The Mets really hit this one out of the park!
Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver will get a street outside Citi Field named after him — to go along with a statue the team has promised to celebrate the hurler dubbed “The Franchise.”
City officials have already paved the way for the Amazin’s to change the stretch of 126th Street outside their stadium to Seaver Way, sources said, in honor of the 1969 World Series winner who was recently diagnosed with dementia.
Citi Field’s permanent address will become 41 Seaver Way for the jersey number Tom Terrific wore, the sources said.
The team will unveil the renamed stretch of asphalt during a June 27 ceremony to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Miracle Mets’ World Series championship.
“@CitiField is getting a permanent address change!” the Mets tweeted. “We will be officially renaming 126th Street to honor #TomSeaver. More info to come at a later date.”
Although no problems are expected, a city official said the street naming is not officially a done deal.
The Mets’ Hall of Fame committee still hasn’t decided on the specifics of the statue, including where it will be placed.
The honors for Seaver were cheered by fans who loved watching the right-hander blow fastballs by opposing hitters at the since-demolished Shea Stadium.
“He was probably, in my mind — certainly for people of my generation — the best pitcher ever born,” said Bill Martin, a 60-year-old insurance executive who grew up watching the legendary ace and was at a bar near the Mets Clubhouse Shop in Midtown.
“I saw Tom Seaver pitch in 1969,” he said. “My neighbor bought tickets for me and his son. My parents were working, they gave me permission to go, and I can remember screaming his name over and over.”
Seaver, who pitched for the Mets from 1967-77, went 25-7 with a 2.21 ERA in 1969 while winning the National League Cy Young Award and propelling the team from a ninth-place finish the previous year.
“He brought you instant credibility, and I was there for those 100-game losing seasons,” recalled former Mets outfielder Ron Swoboda. “When Seaver showed up, there wasn’t any more of those.”
Speaking at the Mets’ spring training facility in Port St. Lucie, Fla., on Thursday with other members of the ’69 team, former catcher Jerry Grote said the 74-year-old Seaver “definitely deserves” the Citi Field honors.
“He has done a lot of good things for the people of New York — for the people who live there,” Grote said. “He has enchanted them for many years, so it’s only right that they do this.”
Said Swoboda: “[Seaver] is the guy without whom we aren’t wearing rings and the Mets don’t win a World Series in 1969, which moved the franchise even further. This is the one piece that could not be missing for all of that to happen.”
Some fans said the honors were overdue.
“They’re doing it now because, you know, the clock has started,” said Joe Brady, 54. “They should have done it 20 years ago because he is one of the greatest Mets to play the game.”