There's never a wrong day to consider Tom Seaver's career, but every Hall of Fame induction day in particular, I like to think about our only authenticated Mets Hall of Famer. Seeing as how his pitching speaks so well for itself, I thought it would be appropriate to choose five lines from five starts from around this time of year during his prime and, well, marvel at their consistency and almost uniform dominance.
July 27, 1970
Mets 5 Giants 3 @ Shea
Tom Seaver, age 25, pitches 9 innings.
Gives up 3 earned runs.
Allows 6 hits.
Walks 3.
Strikes out 6.
Seaver walks and scores what proves to be the winning run in the 5th on a Ken Singleton base hit.
Gaylord Perry takes the loss.
July 27, 1971
Mets 3 Cardinals 2 @ Shea
Tom Seaver, age 26, pitches 8 innings.
Gives up 2 earned runs.
Allows 6 hits.
Walks 1.
Strikes out 7.
Leaves for a pinch-hitter in the 8th, trailing 2-1.
Mets score 2 in the 9th to win.
Danny Frisella gets the decision.
July 28, 1972
Pirates 3 Mets 1 @ Three Rivers
Tom Seaver, age 27, pitches 7 innings.
Gives up 2 earned runs.
Allows 4 hits.
Walks 4.
Strikes out 8.
Dock Ellis pitches a complete game.
Time of Game: 2 hours 5 minutes.
July 27, 1973
Mets 2 Cardinals 1 @ Busch
Tom Seaver, age 28, pitches 9 innings.
Gives up 1 earned run.
Allows 9 hits.
Walks 2.
Strikes out 8.
Only Cardinal run scores in the 1st on a double play.
Seaver lowers ERA to 1.96.
July 26, 1974
Mets 3 Cardinals 0 @ Busch
Tom Seaver, age 29, pitches 9 innings.
Pitches a shutout.
Allows 4 hits.
Walks 1.
Strikes out 5.
Losing pitcher Lynn McGlothlen allows 12 hits but pitches 8 innings.
1974 is by far the worst of Tom Seaver's 10 full pre-Massacre seasons as a Met and he still throws 5 shutouts, completes 12 games and strikes out 201 batters.
In these five essentially random starts, the Mets scored 14 runs for their ace. Seaver's ERA was 1.71 across 42 innings facing the likes of Bobby Bonds, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Lou Brock, Joe Torre, Ted Simmons, Willie Stargell and Manny Sanguillen. He went 3-1 with one no decision.
None of these starts was a record-breaker. I don't particularly remember any of them and I've never read anything noteworthy about them. But in this era when we practically genuflect if a pitcher goes at least six innings and gives up no more than three earned runs (and faint if he goes beyond seven), it's worth remembering that Tom Seaver exceeded such parameters as a matter of course. For a decade. For us.
I sometimes can't believe we ever call any other Met pitcher great.
With due respect to any pitchers currently on the cusp of milestones, I know we should never call any other Tom terrific.
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