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Originally Posted by judsonhamlin
I just read on nj.com that Tom has retired from public life due to a diagnosis of dementia. A sad, long journey for he and his family.
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I read the same thing in yesterday's paper. Awful news...
I've always enjoyed the interaction with Tom Terrific at signings in the past. Mr. Seaver is a noted baseball historian and has written a few books on the subject. He was always willing to talk baseball with a fan, IF you came prepared to speak intelligently about a topic. If you didn't come prepared he could be a little intimidating at times based on my observations.
It should be noted that Tom Seaver played a very significant role in encouraging me to pursue my no-hit ticket collection.
I last saw him in 2006 at a MAB Sports event in NJ called the "Pitcher Perfect Show" that featured only pitchers (and some catchers) that had hurled no-hitters & perfect games. At this point, I had tickets to about 140 different no-hitter games. Mostly all of my perfect game tickets were signed at this point, but I had been toying with the idea of having all of the living pitchers in the no-hitter club sign a ticket to their no-hitter tickets.
The MAB show allowed me to add 30+ autographs to my ticket collection in one weekend. I couldn't pass up the opportunity & flew to the event in NJ.
When reaching the front of the Seaver & Don Werner line (Werner was Tom's catcher in his no-hitter in 1978), I placed a full ticket in front of Seaver and mentioned that I collected tickets to no-hitter games. He leaned over to Werner and said "Hey Donny, check this out a full ticket to our game! I don't think I ever signed a full ticket to our no-hitter..."
He asked me how many tickets to different games I had in my collection?
He was stunned upon hearing that I had tickets to 140 different games dating back to 1901. He continued to pepper me with several questions about my collection.
After his signing, he actually singled me out of the crowd in a hallway and told me how cool he thought my collection was. He encouraged me to continue to pursue this theme as it was so unique.
Needless to say, there is nothing more gratifying to a collector than getting a personal nod from a HOFer as great as Tom Terrific!
12 years later, my collection now stands at 210 no-hitter tickets signed by 157 no-hit pitchers as we speak...
My personal thoughts and prayers go out to Mr. Seaver and his family on his upcoming personal journey in dealing with the challenges associated with dementia.
He's a great competitor & I know that he's going to do everything he can to fight it.
For the last few months I have been a caregiver to my 84 year old mom that is struggling with the same thing. Believe me when I tell you that it's not fun...