Tom Seaver Deserves a Statue at Shea Stadium (Citi Field)

Tom Seaver Deserves a Statue at the site of Shea Stadium in Flushing, NY, now called Citi Field. During a 20-year career, Seaver compiled 311 wins, 3,640 strikeouts, 61 shutouts and a 2.86 earned run average.

To tell you the truth, even as a NY Yankee fan,  I was disturbed when the Mets traded Tom Seaver in 1977.  The Mets sent Tom Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds for Pat Zachry, Doug Flynn, Steve Henderson and Dan Norman.

On December 16, 1982, Seaver was traded back to the Mets, for Charlie Puleo, Lloyd McClendon, and Jason Felice. On April 5, 1983, he tied Walter Johnson's major league record of 14 Opening Day starts, shutting out the Philadelphia Phillies for six innings in a 2-0 Mets win. This helped assuage the anger I felt as a young man. But not for long....

Seaver and the Mets were stunned on January 20, 1984 when he was claimed in a free-agent compensation draft by the Chicago White Sox. The team (especially GM Frank Cashen) had incorrectly assumed that no one would pursue a high-salaried, 39-year-old starting pitcher, and left him off the protected list. Faced with either reporting to the White Sox or retiring, Seaver chose the former.





I lost all respect for the Mets for a long time when they did the same foolish thing again.

I am over it now. Let's let some rich folks foot the bill and put up a statue of SEaver in one of the ugliest ball parks in the country. If you have ever been their a couple of hours before game time you will understand that this is a Gulag not a ball park. Nobody is allowed beyond the perimeter without a ticket.

The 1% folks who own the Mets, which they purchased with Bernie Madoff dollars, don't understand that people go to the ballpark for the entire experience, not just the $60 hamburgers corporations pay for and write off as a business expense.

Here is Tom Terrific in his proper uniform.