I think a lot about April 5, 1983 – my favorite day at a Mets game ever (the return of Tom Seaver).
The other day I started wondering about Tom’s final game as a Met. We didn’t know it was going to be his final game and were all kinda stunned when he was left unprotected and then QUITE MAD when he was grabbed by the White Sox.
So I thought I would do a post about his final game. I was hoping I would find some sort of gem – like his start on September 24th. 8 innings of 1 run ball for his 9th win. Mike Torrez tried his damndest to blow the game, giving up FIVE in the 9th but the Mets won 7-6 and Seaver got the W.
Interestingly the SP in that game for the Cubs was 20 year old Don Schulze….kids, I’ll tell you about Don Schulze and Seaver when we get to 1987….
…but for now let’s stay in 1983.
So there you have Seaver pitching a gem….but he comes back to pitch one more start on 6 Days rest.
His line? ONE inning. Three up, three down.
And that was it. 12,144 on a Saturday afternoon at Shea saw one last inning from The Franchise and then he was gone.
Did Tom know? Did Cashen let him know?
Was Tom hurt?
Why get one inning in on 6 days rest?
Did Tom want to say goodbye to us and we didn’t know?
Why Tom? Why?
I couldn’t find any game stories. The boxscore lists the weather as “unknown” but the game time is 2:21 so I doubt there was a massive rain delay, and the opposing pitcher Bill Gullickson stuck around for 6.
I went to twitter….and good ol’ @metsbooth is better at the internet than I am.
“Seaver’s final hurrah yesterday was short but antiseptic. He retired all three batters, but felt some strain in his lower back while running to cover first base on a grounder hit by Bryan Little.” – NYT 10/2/83
— Mets Booth (@MetsBooth) February 12, 2019
And there ya have it. Just like that The Franchise was gone. But he’d be back….in 1987…..almost. A story for another day.
Osh41 sent me a longer version of the article from the NYT Archives…apparently there WAS a rain delay that day…but later…and they actually postponed Game 2 of the doubleheader to the next day after a two hour rain delay. In the article, Tom looks forward to winning 300 wins…which I guess he will do for the 1985 Mets. I can’t wait!
