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Tom Seaver’s career through the eyes of a fifth-grader

As something of a coda to my recent post about Tom Seaver‘s brief comeback with the Mets in 1987 — a comeback that ended when he announced his retirement on June 23 of that year — here is a brief report I wrote about Seaver in fifth grade.

The assignment was an oral book report, with the only requirement that the book had to be a biography or autobiography. In fact, it might’ve been specifically the latter, because as part of the oral presentation, we had to “dress up” as the subject of the book. So to present myself as Seaver, I donned a Mets* cap and summed up his career.

*For some reason, we could not find a Mets cap in the house when the time came for my report, so my father took an orange marker to the white “NY” of a Yankees cap and said that would have to do. It was pointed out by a classmate, but not by the teacher.

So here is my report, in full, with minimal editing. I implemented the teacher’s correcting my misspelling of “league” and inserting a comma or two, and I spelled “Cincinnati” correct in this version, because I can’t decipher how I misspelled it in the report — but it was apparently close enough (or illegible enough) to satisfy the teacher. She didn’t catch the “N” I omitted from “Pennants.” Twice.

The full text is below this scan of the front page of my written report. This likely would have been in the early part of 1987, when it appeared Seaver’s career was over and before any word of a comeback.

Tom Seaver was a great baseball player. He started pitching in New York for the Mets in 1967.

While he was with the Mets they won two National League Penants and a World Series Title. 1971 was his best season with a 1.76 Earned Run Average, two hundred eighty-nine strike outs, sixty-one walks, and he won twenty games and lost ten.

1977 was a sad year for Seaver and the Mets. Tom was traded to the Cincinnati Reds. His best season with them was 1977.

In 1983 he came back to the Mets, but after that season he went to the White Sox for three years.

His final season was the 1986 season with the Red Sox. He helped his team to an American League Penant.

Tom had injured his arm and could not play in the post-season. Tom went with the Red Sox everywhere, even to New York to play the Mets in the World Series.

During Tom’s twenty years he won three Cy Young Awards, three hundred eleven games, and was third on the all-time striekout list with 3640.

Tom was the best pitcher in baseball.

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