Baseball Way Back: Seaver's Chicago connections

In the minds of most baseball fans, Tom Seaver will always be considered a New York Met.

But he also occupies a special niche in Chicago baseball history on both the North Side and the South Side - and for very different reasons.

If you were a Cubs fan, he was a nemesis, because he and his fellow Mets ruined a season of destiny.

If you were a Sox fan, you probably held a different view. After all, your nose had been rubbed in the Cubs' success nearly that entire summer of '69, while you were stuck watching Al Lopez's and Don Gutteridge's hapless troops playing before an empty home ballpark, except, that is, for the 11 home games they played in Milwaukee.

And if you were inclined to gloat, you might mention that three of the Mets' heroes, Al Weis, J.C. Martin and Tommie Agee, were ex-Sox players.

Later, Sox fans had a chance to savor the twilight of Seaver's career. By that time, his talent was a mellow vintage, and it was a treat to watch him work with a battery mate who was also another World Series legend, Carlton Fisk.

Seaver was at the center of some historic moments in Chicago baseball.

In that fateful year of 1969, on July 9 at Shea Stadium, Seaver nursed a perfect game into the ninth.

With the Cubs down 4-0, he was within two outs of perfection, when rookie Jimmy Qualls stepped up to the plate and hit a single to left center field.

Qualls turned out to be the only Cubs baserunner, as Seaver retired the remaining hitters, pinch hitter Willie Smith on a pop foul to third and Don Kessinger on a fly out to left.

Qualls also figured in an off-the-field drama that day, when he replaced the ill-fated Don Young in center field.

In fact, that very day, teammate Ron Santo apologized to Young for his remarks after the bespectacled outfielder misplayed two fly balls in the ninth inning of the previous game, which the Cubs lost 4-3 to the Mets.

When Seaver joined the Sox in 1984, just missing a reunion with his former Mets teammate Jerry Koosman, who was traded to the Phillies to complete the deal for Ron Reed, he was part of two historic games. The first was the longest game in major league history, played on May 8 and 9, 1984 - the game was suspended after 17 innings and resumed the following day.

After 25 innings and eight hours and six minutes, the Sox emerged with a 7-6 victory over Milwaukee on a walk-off homer by Harold Baines.

The winner was Seaver, who was brought in to relieve Floyd Bannister in the top of the 25th on May 9. That same day, Seaver toed the rubber as the starter of the next game and, once again, was the winner, pitching two outs short of nine innings as the Sox edged the Brewers 5-4.

The most memorable of Seaver's Sox moments, of course, was his 300th career victory on Aug. 4, 1985. Who can forget the final call by Hawk Harrelson, as Sox outfielder Reid Nichols camped under the fly ball for the catch that made "history?"

Seaver would only earn 11 more career victories. In 1986, Harrelson, at that point general manager, traded Seaver to the Red Sox for Steve Lyons, who would create a memorable moment of his own, when he absent-mindedly dropped his pants after sliding safely into first base during a game in 1990.

After hearing of Seaver's passing, I went to YouTube and called up Game 4 of the 1969 World Series, the first one I ever watched on TV.

This time, I could see it in "living color," something I couldn't do on my family's black-and-white TV.

I smiled with recognition when I heard the echoey PA system at Shea Stadium during the pregame player introductions, the rinky-dink organist, the sound of planes from LaGuardia Airport and NBC announcer Tony Kubek's hurried in-the-seats interviews with celebrities ranging from Stan Musial to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren.

In the stands, wearing a tam o' shanter and captured in late-inning close-ups was Seaver's wife Nancy - at the time, she and Tom seemed like the JFK and Jackie of baseball.

On the mound, Seaver's smooth delivery was offset by a series of quirky mannerisms between pitches, as he smoothed the mound dirt with his feet, adjusted his cap, and mopped his face with his sleeves.

Locked in a rematch with Orioles starter Mike Cuellar, who had won their showdown in Game 1, Seaver was in command through most of the game after wiggling out of early Baltimore threats.

The Mets were clinging to a 1-0 lead when the Orioles tied it in the 9th. The run came home when Frank Robinson tagged up and scored from third after Mets right-fielder Ron Swoboda made an incredible diving catch of a line drive hit by Brooks Robinson.

Seaver pitched through the 10th and might have lasted longer, but he was lifted for a pinch hitter.

And, sure enough, it was one with a Chicago connection.

J.C. Martin, the former Sox and future Cubs player who would have a brief stint as a Sox broadcaster, put down a bunt that was picked up by Orioles pitcher Pete Richert, who threw wildly to first base, allowing pinch runner Rod Gaspar to score from second base with the winning run.

By the way, former Sox Al Weis advanced to second on the play.

It was a New York win the Chicago way.