Kids,
You may have noticed that I mention the Seaver Trade about every 4 days. Think about that, and it’s not just me being an old codger. The trade shows up on the internet almost every day.
Today there’s a great article in the WSJ that tells the tale from Doug Flynn’s vantage point and provides a side I haven’t heard before.
The authour Jeff Pealrman also makes a good point…
Though Worst Trade lists almost always include Seaver-to-the-Reds, the results—from the Mets’ end—weren’t that awful. Flynn started for 4½ years in New York, winning a Gold Glove in 1980. Zachry was a rotation mainstay for 5½ seasons, going 41-46 for some dreadful teams. Henderson batted .290 or better in three of his four seasons with the Mets and Norman, well, Norman never panned out.
via Tom Seaver’s Export to the Reds Still Haunts the Mets – WSJ.com.
..and people who know me in real life know I like to bait that with them about the proposed Reyes trade.
Were Sandy to deal Reyes and get back a young starting LHP who had won 15 games, a gold glove starting 2B, a starting OFer and a prospect you’d have to say he did really well. Take a look at the indented paragraph…
I wish Seaver never had to leave…but he did and the trade was terrible…we should have gotten much more.
That being said, as I mentioned a few weeks back, longer term, the trade probably turned out a best as could be expected. The team hit rock bottom, was sold and won a championship 9 years later. Seaver came back 6 years later on top of that. If the Mets had never traded Seaver, would they have won more than one world series in the next 9 years? It might have delayed the re-building and they may not have won any.