THE 1969 MIRACLE METS: THE IMPROBABLE STORY OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST UNDERDOG TEAM (93 page)

It was a return, literally, to Seaver’s
“roots” around the agricultural heartland of Fresno, the raisin
capital of the world. He started sampling wines at USC. He and
Nancy also took off-season bicycle trips through the wine regions
of France.

"Nancy would ask me if I
was sure I would like it," Seaver told longtime
Los Angeles Times
baseball writer
Ross Newhan, "and I would tell her, 'No, but I know there's an
itch.' I also knew that whatever I eventually did there had to be a
physical involvement. Look at my [scarred] fingers and [dirtied]
nails. I call it the red badge of courage. For me, sitting in front
of a computer would be instant death. Nancy has the computer. I
don't."

Seaver lives
in the
vibrantly green, sun-splashed Napa Valley wine country of Northern
California. His “neighbors,” which in this neck of the woods can be
people 50 miles away, include former San Francisco 49ers Hall of
Fame quarterback Joe Montana and Academy Award-winning director
Francis Ford Coppola. It is a land of redwood forests, Douglas fir,
manzanita, tanbark oak and madrone.

"If I had a dream, it couldn't get any
better than this," Seaver said.

Seaver operates a John Deere on a little
slice of paradise called Diamond Mountain, 800 feet above the
fertile Napa Valley. It is his shining city on a hill. His GTS
Vineyard is the smallest, specializing in cabernet (sauvignon)
grapes on three and-a-half acres of a 115-acre maze of foliage and
vistas.

"I've always said that I'd rather be lucky
than good," he said. "It's like when you hang a slider with runners
in scoring position and the batter pops it up and everyone says to
you, 'That was a great pitch in that situation,' and you kind of
laugh to yourself knowing the truth .”

Seaver found many similarities between
baseball and wine growing, not unlike his observations to Pat
Jordan on a winter day in Greenwich some 35 year earlier. "In many
ways there is a sequential rhythm and analogous nature to the two
seasons, and I'm sure that was a large part of the attraction for
me," he theorized.

The Seaver’s move back to California came
only when daughters Sarah and Anne had finished Boston College. It
involved a two-year search through San Luis Obispo, Apple Valley,
Mendocino, Paso Robles and even into Oregon. When they stopped at a
realtor's office in St. Helena, one of the sales clips they were
given was for the parcel on Diamond Mountain.

"I suspect that other potential buyers had
been here before and never got out of their car," Seaver said. "I
was in the Marines. Sometimes you have to put boots on the ground.
This was the classic case of needing to see the forest through the
trees."

The year was 1998, and the future was set.
Boston architect Kenneth Kao designed a 7,000-square-foot house,
blending into the hillside beige walls merging with the soil,
contours and color of the roof, which looked just like the hills
and trees. A patio and pool area oversees the panoramic view.

In 2000 the Seavers moved in. Nancy created
a greenhouse and rose garden. Seaver had done his research, of
course. He knew that grapes grow with southern exposure. Former
teammate and restaurant owner Rusty Staub provided valuable advice.
"How in the world did you find it?” Staub asked Seaver of his land.
“This is what people are killing for out here."

"Sometimes you win, 7-6,” Seaver
replied.

"We're close, in year six, to a return on
capital," he said in 2007 of his winery investment. "My game plan
is to break even in 10 years, and we may beat that by a year.

"We're a drop in the bucket [compared to
other wineries], but I'm talking quality and not quantity. It's
Diamond Mountain cabernet, south-facing slope. It has the potential
to be drop-dead stuff."

Seaver, the true New York
Sports Icon who was idolized in the Big Apple like Joe DiMaggio and
Joe Namath, said he could care less about getting his "face on the
cover of
Wine Spectator
because I've had enough of all that." He wants
the wine to stand on its own merits. The back of the labels read,
"May you enjoy this wine as much as I enjoy the journey bringing it
to you. Day to day, month to month, season to season."

Seaver continued to do public relations work
on a part-time basis for the Mets, and became a familiar face at
nearby San Francisco’s AT&T Park, where he was one of the
special guests honoring Willie Mays when the Giants held a day for
the great star. Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton and Don
Baylor were among his guests, traveling to Diamond Mountain for
wine and remembrance of past glories. They found the great star in
repose, content with his life, his career and his family.

Tom Seaver and Jim Palmer, the two
pre-eminent right-handed aces of baseball in the 1970s, saw each
other many times over the years. They had much in common aside from
both being Baseball Hall of Famers. Each had good looks,
extraordinary intelligence, a sense for history, while experiencing
graceful retirements. But Palmer lamented for years what might have
been in 1969. Over and over, he came up with scenarios whereby the
Orioles might have pulled it out. Seaver finally had to say, “Jim,
it’s been a long time. You’ve got to get over it.”

The end.

“Joe, Joe, you never heard such cheering.”
Cramer, Richard Ben.
Joe DiMaggio: The

Hero’s Life
. New York: Simon &
Schuster, 2000.

He was the “24-year old reincarnation of
Christy Mathewson, Hobey Baker and Jack

Armstrong,” according to sportswriter Ray
Robinson . . .
Baseball Stars of 1970
, edited by Ray
Robinson. New York: Pyramid Books, 1970.

He was “so good blind people come out to
hear him pitch,” said Reggie Jackson . . .

Devaney, John.
Tom Seaver
. New York:
Popular Library, 1974.

“There was good clean competition in our
home,” said Charles, “and you earned what you

got. The only thing provided for you was
emotional security” . . . Devaney, John.
Tom Seaver
. New
York: Popular Library, 1974.

Still lacking any heat, he was effective
enough throwing off-speed pitches with control to

win six games against five losses and a
place on the all city team, “mostly because there wasn’t anyone
else to choose,” he recalled . . . Seaver, Tom with Dick Schaap.
The Perfect Game
. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.,
Inc.,1970.

“The team was put together by a man named
Red Boucher,” said former Met pitcher

Danny Frisella, who was a
teammate of Seaver’s in Fairbanks . . . Zimmerman, Paul D. and Dick
Schaap.
The Year the Mets Lost Last Place
. New York: The
World Publishing Co., 1969.

“I dressed in a shack near the field,”
Seaver recalled . . . Seaver, Tom with Dick Schaap.

The Perfect Game
. New York: E.P.
Dutton & Co., Inc.,1970.

Boucher tried to steady his reliever, but
Seaver just growled that he had “listened to you all

summer long” . . . DeVaney, John.
Tom
Seaver
. New York: Popular Library, 1974.

According to John McKay, the supposedly
“enlightened” Stanford student body directed

“the most vile, foul racial epithets I ever
heard” at his team, one in which McKay had “provided more and
greater opportunities for black athletes than any in the nation,”
when they made their way onto the Stanford Stadium field . . .
Travers, Steven.
One Night, Two Teams: Alabama vs. USC and the
Game That Changed a Nation
. Lanham, MD: Taylor Trade
Publishing, 2007.

The combination of Seaver’s college record,
bonus money and the team’s lack of success

meant that he stated at Class AAA
Jacksonvill,e, where manager Solly Hemus, who had seen a few in his
long baseball career, declared him, “the best pitching prospect the
Mets have ever signed.” Drucker, Malka with Tom Seaver.
Tom
Seaver: Portrait of a Pitcher
. New York: Holiday House,
1978.

“There was an aura of defeatism about the
team, a feeling of let’s get it over with,” Seaver

recalled . . . Devaney, John.
Tom
Seaver
. New York: Popular Library, 1974.

at UCLA with Jim Morrison and Francis Ford
Coppola,

If you can make it there, you can make it
anywhere

“
Can’t anybody here play this game?”

“I was a little disgusted with Giant and
Dodger fans who remained fans of the teams that

had left,” said Stan Isaacs of
Newsday
. . . Golenbock, Peter.
Amazin’: The Miraculous
History of New York’s Most Beloved Baseball Team
. New York: St.
Martin’s Press, 2002.

“Bill Shea looked to Senators and
Congressmen from states that didn’t have teams,” said

his law associate, Kevin McGrath . . .
Golenbock, Peter.
Amazin’: The Miraculous History of New York’s
Most Beloved Baseball Team
. New York: St. Martin’s Press,
2002.

“I’ve seen these do a lot of things to
people,” he said of the Manhattan. Breslin.Jimmy.

Can’t Any Here Play This Game?
New
York: Viking, 1963.

Of the Northwestern engineer Jay Hook,
Stengel said, “I got the smartest pitcher in the

world until he goes to the mound.” Creamer,
Robert.
Stengel: His Life and Times
. New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1984.

“About this Choo Choo Coleman,” Casey told
Dan Daniel of
The Sporting News . .

Markusen, Bruce.
Tales From the Mets
Dugout.
Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing L.L.C., 2005.

“I don’t mind my ballplayers drinking, as long as
they don’t drink in the same bar as me.”

Lichtenstein, Michael.
Ya Gotta Believe!
New
York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2002.

“But Weiss always wanted to get rid of me,
and now he couldn’t because I had become a

hero in New York,” said Kanehl. Golenbock,
Peter.
Amazin’: The Miraculous History of New York’s Most
Beloved Baseball Team
. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002.

After they beat the Raiders in the AFL
championship game, “I helped the players celebrate

the victory at their private party in Joe
Namath’s new bar, Bachelors III. . .” Fox, Larry.
Broadway Joe
and his Super Jets
. New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1969.

“I’m sure the thought of the 1969 Mets
accomplishing the same thing was light-years

from my mind,” he recalled. Shamsky, Art
with Barry Zeman.
The Magnificent Seasons
. New York: Thomas
Dunne Books, 2004.

“Namath would come down to the black
neighborhoods by himself,” recalled Croom.

Travers, Steven. One Night, Two Teams:
Alabama vs. USC and the Game That Changed a Nation. Lanham, MD:
Taylor Trade Publishing, 2007.

“Bases loaded. . .” Fox, Bucky.
The Mets Fan’s
Little Book of Wisdom
. Lanham, MD:

Taylor Trade Publishing, 2006.

The eve of destruction

“What the hell are the cops doing on the
field? . . .” Bouton, Jim.
Ball Four
. New York:

The World Publishing Co., 1970.

“The country had been so dominant after
World War II, but then in the ‘60s we slipped

into a slew of problems starting with
Vietnam,” recalled former New York Governor Mario Cuomo. Shamsky,
Art with Barry Zeman.
The Magnificent Seasons
. New York:
Thomas Dunne Books, 2004.

“If I’m right about this city being on the
edge of doom, then Heaven help this city, because

there’s not much to look forward to with the
men they elected today,” Mailer said after losing. Dearborn, Mary
V.
Mailer
. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1999.

“He thought he knew,” said Jerry West. Travers,
Steven.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Los Angeles Lakers.
Chicago: Triumph Books,
2007.

“All of us knew Gil, knew who he was and
what kind of ballplayer he had been,” said Bud

Harrelson. Gutman, Bill.
Miracle Year
1969: AmazingMets and Super Jets
. Champaign, IL: Sports
Publishing L.L.C., 2004.

“You know,” Seaver dared to say, “we could
win our division if we play up to our

potential.” Devaney, John.
Tom
Seaver
. New York: Popular Library, 1974.

Yogi Berra was “dumb like a fox,” according
to Shamsky. Shamsky, Art with Barry

Zeman.
The Magnificent Seasons
. New
York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2004.

“When left the Mets, they
made John Murphy the general manager,” said

Herzog. Golenbock, Peter.
Amazin’: The
Miraculous History of New York’s Most Beloved Baseball Team
.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002.

“Seaver had Hall of Fame written on him when
he walked into camp and pitched his first

game in ’67,” Swoboda said. Golenbock,
Peter.
Amazin’: The Miraculous History of New York’s Most
Beloved Baseball Team
. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002.

Koosman befriended Ryan, “a farm boy from
Texas and I’m a farm boy from Minnesota,

and neither one of us was comfortable in New
York,” said Koosman. Golenbock, Peter.
Amazin’: The Miraculous
History of New York’s Most Beloved Baseball Team
. New York: St.
Martin’s Press, 2002.