OT: RIP Tom Seaver
- Thread starter Zak57
- Start date
I used to try to emulate his leg drive when I pitched.
I also used to love listening to him and Ralph Kiner talk during Mets broadcasts.
I also used to love listening to him and Ralph Kiner talk during Mets broadcasts.
I was at a function many years ago and Ed Kranepool told us that many Mets suggested to Yogi to pitch George Stone in game 6 and go with Seaver with full rest for Game 7.
I inquired with Zappa on this and he was not aware.
Regardless, Mets blew the series with Millan error in Game 1; blew Game 3 in extra innings and couldn't score in Games 6 and 7 -plus Rusty was ailing big time.
It was a miracle that this limited Mets team made it to Game 7 of the WS let alone beating the Red Machine in the 73 NLCS.
RIP Tom...the 2 sports moves that broke my heart were 1) Tom Terrific traded to the Reds and 2) Ed Giacomin put on waivers and taken by Detroit. After hearing fans chanting Eddie Eddie, as a Red Wing, in the Garden, I became an Islander fan. I guess my allegiance in sports softened after Giacomin since I remained a Mets fan.
I still have all my baseball cards that I bought as a kid organized in books. Looking through them now the first card in the first book is Tom Seaver a 1971 card. The first card on the second page is pitching leaders from 1970 with Bob Gibson, Gaylord Perry, and Fergie Jenkins on it. Just going through the first book I have other cards of both of them. Two more books to go.
I was very aware and I know the reason why my dad didn’t start George Stone.
By the way, had Stone got the start in game 6 and lost, you would of had Seaver on full rest with Matlack in the bullpen for game 7.
IMO...stone won the pennant for us in September
I actually remember watching that game where he just missed perfection
My cousin and I were just texting pics of our old Tom Seaver cards I still have all my old Mets cards from 69-77
Man, when Eddie was waived...that hurt......I remember Giacomin coming back to MSG several days later and Eddie crying / wailing as the Ranger faithful was chanting his name the entire game and during the Anthem etc....
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I didn't read "Covid" but I did read Lyme. That can scramble your brain like an egg
"Seaver was diagnosed with the illness in 1991 and his neurological Lyme disease slowly snowballed into dementia leading him to retire from public life completely last year"
Yes. Very awkward. Looking back, probably a bad choice by the producer to ask for that. Should have just cut to what Tom was saying from the anchors.
I read reports tonight that he had Lewy Body Dementia, not Alzheimer’s, and Covid. Also, it had been reported for years that he suffered Lyme Disease likely contracted while working on his vineyard.
Tom Seaver was just a great, great pitcher.
It was the HOF that stated COVID was a factor. Since it was also the HOF, in conjunction with the family, that announced his death I assume it got that information from his widow, Nancy.
RIP #41. Thanks for all the great childhood memories. From the annual battles with Gibson, Jenkins and Carlton to the magic of 1969.
Tom had incredible respect for his body - he claimed that he would pet dogs with his left hand during his playing days so as to not risk injuring his pitching hand. And he was a cerebral pitcher. Sad that it was his brain that betrayed him.
(COOPERSTOWN, NY) – Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver passed away in the early hours of Monday, August 31. He was 75. Seaver passed peacefully in his sleep of complications of Lewy body dementia and COVID-19.
Yep...I was about 10 at the time. I still get choked up thinking about that game when he came back to the Garden. It became my 1st realization that Professional Sports was a business and there was no real allegiance. At the time, I could understand people moving around teams on the periphery...but it just seemed wrong when someone like Eddie wasn't going to be a lifelong Ranger.
Two more things I have thought of,Joan Payson probably was the best owner this owner failure franchise has ever had, and to me, Nancy Seaver was our Jackie Kennedy.. The camera always found her on Tom's pitching days, and she was always so elegantly dressed, a true NYC icon,IMHO.
Another of my childhood heroes gone. This year it's been two of my biggest in Wes Unseld and now Tom Terrific. My most enduring memories of all of the times I watched him pitch with the Mets was how much of a horse he was. How many times in the 8th or 9th inning that I heard Bob Murphy say oh he reached back for a little something extra on that one after Tom got a big strikeout. Back in the days when complete games were not a rarity. With that leg drive he was the epitome of a power pitcher but he was also a master at spotting the fastball or slider right on the black at the knees.
Lewy body dementia sounds like a rough way to go. I was recently reading an article about Robin Williams and it turns out that is what he had and he decided to take his own life rather than endure it.
Zappa, did you ever see a pitcher use his legs & lower torso the way Seaver did, to the extent that his back knee often touched the mound. I can't remember ever seeing one who did like that.
Robin didn’t know he had it. It was discovered after he was gone. It had to make it so much worse for him because he and his family didn’t have an explanation for what was going on his head.
My all time favorite Met and boyhood hero. Funny but the first image that comes to mind is Tom sitting in the Kiners Korner studio with a big ice pack on his right shoulder. Back in the mid 70's the Mets were truly horrible and other than Seaver, Matlack, and Koosman there wasn't much to cheer about. Whenever Tom pitched it was a special game. Seemed like he had to earn every win by himself since the score was normally something like 3-2. Makes his W-L record all the more impressive. Still can't believe he was ever traded. R.I.P. #41
Nolan Ryan.
Both guys had legs that were grotesquely muscular, you had to see them for yourself to believe it.
I haven't bought a newspaper in years. But this morning on my walk to my office, stopped at the local store here and picked up both a Daily News and a New York Post, since they had Tom Terrific on both the front and back covers. Looking forward to reading them.
Yeah I know Seaver had those big legs. Did Ryan use his to push off & drive to the degree that Seaver did?
Rube Walker was the Mets pitching coach when they had those great staffs. I would think he had a part in developing that lower body technique used by Seaver and Ryan. Zap could probably add insight to that.
He sure was robbed in '81: Seaver 14-2, 2.54 ERA.You was robbed of a Cy Young in the strike year Tom.. but RIP anyway.
what form!
Fernando Valenzuela 13-7, 2.48 ERA
RIP Tom Terrific.
My two all time favorite pitchers were Nolan Ryan and Seaver. As a kid in the 70s I learned to pitch with my legs, and emulated Seaver including hitting my right knee on the ground often. Unfortunately I wasn't blessed with 90 mph+ arm, but I also never had an arm issue until I was 31 playing in the New Brunswick Mens league.
Coaching kids for the last 10 years, I always tried to get them to use their big muscles of their legs, but too many don't.
Coaching kids for the last 10 years, I always tried to get them to use their big muscles of their legs, but too many don't.
19
as a kid i hated that he threw his no hitter with the reds when he came so close a bunch of times w/ the Mets
as a kid i hated that he threw his no hitter with the reds when he came so close a bunch of times w/ the Mets
2 of my best friends from H.S. are Mets fans--it's always been so great to needle them with it... but I'll temporarily hold-off for a while out of respect...again, temporarily
It also didn’t hurt that he threw absolute gas that rode up on you and a nasty, nasty slider.
WhiteBus - not to quibble here, but Tom Terrific actually died more from a combination of COVID-19 and dementia that was brought on by his Lyme Disease infection, as versus true Alzheimer's Disease.
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