Category: Guest Authors

Immigration An Economic Issue

By Joe Guzzardi

For more than 50 years, the roiling immigration debate has been wrongly framed. The arguments for or against immigration increases are seen as liberal versus conservative, Democrat versus Republican or expansionist versus restrictionist. While those labels may be accurate, they distract from a discussion about the core issue of economics.
 
Congress, the media and employers argue passionately for higher immigration levels – an annual 1 million-plus or higher. Restrictionists maintain with equal vigor that immigration should be reset from today’s record highs back to its historical 250,000 total, the intake for the nation’s first 200 years, 1776-1976.
 
Congress’ obligation, which it ignores, is to determine what amount of immigration is best for American workers, and to protect the nation’s wage earners. Vernon Briggs, Emeritus Cornell University professor and labor economist, broke down America’s immigration history as it affected the U.S. labor force into eras: Continental Expansion, 1820-1879, immigration average, 162,000 per year; Industrial Revolution, 1880-1924, 584,000 immigrants; Rise of Middle Class, 1925-1965, 178,000 immigrants. Briggs found that during a high immigration period – the Industrial Revolution – wages for American workers were suppressed. But during tight immigration, the Rise of the Middle Class period is recognized as four decades of upward mobility, accompanied by increased productivity and innovation.

Since the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1965, the U.S. has experienced significant legal and illegal immigration growth. Since the INA, about 60 million immigrants, exclusive of illegal aliens, have entered the U.S. Most have lawful permanent resident status that includes among its affirmation benefits a lifetime valid work permit.
 
Employment-authorized lawful residents plus nonimmigrant employment-based temporary workers can add up to more than 125,000 immigrants monthly, again, exclusive of illegal immigrants who enter the labor market and compete for jobs with unemployed Americans and recent high school graduates. Since the 1965 Civil Rights movement, the income gap between blacks and whites has remained largely unchanged. Black households’ net worth is about 10 percent of white households, a statistic that’s held steady for nearly six decades. Significantly expanding the labor pool year after year through immigration has depressed wages – labor excesses help employers and harm job seekers.
 
In his book, “Back of the Hiring Line,” Roy Beck detailed the 200-year history of immigration surges, reductions, employer bias and black wealth depression. For black Americans, immigration surges translate into stagnation or repression in their quest for the middle class. On the other hand, moderate immigration, the Rise of the Middle Class decades, helped blacks get pay raises, better jobs and buy new homes.
 
Previous White Houses, Congress, the media, independent academics, Goldman Sachs and the Congressional Budget Office know the adverse impact immigration has on U.S. workers, and have spoken or written about its negative effect, especially on black Americans with less than a college education.
 
In his 2006 autobiography, “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream,” then-Sen. Barack Obama wrote, “There’s no denying that many blacks share the same anxieties as many whites about the wave of illegal immigration flooding our Southern border – a sense that what’s happening now is fundamentally different from what has gone on before,” a reference to previous tight immigration eras. Yet Obama bitterly disappointed blacks on immigration. As his second term drew to a close in 2015, information gathered from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, acquired through a Freedom of Information request, and published by the Center for Immigration Studies, found that the Obama administration had issued approximately 7.4 million more work permits than congressionally set limits allowed.
 
During his presidential campaign, Biden introduced “Lift Every Voice,” his plan to give black Americans a “fair shot.” He promised to “advance the economic mobility of African Americans and close the racial wealth and income gaps.” But by immediately opening the border during his first year in office to 2 million low-skilled, undereducated aliens, many of whom will be looking for jobs that will displace blacks, Biden is dooming African Americans to more of the same – dead-end jobs, stagnant wages and lost hope.
 
 
PFIR analyst Joe Guzzardi writes about immigration issues and impacts. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org and joeguzzardi.substack.com.

Immigration An Economic Issue Immigration An Economic Issue

 

Best Irish Baseball Players, Happy St. Patrick’s Day

By Joe Guzzardi

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I set out to determine the best-ever Irish baseball players. The task was more challenging than I imagined, but also more rewarding. Reviewing the Irish baseball greats and their stellar diamond accomplishments was a welcome diversion from the troubled world around us.

To get started, I read the Society for American Baseball Research’s player biographies and then referred to Baseball-Almanac’s statistical records. Early on, I realized that identifying a single best-ever Irish player is impossible. I broke the Irish greats into four groups: best hitter, best pitcher, best manager and most influential – the player responsible for creating a baseball buzz that brought droves of new, but still curious, late 19^th century fans to the ballpark.

Irish players, mostly Irish-Americans, have been an integral part of the American baseball scene since the post-Civil War era when the sport enjoyed its first popularity surge. By the mid-1880s, just after the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs was formed, players could earn $10,000 a year at a time when the average annual income was $800. Understandably, good athletes were drawn to baseball. Like Italian and Eastern European immigrants, the Irish knew that when they played baseball, they were taking steps toward becoming full-fledged Americans.

Best Irish batsman is Cleveland-born “Big” Ed Delahanty. The eldest of five MLB brothers, Big Ed played most of his career, 1888-1903, with the Philadelphia Quakers, the Phillies, the Cleveland Infants and the Washington Senators. During his 16-year career, Big Ed hit .400 or better three times, and ended up with a .346 career average, the fifth best in baseball history, a .411 on-base percentage, and a .505 slugging average. Delahanty was an excellent right fielder with a rifle arm.

Toward his career’s end, Delahanty’s wife became gravely ill; he lost money at the race track, and he went on extended drinking binges. On July 2, 1903, riding a train across the International Railway Bridge over the Niagara River, Delahanty abruptly left the train, stumbled onto the bridge, fell into the river and drowned. Some speculate that Big Ed committed suicide, others claim he was pushed by an irate night watchman with whom he’d scuffled. The circumstances surrounding Big Ed’s death have never been resolved.

Best Irish mounds man is Tony “the Count” Mullane. The affable, County Cork-born pitcher was a well-known rake and a skilled boxer, as well as a competitive ice and roller skater. During his 13-year career from 1881-1894, mostly with the Cincinnati Red Stockings, Mullane won 30 or more games in five consecutive seasons. In 1884, the height of his career, the Boston Herald wrote about Mullane that he’s “a most effective pitcher; his delivery is low and his command of the ball wonderful. He pitches with left or right arm equally well.” The ambidextrous Mullane racked up 284 career wins.

Best Irish Manager: No list of Irish greats is complete without Troy, NY’s John J. McGraw. McGraw could have appeared as a player with his .344 career batting average and .466 on base percentage. But McGraw is most often remembered as the New York Giants manager who, during his 30 years at the helm, led his team to three World Series crowns.

“In Tales from the Deadball Era,” Mark Halfon wrote that McGraw was an argumentative, profane, belligerent manager who “took no prisoners in a battle for baseball supremacy. Opposing clubs had to prepare for any eventuality when they faced him. The Reds, for example, worried that he [McGraw] contaminated their drinking water. McGraw may not have tainted the water, but it was not beneath him,” Halfon concluded.

As outstanding as Delahanty, Mullane and McGraw’s contributions were, they pale compared to another Troy-native, Mike “King” Kelly. King was baseball’s first 15-year-old player, first matinee idol, first $10,000 earner, first to write his own autobiography – “Play Ball, Stories from the Ball Field” – first to have a song written about him – “Slide Kelly Slide” – and the first catcher to wear a glove and chest protector. Kelly, because of his ability and charisma, changed baseball from a simple, pastoral game into America’s most popular sport.

In his biography about Kelly, “Slide Kelly Slide,” Marty Appel wrote, “There was never a better or more brilliant player. Colorful beyond description, he was the light and the life of the game. … He was one of the quickest thinkers that ever took a signal. He originated more trick plays than all players put together.… As a drawing card, he was the greatest of his time. Fandom around the circuit always welcomed the Chicago White Stockings, with the great [Cap] Anson and his lieutenant, King Kelly.”

Between 1878 and 1891, Kelly played with eight teams, six of which won National League titles. During that period, Kelly won two batting titles and led the league in runs scored three times. Like Delahanty, however, Kelly loved to gamble, spent money recklessly and couldn’t stay out of saloons. King Kelly, sometimes called, “The Only Kelly” died at age 36 of pneumonia.

Delahanty, Mullane, McGraw and Kelly, great Irish players all, revered by a growing legion of early 20^th century baseball bugs, but whose names time has obscured, deserve recognition on St. Patrick’s Day, 2022.
 

Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research and Internet Baseball Writers Association Member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.

Best Irish Baseball Players, Happy St. Patrick’s Day

s 3720 Displaces US Tech Workers

By Joe Guzzardi

Like all America, Capitol Hill is focused on Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine and watching the continuous updates with apprehension. But even though Congress’ attention is diverted, its dreary business which often includes American worker displacement continues.
 
Last week, Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley and Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin introduced S. 3720, the “H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act.” Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are cosponsors.
 
Over the decades, the H-1B and the L-1 visas for international transfers have displaced hundreds of thousands of mostly U.S. tech workers, but also other white-collar professionals. Moreover, the easy availability of foreign nationals in the labor market dims the employment prospects for recent U.S. college graduates.
 
The new legislation is touted as bipartisan which immigration realists define as a squishy Republican teaming up with a radical Democrat to promote a bad bill with the media and their congressional peers. Remember the bipartisan 2013 Gang of Eight amnesty wherein four Republicans and four Democrats all had the same F- immigration grade. Or think back further to 2005 and another bipartisan hoax, the McCain-Kennedy immigration billauthored by the most extreme immigration advocates, the Arizona Republican and the Massachusetts Democrat.
 
Although Grassley during his 33 years in Congress has been reliably pro-border and interior enforcement, staunchly opposed to refugee and asylum fraud, he’s been an equally dependable voice for more employment-based visas for foreign nationals. The jointly issued press release from Grassley and Durbin sounded upbeat and encouraging. Grassley: “Our bill takes steps to ensure that the programs [H-1B and L-1] work for Americans and skilled foreign workers alike.” Durbin: “For years, outsourcing companies have used legal loopholes to displace qualified American workers, exploit foreign workers, and facilitate the outsourcing of American jobs. Our legislation would fix these broken programs, protect workers, and put an end to these abuses.” Unfortunately, S. 3720 does none of that, but has extensive flaws that, predictably, are harmful to U.S. tech workers.
 
S. 3720 proposes to eliminate the current random H-1B lottery and replace it with a presumably better system, each a noble goal. But it falls far short and instead prioritizes for the coveted visa four different categories of international students with degrees from U.S. universities: students with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), students with advanced degrees in non-STEM fields, students with bachelor’s degrees in STEM, and students with bachelor’s degrees in non-STEM. The new system would strongly favor the thousands of Indian and Chinese nationals currently enrolled in U.S. university STEM programs.
 
Conspicuously absent from S. 3720 is an effort to eliminate the dual intent of the H-1B. Originally intended as a temporary visa wherein the workers eventually returned home, under the Immigration Act of 1990, the H-1B became a dual-intent visa when Congress subsequently allowed the visa holders to apply for a Green Card. The ill-fated congressional decision gave employers undue control over their international employees, a type of modern-day indentured servitude. H-1B visa employees’ failure to comply with employers’ often unreasonable mandates – excessive unpaid overtime or inadequate working conditions – could result in threats to deport the noncompliant worker, and dash their Green Card hopes. Dual intent also created a huge Green Card backlog, an estimated 9 million.

 
True H-1B and L-1 visa reform would ideally put programs on an extended pause with an eye on eliminating them. Both visas are American job killers, serving only to enable employers to hire cheap, pliant labor. In their Atlantic Council report, Ron Hira and Bharath Gopalaswamy summed up the H-1B program that the Grassley-Durbin legislation does little or nothing to improve. They wrote: “The current system undercuts opportunities for U.S. workers and enables the exploitation of H-1B workers, many of whom are underpaid, vulnerable to abuse, and frequently placed in poor working conditions…. the program has never been fixed to meet the original promises made by Congress of safeguarding U.S. jobs. Instead, the program has been expanded to allow even larger numbers of H-1B workers, admitting them for longer periods of time, while its flawed governing rules have remained as they were in 1990.”
 
The authors recommended that H-1B workers be paid competitively, that employers prove beyond any doubt that they’ve recruited Americans and that visas be allocated to those who truly are the best and brightest by prioritizing selection based on highest wages. The legislation proposed by Durbin and Grassley does nothing to improve the H-1B program or to enact the reasonable, achievable solutions that Hira and Gopalaswamy recommended.
 
Instead, S. 3720 reshuffles the H-1B selection process to prioritize those who came in as international students and obtained an advanced degree in STEM and are paid the minimum prevailing wage. In other words, with the Grassley-Durbin bill, the bulk of H-1B visas would go not to Indian contract workers brought in through outsourcing firms, as is the current situation, but instead to international students who already have access to the Optional Training Program, the nation’s largest guest worker program.
 
 
Joe Guzzardi is a PFIR analyst who has written about immigration and its consequences for 35 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.

s 3720 Displaces US Tech Workers s 3720 Displaces US Tech

Lockout Gives Fans Chance to Enjoy Real Baseball

By Joe Guzzardi

Totally disgusted, indignant fans have a message for near-universally detested MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, multi-billion-dollar net worth owners, Major League Baseball Players Association’s Executive Director Tony Clark, and the pampered, overpaid, multi-million- dollar-earning players. Take your overpriced tickets, tasteless hot dogs, warm, flat beer, launch angles, exit velocities, pitch counts and stuff them. The commissioner, owners, union and players have grievously misjudged the baseball nation’s post-pandemic, inflation-ravaged, Ukraine war-anxious mood. The last thing baseball bugs want to hear is well-heeled, privileged elitists carping about their lot and the perceived injustices they’re suffering.

The whiners have forgotten that fans have plenty of baseball options, all better than getting fleeced and bored stiff at the old ball yard where game time averages 3:10. High school, junior college and NCAA college games are underway. Parking at some venues is free, and the proceeds from concessions go right back to the athletic department to help buy equipment and defray travel expenses, not to further enrich billionaires.

Junior college provides a launching pad for players who aspire to Division 1 and represents an opportunity for them to get bigger, stronger, better and catch the attention of scouts. Among the JUCOS who became MLB superstars are Jackie Robinson, Albert Pujols, Kirby Puckett, Curt Schilling, Mike Piazza, Jorge Posada and Bryce Harper.

At D-1 baseball, the skill level is high. Last weekend, No. 1 ranked Texas and UCLA, Tennessee, Louisiana State and Oklahoma State – all major programs – played in the nationally televised Shriners Children’s College Classic. The teams played nine inning doubleheaders. The Longhorns have a rich history that sent Roger Clemens, Brandon Belt, Huston Street and others to the bigs. The Bruins have placed 28 UCLANs in the Big Show, including standouts Brandon Crawford, Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer. Take today’s young players out of their collegiate uniforms and put them in MLB jerseys, and few fans would notice any drop off in the quality of play. Pitchers throw 90 mph-plus; the fielders make wide-ranging plays, and batters hit with power.

At the collegiate level, coaches stress fundamental baseball, something sorely lacking in the big leagues. University of Southern California’s late, legendary coach Rod Dedeaux’s guiding philosophy: “Never make the same mistake once.” Dedeaux’s students listened. During his 45 years as USC coach from 1942 to 1986, Dedeaux’s teams won 11 CWS titles, including five in a row. Many Trojans went on to stellar MLB careers: Tom Seaver, Randy Johnson, Mark McGwire, Dave Kingman and Fred Lynn.

For televised baseball, viewers have lots of offerings. ESPN will air the top NCAA teams between now and June 27, the date the College World Series ends. If MLB isn’t back in action for the summer months, then fans can check out the 76 Independent League teams. The season ticket package for the Independent League Chicago Dogs is a better value than a single seat at the Cubs’ Wrigley Field, average ticket price $83. The casual, fun times that Independent League baseball offers are available from coast to coast: the Bakersfield Train Robbers, the Kansas City Monarchs, the Milwaukee Milkmen and the New York Boulders. Some teams offer “kids eat free” games, an anathema to MLB owners who charge eye-popping prices for food and beverages. True fans know that the game is the thing, not the guys who play it.

Negotiations between the owners and the players are going poorly. They resent and distrust each other. Even though they sign the checks, the owners can’t believe the salaries players earn. Contracts signed pre-lockout include 37-year-old Max Scherzer’s $130 million, three-year deal with the New York Mets, a record-setting $43 million per season. When last heard from, Scherzer begged off from a crucial World Series pitching turn: “arm fatigue.” Money flows so freely in baseball that the Washington Nationals’ 24-year-old outfielder Juan Soto rejected a $350 million, 13-year extension. Soto’s reasoning: when he becomes a free agent after the 2024 season, he anticipates he can ink a $500 million deal.

No one knows when the ugly, take-no-prisoners negotiations will end. The only certainty is that baseball, already losing fans to professional football, basketball and soccer, has sustained another black eye, something it can ill-afford. The old-fashioned, field of dreams romantic vision of baseball as the national pastime, with fathers and sons playing backyard catch, is gone forever. In its place stands the image of nasty haggling over whether players’ minimum annual salaries can reach $755,000 or whether they’ll have to settle for the owners’ $640,000 offer.

Enough! More can be gained from focusing on the great college teams and their coaches’ insights. Bob Leach, who played for Dedeaux on the Trojans’ 1974-1976 teams wrote this about his coach: “Most of us players thought we were in training to become major leaguers. In reality, we were all serving an internship for life. In addition to making great baseball teams, he was more importantly passing on his wisdom and experience so that we could succeed in any setting.” Too bad that Dedeaux’s understanding of the human condition hasn’t reached Manfred, Clark, Scherzer, et al.

Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research and Internet Baseball Writers Association member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.

Lockout Gives Fans Chance to Enjoy Real Baseball Lockout Gives Fans Chance to Enjoy Real Baseball

Border Invasion Marches On Is Real State Of The Union

By Joe Guzzardi

After forcefully chastising Russia and its aggression against the Ukraine, claiming credit for ending the COVID-19 pandemic and creating jobs, promising to combat inflation and taking a bow for his Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson Supreme Court nomination, President Biden finally in his State of the Union spoke about the Southwest border.

Biden’s mention of the border surprised many because his immigration policies are an unmitigated disaster and cannot truthfully be described otherwise. Many wondered what border Biden might have been referring to. From Biden’s speech: “We need to secure the border, and fix the immigration system.” Promising to “fix the immigration system” is widely recognized code for amnesty.

Predictably, Biden then segued into providing “a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, those on temporary status, farm workers, and essential workers.” He continued to: “revise our laws so businesses have the workers they need and families don’t wait decades to reunite.” Decoding, Biden meant amnesty for deferred action for childhood arrivals and temporary protected status holders, agriculture workers and “essential workers” whose skills have never been identified. More employment-based visas are included in Biden’s immigration vision. The total number of amnesty recipients would be millions.

Biden defended his largess when he claimed that amnesty is “the right thing to do,” and he cited as fellow advocates for increased immigration the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s biggest, deepest pocketed cheap labor lobby. In 2021, the Chamber spent $95 million lobbying the federal government, $23 million more than the second most powerful lobby, the National Association of Realtors.

So reality-detached were Biden’s immigration comments that viewers wondered what he was talking about. As the president, Biden has willfully allowed 2 million illegal aliens, and several hundred thousand “got-aways” from more than 100 nations, to cross into sovereign America where his Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has delivered them, either by air or land, into the interior of the United States.

Many different words are used to describe what Biden has sanctioned at the border – disaster, crisis, ruinous, calamity, tragedy and catastrophe. But inarguably the most accurate, most descriptive, most troubling word is invasion. With the full encouragement of DHS Secretary Mayorkas, Biden has overseen and given his blessing to the invasion which is still ongoing at this very moment. Border patrol agents have been stripped of their responsibilities to defend the homeland and are instead processing illegal immigrants, many whose true identities cannot be vouched for with cast-iron certainty.

On the other hand, what can be reported with 100 percent confidence is that Biden’s open borders have led to a financial windfall for Mexican cartels, the most ruthless and vicious criminals conceivable. The Drug Enforcement Administration estimates that drug and human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar business. Drug trafficking also has resulted in needless fentanyl deaths, especially among young Americans. In 2020, fentanyl deaths topped COVID, car crashes and suicide as the leading cause of deaths.

The extent of the invasion is, in large part, hidden from an unsuspecting America, and persists. Only individuals who make it a point to learn what’s happening will understand the reality. Here for example is data that Health and Human Services, the agency responsible for providing care for children under age 18 without lawful immigration status, provided to Arizona U.S. Representative Andy Biggs. Of the 146,248 unaccompanied children resettled since January 20, 2021, only 55,125 were placed with parents. Others were placed with siblings or distant relatives, and an alarming 19,726 sponsors could not be reached for a wellness check on the minor. The alien children’s physical and emotional conditions are unknown. While some are technically minors, some also claim MS-13 gang membership.

As Biden spoke, Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi looked on, applauding and nodding in agreement. Harris, the so-called border czar, is a spectacular failure. The closest Harris has been to the border’s hot spot, the Del Rio Valley, is 450 miles away in El Paso. In the meantime, illegal immigration from Quito, Ecuador, 2,500 miles from the Del Rio Valley, has increased seven-fold since 2020. Because illegal immigration has spiked to record highs, aliens are adrift, struggling to find employment, even day labor jobs.

During the run-up to 9 pm EST, Biden practiced his speech, got input from his staff and his ghost writer, and yet went with an immigration narrative that he knew was deceptive, perhaps intended as a cruel, unfunny joke on his political opponents. Final takeaways from the president’s SOU: Biden has no plans to change course and has deliberately taken a path that, left unchecked, will destroy sovereign America.

Joe Guzzardi is a PFIR analyst who writes about immigration and its consequences. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org and joe.guzzardi@substack.com.

Border Invasion Marches On Is Real State Of The Union Border Invasion Marches On Is Real State Of The Union

Tom Seaver Returned To New York A Winner

By Joe Guzzardi

When Washington Nationals’ 23-year-old Juan Soto rejected a 13-year, $350 million contract, he unwittingly exposed why MLB fans have had enough. By today’s ludicrous payroll standards, $350 million isn’t enough money for a kid who grew up in the Dominican Republic where the per capital income is less than $8,000.

But Fernando Tatis signed with the San Diego Padres for $340 million over 14 years. Hence, on the advice of Soto’s agent, Scott Boras, the young star should sit tight, and wait for an even larger offer when, at the 2024 season’s end, he hits the free agent market. A half a billion dollars could await Soto, perhaps from the bottomless money pit known as the New York Yankees, team value $5.2 billion. For Soto and Boras, the old axiom, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” is – wise though it may be – passé.

Salary squabbles of the multimillion-dollar magnitude, Soto/Boras versus multi-billionaire Nats owners the Lerner family, are a big turnoff to baseball fans. At least the 1977 New York Mets during its very public haggle with its superstar pitcher Tom Seaver gave its rabid followers drama aplenty that played out for months.

During the summer of 1977, Mets’ ownership staggered the baseball world when, after a long simmering salary dispute between Seaver and owner M. Donald Grant, it traded its future first ballot Hall of Famer to the Cincinnati Reds for four then-considered low-level prospects: pitcher Pat Zachry, second baseman Doug Flynn and outfielders Steve Henderson and Dan Norman. At the time, Seaver earned $1.2 million($5.6 million in 2022 adjusted-for-inflation dollars).

The ”Midnight Massacre,” as the trades became known, plunged the Mets into their darkest era. The team finished last in 1977 and lost 95 or more games in each of the next three seasons under manager Joe Torre, who would be fired after a 41-62 record in the strike-shortened 1981 season.

During the 1970s, I lived in Manhattan. I wasn’t a Mets fan, but like all New Yorkers, I followed every movement, allegation and counter-allegation made by Seaver, Grant and Grant’s pro-management tout, New York Daily News columnist Dick Young who spent 45 years on the baseball beat, the last one of them demeaning the Mets’ ace as a greedy ingrate. Seaver had been pleading with the penurious Grant to fork out the necessary money on available free agents to help lift the Mets into contention. Young and Grant may have been the only two baseball bugs in New York’s five boroughs who thought that Seaver didn’t deserve a salary bump.

Further infuriating Mets fans, Grant, besides dumping Seaver and his salary off to the Reds, made two other horrible deadline trades involving key players. Grant ordered general manager Joe McDonald to deal the Mets’ top home run slugger, Dave Kingman, who had also been involved in rancorous contract negotiations, to the San Diego Padres for Bobby Valentine. In a third trade, McDonald sent utility man Mike Phillips to the St. Louis Cardinals for outfielder Joel Youngblood.

Fun fact sidebar: In 1982, Youngblood made baseball history by getting a hit in two different cities, for two different teams, against two Hall of Fame pitchers the same day. As a Mets in Chicago, he singled off Ferguson Jenkins. Then, traded by the Mets to the Montreal Expos, Youngblood hopped a plane to Philadelphia in time to pinch hit a single off Steve Carlton.

To Grant’s dismay, Seaver flourished in his new Cincinnati environment. Over the balance of the 1977 season, he went 14-3 to finish his year at 21-6. Included among Seaver’s wins was what writers dubbed the “Shootout at Shea” that pitted “Atomic Tom” against his former teammate and friend, Jerry Koosman. On Sunday, August 21, a capacity crowd of 46,265 greeted Seaver with chants of “SEA-VER, SEA-VER!” while the stadium organ played “Hello Dolly, we’re so glad to see you back where you belong.”Seaver, who limited the Mets to six hits while striking out 11 in a 5-1 victory, pitched his best; Koosman (8-16), who volunteered for the thankless pitching assignment, struggled and gave up the game’s five runs before being knocked out in the eighth.

After the game, Seaver said, “I’m glad it’s over, very glad. I’m exhausted physically and mentally. It was no fun out there at all.” Koosman added: “It’s tough to pitch against a superstar. You know you’ve got to be at your best. I was kind of disappointed when it got out of hand. But let’s face it. Tom Seaver is the best pitcher in baseball.”

For the Mets, the post-trade era was a disaster. Attendance at Shea plummeted, and the Mets would not have another winning season until 1984. Seaver returned to the Mets in 1983 for one season and pitched effectively. Seaver then had a three-year stint with the Chicago White Sox, and a final year with the Boston Red Sox, but his best years were behind him. His combined four-year American League record was an unSeaver-like 38-35, ERA 3.69.

Seaver again returned to the New York scene when he broadcast Yankees’ games with the irrepressible Phil Rizzuto. The Rizzuto-Seaver tandem was baseball’s odd, but delightful couple. The University of Southern California golden boy and Rizzuto, who often called his booth partner a “huckleberry” while spontaneously extoling the pleasures of the cannolis fans brought him, worked together from 1989 to 1993. Then, after a six-year baseball hiatus, Seaver joined the Mets broadcast team from 1999-2005 before he returned to California to start Seaver Vineyards.

Seaver retired with a 311-205 record with an ERA of 2.86 and 3,640 strikeouts. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1992 with the highest-ever percentage of first place votes for a starting pitcher, 99 percent.

In 1988, the Mets retired Seaver’s number 41. Twenty years later, the Mets invited Seaver to Shea Stadium to throw out the final pitch before the team moved to Citi Field where he also threw out the 2009 Opening Day first pitch.

An ESPN poll that included HOF pitchers Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, Jim Palmer, Nolan Ryan, Bert Blyleven, Don Sutton and Carlton voted Seaver their generation’s best pitcher. Hank Aaron added that in his 12,364 at-bats, Seaver was the toughest he ever faced.

In 2020, at age 75, Seaver passed away in his native California. See the Mets video tribute here to George Thomas Seaver, the player fans called “Tom Terrific.”

Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research and Internet Baseball Writers Association member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.

Tom Seaver Returned To New York A Winner Tom Seaver Returned To New York A Winner Tom Seaver Returned To New York A Winner