Inning-by-inning runs, with totals for runs, hits and errors.
Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
PIT	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	8	1
NYM	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	–	3	8	1

IV · THE GAME · MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

Tom Seaver

Pitcher · 13 April 1967 · New York Mets · Cincinnati Reds · Chicago White Sox · Boston Red Sox · 17 November 1944, Fresno, California

A career total of three hundred and eleven wins is easier to say than to picture. The season table shows how: sixteen here, twenty-one there, and twenty years without a gap.

At a glance

Career: 656 games · 311 wins · 205 losses · 3,640 strikeouts · 2.86 ERA
Debut: 13 April 1967, aged 22, at Shea Stadium, New York
Last game: 19 September 1986, for the Boston Red Sox
Complete games: 231 of 647 starts

Look closer

The debut was a one-run game decided in the eighth
On 13 April 1967 the Pirates and the Mets each made eight hits and one error. The Mets scored twice in the second inning, the Pirates once in the third and once in the fourth. The score stayed 2–2 through the fifth, sixth and seventh. The Mets scored the deciding run in the eighth, which is why the Pirates never batted in the ninth — the home side does not bat when it is already ahead. The whole thing took two hours and forty-six minutes in front of 5,005 people.
The strikeout totals rose steadily, then fell away
In 1967 Seaver struck out 170 batters in 251 innings. In 1970 he struck out 283 in 290.2 innings. In 1971 he struck out 289 in 286.1 innings — the highest total in the table. The numbers stayed above two hundred through 1978, dropped to 131 in 1979, and never climbed back. By 1986 he was striking out 103 batters in 176.1 innings. The rate — strikeouts per inning — tells the same story: it peaked in the early 1970s and declined through the 1980s.
Two hundred and thirty-one complete games, most of them early
Seaver completed eighteen of his thirty-four starts in 1967, his debut season. He completed twenty-one in 1971, nineteen in 1977. By 1982 he completed none in twenty-one starts. In 1986 he completed two in twenty-eight starts. The total — 231 complete games in 647 starts — was earned almost entirely in the first half of the career, when starting pitchers were still expected to finish what they began.

The story

On 13 April 1967 the New York Mets and the Pittsburgh Pirates played a day game at Shea Stadium. The Mets scored twice in the second inning, the Pirates once in the third and once in the fourth. The score stayed 2–2 through three innings. The Mets scored again in the eighth, and the Pirates never batted in the ninth — the home side does not bat when it is already ahead. Each club made eight hits and one error. The whole thing took two hours and forty-six minutes in front of 5,005 people. Seaver was twenty-two years old.

The season table shows what followed. In 1967 Seaver started thirty-four games, won sixteen and lost thirteen. His earned run average — the number of earned runs he allowed per nine innings — was 2.76. In 1968 he won sixteen and lost twelve, with an ERA of 2.20. In 1969 he won twenty-five and lost seven. The strikeout totals rose steadily: 170 in 1967, 205 in 1968, 208 in 1969, 283 in 1970, 289 in 1971. The 1971 line is the highest strikeout total in the table, and it came with the lowest ERA: 1.76.

The Mets lines run from 1967 through 1977, when the table shows two entries for that year — thirteen games for the Mets, twenty for the Cincinnati Reds. The combined 1977 line shows thirty-three starts, twenty-one wins, six losses, and an ERA of 2.58. The Reds lines run from 1977 through 1982. The 1981 line shows fourteen wins and two losses. The 1982 line shows five wins and thirteen losses, and an ERA of 5.50 — the highest in the table.

In 1983 Seaver returned to the Mets. He started thirty-four games, won nine and lost fourteen. In 1984 he moved to the Chicago White Sox, where he won fifteen and lost eleven. In 1985 he won sixteen and lost eleven. In 1986 the table shows two entries again: twelve games for the White Sox, sixteen for the Boston Red Sox. The combined 1986 line shows twenty-eight starts, seven wins, thirteen losses, and an ERA of 4.03. The complete-game total for 1986 is two. For 1967 it was eighteen.

The career totals at the top of the table summarise twenty seasons and 656 games. Seaver started 647 of them, completed 231, and won 311. He struck out 3,640 batters in 4,782.2 innings. His career ERA was 2.86. The debut was in 1967; the last game was in 1986.

Why it mattered then

The Mets had not had a pitcher with an ERA below 3.00 across a full season before Seaver arrived. He posted 2.76 in 1967, his debut year, and 2.20 in 1968. In 1969, with Seaver winning twenty-five games, the club's fortunes changed sharply. The transformation was not solely his work — no single pitcher can change a club's record by that margin — but the timing is exact. The Mets had never had a pitcher like him, and the years when he was winning sixteen, twenty-five, twenty-one games are the years when the club began to win.

Why it matters now

The complete-game totals in the season table describe a structural change in the sport. In 1967 Seaver completed eighteen of thirty-four starts; in 1971 he completed twenty-one of thirty-five. By 1982 he completed none in twenty-one starts, and in 1986 he completed two in twenty-eight. The shift was not about Seaver's endurance declining — though it did — but about how clubs used their pitchers. Relief specialists became more common, pitch counts became more closely monitored, and the expectation that a starting pitcher would finish what he began disappeared. The career total of 231 complete games in 647 starts was earned almost entirely in the first half of the career, when the old model still held. A pitcher starting his career today would not accumulate that total, however talented, because the role itself has changed.

The surprising detail

The two totals that sit oddest together are 311 wins and 205 losses. The win total is the sum of twenty seasons; the loss total is nearly as large. A career ERA of 2.86 means Seaver allowed fewer than three earned runs per nine innings across 4,782.2 innings, yet he lost 205 games. The explanation is that a pitcher's win-loss record depends not only on how he pitches but on how many runs his team scores while he is in the game. A pitcher can allow two runs in eight innings and lose if his team scores one. The 1982 season shows this plainly: Seaver's ERA was 5.50, his worst, and he lost thirteen games while winning five. But in 1983, back with the Mets, his ERA was 3.55 — much better — and he lost fourteen games while winning nine. The Mets scored fewer runs that year. The win-loss record is a team statistic dressed up as an individual one.

What is disputed

Every figure here comes from the MLB Stats API. Statistical categories were not all recorded consistently across the twenty seasons covered, and records for the 1960s and 1970s were compiled retrospectively from contemporary scoring; the totals are the ones the league publishes today rather than anything independently recomputed here. The 1977 and 1986 season lines each show two clubs because Seaver was traded mid-season; the combined line for each year is also shown.

Remember this

Three hundred and eleven wins across twenty seasons, most of them for a club that had never had a pitcher like him.

Test yourself

Seaver's ERA in 1982 was 5.50, his worst, yet his ERA in 1983 was 3.55 — much better — and he lost more games in 1983 than in 1982. Using only the season table, what explains the result?

Go deeper

Image: Krusty from Saint Paul, MN, CC BY-SA 2.0. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0. Source.

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