seaver notes there was no book on him, and the closest anyone could offer, Mets utility infielder Bobby Pfeil had seen him in the minors and said “throw him hard stuff.” I imagine that was Seaver’s plan, given he had the best fastball in the league. That’s how Jimmy Qualls ended up in the lineup in the first place.

We all know the story, but Seaver gives us a little more. He talks about the crowd – 60,000 fans (there were 50,000).  His dad had come in town for the game. He felt like he was throwing harder than ever. Before Qualls got his hit, Seaver said Qualls had hit a ball to the warningtrack and a sharp grounder to first – Qualls wasn’t being fooled by Seaver. He says Randy Hundley tried to reach on a bunt in the ninth. Yes, a bunt to break up a perfect game, trailing 4-0. Talk about your lack of baseball etiquette.  Seaver doesn’t seem phased by it.

Lastly, after the game, as he walks to the locker room, his wife Nancy was there, crying. Seaver asks “What are you crying for? We won 4-0.”  He was happy to be pitching in a pennant race and throwing a one-hitter. Again, this is before he threw his no-hitter, but he said no regrets to coming that close.

The Miracle Mets piece was from a Cincinnati writer. It was particularly eye-opening considering the current MLB state. The article noted sixteen of the 1969 Mets were no longer with the team just five years later. Today, that is not unusual, as there is free agency, and that had not started in 1974. Of the 16 no longer with the Mets, and again the reserve clause was in effect, only two were even still on rosters. Jerry Koosman was the only Met interviewed for this article, and the question was asked about Tommie Agee – Agee had washed out of baseball at the age of 30 and was making $80-85,000 at the time. Agee was said to be running a bar in New York.

Was making so much money part of why Agee couldn’t catch on with another team?

Koosman said it sure did, and while he tried to make as much money as he could playing baseball, he could see himself going to the front office and renegotiating his contract downward so the owners could afford to keep him on the team. He said someday his performance wouldn’t command the same salary and he’d be smart to renegotiate. He said he knew relief pitchers who wouldn’t take a raise so they don’t price themselves out of baseball.

Yikes.

The moral of the story is pick up an old Baseball Digest – the news of the day 50 years ago will shock you.