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New York Mets: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore

By Chris Timoney

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 15: (NEW YORK DAILIES OUT) Former New York Met and baseball Hall of Famer Mike Piazza attends the Tom Seaver statue unveiling ceremony before a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Citi Field on April 15, 2022 in New York City. All players are wearing #42 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day. The Mets defeated the Diamondbacks 10-3. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 15: (NEW YORK DAILIES OUT) Former New York Met and baseball Hall of Famer Mike Piazza attends the Tom Seaver statue unveiling ceremony before a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Citi Field on April 15, 2022 in New York City. All players are wearing #42 in honor of Jackie Robinson Day. The Mets defeated the Diamondbacks 10-3. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /
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QUEENS, NY – 1983: Pitcher Tom Seaver #41 of the New York Mets pitches at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York in 1983. (Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB Photos)
QUEENS, NY – 1983: Pitcher Tom Seaver #41 of the New York Mets pitches at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York in 1983. (Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB Photos) /

Tom Seaver, Pitcher 1967-77, 1983

Easily the most iconic pitcher in New York Mets history, Tom Seaver was a star in Queens from jump street. Although the Mets were still, well the Mets, a not-nearly-ready-for-primetime expansion team, Seaver’s rookie season of 1967 certainly put the “other New York team” on the baseball map. His 16-13 record in ’67 was accompanied by a 2.76 ERA and included 18 complete games. 18! Only future Hall-of-Famer Fergie Jenkins threw more complete games (20) that season. Over the past 10 seasons, the most complete games pitched in a season has been six. Seaver’s impressive rookie campaign earned him National League Rookie of the Year honors, the first of 12 All-Star selections and tied him with future Hall-of-Famers Jim Bunning and Bob Gibson for 22nd in NL MVP voting.

Fast-forward two All-Star appearances later and Tom Seaver leads the Mets to their first World Series title. In the magical ’69 season of the Amazin’ Mets championship run, Seaver led the majors in wins with 25 and the NL in hits per nine innings (6.7). Seaver did not win World Series MVP in ’69, but did rack up his first of three Cy Young Awards, all with the Mets, and finished second to Willie McCovey for the NL MVP. Seaver and the Mets returned to the World Series in 1973, eventually losing to the Oakland A’s in seven games. For Seaver’s part, he went 0-1 in two starts giving up four earned runs in 15.0 innings pitched and 18 Ks. “The Franchise,” as Seaver was known as to Mets fans, picked up his second Cy Young award in ’73 and led the entire league in ERA (2.08) and WHIP (0.976) and had another season of 18 complete games. Seaver had the best WAR on the team in eight of his first 10 seasons with the Mets. Miraculously, Seaver was traded to the Big Red Machine in Cincinnati during the ’77 season, a move that began a six-and-a-half-year nosedive for the Mets franchise.

Not only was Seaver a great Met, but during his tenure he was also the toast of the town in New York. Until the final season-and-a-half of his historic run with the Mets, the Yankees were in a bit of a rut between the Mantle World Series years of the late ’50s/early ’60s and the pennant runs of the late 1970s. For many of those years, Seaver was baseball. Many Mets fans of those days were left-behind Brooklyn Dodgers fans who needed a hometown team to root for and couldn’t bring themselves to root for the Yankees. Lines were drawn and never crossed. The Mets were a lifeline for sports fans in New York and Tom Seaver provided the first dose of strong blood and turned a joke into a championship ball club.

Seaver came back to the Mets in 1983 after a five-and-a-half season stint with the Reds. He was 38 years old, five seasons removed from pitching double-digit complete games and coming off the worst season of his career in ’82. In ’83, Seaver toughed it out to a 9-14 record and a respectable 3.55 ERA.

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