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Tom Seaver Diagnosed With Dementia; Mets Legend To Retire From Public Life
John Delcos
I cover national sports for Forbes
NEW YORK: Mike Piazza (left) and Tom Seaver during the closing of Shea Stadium in 2008. (Photo by... [+] George Napolitano/FilmMagic)
There is the great and the truly great, the one transcending time and the ages, which is Tom Seaver. For those who saw him pitch, those who love baseball in its purest form, today's news is more than sad, it is heartbreaking.
The news Seaver, the greatest Met of them all, and called ''The Franchise,'' announced through the Baseball Hall of Fame he's been diagnosed with dementia and will retire from public life is gut-wrenching.
There will be no more ceremonial first pitches, such as in 2013 when he threw one to David Wright at the All-Star Game in Citi Field and whispered to him ''that was really hard.''
The 74-year-old Seaver will not be at Citi Field this summer when the franchise honors the 1969 ''Miracle Mets'' and the word ''Amazin''' was added to our vocabulary. He will not be at Citi Field when the Mets eventually unveil a statue of one the greatest right-handers in baseball history, something that should have been done years ago.
The Mets were fortunate to call Seaver ''one of their own,'' but outside of retiring his No. 41, never really treated him right, beginning with the June 15, 1977 trade to Cincinnati for Trivia Question answers Pat Zachry, Steve Henderson, Doug Flynn and Dan Norman.
Seaver was traded back to the Mets in 1982, but the team let him get away again as a compensatory draft pick in 1984. He was claimed by the Chicago White Sox and won his 300th career game at Yankee Stadium, with much of the crowd Mets fans.
That should never have happened.
The White Sox traded him to Boston in 1986 and he was in the dugout in Shea Stadium for that year's World Series. This is not what should happen to ''The Franchise,'' who will continue his passion working with his wife Nancy at Seaver Vineyards at Diamond Mountain in the Calistoga region of California.
As is often the case in times like this, the tributes came pouring in.
Mike Piazza posted on social media: ''So sad to hear Tom Seaver has dementia. He will always be the heart and soul of the Mets, the standard which all Mets aspire to, this breaks my heart. Do not feel worthy to be mentioned in the same breath, yet honored to be with him in the Baseball Hall of Fame.''
Seaver and Piazza will always be remembered in a lasting image of walking out of Shea Stadium when it closed in 2008. Side by side they strolled toward center field, then turned and waved to the crowd whose cheers tried to pull them back when they were young and strong, as if the sheer volume could freeze them to that time.
Seaver was the Rookie of the Year in 1967, then blossomed into greatness in 1969, when he went 25-7 with a 2.21 ERA in winning the first of three Cy Young Awards to become ''Tom Terrific.''
From 1969 through 1971, Seaver was 63-29 with a 2.26 ERA with 58 complete games in 106 starts for the Mets. Seaver toiled 12 years for the Mets and was 198-124 with a 2.57 ERA. In his 20-year career, which included stops in Cincinnati, again with the Mets, the White Sox and Red Sox, he went 311-205 record with a 2.86 ERA, 231 complete games, 61 shutouts and 3,640 strikeouts.
In 2012, the 50th Anniversary of the birth of the Mets, Seaver said: ''I loved what I did for a living. It was a physical and mental art form. I am so lucky I got to do it for 20 years at a high level. In some of my quiet moments, I think about games that I had and how much I got to do what I loved to do.''
And, we were lucky to watch him.