Portrait of Tom Seaver

Birthday profile

Tom Seaver

Tom Seaver, American baseball pitcher (died 2020)

Born
November 17, 1944
Died
August 31, 2020
Zodiac sign
Scorpio
Birth year
1944

About Tom Seaver

George Thomas Seaver (November 17, 1944 – August 31, 2020), nicknamed "Tom Terrific" and "the Franchise", was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 20 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the New York Mets, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox, and Boston Red Sox from 1967 to 1986. Commonly described as the most iconic player in Mets history, Seaver played a significant role in their victory in the 1969 World Series over the Baltimore Orioles. With the Mets, Seaver won the National League's (NL) Rookie of the Year Award in 1967, and won three NL Cy Young Awards as the league's best pitcher. He was a 12-time All-Star and ranks as the Mets' all-time leader in wins. During his MLB career, he compiled 311 wins, 3,640 strikeouts, 61 shutouts, a 2.86 earned run average, and he threw a no-hitter in 1978. In 1992, Seaver was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, receiving the highest percentage of votes ever recorded at the time. Along with Mike Piazza and Carlos Beltrán, he is one of three players wearing a New York Mets hat on his plaque in the Hall of Fame. Seaver's No. 41 was retired by the Mets in 1988, and New York City changed the address of Citi Field to 41 Seaver Way in 2019. Seaver is also a member of the New York Mets Hall of Fame and the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame. As a sophomore in 1965, Seaver posted a 10–2 record for the Trojans, and he was selected in the tenth round of the 1965 Major League Baseball draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 1966, Seaver signed a professional contract with the Atlanta Braves, who had selected him in the first round of the secondary January draft, 20th overall.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Tom Seaver timeline

  1. As a sophomore in 1965, Seaver posted a 10–2 record for the Trojans, and he was selected in the tenth round of the 1965 Major League Baseball draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
  2. In 1966, Seaver signed a professional contract with the Atlanta Braves, who had selected him in the first round of the secondary January draft, 20th overall.
  3. With the Mets, Seaver won the National League's (NL) Rookie of the Year Award in 1967, and won three NL Cy Young Awards as the league's best pitcher.
  4. Commonly described as the most iconic player in Mets history, Seaver played a significant role in their victory in the 1969 World Series over the Baltimore Orioles.
  5. In 1992, Seaver was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, receiving the highest percentage of votes ever recorded at the time.

The world when Tom Seaver was born

Tom Seaver was born in 1944. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1944

  • #1 song"Swinging on a Star" – Bing Crosby
  • Top movieGoing My Way
  • Best-selling bookStrange Fruit – Lillian Smith

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentGreen Bay Packers win NFL Championship
  • Top headlineD-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6
  • Technology milestoneHarvard Mark I computer begins operations
  • Defining fadBobby socks
  • Notable inventionKidney dialysis machine
  • World population2.39 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population138.4M

1944 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Tom Seaver's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19442026
Gas$0.21$3.45/gal
Average home$5,800$435,000
Average income$4,200$67,500
Minimum wage$0.30$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.27$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population138.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, MLB, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.