The New York Mets pulled something much better than a rabbit out of a hat. They pulled Tom Seaver.
He was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in 1966 (who offered him a $50,000 bonus); but Commissioner William Eckert ruled the contract invalid because Seaver signed it during the college baseball season. After the contract was voided, Seaver planned to return to the University of Southern California, but the NCAA ruled him ineligible because he had signed a contract.
When Seaver’s father threatened to sue baseball, Eckert said any team that could match Atlanta’s original offer could sign him. If more than one team was willing to pay, there would be a drawing. When the Indians, Phillies and Mets all expressed interest, the drawing was held in the commissioner’s office and New York won the lottery when the Mets’ name was literally pulled from a hat.
After a season in the minors at Jacksonville, Seaver was invited to the Mets spring training camp in 1967, in which teammates, coaches and the media could see there was something special about him.
“Seaver had Hall of Fame written on him when he walked into camp and pitched his first game in ’67,” said Ron Swoboda in Amazin’, an oral history of the Mets by Peter Golenbock. “He was a finished product when he came there. I don’t ever recall the sense of him being a rookie. He came out of the box a big league pitcher, and there was this golden glow about him. This was clearly big talent, intelligent, capable, controlled, and awesome stuff.”
