Quote today is from Sparky Anderson and his idea of managing a baseball game:
“My idea of managing is giving the ball to Tom Seaver and sitting down and watching him work.” Sparky Anderson.
Seaver was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1992, being named on 425 of the possible 430 ballots at the time. Seaver’s best years came as a Met, but he had some exceptional seasons with the Reds, too.
He was 14-3 with the Reds in his first half season with them, having come to the Reds by trade in June of 1977 (he finished the year 21-6 overall with seven shutouts after going 7-3 for the Mets through June 15 of that year). Seaver also went 14-2 in the 1981 strike shortened season. It was the closest any Red ever came to winning a Cy Young award, as he finished three points behind Dodger rookie Fernando Valenzuela and Valenzuela’s eight shut outs. For the year Valenzuela was 13-7 with a 2.48 ERA while Seaver was 14-2 with a 2.54 ERA.
Let us not forget that Seaver’s only major league no-hitter came while with the Reds on June 16, 1978, when he no-hit the Cardinals.