Tom Terrific: The Life and Times of Tom Seaver

Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver died this week. In an October, 2019 profile written by SI's Tom Verducci, just what Seaver meant to his teammates and to New York is well told.

There are Hall of Famers.

And then there are Hall of Famers who stand head and shoulders above the average Cooperstown resident.

You can put Tom Seaver in the latter.

Seaver, a New York icon by the fluke of a rare Major League Baseball lottery and a Northern Californian by the fact that Napa is where the best wine grapes grow, died at 75 this week.

He’d been suffering from dementia for the last few years, and a battle with the COVID-19 coronavirus picked up where dementia left off.

He’d been the 1967 National League Rookie of the Year and a three-time Cy Young Award winner. And he was the face of the New York Mets for a decade, most notably in 1969 when the previously hapless New York Mets won the World Series, cementing that team, and that pitcher, as legends.

About 11 months ago, Sports Illustrated writer Tom Verducci wrote about Seaver in one of the last days when dementia wasn’t ravaging him.

It’s here. And it’s well worth a read.

Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3

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