At the present moment, the New York Mets don’t feature statues to honor any of the franchise’s great players. One person who’s upset with that is Nancy Seaver, wife of Mets’ legend Tom Seaver. She feels that Citi Field should have a statue that honors her husband, as well as the team’s other legends.
“I’m embarrassed for (the Mets). I really am,” Nancy said, per Eric Barrow and Larry McShane, New York Daily News. “They should have a statue for all those numbers they have retired on their wall — Seaver, Gil Hodges, Mike Piazza.”
Mrs. Seaver has a point. From a baseball standpoint, one would be hard pressed to find a player more worthy of a statue. Seaver’s numbers with the Mets were phenomenal. Over 12 seasons with the franchise, he posted a 198-124 record, 2.57 ERA, 1.076 WHIP, and 2,541 strikeouts. Seaver won the National League Rookie of the Year Award for New York in 1967 and earned National League Cy Young Award honors in 1969, 1973, and 1975.
Seaver was also the team’s best player at an important time in Mets history. From 1962-1968, New York was never better than ninth place in the National League. The Mets also lost fewer than 100 games on only two occasions in that time. In 1969, they became the Miracle Mets, won 100 games and the World Series. In 1973, they were back in the Fall Classic, losing a seven-game heart breaker to the Oakland A’s. Seaver’s arrival was really a turning point.
Because of all of that, the first sentence in Seaver’s own Hall of Fame bio says that “Perhaps no single player is identified more with one team than ‘The Franchise’ Tom Seaver is with the New York Mets.” That’s certainly worthy of a statue.
Statues are a great way to honor your team’s past. Owner Fred Wilpon has admitted that Citi Field pays too much homage to the old Brooklyn Dodgers and not enough to the Mets. Statues honoring some of this team’s greats would go a long way in rectifying that. It would be a golden opportunity to remind the older fans of their youths while informing the younger fans of just what came before them.
Additionally, statues are convenient. Even in an age when essentially everyone has a cell phone, they don’t often work that well at stadiums. A group of people going to a Mets’ game may need a place to meet. Being able to say something like “Let’s meet by the Seaver statue at 6:30” would be pretty awesome.
To call the lack of a statue an embarrassment may be a little harsh. Still, New York has a great past. Given that they play in a relatively new stadium that’s not going anywhere any time soon, it’s time to honor that past with statues, starting with Tom Seaver.