Mets Player Retrospective - Tom Seaver 1969

I like to call this "The Year." The Mets won 100 games and the World Series in their first ever winning season. They wouldn't win it all again for seventeen more years, but as anyone can testify, having those one year wonder teams is almost as good as a dynasty. A championship is a championship.

This was also "the year" for Terrific Tom Seaver. He won the first of three Cy Young Awards, finished second in the MVP voting next to only Willie McCovey (and that was by a mere 22 points), and won 25 games. His 6.65 hits/9 innings was tops in the league and he struck out 208 batters in 273 1/3 innings.

To narrow Seaver's best starts down to a couple is pretty tough. On July 9, 1969 Seaver threw a one hitter. He struck out eleven and walked none. His no-hitter was broken up with one out in the ninth inning. He also had two different three hitters and on June 8, 1969 he struck out fourteen batters in seven innings.

Tom Seaver pitched in the first ever National League Championship game. His victory in game one began what would eventually be a sweep of the Atlanta Braves. While he didn't have his best stuff (five runs and eight hits through seven innings), it was good enough for the Mets to walk away with a win.

Tom Seaver lost game one of the World Series. While the Mets only gave him one run to work with, he went only five innings. He gave up four runs on six hits, and the Mets walked away down 1-0. He redeemed himself in game four with a ten inning, six hit performance. He gave up a single run in the ninth, but he pitched himself out of a tenth inning jam that allowed the Mets to win it in the tenth. The win gave the Mets a 3-1 lead, and they wrapped up their first championship the following day.

Here are Tom Seaver's 1969 Season Stats:

Wins 25
Losses 7
Games 36
Games Started 35
Complete Games 18
Innings Pitched 273 1/3
Hits 202
Runs 75
Earned Runs 67
Walks 82
Strikeouts 208
ERA 2.21
Runs Saved Above Average 40
Shutouts 5
H/9 6.65
BR/9 9.58
SO/9 6.85
BB/9 2.70
SO/BB 2.54
Neutral Wins 22
Neutral Losses 10