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Tom Seaver

Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.

Tom Seaver was born on Friday, November 17, 1944, in Fresno, California. He was 22 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 13, 1967 with the New York Mets. He was a right-handed batsman and he throws right-handedly. His height is 6 feet 1 inches and weight is 206 pounds. He has played his first game in 1967 at the age of 22 and the last game in 1986. He was the first true star for the Mets and led them to their miracle World Championship in 1969. In his 10 years in New York from 1967 to 1977, he won 25 percent of the Mets teams' games. As the 17th 300-game winner in Major League history, he had set a major league record by striking out 200 or more hitters in 10 seasons with nine in a row from 1968 to 1976.

In 1966, the Braves offered him 40,000 dollars, but the NCAA, National Collegiate Athletic Association and baseball commissioner William Eckert voided the offer and made Seaver, still at USC, United States Conference available to any team willing to match the Braves' offer. He had picked up where he left off the next season. On April 22, 1970, he had struck out 19 Padres teammates, including a record 10 in a row to end the game, to tie the then Major League record for a nine-inning game, set by Steve Carlton. Although he did not follow his 20-win season, he has led the league in 283 strikeouts and 2.81 ERA, Earned Run Average. He had compiled a 20-10 record and led the league for the second year in a row in with a 1.76 ERA, Earned Run Average and 289 strikeouts.

Tom Seaver was an intelligent, hard-working perfectionist and the quintessential professional player. He was a splendid defensive outfielder with a great throwing arm. He made tough plays look easy.

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