June 15, 1977 – Tom Terrific traded
- Sal Maiorana
- Jun 15, 2017
- 2 min read
NEW YORK – At the time, Tom Seaver was the greatest New York Met in the history of what, in 1977, was a still relatively infantile 16-year-old franchise. But it is now 40 years later, and the Hall of Famer has not relinquished that title.
That’s how important the superstar right-hander was to the development of the Mets, and how beloved he was, and is, by Mets fans, forever remembered as the man who guided the Amazing Mets of 1969 to perhaps the most improbable World Series championship in the history of baseball.
So, as rain fell in New York City on a mid-June Wednesday night, postponing the Yankees game against the Royals, the Mets made monumental news at the Major League Baseball trade deadline by sending Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange outfielders Steve Henderson and Dan Norman, infielder Doug Flynn, and pitcher Pat Zachry. Long-time Mets fans still haven’t forgiven the franchise for this.
In a separate trade, the Mets also got rid of slugging outfielder/first baseman Dave Kingman, sending him to the Padres in exchange for infielder Bobby Valentine and pitcher Paul Siebert.
So ended a remarkably bitter and public feud between Seaver and the Mets chairman, M. Donald Grant, that had lingered for months. All along, Seaver had maintained that he would play out the terms of his contract which extended through 1978, but that he wanted discussions to begin on a new deal that would be at least three years in length, through 1981.
The Mets, for some reason, did not want to do that, and an impasse developed. Trade rumors swirled for weeks, often dominating the headlines, and as June 15 approached, tensions were high.
At the very end, Seaver considered vetoing the deal given the power he held as a veteran player, but he changed his mind on the morning of deadline day and said he wanted out, and the Mets pulled the trigger.
At the time, Seaver was the Mets’ all-time leader in victories. He still is, with 198, nine of those coming in 1983 when he was traded back to the Mets by the Reds and played one more year in New York. Doc Gooden is a distant second at 157, and the only other Met with more than 100 wins is Jerry Koosman (140).
Tom Seaver's farewell press conference in New York:
Seaver, who finished his 20-year career in 1986 on the Red Sox team that lost to the Mets in the World Series, won 311 games with a spectacular 2.86 ERA and 1.121 WHIP. In Mets annals, he is the all-time leader in career WAR (76.1), ERA (2.57), WHIP (1.076), innings pitched (3,045.2), strikeouts (2,541), complete games (171), and shutouts (44). It seems unlikely that any of those marks will ever be broken.
Until 2016 when Ken Griffey Jr. received 99.32 percent of the vote, Seaver held the record for highest percentage of Hall of Fame votes at 98.84 when he was elected in 1992. Babe Ruth received 95.13 percent in 1936, the first year of balloting.
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