Fresno baseball great Tom Seaver, the heart of the Miracle Mets championship team, dies

MORE: Reaction to the passing of ‘Fresno’s icon’

Tom Seaver, the greatest baseball player ever to come out of Fresno, died.

Seaver, 75, passed peacefully in his sleep of complications of Lewy body dementia and COVID-19 on Monday from his home in Calistoga, according to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Seaver, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, captured three Cy Young Awards and 311 wins while registering 3,640 strikeouts with a 2.86 ERA during a career that spanned from 1967-1986.

Twelve of his seasons were spent with the New York Mets, including the 1969 Miracle Mets championship team when he went 25-7 during the regular season.

Seaver, who was born in Fresno, played baseball at Fresno High and Fresno City College before he was drafted in the first round by the Atlanta Braves out of USC in 1966. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps for two years between his time at Fresno High and Fresno City.

Seaver was then obtained by the Mets in a special draft lottery in 1966 (deal with Atlanta nixed by MLB commissioner) and earned the 1967 National League Rookie of the Year Award.

“Tom Terrific,” after making 12 All Star appearances, was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992 — named on 98.8 percent of ballots cast by members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, which was the highest voting percentage ever received at the time.

In June 2019, 126th Street in front of the Mets’ Citi Field was renamed Seaver Way. At the same time, the Mets changed the ballpark’s address to 41 Seaver Way and chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon announced future plans for a Seaver Statue to be built in an area near the Home Run Apple outside of Citi Field.

“Tom was a once-in-a-lifetime player and will always be remembered as one of the greatest players in Mets history. Tom truly lived up to his nicknames of ‘Tom Terrific’ and ‘The Franchise,’” Wilpon said.

Seaver retired from public life in March 2019 after his family revealed he had been diagnosed with dementia.

The Mets honor echoed what the city of Fresno and his alma mater did in October 2013 when they collaborated to dedicate Echo Avenue outside Fresno High School as Tom Seaver Lane. The dedication ceremony was Seaver’s last appearance in Fresno.

Seaver was a gifted athlete at Fresno High (Class of 1962) but in his own words was “a 5-9, 165-pound junkballer” as a baseball player.

But after an enlistment in the Marines, he reported to Fresno City College for the 1964 season as a 6-foot 1-inch, 190-pound power pitcher.

He went 11-1 for Fresno City and was recruited to USC where he played two years before signing with the Mets.

He was inducted into the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986, joining his father, Charles Seaver.

This story was originally published September 2, 2020 at 6:00 PM.