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Tribute to My Idol: Remembering Tom Seaver’s Greatest Game
The Hall of Fame pitcher and iconic New York Mets Baseball hero — who died last week at age 75 — won more than 300 games in his storied career. To a devoted Seaver fan who was there, this game Tom Terrific pitched 50 years ago is the most legendary.
[Author’s Note: This is an update of a piece originally written in April 2010 for the website Metsmerized Online.]
When on Wednesday evening September 2, I learned that my ultimate sports idol Tom Seaver had died two days before at the age of 75 (from a combination of Lewy body dementia and COVID-19), I was not only stunned and profoundly saddened by the news, but at a loss to figure out how I could express my thoughts in eulogy-like prose. So, I decided not to try. After shedding a few tears during the glowing tributes on the TV sports shows, I began making a mental list of all the iconic games I was fortunate enough to see Tom Seaver pitch in person. As a die-hard New York Mets fan since the second year of their existence in 1963 when I was eight, I made it my business to be at Shea Stadium whenever the Mets’ first superstar was on the mound after he joined the team in 1967.
