Howie Rose, voice of the Mets and lifelong fan, breaks down meaning of Tom Seaver statue

It was a transformative night in Howie Rose's life.

Rose, the longtime radio voice of the Mets, sat in the upper deck in Shea Stadium as a 15-year-old in 1969 as Tom Seaver took a perfect game into the ninth inning against the Cubs in front of more than 59,000 fans.

He'll never forget the "tsunami of noise" as Seaver walked to the plate for an at-bat in the eighth inning. The noise and excitement kept Rose up that night, even after Jimmy Qualls' single kept Seaver from the feat with a one-out single in the ninth.

"As part of that ovation, I know it was a statement that we, as Mets fans, not only had arrived with a contending team, but we had our own transcendent player," Rose said. "This was our Mickey Mantle. This was our Sandy Koufax. That was an incredibly powerful feeling for fans of a team that had not been taken seriously until that year and maybe even that last couple of days."

Seaver would go on to lead the Mets to their first World Series title that season after seven straight losing seasons began the club's history. Seaver would become known as "The Franchise," winning three Cy Young awards and the Rookie of the Year award in 12 seasons with the Mets. He amassed 311 wins and 3,640 strikeouts in 20 MLB seasons.

Rose will preside over the ceremony to unveil the Tom Seaver statue at 10:30 a.m. on Friday at Citi Field.

While Rose lamented the fact that Seaver could not see the statue come into existence — Seaver died in 2020 due to complications with Lewy body dementia and COVID-19 — he is glad that it is finally coming to fruition.

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"It’s impossible sometimes for me to even reconcile that he’s no longer with us," Rose said. "I can’t even think of him in the past tense, but that statue is going to be so dramatic and so important to not only the fans but to people who didn’t even see Tom pitch who are going to come off the subway platforms and ask their moms or dads, ‘Who was Tom Seaver? What made him so special that there was a statue?’

"... It’s so multi-layered that it’s very, very – yeah, it’s emotional. It’s a really overdue but welcome development that it’s finally here."

Throughout Seaver's illustrious career, his wife, Nancy, was there front and center.

Buck Showalter called Tom and Nancy "a power couple," and remembered Seaver's infectious laugh. Nancy, along with daughters Sarah and Anne, will be in attendance for Friday's unveiling, and Rose believes that will be the most meaningful part of the morning.

"I don’t have to tell you what this means to them," Rose said. "Any time you lose a spouse or a parent, it’s hard enough to deal with. But to be able to absorb and experience every ounce of love that is going to flow, specifically towards them on Friday, nevermind how the fans feel, nevermind anybody other than Nancy Seaver, Sarah and Annie. This date to me is about them."

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Despite a decorated Mets pitching staff that includes five Cy Youngs between Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer, Rose knows that there will always only be one Seaver.

He was a megastar in a bygone era, trusted to take the ball for all nine innings almost every time out. And he helped a floundering expansion franchise believe it had a chance every four or five days.

"When you look at the number of complete games that Tom pitched, certainly in his career, and especially in 1969, it would stagger the imagination today to think that was even possible," Rose said. "Pitchers are groomed differently today, it’s just a whole different era and different game now in that sense than it was then."

And Rose is looking forward to more baseball fans learning about Seaver with the installation of the new statue.

"I know the statue is going to be a destination point, the way the Willie Mays statue is in San Francisco," Rose said. "People are going to say, ‘I’ll meet you at the Seaver statue,’ or, ‘Let’s have our picture taken at the Seaver statue,’ and one of the biggest outgrowths of that is going to be more and more people, too young to remember, learning who Tom was, what he meant to the Mets, what he meant to baseball in New York and what he meant to the city."

Andrew Tredinnick is the Mets beat writer for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to all Mets analysis, news, trades and more, please subscribe today and download our app. 

Email: atredinnick@gannett.com Twitter: @andrew_tred