Hot Stove Antics: Pass the Vino

So my teenage hero Tom Seaver (I was 16 in 1969 when he won his first Cy Young award and led the Mets to the world championship) is now a Napa Valley grandee and owner of his own microvineyard (three acres small). According to the Times, Tom Terrific has just harvested his first crop of cabernet grapes and plans to produce his first cases of wine three years hence. The wine will be called Seaver ("reluctantly," the vineyard owner claims) and should retail for around $60 a bottle, which means it will be served in the Weber household only on very special occasions--like the first game of the Mets' next World Series.

(By the way, Tom and Nancy's Napa Valley home is located on Diamond Mountain. Wouldn't that make a heck of a lot better baseball-themed name for his wine than "Seaver"?)

This whole story is vintage Seaver (sorry about that). Tom has always been slightly grandiose and self-satisfied (his commentary during TV broadcasts of Met games tends to be pompous) but often interesting and ultimately harmless. And anyway I will never find any serious fault with the man who (as his Hall of Fame plaque eloquently and alliteratively states) "transformed Mets from lovable losers into formidable foes"--and was a reasonably outspoken critic of the Vietnam War to boot.

At least Tom has never done anything to embarrass us fans, unlike Jeff Reardon (since when do antidepressants make you commit armed robbery?) or Anna Benson (Met wife, pinup floozie, and Ann-Coulter-wannabe). I'm happy to have Carlos Delgado and Billy Wagner in the fold, but otherwise this has been one off-season I'll be happy to have in my rear view mirror.

Tags: Tom Seaver, Mets, Jeff Reardon, Anna Benson