The Seaver Lottery

The Atlanta Braves, only months after playing their final game in Milwaukee, make their first significant amateur acquisition 59 years ago today as they sign University of Southern Cal pitcher Tom Seaver for a contract reportedly worth $50,000.

Or so they think.

Only one not-so-small problem here with the signing: Seaver still has college eligibility remaining, leaving baseball commissioner William Eckert to void the deal.

When the NCAA then rules Seaver ineligible for signing a pro contract, Seaver’s family threatens to sue Major League Baseball for not allowing young Tom to earn a living.

Tom Seaver at Southern Cal

The threat forces Eckert to place Seaver into a special lottery on April 3 for teams willing to match the Braves’ original signing bonus of $40,000 that also is on top of the initial $10,000 minor league contract Seaver receives from Atlanta.

The Philadelphia Phillies, Cleveland Indians and New York Mets all want Seaver, so Eckert literally enters their names in a hat – really, you cannot make up this stuff about a real hat – with the Mets winning that lottery.

With that, the previously woebegone Mets forever change their destiny.

“I got a call saying the Indians, Phillies and Mets wanted me,” Seaver tells writer Dave Burgin in July 1966. “The guy said the name of my team was about to be drawn out of a hat. He said, ‘You are now property of … the New York Mets.’ ”

A year later, Seaver reaches the majors and wins 16 games as a rookie in 1967 and wins 16 more games for the Mets in 1968.

Seaver then leads all of baseball in 1969 with 25 victories and, more important, helps the Mets stun the powerful Baltimore Orioles in one of the greatest, if not the greatest, upset in World Series history.

Tom Seaver works against Baltimore in Game 4 of the 1969 World Series (Associated Press photo)

One of the runners-up in the Seaver Lottery – Philadelphia – waits until 1980 before finally winning a World Series title.

The other runner-up – Cleveland – still awaits its first title since, oh, 1948.

As for Seaver, the rest of his career turns out fairly well, too, as he wins 311 games over 20 seasons and ends up an overwhelming, first-ballot choice to the Hall of Fame in 1992.

During his career, Seaver especially enjoys tormenting the Braves – his erstwhile team – over his career, going 32-10 in 53 career starts against them with a 2.28 earned-run average and six shutouts.

As for the Hall of Fame, Seaver back in 1992 receives 425 of a possible 430 votes for the Hall of Fame, earning 98.8 percent of the vote that at the time is the highest percentage since the Hall’s inaugural class in 1936.

“In baseball,” Seaver once says, “my theory is to strive for consistency, not to worry about the numbers. If you dwell on statistics, you get shortsighted, if you aim for consistency, the numbers will be there at the end.”