Remember yesterday when Steve D brought up this Seaver jersey that Tom never wore in a game (because the design changed)…well, some interesting things popped up in the comments section.
Stephen checked in:
Hello Officer,
I was the co-owner and editor of New York Sports when we launched that first issue in April 1983. We did a cover photo shoot with Seaver at Shea that January or February before the team went to spring training. A couple of side stories: The only reason we got Tom Terrific to smile the way he did was by his asking Jay Horwitz to stand next to the camera lens so Seaver could look at him and, as Tom said, “laugh his ass off.”
Also, in that issue we have a profile of Neil Allen in which he blasted Mets management and many players during a interview at his home while he was downing many beers. The fallout from that story is what spurred Frank Cashen to try to trade Allen and he found a taker in the Cardinals who were looking to unload Keith Hernandez. So I take at least a little credit for getting Hernandez to the Mets.
and Joe D. from Mets Merized Online tacked on…
The former owner and senior editior of New York Sports magazine is Stephen Hanks who is now the senior staff writer at Mets Merized Online and co-host of our upcoming Metsmerized Radio.
Here is an article from him that explains the backstory written in 2009.
http://metsmerizedonline.com/2009/12/a-winters-tale-the-keith-hernandez-trade-and-me.html
Ironically, he has a new Seaver post coming up this week from the Veterans Luncheon at Citi Field complete with pictures.
And I suggest the next thing you do is go read the Neil Allen stuff in that link. Wow it’s amazin’ and made me chuckle with this one from Neil, “Stearns may not be able to throw the whole year and that leaves Ron Hodges at catcher, a guy people think died because they confuse him with Gil Hodges”
As a kid, yep we would confuse Gil and Ron. I know that seems absurd now. Hilarious.
And this right here is why I love doing the blog…random old Seaver photo, an answer, some memories. I love when you guys have suggested topics and when you help with answers.
Most of all I like the randomness…sure I’ll have runs of uniforms or Seaver or Mazzilli but for the most part it’s a fun mix. Thanks for reading, and always open to ideas and guest posts at shannon@metspolice.com