I thought I’d get in front of what’s sure to be a little run of Seaver Anniversary posts on the internet.
June 15th 1977, the most infamous day in Mets history. You don’t even need the year (although it ignores the significant 1983 acquisition of Keith Hernandez.)
I’ll leave others to recap the facts (especially our younger bloggers and newspaper guys who didn’t live through it) and they can even google the names of those who were acquired (names that are etched in the brains of any Mets fan 45 years or older).
As I remind younger fans when they complain about a “bad” Mets team that has guys like Duda, Walker, Granderson, Bruce, Cespedes and the Greatest Pitching Staff Ever, I am not afraid. I survived 1977!!
Even at the young age of 7, I knew about Tom Seaver. I had met him. I had been to games with my dad. I lived in Queens. You lived in Queens, you knew who Tom Seaver was.
Then he was traded. And so was Kingman. This is 1977 and I’m a kid, so I find this out from my parent’s newspaper. I wasn’t keeping up on Dick Young columns at that age, so this took me by surprise. Seaver is gone? And Kingman?
Even at that young age it was DEVASTATING.
And the Mets headed into the wilderness. We had hope for the new guys but the soul of the team was gone. Hell, his nickname was THE FRANCHISE. How could he be gone?
And we’d still follow Tom, always, when he was in Cincy. He somehow still seemed like ours, as if he was on loan. He’d be back some day.
And the Mets sucked, and the Reds were good, and the Yankees had a new park that suddenly made 13 year old Shea Stadium seem like it was built in 1924 (remember that guys? Shea felt OLD – it was 13!!!!!).
The other kids at school had Reggie. We had…..Steve Henderson I guess.
Seaver would throw a no-hitter for the Reds to annoy us. The Mets would get worse. And worse. And worse.
Eventually some cool new owners WILPON and Doubleday showed up and it seemed like it might get better. It didn’t.
Then somehow someway Tom came home. I was there when he took the mound on April 5, 1983, and his long slow walk in from the bullpen down the right field stands is forever etched in my brain, and is my favorite moment ever in Queens.
The Franchise was back. Everything was OK again. Even the Mets couldn’t screw that up.
So the next time you feel bad about a modern age bad season, trust me, YOU HAVE NO IDEA how bad this team can make you feel. Enjoy what you have kids.
