N.Y. Mets: The Franchise Retires From Public Life

From the desk of:  HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

NYT: Ailing Tom Seaver Retires From Public Life 

New York Mets: The Franchise Diagnosed With Advanced Dementia.

Tom Seaver and family broke the news in a statement issued through the Hall of Fame on Thursday.  As a result of his condition, the man dubbed "The Franchise" will be retiring from public life.  His family says Tom will continue working from their California home and 116-acre vineyard.

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I was born into this world a Mets fan.  However, my Pop was a Mickey Mantle cheering Yankees fan.
But he created equal time for following both teams.  Good thing, too.  I don't know if I would ever had attended a game at the House That Ruth (originally) Built otherwise.  While my memories of the 1973 season are somewhat spotty, from 1974 on they're crystal clear.  With old Yankee Stadium undergoing major renovations during 1974 and 1975, the Mets were forced into sharing Shea Stadium with their Bronx neighbors.  As a result, Pop and I quite literally spent two entire summers driving back and forth between Brooklyn and Queens.  Despite being a Yankees fan, he loved watching Seaver pitch, and so we hardly ever missed a start.  In 1975, we watched Tom Terrific dismantle National League hitters en route to his third Cy Young award.

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Once upon another time, as a birthday present my wife thought to gift me a brick at Citi Field.  When asked about an inscription, I responded sarcastically, "1977 Still Hurts!"  But in the same breath I said that I'd think it over and get back to her.  As luck would have it, she only heard half of my reply and mailed in the form.  Thus, my brick at Citi Field located slightly left of the main rotunda entrance says exactly that.  The night of June 15, 1977 is infamously known around these parts as the Midnight Massacre.  That's when the Mets regrettably gave traded Tom Seaver away to the Cincinnati Reds.  At the time, this 11-year old watched with complete and utter devastation as sportscaster Gerry Girard delivered the news report on WPIX-TV.  All these years later, the trade still irks my soul.  He threw his one an only career no-hitter wearing a Reds uniform, and won his 300th career game at Yankee Stadium no less, wearing a White Sox uniform.  That being said, I have no regrets over owning what is sure to be the only negatively speaking brick laid into the welcoming concourse at Citi Field.

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Clamoring for a statue is suddenly all the rage.  The sentiment is correct, although the timing is off.  Older fans like myself, those of us whom actually witnessed his greatness on the mound, have been demanding a statue for at least twenty years.  Tom Seaver was elected into baseball's Hall of Fame in 1992, and the emotional grievance was filed shortly thereafter.  While criticizing the Wilpons has become of pastime of sorts, Nelson Doubleday deserves his share of blame as well.  For he remained on as partner for another ten years beyond Seaver's enshrinement into Cooperstown.  However, the responsibility of commissioning such recognition while he's still with us presently rests solely in the hands of the Wilpons.  The upcoming 50th anniversary celebration of the 1969 Miracle Mets is obviously the foremost appropriate time to reconcile this long standing, and to some extent, unforgivable oversight.